April 23 – July 12, 2020
The field being the picture surface,
the range of human experience it articulates,
and the collective, ongoing practice of painting.
Anonymous, sketch of farm buildings, 1840, oil on canvas on board, 28 x 29 cm.
Originally planned to coincide with Glasgow International 2020, this exhibition comprises works by a range of painters, across generations. Conceived as a reprise of the first show mounted at 42 Carlton Place (2012), it includes some of the artists shown then, some who’ve been exhibited here subsequently, and some new names.
Please contact for further information.
LIST OF WORKS. (Click for images; scroll down for thumbnails and installation shots.)
Anonymous, a study of farm buildings, 1840,
oil on canvas laid on board, 28 x 29 cm
Walter Richard Sickert, Study for ‘Suspense’, c.1916,
pencil and ink on paper, 42 x 30 cm
Louis Michel Eilshemius, A Country Scene, c. 1917,
oil on board, 53 x 55 cm
Edouard Vuillard, Jeune Femme au Chapeau, c.1920,
pencil on paper, 48 x 43 cm
Pierre Bonnard, Paquebot à Quai, c.1935,
pencil on paper, 12 x 16 cm
Serge Charchoune, untitled, c.1936,
oil on canvas on board, 20 x 30 cm
André Derain, Assiette de Péches, c.1938,
oil on canvas, 20 x 40 cm
Mary Martin, untitled, 1950,
gouache on card with collage, 10 x 12 cm
Stephen Gilbert, untitled, 1951,
oil on canvas, 79.5 x 102 cm
Peter Lanyon, Albano, 1958,
oil on board, 109 x 29 cm
Prunella Clough, Slagheap, 1958,
oil and grit on board, 27 x 30.3 cm
Sidney Nolan, Oedipus, c.1960,
oil on paper, 25 x 30 cm
Jean Hélion, Marché, rue des Quatre Chemins, 1963,
oil on canvas, 22 x 35 cm
R. B. Kitaj, For Edward Dahlberg, 1967,
oil on canvas-board, 25.5 x 20.5
Maria Helena Vieira da Silva, untitled, 1973,
Oil on canvas 16 x 22 cm
Adrian Morris, New Foundations Through a Circular Port, 1974,
oil on board, 61 x 61 cm
Richard Walker, untitled, c.1998,
oil on board, 35 x 41 cm
Clive Hodgson, untitled, 2008,
oil on canvas, 81 x 51 cm
Victoria Morton, Windows, 2008,
oil on board and frame, 21 x 27 cm
Joe Fyfe, untitled, 2016,
mixed media, 46 x 35.5 cm
Louise Hopkins, Chandelier, 2018,
acrylic and oil on photo collage on board, 30 x 40 cm
Sam Fisher, Ginger Tomcat, 2020,
oil on two canvases, each 46 x 40.5 cm
James Hyde, Converse (Sculpture), 2020
mixed media on board, 26 x 21.5 cm
………
Notes on the artists.
Anonymous (1840). The genre of the landscape oil sketch is recognised as key to the evolution of modern painting. An early treatise by the outdoor sketcher Valenciennes suggests leaving foreground areas unfinished, as in this example.
Notorious for his Camden Town murder paintings, Walter Richard Sickert (1860-1942) frequently dealt with psychological tension in domestic settings. The study here is the most elaborate of several he made for his painting Suspense (1916, Ulster Museum).
Louis Michel Eilshemius (1864-1941) was a maverick American genius. An important figure for Duchamp, he has been rediscovered by successive generations of artists and curators. A solo exhibition was held at 42 Carlton Place in 2016.
The intimiste interiors of Edouard Vuillard (1868-1940) are among the greatest paintings of their time. The obsessive recording of private life, often with amorous undercurrents, characterises his work.
André Derain, (1880-1954) was a pioneer of Fauvism and Cubism, and from the 1920s onwards conducted a synoptic reinvestigation of painting tradition.
Franco-Russian painter Serge Charchoune (1888-1975) was involved with Dada, Purism and other movements, but essentially an artistic loner. 42 Carlton Place mounted a solo exhibition in 2018. The present work is among his many proto-informel works from the 1930s.
Peter Lanyon (1918-1964) was among the most major abstract artists in Britain in the mid Twentieth Century. The work here (1958) shows him shedding traces of neo-romanticism and moving into free-associative pictorial experiment.
Also from 1958, Slagheap by Prunella Clough (1919-1999) marks a similar transition from cubist-inflected ‘abstracting’ to radically improvisational experiment. Clough was the subject of a solo show at 42 Carlton Place last year.
A pioneer of ‘concrete’ abstraction in the 1920s and 30s, Jean Hélion (1904-1987) returned to representation towards WWII. His figuration became increasingly gestural from the 1960s, with street life a common subject.
Mary Martin (1907-1969) is best known for rigorous geometric paintings. The present work is among her first fully abstract experiments.
Maria Helena Vieira da Silva (1908-1992) was perhaps the most acclaimed Portuguese painter of the twentieth century, and a central figure of the Ecole de Paris.
Scottish born, Paris-based, Stephen Gilbert (1910-2007) was among the few British artists connected to the CoBrA group.
Sidney Nolan (1917-1992) became famous in the 1940s for his Ned Kelly paintings, made in his native Australia. Five decades of technical, stylistic and thematic experiment followed, often dividing critical opinion.
Adrian Morris (1929-2004) forged a unique idiom of planetscape painting, depicting alien terrains within portholes and, later, ambiguous architectural environments. Solo shows have been at 42 Carlton Place in 2015 and (currently) Essex Street, New York.
R. B. Kitaj (1932-2007) was a dominant name from the 1960s into the ’80s, less so since his controversial 1994 Tate retrospective. His anticipation of trends in current painting is rarely acknowledged.
The diptychs of Chris (Sam) Fisher (b. 1950, London) deal with representation, relationship and meaning through apparently simple juxtaposition. Influential on successive generations of artists through his teaching, he exhibits rarely.
Joe Fyfe (b. New York, USA 1952) lives in Manhattan. He travels widely, especially in Asia, often collecting materials for his work. He recently curated Kimber Smith at Cheim & Read. Recent shows: Nathalie Karg, New York; Christian Lethert, Cologne.
Date and signature are key elements in paintings by Clive Hodgson (b. 1953, Nottingham). His work is mostly abstract, though still-life is a parallel concern. Recent shows have been at Arcade, London, and Tatjana Pieters, Gent.
Richard Walker (b. Cumbernauld, Scotland 1955) emerged in the 1990s among a generation of Glasgow painters in counter-flow to the conceptual mainstream. Direct observation is central to his project. Recent large works were shown in 2018 at Ltd.Ink, Edinburgh.
James Hyde (b. New York, USA 1957) lives in Brooklyn. Recent solo exhibitions have been at Freight & Volume, New York, and David Risley, Copenhagen. His work tests the definition of painting, often incorporating photography and three dimensions.
Initially known for painting on furnishing fabric, Louise Hopkins (b. Hertfordshire, England 1965) paints over maps, sheet music, photographs, and other informed surfaces. Recent projects include wall-size pieces for Glasgow School of Art and Cample Line Gallery, Dumfriesshire.
Allusions in the paintings of Victoria Morton (b. Glasgow, 1971) may range from personal biography to science and music. She has completed recent commissions for the Cambridge Stem Cell Institute and the Royal College of Music.
42 Carlton Place 
