euan uglow: drawings
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Euan uglowDrawings
Cover image: Standing Nude IIIThis page: Study for The Quarry, Pignano
15 January – 1 February 2014
Marlborough Fine Art
6 albemarle street
London w1s 4BY
t: +44 (0) 20 7629 5161
e: mfa@marlboroughfineart.com
www.marlboroughfineart.com
Euan uglowDrawings
As more time elapses since Euan Uglow’s untimely death in 2000, his position as a radical and inventive painter is increasingly widely recognized. Instead of being seen as a mere follower of a reactionary realistic tendency in mid 20th century British painting, his originality has begun to reassert itself and the universality of his work understood. His paintings, with their unusual meeting of classical and romantic, their crisp shapes and flooded colour, come back upon our senses with renewed force. And at the heart of Uglow’s artistic endeavour lies drawing.
conceptual and aesthetic whole, and this
sometimes involved breaking his own
self-imposed rules. If there was nearly
always some dialogue (if not outright
conflict) between the perceptual and the
conceptual, the aesthetic principle would
always have the final say.
‘I draw almost every day’, he said, ‘but
I’m not compulsive about it, I don’t draw
to pass the time.’ He only ever began a
drawing if he had something to say – or
something to discover – and ideally liked
to have a whole day for drawing, not just
snatched moments between other tasks.
Presentation drawings for exhibition
were made for their own sake, not as
studies for paintings. These could be of
the figure, still-life or the landscape, but
the most usual subject was the female
nude. Uglow only very rarely drew
men or included them in his imagery,
so it is especially interesting to see the
early works Two Male Figures and Study
for David, both included here. A nude
drawing of a girl might go on for as long
as six months, with the model posing
twice a week. It was Uglow’s habit to ask
the model to move around the studio
and see what positions she’d naturally fall
into or assume, rather than immediately
dictate a pose. Inevitably, different girls
had different capabilities, which also
suggested the compositions they might
be able to sustain.
from time to time, the look of a body
from another angle than the chosen pose.
Uglow’s drawings of the model were
frequently about situating the figure
on the paper after (or in the process
of) discovering the proportions of the
best rectangle for that drawing. But the
rectangle was not a fixed entity from
start to finish: it would often change as
the drawing developed, just so long as
the final rectangle was the one most
fitted to the idea and composition. Uglow
felt deeply the need to find an ordered
shape for his images, and much of his
work was involved in that exploration.
On the drawings he tended to initial the
edges of the final rectangle. ‘That’s to
tell the printers, the framers or whoever
it is, that this is my decision, not theirs.’
Nevertheless, having seen some of the
drawings out of their frames, it’s clear that
framers sometimes take liberties with the
mounting board and don’t always adhere
to the artist’s chosen limits.
Uglow also talked of drawing as a
way of making intentions manifest: ‘A
carpenter making a good joint is drawing
beautifully.’ But that did not mean that
he saw drawing simply as a craft, for his
definition of its centrality extended to
imaginative as well as descriptive truth.
In the end, his principal aim was to get
the painting right, to make it work as a
Euan Uglow: A Clear Defined Line andrew lambirth
His drawings are compilations of marks,
of dots and dashes: a system which
sometimes approaches Morse code in
its decisive simplifications, and which
at others throws off all constraints and
embraces a lyricism both unexpected
and rewarding. Precisely measured marks
can sit side by side with wristy scribble.
Some drawings start with an idea, others
are a process of uncovering. Uglow drew
to discover the details, weight and shape
of a body or object. Many, like the sheet
of five parts of figures, are exploratory
studies, intended ‘to see what a form is
doing’. He would also want to investigate,
Two Male Figures
study for David
like the raised surface of Braille. Uglow
was allergic to the word ‘sketching’, and
would never even refer to a ‘sketchbook’,
preferring always to call it a ‘drawing
book’. His friend and sparring partner
Patrick George (born 1923) used to tease
him mercilessly about this dislike. ‘Done
any sketching recently, Euan?’ he would
mischievously enquire. ‘I won’t have
that word in the studio’, was the angry
response. George has thought long and
hard about the two activities, sketching
and drawing, and what these words mean.
After due consideration, he thinks that
sketching is suggestive, whereas drawing
is definitive. George says of his own work:
‘Now I’m very keen about sketching and I
very seldom do drawings.’ Does this throw
any light on Uglow’s practice? Uglow
evidently required the certainty of drawing
in all his earlier work, but it can be said that
the later drawings are far more suggestive
than definitive. Yet again, his work broke
his own rules.
Uglow liked to draw with a B pencil with
a very sharp point so that he could see
the edge as it touched the paper. He
tended to press hard, to make ‘a clear
defined line’. He drew in both natural
and artificial light, deploying his lines in a
variety of spatial dispositions, establishing
limits, connecting forms and moving
from positive to negative as the image
demanded.
Uglow required much of his models, but
gave much back in terms of the beauty
he made from them.
Uglow always maintained that he didn’t
draw according to a schema, and that his
drawing was a risky business, a process
of discovery, and that if he got it wrong,
he would have to do it again. (Probably
after liberal use of an eraser.) On the other
hand, he did have a scaffolding or safety
net in his measuring marks. ‘Because I’ve
got a system of measuring, I can dance
all over the drawing’, he said. In some of
the sheets can be found holes made by
dividers which enabled him to navigate
around the surface. These holes and the
deeply incised lines that are especially
to be found in the earlier drawings
(made by repeated marks and the artist
getting cross and forceful in his search
for certainty) give the underside of these
sheets a distinctive texture.
For example, in Two Male Figures the
point of the pencil is used to articulate
the form, in addition to the more usual
linear mapping. Uglow literally stabbed
the paper, either with the sharpened
pencil lead or with dividers. Study for
Musicians is marked with thick clusters
of dots, in a form of monochrome
pointillism. Examining Hefty Nude before
it was framed, it was possible to feel the
stabbings on the reverse of the paper
study for Musicians
He encouraged a healthy state of
emergency in the studio by painting and
drawing models who inevitably changed
over time, flowers that withered and shed
their petals, fruit that decomposed. There
was thus an urgency to their depiction
(because of their time sensitivity) that
he found stimulating.
Threshing in Turkey is full of unusual shapes
and receding planes reminiscent of a
stage set. The profile of the foreground
hillock is like the shoulder and flank
of a figure lying on one side almost
submerged in water. The successive
planes receding into hilly distance are
not as spatially convincing as they might
be, piling up and converging rather than
moving smoothly backwards, yet the
drawing is sensitive and beautiful, and rare
in Uglow’s oeuvre because of its subject.
He painted few landscapes and drew
the countryside very little. His renditions
of towns are more frequent and more
assured. Landscape, Italy is a good example
of the Uglow architectural study and bears
a strong resemblance to a small painting
of Florence formerly in the collection of
the artist’s close friend, Craigie Aitchison.
In Study for David, the hatching takes
the form of thin diagonal lines from
right to left, moving into a scribble stroke
of greater freedom. (‘I hate the idea of
doing formulated shading’.)
On the sheet Uglow has made notes to
himself: “Sunday week” is jotted down,
as are phone numbers (perhaps of
models). He was not at all precious about
his drawings and very often the paper is
crowded with marginalia or calculations.
Another nude drawing is more heavily
scored, but the lines flow into rather than
puncture the paper, and the marks are
faster and more expressive. In Reclining
nude on mattress, which features an arm
depicted with what looks like Hogarth’s
celebrated serpentine ‘line of beauty’,
Uglow has gone over the lines again
and again, impressing the form into the
paper. This strategy, which amounts to a
kind of shallow bas-relief carving, recalls
his teacher William Coldstream’s chief
injunction to carve with the paint into
the space of the picture plane.
A group of three drawings which seem
to date from the mid-1960s explore the
dynamics of composition in intriguing
ways: Three nudes sitting, Room with seated
and reclining figures, and Girl on mattress.
What is the relationship, if any, between
the sitters? In Room with seated and
reclining figures, note the lovely gentle
lyrical quality of the mark-making in the
seated figure, contrasted with the more
angular lying girl. The related Girl on
mattress is all about the angles of feet
and legs and the elbow pushing out to
echo the line of the canted-up mattress.
reclining nude on Mattress
Three nudes sitting
Landscape italy
room with seated and reclining Figures
girl on Mattress
nude seated on armchair
Another drawing of this period, Armchair,
carries a real sense of the body and its
weight sunk into the chair, relaxing its
muscular tensions to make a new formal
whole of figure and furniture.
Compare a much later drawing, Standing
Nude, in which the character of the
mark-making has changed substantially.
Although the earlier control is no
longer in evidence, the effort to make a
determined mark nevertheless required
an exertion both physical and mental/
emotional, and here results in a new
lyricism, a new sense of movement.
The dots, instead of congregating in the
problem or focal areas, are more spread
out and dispersed, forming a notation of
marks which is less obviously linear and
more suggestively volumetric. This febrile
late style can also be seen to good effect
in Study for the lightest picture in the world,
in which Uglow throws out a network of
marks like the sparks rising upward from
a fire.
The later drawings tend to be much
less heavily-worked, but then this might
be not only to do with the changing
character of Uglow’s mark-making
but his use of increasingly high quality
paper. His pencil moves across the
thicker surface rather than penetrating
it. Among the subjects are possible early
versions of such well-known paintings
as Propeller, Articulation or Potiphar’s Wife,
either reversed or not yet in their final
arrangements. Ashtray with matchsticks
is all about the articulation of pictorial
space but has a scale and monumentality
to it which makes it look like a landscape
with megaliths on the horizon. Portraits
are an even greater rarity among the
drawings, but Fragment for head may be
safely identified as a drawing of Uglow’s
friend and erstwhile tutor Claude Rogers,
presumably in a hospital bed.
Looking at this formidable array of
drawings and ways of making marks tell,
the viewer is impressed by a sense of
searching: the constant urge in Uglow’s
work to find a grail. He wanted, above
all, to transmit some of the passion he
himself felt for the beauty of the world
– for how marvellous things look. He
wrote: ‘Drawing is the most immediate
way of making your ideas, sensations, and
information, explicit.’ His ability to make
things explicit (but also oddly mysterious)
is irrevocably manifest in this exhibition.
1. Landscape Italy 38.1 x 28 cm
2. Landscape Italy 21 x 26 cm
3. Landscape Italy 25.2 x 29 cm
4. Threshing in Turkey 1966 17.5 x 27 cm
5. Standing Nude c. 1960 38 x 28 cm
6. Standing Nude II c. 1960 34 x 28 cm not illustrated
7. Standing Nude III c. 1960 36 x 28 cm
8. Standing Nude from the Back 23 x 22 cm not illustrated
9. Study for David 38 x 28 cm
10. Two Male Figures c. 1949 23 x 38 cm on reverse: Head and shoulder
11. Study for Musicians c. 1949 18 x 16 cm
22. Three seated Figures 1965 32.5 x 32.5 cm
23. Nude seated on Armchair 1966 22.5 x 30 cm
24. Figure Studies 39 x 36 cm
25. Nude on a Square 38 x 33 cm not illustrated
26. Idea for Painting – Nude with outstretched Arms c. 1983 38 x 53 cm
27. Reclining Nude on Mattress 24 x 34 cm
28. Male Nude lying on Mattress 1961 29.8 x 44.2 cm
29. Nude 1970 18.4 x 28.9 cm
30. Study for Narcissus 22.9 x 31.8 cm
31. Fragment for Head 19.7 x 29.5 cm
32. Standing Nude 22 x 18.5 cm not illustrated
12. Nude Sitting on Chair 33 x 25.5 cm
13. Nude Study Sitting 18 x 13 cm not illustrated
14. Skeleton 26 x 20 cm not illustrated
15. Hefty Nude 22 x 14 cm not illustrated
16. Mother and Child and two Studies 30.5 x 24.5 cm not illustrated
17. Standing Nude c. 1960 38 x 28 cm not illustrated
18. Art School Model 33 x 31 cm not illustrated
19. Room with seated and reclining Figures 23.5 x 35.5 cm
20. Girl on Mattress 1966 21 x 33.5 cm
21. Nude drawing 28 x 40 cm not illustrated
List of Works all works are pencil on paper
33. Study for Egyptian Spearess c. 1986 21 x 15 cm
34. Curve 21 x 34.5 cm
35. Standing Nude 22 x 15 cm
36. Sitting Nude 22 x 18 cm
37. Standing Nude 43 x 33 cm
38. Girl, Breast and Head 1972 21 x 33 cm
39. Idea for Painting 21 x 30 cm not illustrated
40. Ashtray with Matchsticks 23.5 x 32 cm
41. Liberty Stool 1986 26 x 35.2 cm
42. Study for The Diagonal 1977 18 x 26 cm
43. Study for Nuria c. 1999 17.5 x 23.8 cm not illustrated
44. Study for The Quarry, Pignano c. 1979 24 x 37.5 cm
45. Study for Articulation c. 1992 18 x 30 cm not illustrated
46. Girl on arms and knees 25 x 39 cm
47. Room with Reclining Nude 21 x 25.5 cm
48. Reclining Nude 27 x 40 cm not illustrated
49. Curved Nude c. 1996 21.2 x 30.5 cm inscribed : JANA upper right
50. Study for the Lightest Picture on Earth 1989-93 28 x 26 cm
51. Study for Potiphar’s Wife c. 1998 31 x 45 cm
3. Landscape Italy 25.2 x 29 cm
1. Landscape Italy 38.1 x 28 cm
2. Landscape Italy 21 x 26 cm
4. Threshing in Turkey 1966 25.2 x 29 cm
11. Study for Musicians c. 1949 18 x 16 cm
9. Study for David 38 x 28 cm
5. Standing Nude c. 1960 38 x 28 cm
10. Two Male Figures c. 1949 23 x 38 cm
19. Room with seated and reclining Figures 23.5 x 35.5 cm
20. Girl on Mattress 1966 21 x 33.5 cm
22. Three seated Figures 1965 32.5 x 32.5 cm
12. Nude sitting on Chair 33 x 25.5 cm
22. Three seated Figures 1965 32.5 x 32.5 cm
24. Figure Studies 39 x 36 cm
27. Reclining Nude on Mattress 24 x 34 cm
23. Nude seated on Armchair 1966 22.5 x 30 cm
26. Idea for Painting – Nude with outstretched Arms c. 1983 38 x 53 cm
26. Idea for Painting – Nude with outstretched Arms c. 1983 38 x 53 cm
30. Study for Narcissus 22.9 x 31.8 cm
31. Fragment for Head 19.7 x 29.5 cm
28. Male Nude lying on Mattress 1961 29.8 x 44.2 cm
29. Nude 1970 18.4 x 28.9 cm
36. Sitting Nude 22 x 18 cm
35. Standing Nude 22 x 15 cm
33. Study for Egyptian Spearess c. 1986 21 x 15 cm
34. Curve 21 x 34.5 cm
40. Ashtray with Matchsticks 23.5 x 32 cm
37. Standing Nude 43 x 33 cm
41. Liberty Stool 1986 26 x 35.2 cm
38. Girl, Breast and Head 1972 21 x 33 cm
42. Study for The Diagonal 1977 18 x 26 cm
46. Girl on arms and knees 25 x 39 cm
47. Room with Reclining Nude 21 x 25.5 cm
44. Study for The Quarry, Pignano c. 1979 24 x 37.5 cm
49. Curved Nude c. 1996 21.2 x 30.5 cm
50. Study for the Lightest Picture on Earth 1989-93 28 x 26 cm
51. Study for Potiphar’s Wife c. 1998 31 x 45 cm
1932 Born 10 March in London
1948-50 Attended Camberwell School
of Arts and Crafts, awarded
David Murray Scholarship
1951 Received State Scholarship
for the Slade School of Fine Art,
University College, London.
First exhibited with the
London Group
1952 Received Spanish State
Scholarship to work in
Segovia, Spain
1953 Awarded Abbey Minor
Scholarship, the Prix de Rome.
Travelled to France, Holland,
Belgium; spent six months
in Italy
1954 Did building work and farming
as a conscientious objector
1957 Worked in Spain and France.
Visited Giacometti with
David Sylvester
Euan Uglow: 1932 – 2000 Biography
1959 Moved to studio in Battersea
1960 Elected member of the
London Group
1961 Part-time teaching at the Slade
and Camberwell School of Arts
and Crafts
Second prize in junior section
of John Moores exhibition,
Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool
1962 Worked in France and Italy
1963 Worked in Morocco
1968 Worked in Turkey
1970 Won Edwin Austin Abbey
Premier Scholarship
1972 Won first prize for the
painting Nude, from Twelve
Regular Vertical
Positions from the Eye, 1967,
John Moores 8, Walker Art
Gallery, Liverpool
1972-74 Worked in Italy during the
summer months
1976 Worked in Italy
1980 Worked in Cyprus
1983 Worked in Cyprus
1984 Invited by the British Council
to visit India for the exhibition
The Proper Study, Lalit Kala
Akademi, New Delhi
1985 Worked in Cyprus
1987 Invited to teach and work
in China
1990-95 Artist Trustee, National Gallery,
London 1997
Honorary member of The
London Institute
2000 Died 31 August in London
One-Man Exhibitions
1961 Paintings and Drawings,
Beaux Arts Gallery, London
1969 Drawings, Gardner Centre,
Sussex University, Brighton
1974 Euan Uglow, Whitechapel Art
Gallery, London
Euan Uglow: Drawings,
Colnaghi, London
1977 Euan Uglow: Recent Paintings
and Drawings, Browse &
Darby, London
1983 Euan Uglow: Paintings
and Drawings, Browse &
Darby, London
1989 Euan Uglow: Euan Uglow’s
Nudes, Whitechapel Art
Gallery, London
Euan Uglow: Drawings,
Browse & Darby, London
1991 Euan Uglow: Ideas, 1952-1991,
Browse & Darby, London
1993 Euan Uglow, Salander O’Reilly
Gallery, New York, in association
with Browse & Darby
1997 Euan Uglow, Browse &
Darby, London
1999 Euan Uglow: Drawings,
Browse & Darby, London
2001 Euan Uglow: Night Paintings,
Browse & Darby, London
2002-3 Euan Uglow, Bury St. Edmunds
Art Gallery, and tour (Arts
Council Spotlight exhibition)
2003 Euan Uglow: A Retrospective,
Abbot Hall Art Gallery,
Kendal, Cumbria
Euan Uglow: Drawings, Browse
& Darby, London
2006-7 Euan Uglow – A personal
choice by Craigie Aitchison,
The Holburne Museum of Art,
Bath, 14 October 2006 – 28
January 2007
2007 Euan Uglow Paintings and
drawings from the estate,
Marlborough Fine
Art, London, 16 May -15
June 2007
Euan Uglow, The Complete
Paintings, Catalogue Raisonné
by Catherine Lampert with
essays by Richard Kendall
and Catherine Lampert, Yale
University Press, New Haven
and London 2007
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Marlborough
Design: Shine Design, London
Print: Impress Print Services Ltd.
Photography: Frances Ware, Georgia Georgallas
ISBN-978-1-9099707-03-0
Catalogue no. 631
© 2014 MarlboroughBack cover: Study for The Diagonal
Euan uglowDrawings
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