William Scott CBE RA (1913-1989)
British Artist
Anita Rogers Gallery hosted a talk with Christopher Rothko, Kate Rothko Prizel and James Scott, moderated by gallery owner Anita Rogers. The discussion was in conjunction with their current exhibition Mark Rothko and William Scott: Continuing the Dialogue.
You can watch the discussion below
Anita Rogers Gallery is thrilled to present Mark Rothko and William Scott: Continuing the Dialogue, an exhibition of paintings and works on paper by two twentieth-century masters, offering new insight into their relationship and mutual admiration, influence, and respect. Large-scale works on canvas will be complemented by preparatory drawings, as well as correspondence between the two artists. Mark Rothko (1903-1970), one of the most prominent of the American abstract painters, and William Scott CBE, RA (1913-1989), a leader in the Modernist movement in the UK, met in 1953 and consequently grew close through letters and visits. By including the artists’ works and words together, the gallery hopes to share the story of this friendship with a wider public.
Rothko and Scott first met through Martha Jackson in New York in 1953 and kept in contact through letters, sharing personal moments from their lives, as well as details on their artistic endeavours and topics then weighing on their minds. Both painters had roots in figurative painting and had moved into abstraction by the time they met, although Scott would return to and reference figuration throughout his long career. In the summer of 1959, the Rothko family stayed with the Scotts at their cottage in Somerset and here they discussed concerns over the issues of placing art in public places, as well as their mutual experiences as immigrants – Rothko, as a boy, had moved to the US from Latvia; Scott, after winning a scholarship to the Royal Academy Schools, had moved to England from Ireland.
It was also at the time of this meeting that both artists had embarked on commissions for murals: Scott’s was for the Altnagelvin Hospital in Ireland, the first National Health Service hospital ever to be built, and Rothko’s was a series of paintings for the Four Seasons Restaurant in New York. The luxury restaurant, set within Mies van der Rohe’s celebrated Seagram Building, was designed by Philip Johnson and catered to celebrities and the very wealthy.
The commissions presented new challenges, both physically, and artistically. Both were very different kinds of projects, for different purposes and different audiences, and this posed a great contradiction for Rothko who allegedly said, “I hope to paint something that will ruin the appetite of every son of a bitch who ever eats in that room.” The gallery will display preliminary paintings and drawings for both murals, offering a glimpse into their working processes.
For Scott, whose finished mural would measure 108” x 540”, tackling a piece on this scale was a monumental task. However, he was emboldened by his exposure to Rothko, as well as to the other American abstract expressionist painters whose work he had first discovered in 1953. While these influences are certainly evident post-1953, they also convinced Scott that his origins were in Europe, in Matisse and Bonnard. He then very much made the commission his own through references to ancient Irish art, architecture, and symbolism.
Meanwhile, Rothko, accustomed to working on a larger scale, was faced with creating a site-specific project for the first time. Rothko struggled with the placement of the series in the luxury restaurant from the beginning and shortly after his return from Europe and following his conversation with Scott, Rothko finally withdrew from the contract, sharing the news with Scott in a letter dated 14 December 1959, on view in the exhibition. While Rothko revealed no hesitations whatsoever about the decision, he lamented to Scott that “there really is no real place for them” [the murals]. The paintings were offered to the Tate Gallery but initially turned down; afterwards, the paintings spent a handful of years in the artist’s studio. Scott was instrumental in making the work of Rothko known to other artists in the UK, specifically Patrick Heron, and in 1970, the Tate accepted the paintings into the collection, including the conditions for display set out by Rothko. Now the Seagram murals have a celebrated home in the Tate Modern in London, where they are on view to this day.
The gallery will host an opening reception on Wednesday, 26 April, 6-8pm, as well as a gallery talk with Christopher Rothko, Kate Rothko Prizel, and James Scott on Tuesday, 9 May, moderated by gallery owner Anita Rogers. Register for the talk here. In conjunction with the exhibition, the gallery will publish a full-colour catalogue featuring an essay by Dr David Anfam, art historian and author of the catalogue raisonné Mark Rothko: The Works on Canvas, as well as writer and curator of Abstract Expressionism (Royal Academy of Arts, London, 2016-17) – the largest survey of its kind ever held in Europe.
In 2019, the gallery hosted a major solo exhibition of 1950’s – 1980’s paintings and drawings by William Scott. This will be the gallery’s first exhibition including works by Mark Rothko.
New York Contemporary Art
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Tel: +1 347 604 2346
E-mail: info@anitarogersgallery.com
This spring, the Anita Rogers Gallery will present an exhibition of paintings and works on paper by Mark Rothko and William Scott, as well as framed correspondence between the two artists. The show will be complemented by a colour catalogue featuring an essay by David Anfam.
Wednesday, 26 April, 6-8pm
Tuesday, 9 May
Discussion with Christopher Rothko, Kate Rothko Prizel and James Scott
With the exhibition Living the landscape – Barbara Hepworth, Ben Nicholson and the artists of St. Ives 1939-1975, Museum Belvédère is the first museum in the Netherlands to pay attention to a special chapter in the history of modern art in Great Britain.
World-renowned artists such as Ben Nicholson and Barbara Hepworth turned the picturesque coastal town of St. Ives in Cornwall into a dazzling international arts center. The many artists who settled there for a short or longer period of time were mainly inspired by the age-old landscape, the sea and the connection between the local population and its environment. Far away from the big art centers and current developments, they found a personal style tailored to light, land and space. Continue reading “Living the Landscape”
A revelatory new take on art in Britain after the Second World War, a period when artists had to make sense of an entirely altered world.
Postwar Modern explores the art produced in Britain in the wake of a cataclysmic war. Certainty was gone, and the aftershocks continued, but there was also hope for a better tomorrow. These conditions gave rise to an incredible richness of imagery, forms and materials in the years that followed.
Focusing on ‘the new’, Postwar Modern features 48 artists and around 200 works of painting, sculpture, photography, collage and installation. It explores the subjects that most preoccupied artists, among them the body, the post-atomic condition, the Blitzed streetscape, private relationships and imagined future horizons. As well as reconsidering well-known figures, the exhibition foregrounds artists who came to Britain as refugees from Nazism or as migrants from a crumbling empire, in addition to female artists who have tended to be overlooked.
Morning in Mykonos, 1960-61 is one of five works by William Scott which can be seen at the exhibition. Continue reading “Postwar Modern New Art in Britain 1945-1965”
Centred on the Bath Academy of Art in Corsham, the decades following the Second World War, saw an explosion of creative printmaking in this corner of Wiltshire. The first in a series of displays celebrating the Golder-Thompson Gift to Chippenham Museum, the exhibition will include works by Clifford & Rosemary Ellis, Gillian Ayres, Howard Hodgkin, William Scott and many more.
Monday – Saturday: 10.00am – 4.00pm
Free entry
Tel: +44 (0)01249 705020
E-mail: heritage@chippenham.gov.uk
Including works by Edward Bawden, Peter Blake, Tracey Emin, Barbara Hepworth, Henry Moore, Chris Ofili, Grayson Perry, Rachel Whiteread, William Scott, amongst others, this extraordinary exhibition features over 100 prints by 90 different artists.
From wood engravings and etchings to lithographs and screenprints, printmaking enabled artists to expand their practice to explore new creative possibilities. Showcasing a wide range of artists, styles and techniques, this exhibition celebrates the extraordinary upsurge of printmaking from the 1960s to now.
Continue reading “Hockney to Himid: 60 Years of British Printmaking”
Secretary of State Brandon Lewis has announced a major art exhibition to showcase Northern Ireland’s creative talent as part of the Northern Ireland Office’s Centenary programme. The Portrait of Northern Ireland: Neither an Elegy nor a Manifesto exhibition will feature over 100 artists who have explored perspectives of Northern Ireland’s people and landscapes from the 1920s until the present day.
Continue reading “Portrait of Northern Ireland Centenary exhibition”
The small Cornish harbour town of St Ives has always attracted artists because of its exceptional light and dramatic surrounding countryside.
But in the mid-20th century, it became more than a seaside retreat. It became a centre for modern art.
Barbara Hepworth and Ben Nicholson moved there at the outbreak of the Second World War. They were later joined by others including William Scott, Patrick Heron, Wilhelmina Barns-Graham, Terry Frost and Denis Mitchell.
The Heong Gallery welcomes back visitors with an exhibition of exceptional contemporary ceramics and glass from The Fitzwilliam Museum. Since the early twentieth century, The Fitzwilliam Museum has built a reputation for European ceramics and glass. Since 1997, gifts from Nicholas and Judith Goodison through the National Art Collections Fund have expanded the contemporary collection considerably, creating the foundations of one of the best museum collections of contemporary ceramics, glass, and other applied arts in Britain. Continue reading “OF THE EARTH Contemporary Ceramics and Glass from The Fitzwilliam Museum”