William Scott, R.A.

Martha Jackson Gallery, New York
Gallery Moos, Toronto
Private Collection, Toronto
Beaux Arts, London

New York, Martha Jackson, 1973 (no catalogue);
Toronto, Gallery Moos, William Scott, 13th October -1st November 1973, cat. no.3;
Toronto, Gallery Moos,  William Scott, 7th October -25th October 1978, cat. no.16;
London, Beaux Arts, Artists of Fame and Promise, 4th June - 6th September 1997, as Linear White, illustrated;
London, Beaux Arts, William Scott, 12th April - 20th May 2000, as Linear White, illustrated.

James R. Mellow, 'Pots and Pans and Eggs', The New York Times, 14th January 1973, illustrated;
Norbert Lynton, William Scott, Thames and Hudson, London, 2004, illustrated p.317, fig.199.

Original canvas. The paint surface is in apparently good overall condition. Held in a simple wooden frame with a silver coloured finish. Please telephone the department on 020 7293 6424 if you have any questions regarding the present work.
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The present work is registered with the William Scott Archive as no.1259.

Sarah Whitfield is currently preparing the Catalogue Raisonné of works in oil by William Scott. The William Scott Foundation would like to hear from owners of any work by the artist so that these can be included in this comprehensive catalogue or in future projected catalogues. Please write to Sarah Whitfield, c/o Sotheby's, 20th Century British Art Department, 34-35 New Bond Street, London, W1A 2AA.

Following the energetic and rhythmic nature of his series of Berlin Blues from the mid 1960s and the outburst of curvilinear shapes and forms that he developed for murals at Altnagelvin Hospital, Londonderry and the new Irish Television Centre, Dublin, Scott's series of work from the late 1960s and early 1970s took on a fresh and understated aesthetic. His new pictures marked a return to the still life subject matter that had been a major pre-occupation throughout his life and which had become fundamental to both the form and content of his work. 

The genesis for his life long treatment of the theme was a visit to an exhibition in Paris in the summer of 1946 entitled A Thousand Years of Still Life Painting which left him 'really overwhelmed by the fact that the subject had hardly changed for 1000 years, and yet each generation in turn expressed its own period and feelings and time within this terribly limited narrow range of the still life' (Scott, quoted in Norbert Lynton, William Scott, London 2004, p.61). Despite the seemingly 'limited' subject, the exhibition clearly left him in no doubt as to the power of the genre and its capacity for artistic creativity.  By 1969, the year that marked his new series on the theme, he had developed the distinctive forms evident in the present work; the long handled frying pan, square bowl and round bottomed dish. The instantly recognisable forms clearly reference early works such as The Frying Pan (1946, Arts Council Collection, London) whilst the minimalist handling also demonstrates the evolution of his work in an abstract direction since the 1940s. 

Moving on from the first works in the series such as Still Life Brown with Black Note (1969, Bank of Ireland Group), the subtle hues of the present work achieve an almost luminous effect whilst the ethereal outlines of the central motifs provide a delicate counterpoint to the white impastoed forms. The combination of elements demonstrates the purity of the artist's vision and provides a clear indication of the artist's absolute enjoyment of his subject.