William Scott, R.A. 1913-1989

In the summer of 1952, Scott embarked on a series of small-scale gouaches that are crucial in marking his first foray into full-scale abstraction. Taking their starting point from a studio melting pot, these works distort and stretch the subject beyond a point of recognition and become essays in the relationship of pure colour and form. The immediate necessities of the gouache medium forced a quick spontaneity onto the gelling of thought and as this series progressed, the move away from the figurative becomes ever more evident, whilst the evidence of reworking and alterations remains. The present works, both of which were first shown in a special exhibition of these ground-breaking gouaches at the Hanover Gallery in 1962, force the basic compositional elements stage by stage, rendering the original starting point almost invisible. By comparing the two works, which use the same basic forms, we can see just how this progression of ideas moved. Later works from the series become even more abstracted, completely losing even the basic references to the original still-life elements. 

The lessons learnt through this series of paintings find further development in the abstract oils of the 1952-54 period and of these, perhaps the best known, and closest to Gouache No.8, is Orange, Black & White Composition (Coll. Tate Gallery).  It is worth remarking that to make such a move into full abstraction at this time was still a heroic act, risking as it did the alienation of the hard-won support of those collectors whose patronage was so rare in the immediate post-war period. That this was a real danger can be seen in the contemporary abandonment of Victor Pasmore by the influential critic and patron, Kenneth Clark.

‘one of the rare occasions when a medium other than oil paint proper has played a decisive role in his artistic development’ (Alan Bowness, William Scott: Paintings, Lund Humphries, London, 1964, p.9).

The present work is listed with the William Scott Archive as no.1684.