Ken Currie
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Ken Currie | |
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Born | 1960 (age 63–64) |
Nationality | Scottish |
Education | Glasgow School of Art |
Known for | Painting, Printmaking |
Notable work | Three Oncologists, Portrait of Peter Higgs, Chimera |
Ken Currie (born 1960 in North Shields, Northumberland, England) is a Scottish artist and a graduate of Glasgow School of Art (1978 - 1983). Ken grew up in industrial Glasgow. This has had a significant influence on his early works. In the 1980s Currie produced a series of works that romanticised Red Clydeside depicting heroic Dockworkers, Shop-stewards and urban areas along the River Clyde.[1][2] These works were also in response to then British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher's policies that he believed were the greatest threat to culture of labour.
Works
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/f/f5/Ken_Currie%2C_Chimera%2C_2010.jpg/220px-Ken_Currie%2C_Chimera%2C_2010.jpg)
Currie's paintings show a profound interest in the body (physical and metaphorical) and the "terror" of mortality.[3] His works are primarily concerned with how the human body is affected by illness, ageing and physical injury.[citation needed] Closely related to these themes, his work also deals with social and political issues and philosophical questions. Although many of the images dealing with metaphysical questions do not feature figures, a human presence is nevertheless suggested.[how?]
He was labeled as one of the "New Glasgow Boys" along with Peter Howson, Adrian Wiszniewski and Steven Campbell who studied together at the Glasgow School of Art.[4]
His Glasgow History Mural was commissioned on the 200th anniversary of the Calton weavers massacre in 1787 and is displayed on the ceiling of the People's Palace.[5]
He has occasionally worked as a portraitist. Three Oncologists (2002) is in the collection of the Scottish National Portrait Gallery; it depicts Professor Robert J Steele, Professor Sir Alfred Cuschieri and Professor Sir David P Lane, three doctors from Ninewells Hospital, Dundee, in a "haunting", "spectral" painting that reflects the popular fear of cancer.[4]
Currie was commissioned by the University of Edinburgh to paint a portrait of Peter Higgs, the theoretical physicist, which was unveiled in 2009. He is a "reluctant portraitist", and this was only his second portrait.[6] He said, referring to the Higgs boson, "I am very interested in Peter's work. I don't for one second claim to grasp the theory, but I do understand the sublime, and there is a sublime quality to it all, a beauty, an awesome quality. In some respects, the subject is quite terrifying."[7]
Bibliography
Exhibition Catalogs
- Ken Currie: Tragic Forms [Catalogue of the exhibition held at Flowers 2016] London.
- Ken Currie: Immortality [Catalogue of the exhibition held at Flowers 2010] London.
- Ken Currie: Animals [Catalogue of the exhibition held at Flowers 2008] London.
Monographs
- Tom Normand, Ken Currie: Details of a Journey, Lund Humphries Publishers (1 June 2002), ISBN 0853318360
- Ken Currie, Ken Currie Painting & Sculpture, 1995–96, Panart Publishing Limited (1 January 1996) ISBN 1901340007
- Harrison, J. and Topp, G. (1995) Ken Currie: The Fourth Triptych and Other Works. Cleveland County Council.
References
- ^ McGinty, Stephen (13 July 2013). "New artists 'neglect' hard graft, says Ken Currie". The Scotman. Retrieved 5 September 2018.
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(help) - ^ "Profile on Ken Currie". The Essential School of Painting. 15 January 2015.
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(help) - ^ "Interview: Ken Currie on 'the terror' of mortality". The Scotsman.
- ^ a b Mcginty, Stephen (14 July 2013). "New artists 'neglect' hard graft, says Ken Currie". The Scotsman.
- ^ Ken Currie. "THE GLASGOW HISTORY MURAL". Media Matters. Retrieved 5 February 2010.
- ^ "A powerful driving force". Herald Scotland. Retrieved 28 April 2011.[dead link]
- ^ "Portrait of a man at beginning of time". The Times. Retrieved 28 April 2011.(subscription required)
External links
- Works in the National Galleries of Scotland
- Ken Currie's artist page on Flowers Gallery
- 34 artworks by or after Ken Currie at the Art UK site: works by Ken Currie in British public collections