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ROBIN PHILIPSON 100
robin philipson100
ROBIN PHILIPSON •
100 – CENTEN
ARY EXHIBITION
THE SCO
TTISH G
ALLERY, EDINBURG
H
16 Dundas Street, Edinburgh EH3 6HZ TEL 0131 558 1200 EMAIL [email protected]
www.scottish-gallery.co.uk
Front cover: Humankind, 1973, watercolour, 102 x 102 cms (detail) (cat. 19)Left: Self Portrait, c.1940, pencil on paper, 37.8 x 27.8 cms (detail) (cat. 1)
100centenaryexhibition2–30 MARCH 2016
THE ACADEMIC AND THE ROMANTICTo meet Sir Robin Philipson was to encounter a man of charm and distinction, dressed slightly self-consciously in a bowtie and either a dapper, sometimes striped, jacket or else one splattered in paint. Conversation could range widely, revealing his interest in poetry as much as the visual arts to which he was making such a vital contribution. He can be considered to have been the most successful figure in Edinburgh’s art establishment in the third quarter of the twentieth century. Early on he had been elected a member of the Society of Scottish Artists and the Royal Scottish Society of Painters in Watercolour and in later life many honours would be bestowed on him. But it was as President of the Royal Scottish Academy for a full decade from 1973 that he made a deep mark in art officialdom, opening up new avenues and introducing its student exhibitions which continue to this day. As Head of the School of Drawing and Painting at the art college he maintained the ideals of the post-war Edinburgh School so concerned with expressive colour to which in temperament he was ideally suited: as an Edinburgh student in the late 1930s, his teachers had included William MacTaggart, Anne Redpath and John Maxwell.
After the war Philipson became fascinated by the uncompromising expressionism of European painters, most famously Oskar Kokoschka. Although attracted to British abstraction and the inherent value of paint, he soon began to explore raw personal experience through developing specific themes which could combine aggression and violence with lyricism. This formed the bedrock of his career. Several paintings from these series from the 1950s to the 1980s (cockfights, cathedral interiors, the Crucifixion, war imagery, women and animals, poppies) are included in this exhibition, and they demonstrate a mature commitment to the pictorial: abstraction, where present, never dislodges representation of the world about us. He explores the human condition in many of his key academic paintings, and in the most ambitious – here, for instance, in Nevermind II and Threnody for our Time – he tackles brutalism head on.
These paintings, informed by what war can do and constructed with passion, are never easy but have an important niche within British art. Man’s inhumanity to man is explored in another key series, Humankind, where political and resultant emotional values are played out. These major works were the result of constantly rethinking the delicate balance between the empirical and the intuitive – a balance which is Scottish in its essence. At the same time, Philipson was one of the most lyrical painters of his generation, producing canvases which can convey the purest forms of beauty via traditional subjects and at times extraordinary colour choices.
With his sensitive, serious temperament Philipson was a romantic but his work is essentially academic: apart from a commitment to subject matter, the potential and values of materials were important to him as to generations before him. For a period in the late 1950s he was one of the artists whose prints came off the St James Square presses of Harley Brothers, while as Head of Drawing and Painting he made sure not only that Edinburgh’s students had the opportunity to take printmaking as a final year diploma subject. His form of expressionism certainly gave him a lifelong commitment to the intrinsic values of art materials, sometimes straying from a standard oils palette. He experimented with help from the local paint manufacturer Craig & Rose who mixed a ‘Philipson blue’ for him as well as suggesting he use vinyl toluene to attach gold leaf – with the vinyl itself then becoming a common binding agent in his paint. However we see his art, its free handling, its meaningful decorative values and its sometimes dark subjects, it remains a serious investigation of life. For him the production of art was essential but brave. He once spoke of the dread of starting a studio day, of the waiting easel – but then good art is never an easy business.
Elizabeth CummingRobin Philipson by Elizabeth Cumming is due to be published in 2017 by Sansom & Co.
Robin Philipson in his studio, 1970. The painting behind is the triptych Threnody for our Time, (cat. 17)
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1 Self Portrait, c.19402 Brenda: Spring Portrait, 19513 Landscape with Two Seagulls, c.19544 Menton, 19575 King, 19586 Nude in Mirror, 1960-657 Odalisque and Tiger Cub, c.19638 Flight from Fire, 19649 Abstract Pink and Blue, 1964-6510 Nevermind II, 1965-8411 Fighting Cocks, Red and Yellow, 1968 12 Fighting Cocks, 1969 13 Crucifixion, 1969-7014 Bathers, c.196915 Talk in the Afternoon, c.1970 16 Towards the Night, 197017 Threnody for our Time, 1971 (Triptych)18 Threnody - Sleep, 197019 Humankind, 1973 20 Iconostasis, 197521 Women Observed, c.197922 Women Observed V, c.197923 Fishermen, 197924 Fruit, c.198025 Horsemen by the Sea, 1982 26 Cockfight, c.198027 Fruit, 1984 28 Companions III, 1985Left: Robin Philipson, c.1964
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1 Self Portrait, c.1940pencil on paper, 37.8 x 27.8 cms
EXHIBITEDSir Robin Philipson 1916-1992, Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh, Sept-Nov 1999, cat. 2
PROVENANCEThe Artist’s Estate
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Philipson married painter Brenda Mark in 1949; tragically she would die in 1960 of a brain haemorrhage. This, the best known of several portraits, is strongly influenced by the work of Oskar Kokoschka, whom Philipson met in 1947 and belongs in a group of early landscape and figure paintings which predate the artist’s commitment to thematic subject matter and mark him out as an expressionist.
2 Brenda: Spring Portrait, 1951oil on canvas, 102 x 61 cmssigned and dated lower right, title and artist’s name inscribed verso
EXHIBITEDRobin Philipson Retrospective, Edinburgh College of Art, Edinburgh, 1989, cat. 5; Sir Robin Philipson 1916-1992, Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh, Sept-Nov 1999, cat. 7; Sir Robin Philipson – A Memorial Exhibition, The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh, 1995, cat. 8
PROVENANCEThe Artist’s Estate
ILLUSTRATEDMaurice Lindsay, Robin Philipson, University Press, Edinburgh, 1976, p.16; Sir Robin Philipson 1916-1992, National Galleries of Scotland, 1999, plate 2, p.30
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Philipson’s landscape is neither explicitly sea nor land, wave nor mountain, but rather a mindscape depicting the raw power of nature made in a romantic, symbolist tradition which continues to ally him with the northern European painters: Nolde, Kokoschka and Soutine.
3 Landscape with Two Seagulls, c.1954oil on canvas, 51 x 101.5 cmssigned lower left
PROVENANCEThe Artist’s Estate
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Like many painters, who make up the Edinburgh School, Robin Philipson divided his energies between watercolour and oil. Amongst his peers and in the preceding and proceeding generations however he was the most technically ambitious, experimenting with polyptych in all media, collage, vinyl toluene grounds, powder pigments and working on a monumental scale. When travelling, particularly in the early period, his watercolour block would serve best to record his subject. Here, in the south of France we can see a clear acknowledgement of Gillies’ early, wet technique.
4 Menton, 1957gouache, 36 x 54 cmssigned and dated lower right
EXHIBITEDA Private Collection: Property of Hilary and Keith McCallum, The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh, 2012
PROVENANCEHilary and Keith McCallum, Edinburgh; Private Collection, Liverpool
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Philipson responded to the invitation of Harley Brothers, an Edinburgh firm of commercial lithographers, to collaborate on several stone lithos including King. The Kingly theme of this time, possibly influenced by a meeting with the Spanish painter and theatrical set designer Antoni Clave, produced many memorable paintings, enigmatic, richly rendered, with illuminated colour. In 1958 King and Hunchback (Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool) won him a prize at the second John Moores exhibition.
5 King, 1958lithograph, 60 x 45 cmsedition of 25signed lower right
PROVENANCEPrivate Collection, East Lothian
Robin Philipson working on the King lithograph at the Harley Brothers printing press, 1958
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The nude and interior is one of the richest subjects in Philipson’s oeuvre. Combined are themes such as mixed race lovers, Adam and Eve and the Waiting series (with all the languor of the harem, or Victorian opium den). This subject is also referenced in other themes; the merry-go-round, and African animals. In perhaps hundreds of small watercolour and pastels, as here, it is sufficient subject of itself.
6 Nude in Mirror, 1960-65gouache, 24 x 24 cmssigned lower left
PROVENANCERowland, Browse and Delbanco, London
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7 Odalisque and Tiger Cub, c.1963watercolour, 17.5 x 17.5 cmssigned lower right
EXHIBITEDChristmas Exhibition, The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh, 1963, cat. 7
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In 1963 Philipson spent several months as visiting Professor of Painting at Boulder University, Colorado. From this experience two very different themes emerged. The first, inspired by Native American Art emerged in an abstract idiom, depicting fire and feather, evoking the spirit world, rituals as well as the artefacts he would have seen. The second theme was inspired by a visit to the Mexican border when he looked at several primitive church interiors.
8 Flight from Fire, 1964watercolour and gouache, 13 x 24 cmssigned lower right, titled on label verso
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9 Abstract Pink and Blue, 1964-65watercolour, 73.5 x 50.5 cmssigned lower right
EXHIBITEDSir Robin Philipson, The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh, May 2012
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Philipson painted a series of paintings inspired by the pity of War, sparked by his viewing of Joseph Losey’s King and Country (1964), a harrowing account of a shell-shocked Tommy executed for desertion in WW1. In Nevermind II a soldier is slumped, tied to a post while a Wellingtonian officer, representing the military establishment, stands in mock-heroic judgement. This and several other significant works including Stone the Crows, were exhibited in his Festival Exhibition with The Scottish Gallery in 1965.
10 Nevermind II, 1965-84oil on canvas, 91.5 x 123 cms
EXHIBITEDFestival Exhibition, The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh, 1965; Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh, 1985; Robin Philipson Retrospective, Edinburgh College of Art, Edinburgh, 1989, cat. 55; Sir Robin Philipson, The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh, May 2012
PROVENANCEPrivate Collection, London
ILLUSTRATEDPatricia R. Andrew, A Chasm in Time, Scottish War Art and Artists in the Twentieth Century, Birlinn, Edinburgh, 2014, p.229
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The theme of fighting cocks, which had its origin in Malaysian War-time memories, endured for over twenty years and was celebrated in the survey show Cockfight, Rose Window (The Scottish Arts Council, 1970). The violent action provided a pictorial challenge, resolved brilliantly with flurries of paint and rich colour. In interviews Philipson played down the psychological context of these works and stressed instead their decorative and improvisatory qualities, as Jack Firth observed “more and more the subject matter retreated and the painting took over.” However the theme is a significant example of the artist’s consistent need to address the darker aspects of instinct and atavism in animal and human.
11 Fighting Cocks, Red and Yellow, 1968 oil on canvas, 25 x 36 cmssigned on verso
EXHIBITEDRobin Philipson Exhibition, The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh, 1968, cat. 32; Cockfight and Rose Window Exhibition, The Scottish Arts Council, 1970, cat. 50
PROVENANCEJ A Eddison Esq and thence by descent
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12 Fighting Cocks, 1969 watercolour, 51 x 76 cmssigned lower right
EXHIBITEDThe Royal Scottish Society of Painters in Watercolour, Edinburgh; Cockfight and Rose Window Exhibition, The Scottish Arts Council, 1970, cat. 53; Christmas Exhibition, The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh, 1969, cat. 130
PROVENANCEJ A Eddison Esq and thence by descent
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Philipson was anti-intellectual, his sources all visual rather than literary and he was unwilling to provide an explanation for his art. Instead he wanted the unveiling of a painting to provoke an initial reaction; to be shocking, beguiling, seductive, thought provoking but above all personal. In the same way that his cockfights could be decorative and beautiful, belying the violence of the subject matter, Crucifixion with its glorious blue and yellow chords is as decorative as it is shocking. Without a professed belief Philipson asserts his right as a modernist to paint whatever he chooses, to appropriate the central image of Christian iconography without being constrained by its utility as a Christian message.
13 Crucifixion, 1969-70oil and vinyl toluene on canvas, 214 x 152 cmssigned upper left verso
EXHIBITEDFestival Exhibition, The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh, cat. 9; Robin Philipson Retrospective, Edinburgh College of Art, Edinburgh, 1989, cat. 70; Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, London, 1990; Sir Robin Philipson 1916-1992, Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh, Sept-Nov 1999, cat. 49
ILLUSTRATEDSir Robin Philipson 1916-1992, National Galleries of Scotland, 1999, plate 16, p.44
PROVENANCEThe Artist’s Estate
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14 Bathers, c.1969watercolour, 25 x 18.5 cmssigned lower right
EXHIBITEDChristmas Exhibition, The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh, 1969, cat. 128
PROVENANCEPrivate Collection, Edinburgh
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15 Talk in the Afternoon, c.1970 pastel, 33 x 34 cms
PROVENANCECyril Gerber Fine Art, Glasgow; Private Collection, Dumfries and Galloway
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16 Towards the Night, 1970pastel on sandpaper, 17 x 17 cmssigned and dated lower right
EXHIBITEDFestival Exhibition, The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh, 1970, cat. 31; Robin Philipson Retrospective, Edinburgh College of Art, Edinburgh, 1989, cat. 100, titled ‘Companions’
PROVENANCECollection of Mr and Mrs Rankin, Edinburgh
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Philipson possessed the élan of the Renaissance master in his concept. The broad gesture, mastery of space, balance of detail and structure are all worthy of Titian. In Threnody for our Time there is a Venetian warmth of colour and exoticism which recalls the sixteenth century master. But it is to a twentieth century master that the most meaningful comparisons can be made; to Francis Bacon. The triptych format, the claustrophobic psychological space, distorted or tortured human presence and triumphant arm-wrestle with the materials are closely present in this work and Bacon’s Three Studies for Figures at the Base of a Crucifixion (1962, Guggenheim).
Overleaf:17 Threnody for our Time, 1971 (Triptych)
oil and vinyl toluene on canvas, left: 274 x 142 cms, middle: 274 x 228.5 cms, right: 274 x 142 cms
EXHIBITEDRobin Philipson Retrospective, Edinburgh College of Art, Edinburgh, 1989, cat. 71; Sir Robin Philipson Retrospective Exhibition, The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh, 2006, cat. 1
PROVENANCEThe Artist’s Estate
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There is a story of Philipson inviting his friend the poet and polyglot George Bruce to his studio before an exhibition, placing his ready pictures on the easel one by one while his guest reeled off possible titles; when Robin liked one he would hold up his hand and then write the title on the verso. A threnody is a song or poem of remembrance or lamentation and the work appears in the title of a number of paintings at this time.
18 Threnody - Sleep, 1970oil on canvas, 25.5 x 51 cmssigned verso
EXHIBITEDFestival Exhibition, The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh, 1970, cat. 33; Christopher Hull Gallery, London
PROVENANCECollection of Lady Dugdale
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The division or compartmentalisation of his composition became the defining motif for Philipson from the seventies onwards. This device, like that of the polyptych, allowed him to introduce different, disparate material, to frame subjects within subjects and resolve complex issues of balance within a satisfactory whole. In Humankind lovers disrobe beneath a herd of zebra flanked by an abstract band to the left and a monumental African figure, who could be Ryder Haggard’s She to the right
19 Humankind, 1973 watercolour, 102 x 102 cmstitled ‘Night’ on label verso
EXHIBITEDRobin Philipson, The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh, 1973, cat. 62, titled ‘Night’; Robin Philipson Retrospective, Edinburgh College of Art, Edinburgh, 1989, cat. 85
PROVENANCECollection of Lady Laing
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Iconostasis, 1975, is based on the interior of the Greek Orthodox chapel at St Catherine’s Monastery in Sinai; which is famed for its large collection of early icons and an important library of the earliest Christian texts. A chapel was built on the site in the fourth century on the orders of (St) Helena, the emperor Constantine’s mother. The Monastery itself was established in the sixth century.
20 Iconostasis, 1975oil on canvas, 91.5 x 122 cmssigned on verso
EXHIBITEDThe Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh, 1975
PROVENANCESir Anthony Wheeler
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This subject did have an answering theme of Men Observed made over a similar period where the men are psychologically isolated and somehow more vulnerable than the women. The women, by any critique, are sex-workers and the setting the brothel, but the viewpoint does not seem overtly voyeuristic (despite the title) and like earlier depictions of suffering (human and animal) the artist subverts a literal interpretation with the beauty of his paint.
21 Women Observed, c.1979oil on canvas, 66 x 66 cms
EXHIBITED Sir Robin Philipson, The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh, May 2012
PROVENANCEPrivate Collection, London
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22 Women Observed V, c.1979oil on canvas, 64 x 64 cms
EXHIBITEDSir Robin Philipson, The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh, May 2012
PROVENANCEPrivate Collection, Edinburgh
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23 Fishermen, 1979watercolour, 21 x 26 cmssigned lower right; signed, dated and inscribed with title on label verso
PROVENANCECollection of Richard Demarco
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Philipson enjoyed the medium of pastel for its soft, saturated quality of pigment, for its delicacy and for the technical challenge of working alla prima.
24 Fruit, c.1980pastel, 23 x 37 cmssigned verso
PROVENANCEPrivate Collection, East Lothian
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25 Horsemen by the Sea, 1982 pastel, 22 x 27 cmssigned and titled on label verso
EXHIBITEDRobin Philipson Exhibition, Macaulay Gallery, Stenton, 1982, cat. 22
PROVENANCEPrivate Collection, Dumfries and Galloway
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The motif of the easel allowed Philipson to include a picture within a picture and to locate the studio as the real setting for the painting. Towards the end of his life this emphasis on his real location seems like a meditation on the life of a painter and in this work we can see a retrospective of subjects; cockfight, horsemen and waiting women.
26 Cockfight, c.1980oil and vinyl toluene on canvas, 122 x 122 cms
EXHIBITED Sir Robin Philipson, The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh, May 2012
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27 Fruit, 1984 oil on canvas, 91 x 76.5 cmssigned and inscribed on label verso
EXHIBITEDModern Masters II, The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh, 2014, cat. 27
PROVENANCE Private Collection, Kirkcudbrightshire
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28 Companions III, 1985pastel on sandpaper, 22 x 28 cmssigned and titled on label verso; label inscribed ‘To Roy and Marie, 12th Night 1986, with love Robin’ verso
PROVENANCECollection of Mr and Mrs Rankin, Edinburgh
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SELECTED BIOGRAPHY
1916 Born Broughton-in-Furness. Educated Whitehaven Secondary School
1930 Family moved to Gretna. Educated Dumfries Academy
1936-40 Studied Edinburgh College of Art1940-46 Served in India: King’s Own Scottish
Borderers attached to Royal Indian Army Service Corps
1946 Teacher training at Moray House, Edinburgh
1947 Joined staff of Edinburgh College of Art, first as librarian and then Lecturer in School of Drawing and Painting
1948 Elected member of the Society of Scottish Artists
1949 Married Brenda Mark1952 Elected Associate of the Royal Scottish
Academy1955 Elected member of the Royal Scottish
Society of Painters in Watercolour1960 Death of Brenda Philipson. Succeeds
William Gillies as Head of Drawing and Painting, Edinburgh College of Art
1961 Married Thora Clyne1962 Elected Royal Scottish Academician1963 Visiting Professor of Painting, Summer
School, University of Colorado1964 First major illness. Visited Warsaw1966 Completed Mural for Glasgow Airport1967 Cargill Award, Royal Glasgow Institute of
the Fine Arts1969 Elected Secretary of the Royal Scottish
Academy1970 Cockfight, Rose Window, SAC Exhibition,
Edinburgh (and touring)
1971 Member of the Scottish Advisory Committee, British Council. Thirty minute film profile Scope for BBC
1972 Sabbatical – interrupted by major illness at Boulogne
1973 Elected Associate of the Royal Academy. Elected President of the Royal Scottish Academy
1974 Elected Honorary Member of the Royal Hibernian Academy. Elected Honorary Royal Academician
1975 Divorced. Visited Belgrade1976 Knighted for service to the arts in
Scotland. Commandeur de I’Ordre du Mérite de la Republique Francaise. Honorary Doctorate of the University of Stirling. William Thynne Travelling Scholarship from the English-Speaking Union to visit South Africa and Kenya. Married Diana Pollock
1977 Completed Mural for Dundee College of Education
1978 Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. LID University of Aberdeen
1980 Elected Member of the Royal Glasgow Institute of the Fine Arts IRGII
Member of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts
1981 Elected Royal Academician1982 Retired as Head of School of Drawing
and Painting, Edinburgh College of Art1985 Honorary Doctorate of Heriot-Watt
University1989 Robin Philipson Retrospective, Edinburgh
College of Art1992 Died in Edinburgh, 26 May
SIR ROBIN PHILIPSONPPRSA, RA, HRA, RSW, RGI, D.(UNIV), LL.D, FRSE, HRIAS, RCAA, HRHA, DA(EDIN) (1916-1992)
Right: Robin Philipson, c.1975
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SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS
1954 The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh1958 The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh1960 Roland, Browse and Delbanco, London1961 Festival Exhibition, The Scottish Gallery,
Edinburgh1962 Roland, Browse and Delbanco, London1964 Roland, Browse and Delbanco, London1965 Festival Exhibition, The Scottish Gallery,
Edinburgh1967 Roland, Browse and Delbanco, London1968 The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh1969 The Loomshop, Lower Largo, Fife1970 Festival Exhibition, The Scottish Gallery,
Edinburgh1970 Cockfight and Rose Window, The Scottish
Arts Council, Edinburgh1970 Retrospective Exhibition, Carnegie Festival
of Music and the Arts, Dunfermline1970 Retrospective Exhibition, The Scottish Arts
Council1971 Roland, Browse and Delbanco, London1971 Compass Gallery, Glasgow1973 Boulogne and After, The Scottish Gallery,
Edinburgh 1974 Exhibition of Cathedral Paintings, Elgin1974 Festival Exhibition, Haddington House 1975 Roland, Browse and Delbanco, London1976 The Loomshop, Lower Largo, Fife1976 Watercolours and Paintings, Festival
Exhibition, The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh
1977 Retrospective Exhibition, Macrobert Centre, University of Stirling
1978 Browse & Darby Gallery, London1978 The Loomshop, Lower Largo, Fife1979 Stirling Gallery1980 Macaulay Gallery, Stenton1981 Browse & Darby Gallery, London1982 Macaulay Gallery, Stenton1982 The Loomshop, Lower Largo, Fife1983 English Speaking Union, Edinburgh1983 New Peter Potter Gallery, Haddington, as
part of Teamwork Exhibition1983 The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh1985 Browse & Darby Gallery, London1987 Browse & Darby Gallery, London1989 Robin Philipson Retrospective, Edinburgh
College of Art, Edinburgh1995 Sir Robin Philipson – A Memorial Exhibition,
The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh1999 Sir Robin Philipson 1916-1992, Scottish
National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh
2003 Sir Robin Philipson, The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh
2006 Sir Robin Philipson Retrospective Exhibition, The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh
2012 Sir Robin Philipson, The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh
2016 Centenary Exhibition, The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh
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SELECTED PUBLIC COLLECTIONS
Aberdeen Art Gallery and MuseumsAtkinson Art Gallery, SouthportAuchterderran Centre, FifeBeecroft Art Gallery, SouthendBrighton and Hove Museums and Art Gallery,
BrightonBritish Council, LondonClackmannanshire CouncilDundee Art Galleries and MuseumsDurham County CouncilCity of Edinburgh CouncilContemporary Art Society, LondonGlynn Vivian Art Gallery, SwanseaGovernment Art Collection, LondonGracefield Arts Centre, DumfriesHeriot-Watt University, EdinburghHighland Council, InvernessHunterian Art Gallery, GlasgowKettle’s yard, University of CambridgeKirkcaldy Galleries, FifeLaing Art Gallery, NewcastleLillie Art Gallery, East Dunbartonshire CouncilManchester Metropolitan UniversityMIMA, Middlesbrough
Museums SheffieldNational Galleries of Scotland, EdinburghNational Museum of Wales, CardiffNHS Lothian, EdinburghNorth Carolina Art Gallery and Museum, USAPaisley Museum and Art GalleriesPerth Art Museum and Art GalleryRoyal Academy, LondonRoyal Scottish Academy, EdinburghSunderland Museum and Winter Gardens,
Tyne and WearThe Argyll Collection, Argyll and ButeThe Fleming Collection, LondonThe Royal Society of EdinburghThe Scottish Arts Council, EdinburghUniversity of EdinburghUniversity of AberdeenUniversity of Colorado, Boulder, USAUniversity of Dundee Fine Art CollectionsUniversity of Strathclyde, GlasgowVictoria Gallery and Museum, LiverpoolWalker Art Gallery, National Museums LiverpoolWhitworth Art Gallery, University of Manchester
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
1952 Eight Young Contemporary British Painters, Arts Council, Scottish Committee1954 Three Scottish Artists, Crane Gallery, Manchester1955 Festival Exhibition, The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh1958 Edinburgh-Nice Exhibition, The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh1959 Six Scottish Artists, Nottingham University, Arts Council, Scottish Committee1959 Stirling Festival Fortnight Exhibition, Stirling1963 Four Scottish Painters, Arts Council, Scottish Committee1963-64 Fourteen Scottish Painters, Commonwealth Institute, London Arts Council, Scottish Committee1964 Contemporary Scottish Art, Reading Art Gallery1965 Seven Scottish Painters, I.B.M. Gallery, New York1967 Contemporary British Painting, Warsaw1968 Scottish Painting, The Demarco Gallery, Edinburgh1968 Three Centuries of Scottish Painting, National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa1974 The Bruton Gallery, London1975 English and Scottish Painter ’75 – The Mainstream, Fieldborne Gallery, London1977 Four Scottish Painters, Ashmolean Museum, Oxford1977 Sir William MacTaggart – Sir Robin Philipson, Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh1987 David Donaldson and Robin Philipson at 70, The Fine Art Society, Edinburgh2008 Works by Sir William Gillies and Sir Robin Philipson, The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh
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Top row: Philipson children, 1929, back Robin and Phyllis, front Audrey and John; Second Lieutnant Philipson, 1941; Captain Philipson far right and education committee, Singapore, c.1945; Middle row: Philipson points up alterations at Harley Printing Press, 1957. Photo Ronald Wilkie; Robin Philipson, c.1957; Bottom row: Robin Philipson working on the King lithograph, 1958; Robin Philipson, c.1964
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Top row: Philipson in his studio at ECA, 1969, working on Ascension and Crucifixion; Robin Philipson in his Studio, c.1969; Middle row: Robin Philipson in his studio, 1970; Robin Philipson, President of the RSA, introducing the Queen to Elizabeth Blackadder, John Houston stands back right, 1973; Robin Philipson, c.1975; Bottom row: Robin and Diana Philipson at The Scottish Gallery, 1983; Robin Philipson, c.1987
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16 Dundas Street, Edinburgh EH3 6HZ TEL 0131 558 1200 EMAIL [email protected]
Published by The Scottish Gallery to coincide with the exhibition ROBIN PHILIPSON: 100 – CENTENARY EXHIBITION2–30 March 2016
Exhibition can be viewed online at www.scottish-gallery.co.uk/robinphilipson
ISBN: 978 1 910267 33 2
Photography by John McKenziePrinted by Barr Colour Printers
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTSThe Scottish Gallery would like express thanks to Lady Diana Philipson and Dr Elizabeth Cumming for their kind help with this exhibition.
All rights reserved. No part of this catalogue may be reproduced in any form by print, photocopy or by any other means, without the permission of the copyright holders and of the publishers.
Right: Crucifixion, 1969-70, oil and vinyl toluene on canvas, 214 x 152 cms (detail) (cat. 13)
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ROBIN PHILIPSON •
100 – CENTEN
ARY EXHIBITION
THE SCO
TTISH G
ALLERY, EDINBURG
H
