Euan Uglow

Euan Uglow

Euan Uglow, Self-portrait, c. 1960, oil on card, 6 1/8 x 5 3/4 inches

Euan Uglow
7 October 6 November 2015
Monday - Friday 10 - 5.30
Saturday 11 - 2

Browse & Darby

19 Cork Street London W1S 3LP
Tel: 020 7734 7984 Fax: 020 7851 6650
email: art@browseanddarby.co.uk
www.browseanddarby.co.uk

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Snatches of Conversation
Why did you first start to paint?
Ive always tried to make things. I find making things a relaxation from painting, but the two are caught up together. As a
child I was always making objects even if they were boats with too many nails in that sank. Then at sixteen I went to Junior
Art School at Camberwell.
Whilst at Camberwell, I came into contact with many influences like Bill Coldstream and Claude Rogers, Johnny Minton,
Keith Vaughan, Pitchforth, Sam Carter, Victor Pasmore and John Dodgson. Also the Sculptor Carl Vogel who wanted me to
make sculpture; however, I preferred painting. I found myself in a hive of activity that did me nothing but good. It was a
very stimulating atmosphere, activated by many ex-servicemen who wanted to make full use of the art school.
Then I went to the Slade and although most students did what was roughly called working from nature, I felt it wasnt
so much a personal attitude but an accepted tradition. I wanted to be much more extreme, and work in a more intensified
situation. The other painting students were people like Mike Andrews, the Cohen brothers, Martin Froy, Craigie Aitchison,
Myles Murphy, Norman Norris and Victor Willing.

Did your interests form a focus at the Slade?

Oh yes. I was interested in appearances and in making a proper order with conviction. But I dont think it was wholly to
do with the Slade. This idea of drawing that was supposedly handed down via Tonks and Augustus John was a legend that
had died out thirty years before.

Was it a very structured or formal art education?

There was some structure, one had to do perspective and art history and anatomy, but it was all pretty loose; in anatomy I
did psychology of seeing. Of course, that was interesting, learning all about gestalt, though I dont know if it ever had any
influence on me. And the learning of perspective was good, though it has no importance to me now. I tried to do a painting
which was constructed from the idea of using perspective to give an imagined idea a greater reality. Thats the picture called
Musicians (1953). On the other hand in Summer Picture (1972), I found the perspective was so violent that I had to build a
table much wider at the back than at the front so that when I looked at it the angle wasnt so violent. I couldnt just make
the adjustments in my mind. I had to have a visual proof.

Did Coldstream have the most influence over you?

He was a friend, and its difficult to know how friends influence one. Wed go to the boat race together, very rarely did we
talk about painting. It was only much later, in the 1970s and 80s, that he used to get me to look at his pictures and wed
talk as equals about painting. At the Slade, he was this strong eminence grise we had around.

How do you stand in relation to the Euston Road School?

I really dont think Ive got much to do with it now. Obviously I learnt from all those people, but you cant call Claude
Rogers late pictures anything to do with the idea of the Euston Road School. If you think of the burning of stubble pictures,
the night pictures he did from Highgate or the pictures he did in hospital, they look nothing whatsoever like Euston Road
paintings. Critics pigeon-holes arent much use. Obviously there are other peoples paintings that I find interesting, but I
dont think Im part of a school in the same way the Impressionists were when they met in Parisian cafes.
I love the painters of the Italian Renaissance. I wouldnt think of going to Florence without calling in to see the Trinity
by Masaccio at Santa Maria Novella. It would be like going past a friends house, seeing the light on and not going in.
Masaccios Trinity is a perfect example of using geometry, in this case the Golden Section, relating to a spiritual idea. I like
the Japanese printmakers a lot. Utamaro is very fine. I think the Lorenzettis are marvellous, they mean a great deal to me.
And, of course, Czanne does, Piero, Poussin, Ingres, Rembrandt, Uccello, Mantegna, Goya and Velazquez.

Do you consciously draw inspiration from those kind of sources?

I dont think its inspiration, except that the Royal Academy show of early Cezanne paintings was very inspiring, I think
its just pleasure. I think one gets inspiration from looking into oneself and from looking around. I can see a Poussin every
time I walk down the street.

Is there a science to the way you look, a science of picture construction?

No, its new every time. Somebody asked me to teach how to start a painting once. Ive no idea. There are no generalisations,
every picture is different. Sometimes I start with a lingering idea, an idea thats been forming in my head for some time.
Theres a painting Im working on at the moment, of a man chasing a girl up the road. It comes from a kind of flashed
image on the retina. Whereas The Diagonal (1977) was a very formal picture.
Now I like to have an ordered rectangle, a shape with reason. The whole picture is glued together with the shape of the canvas
and the appearance of the subject. The measurements will be to do with the shape of the rectangle. I take measurements so
that the subject has a real link with the rectangle; it also gives me freedom to make a whole surface.
Some of the marks are there to be able to go on with the painting. There are probably more marks on the more precarious
poses. They are to do with what happened today, yesterday and the month before. They may be in different colours so I can
see what happened. Its a chart or diary of what happened, while still trying to keep to the idea of what the painting is. I
dont know what the end of the picture is going to be like, but Im trying to find out why a subject does look so marvellous,
and trying to make that sensation manifest on a flat surface.

Why do you make these marks?

Its the most immediate way of getting something down. Theyre obviously two-dimensional, which again is related to the
rectangle. I dont do it for fun; its absolutely necessary. Id rather drink good claret for fun.

Why do you leave some of the measuring marks on the final canvas?
How can you lose those marks when the next second you may need them? I dont really finish a painting, it stops. Then, if
I were to paint out those marks it would be another picture.

As you have spent up to five years on a painting, have you ever been accused of over-perfectionism?
I dont see how anyone can be over-perfectionist. If youve got an idea, youve got to get it down. Sometimes you think
youve got there, but if youre not careful you go too far and start to paint another picture. Stopping has nothing to do with
putting highlights in or gloss of hair. In most of the pictures it seems to have been the case that they had to go through a
revolution before getting there.
At Camberwell I tried to paint analytical Cubist pictures in a very unintelligent way. A few years ago, the Georges gave me
this toothbrush and I thought it was very sexy. I was wondering how I could say what I wanted to say about it, and I was
also thinking about analytical cubism. So I fixed up two mirrors to paint her back, her side, and her front. As far as Im
concerned The Three Graces is a modern equivalent of an analytical Cubist picture.
Im painting an idea not an ideal. Basically Im trying to paint a structured painting full of controlled, and therefore potent,
emotion. I wont let chance be there unless its challenged. I dont make a brush mark and think, oh, that looks nice, if I
dont mean it as a statement. Im not interested in that. Paintings too serious to take flippantly. I think one should behave
morally with paint, though that doesnt stop one taking risks.

Do you avoid the evidence of brush marks?

I try not to think about it, because thats not the important thing. I love painting with a new sable brush, so theres
obviously some pleasure in the physical process of painting.

Do you use geometry in your painting?

All the pictures are different in construction. Double Square, Double Square (1980-82) is a double square rectangle, and a
double square in space. Its a very beautiful idea and very simple. I only use geometry if I think its going to be to do with
the idea.

How do you respond to colour?

Colour is very important, very limited, and is one of our senses that we should try to use.
Our colours are limited because of the palette; it would be nice to find a new colour just as it would to find a new kind
of meat. You cant go much further than the pigments youve got at the moment, though you can make colours behave
differently. I get more and more excited about the idea of colour. I want colour to play a very important part in what Im
making.

What about movement?

Quite a lot of my pictures are concerned with movement. I dont think you have to paint swirls to show movement. Perhaps
my paintings are more about implied movement. Im not interested in the kind of movement of the Futurists, for instance,
because I think its too much to do with a concept of movement. Whereas I have more sympathy for Duchamps Nude
Descending a Staircase because its more analytical, its more to do with trapping movement.

What is your objective?

Im trying to make something new. Im trying to make an image, or give an image to an idea. I like to paint in the light of
a high grey London sky. In a wider sense, I dont know whats going to happen tomorrow.

Andrew Lambirth
1989
Reproduced courtesy of Artists & Illustrators Magazine

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Paintings
1.

Girl Tree, 1989-91

oil on canvas, 47 1/5 x 59 3/4 inches

14.

Brunelleschis Dome, 1961

oil on board, 13 x 9 1/2 inches

2.

Propeller, 1994-5
oil on canvas, 14 x 21 inches

15.

Seascape, c.1962
oil on canvas, 18 x 16 inches

3.

Zo, 1987-93
oil on canvas laid on panel, 12 x 16 inches

16.

Daisy, 1976
oil on canvas, 13 3/4 x 10 inches

4.

Mimosa, 1971
oil on wood, 20 3/4 x 16 3/4 inches

17.

Cuddle Two Pears, 1985

oil on panel, 5 1/4 x 8 1/4 inches

5.

Miss Venne, 1966-7

oil on canvas, 40 x 30 inches

6.

Woman with White Skirt, 1953-4

oil on canvas, on board, 40 x 31 3/4 inches

18.

Egyptian Spearess, 1986-7

oil on canvas laid on panel, 11 x 7 3/4 inches

7.

Nude with Arm on Box, c.1965

oil on board, 23 3/4 x 21 3/4 inches

19.

Lowestoft in January, 1961

oil on board, 19 x 25 inches

8.

Sally, 1967
oil on canvas, 18 x 18 inches

20.

Somerset, c.1955
Oil on card, 4 5/8 x 7 inches

21.

The Church by the Sea, Chlorakas, Cyprus, 1980

oil on canvas, 28 3/8 x 49 3/8 inches

22.

Lemons, 1975
oil on canvas laid on plywood panel, 8 x 11 1/4 inches

23.

Pear Robusto, 1999-2000

oil on card, 7 1/2 x 6 inches

9.

Joshuas Feet, 1983

oil on canvas laid on panel, 10 3/4 x 16 1/2 inches

10.

Portrait of Patrick Symons, 1969

PVA on board, 36 x 48 inches

11.

Still Life with Honeysuckle, 1968

oil on panel, 15 x 10 3/4 inches

12.

Gloria, 1958
oil on linen, 19 3/4 x 24 1/8 inches

24.

Special Pear, 1999

Oil on canvas laid on panel, 5 1/8 x 7 inches

13.

Oval Pear, 1960

oil on canvas, 10 1/2 x 13 inches

25.

Daisy Triptych, 1991

oil on canvas laid on panel, 10 3/4 x 18 3/4 inches

Works on Paper
26.

Hare, 1961
etching, 6 3/4 x 11 1/4 inches

38.

Seated nude, left leg up

pencil on paper, 13 3/4 x 9 3/4 inches

27.

Nude leaning over

pencil on paper, 15 x 11 inches

39.

Bust study
pencil on paper, 12 x 9 inches

28.

Seated nude in studio

pencil on paper, 10 3/4 x 13 3/4 inches

40.

Standing nude half length

pencil on paper, 11 3/4 x 7 3/4 inches

29.

Standing female nude

pen and ink with wash, 15 x 11 inches

41.

Knee raised
pencil on paper, 16 3/4 x 13 inches

30.

Seated with legs crossed

pencil on paper, 13 3/4 x 10 1/2 inches

42.

Standing nude
pencil on paper, 17 1/2 x 14 inches

31.

Seated with right leg up

pencil on paper, 13 3/4 x 9 3/4 inches

43.

Striding nude with reclining nude study

pencil on paper, 13 3/4 x 10 1/2 inches

32.

Reclining nude with arm outstretched

pencil on paper, 7 3/4 x 10 3/4 inches

44.

Model with right leg forward

pencil on paper, 15 x 9 3/4 inches

33.

Model undressing
pencil on paper, 13 3/4 x 8 3/4 inches

45.

Double striding nude

pencil on paper, 15 x 9 3/4 inches

34.

Seated woman
pencil on paper, 10 x 8 inches

46.

Striding nude study

pencil on paper, 15 x 9 3/4 inches

35.

Standing nude with modelling times

pencil on paper, 14 3/4 x 9 1/4 inches

47.

Striding nude with calculations

pencil on paper, 15 x 9 3/4 inches

36.

Hands on hips
pencil on paper, 17 1/4 x 12 inches

48.

Striding nude with right leg behind

pencil on paper, 15 x 9 3/4 inches

37.

Model striding
pencil on paper, 10 x 8 inches

49.

Standing nude, head bent forward

pencil on paper, 15 x 9 3/4 inches

Euan Uglow 1932-2000

1932
1948-50
1951
1952
1953

1954
1957
1959
1960
1961
1962
1963
1968
1970
1972

1972-74
1975
1976

1980
1983
1984

1985
1987
1990-95
1997
2000

Born 10 March in London

Attended Camberwell School of Arts and Crafts, awarded David

Murray Scholarship
Received State Scholarship for the Slade School of Fine Art, University College, London. First exhibited
with the London Group
Received Spanish State Scholarship to work in Segovia, Spain
Awarded Abbey Minor Scholarship (Prix de Rome). Travelled to
France, Holland, Belgium; spent six months in Italy
Did building work and farming as a conscientious objector
Worked in Spain and France. Visited Giacometti with David Sylvester
Moved to studio in Battersea where he continued to work
Elected member of the London Group
Part-time teaching at the Slade and Camberwell School of Arts and Crafts.
Second prize in junior section of John Moore exhibition, Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool
Worked in France and Italy
Worked in Morocco
Worked in Turkey
Won Edwin Austin Abbey Premier Scholarship, spent three months in Italy
Won first prize for the painting Nude, from Twelve Regular Vertical Positions from the Eye 1967 at
John Moores 8, Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool
Worked in Italy during the summer months
Begins to be represented by William Darby
Worked in Italy
Featured in an Aquarius programme, Proportion Representation, on London Weekend Television, introduced
and directed by Peter Hall. Filmed during the course of painting Root Five Nude
Worked in Cyprus
Worked in Cyprus
Invited by the British Council to visit India for the exhibition The Proper Study, Lalit Kaka Akademi,
New Delhi
Worked in Cyprus
Invited to teach and work in China at the Zhejiang Academy of Fine Arts, Hangzhou
Artist Trustee, National Gallery, London
Honorary Member of London Institute
Died 31 August in London

One-man Exhibitions
1961
1969
1974

1977
1983
1989

1991

Paintings and Drawings, Beaux Arts Gallery, London

Drawings, Gardner Centre, Sussex University, Brighton
Euan Uglow, Whitechapel Art Gallery, London (Arts Council touring exhibition)
Euan Uglow: Drawings, Colnaghi, London
Euan Uglow: recent paintings and drawings, Browse & Darby, London
Euan Uglow: paintings and drawings, Browse & Darby, London
Euan Uglow: Euan Uglows Nudes, Whitechapel Art Gallery, London
Euan Uglow: Drawings, Browse & Darby, London
Euan Uglow: Ideas, 1952-91, Browse & Darby, London

1993
1997
1999
2001
2003
2003
2006
2007
2012
2015

Euan Uglow, Salander O Reilly Gallery, New York

Euan Uglow, Browse & Darby, London
Euan Uglow: Drawings, Browse & Darby, London
Euan Uglow: Night Paintings, Browse & Darby, London
Euan Uglow: Drawings, Browse & Darby, London
Euan Uglow: Controlled Passion, Abbot Hall Art Gallery, Kendal
Euan Uglow: A personal choice by Craigie Aitchison, The Holburne Museum of Art, Bath
Euan Uglow: Paintings, Browse & Darby, London
Euan Uglow: Radical Clarity, Browse & Darby, London
Euan Uglow, Browse & Darby, London

Selected Group Exhibitions

1960-61
1961

1962
1964


1968
1971

1972
1975

Modern British Portraits, The Arts Council Gallery, Cambridge, and tour (Arts Council Exhibition)
New Painting 1958-61, Torquay Art Gallery and tour (Arts Council exhibition)
John Moores 3, Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool
Drawing towards painting, Six Young Painters, Cheltenham Art Gallery and Museum
London Group 1914-64, Jubilee Exhibition: Fifty Years of British Art, Tate Gallery, London and tour
(Arts Council exhibition)
Six Young Painters, Blackburn Art Gallery and tour (Arts Council exhibition)
Helen Lessore and the Beaux Arts Gallery, Marlborough Fine Art, London
Painting and Perception, The MacRobert Arts Centre Gallery, University of Stirling
The Slade 1871-1971, Royal Academy of Arts, London
John Moores 8, Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool
Body and Soul, Peter Moores Liverpool Project 3, Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool

1984

1984-85
1985

The Human Clay, Hayward Gallery, London, and tour (Arts Council exhibition)
British Painting 1953-1977, Royal Academy of Arts, London
Hayward Annual, Hayward Gallery, London (Arts Council Exhibition)
The Knot of Life, L.A. Louver Gallery, Los Angeles
The British Art Show, Mappin Art Gallery, Sheffield, and tour (Arts Council Exhibition)
Eight Figurative Painters, Yale Centre for British Art, New Haven
From Object to Object, Worcester City Museum and Art Gallery, and tour (Arts Council exhibition)
The Proper Study, Lalit Kala Akademi, New Delhi (British Council exhibition)
The Hard Won Image, Tate Gallery, London
The Singular Vision, Royal Albert Memorial Museum, Exeter, and tour
British Artists in Italy, Canterbury College of Art

1986
1987-88
1990
1991-2
1992-3
1994
2000

2005
2011-12
2014-15

Studies of the Nude, Marlborough Fine Art, London

Invited artist, 8th International Drawing Biennale, Cleveland County Museum, Middlesborough, and tour
The Pursuit of the Real, Manchester City Art Gallery, and tour
Bacon to Now: The Outsider in British Figuration, Palazzo Vecchio, Florence
British Figurative Painting of the 20th Century, Israel Museum, Jerusalem
Five Protagonists, Browse & Darby, London
Encounters, National Gallery, London
La Mirada Fuerte. Pintura degurative de Londres, Mexico City (British Council Exhibition)
Three Points of View, Browse & Darby, London
The Mystery of Appearance, Haunch of Venison, London
Bare Life, LWL-Museum fr Kunst und Kultur, Mnster

1976
1977
1979

1980
1981

Selected Bibliography
Browse & Darby, Euan Uglow, a book of paintings, 1999
Feaver, William, La Mirada Fuerte, British Council Exhibition, Mexico, 2000
Forge, Andrew, Euan Uglow, paintings and drawings, exhibition catalogue,
Salander O Reilly Galleries, New York, 1993
Forge, Andrew, Painting and Perception, exhibition catalogue, The MacRobert Arts Centre Gallery, University of Stirling, 1974
Forge, Andrew, The Slade 1871-1971, exhibition catalogue, Royal Academy of Arts, London 1971
Golding, Martin, Euan Uglows Nudes, Whitechapel, 1989
Gowing, Lawrence, Eight Figurative Painters, exhibition catalogue, Yale Centre for British Art, New Haven, 1981
Kendall, Richard, Burlington Magazine, May 1990
Kendall, Richard, Still Life Paintings (in Ideas 1952-1991), exhibition catalogue, Browse & Darby, 1991
Kendall, Richard, Letter to the artist, 1997

Kendall, Richard, essay in Lampert, C, Euan Uglow, The Complete Paintings, Yale University Press, New Haven & London, 2007
Kitaj, R.B. The Human Clay, exhibition catalogue, Arts Council of Great Britain, 1976
Lambirth, Andrew, Snatches of Conversation, Whitechapel exhibition catalogue, 1989
Lambirth, Andrew, A State of Emergency, Modern Painters, Summer 1992
Lambirth, Andrew, Encounters, exhibition catalogue, National Gallery, 2000
Lambirth, Andrew, Euan Uglow, A Personal Choice by Craigie Aitchison, exhibition catalogue, Holburne Museum of Art, Bath, 2006
Lambirth, Andrew, Servant of Truth, exhibition catalogue, Browse & Darby, Paintings, 2007
Lampert, Catherine, Painting from Life, Hayward Annual, exhibition catalogue, Arts Council of Great Britain, 1979
Lampert, Catherine, Euan Uglow, The Proper Study, exhibition catalogue, British Council, 1984
Lampert, Catherine, Euan Uglow, exhibition catalogue, Browse & Darby, 1997
Lampert, Catherine, Euan Uglow, The Complete Paintings, Yale University Press, New Haven & London, 2007
McLean, John, Euan Uglow, paintings and drawings, exhibition catalogue, Salander OReilly Galleries, New York, 1993
Morphet, Richard, The Hard Won Image, exhibition catalogue Tate Gallery, London 1984
Murphy, Myles, Introduction, Euan Uglow, exhibition catalogue, Arts Council of Great Britain, 1974
Murphy, Myles, Euan Uglow: paintings and drawings, exhibition catalogue, Browse & Darby, London 1983
Piper, David, Introduction, Euan Uglow, drawings, exhibition catalogue, Colnaghi, London, 1974
Prendeville, Brendan, A Measure of Reality, exhibition catalogue, Kettles Yard, Cambridge, 2002
Rothenstein, John, Modern English Painter (3 volumes), London, 1974
Seddon Jones, Julie, Euan Uglow, exhibition catalogue, Browse & Darby, 1989
Troostwyck, New Work, Euan Uglows Diagonal, Studio, vol. 187, May 1974
Willing, Victor, Opaque Perception, Art Monthly, December/January 1978
Public Collections
Arts Council of Great Britain
British Council, London
Cardiff, National Museum of Wales
Ferens Art Gallery, Hull
Glasgow Art Gallery, Scotland
Government Art Collection
Kings College, London
Liverpool University
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Southampton City Art Gallery
Tate Gallery, London
Wakefield Art Gallery

Acknowledgements
We would like to thank the private collectors, both here, and in the USA,
for lending to this our sixth exhibition since the artists death in 2000.

Catalogue published by Browse & Darby Ltd.

The Estate of Euan Uglow
Andrew Lambirth and Browse & Darby Ltd

Browse & Darby

19 Cork Street London W1S 3LP