Download john byrne dead end - The Fine Art Society in Edinburgh

END
JOHN BYRNE
DEAD
‘If I could draw
like John Byrne
I would give up
acting ... and, if
I could write like
him, I’d hide my
paintbrushes!’
ROBBIE COLTRANE
END
JOHN BYRNE
DEAD
Bourne Fine Art
Part of The Fine Art Society
Edinburgh Festival
2014
INTRODUCTION
John Byrne’s art poses dynamic puzzles: his pictures invite the viewer to look
for narrative or verbal interpretation, but they refuse to be
conclusive – even the artist won’t be drawn on what they mean.
As Jean Cocteau once put it, ‘An artist cannot speak about
his art any more than a plant can discuss horticulture’. When
Byrne describes his work, he doesn’t explain it; rather, it leads
him to tell personal anecdotes, or even to express surprise –
mirroring the viewers own puzzlement – about what a character is doing, or why an object is present. He doesn’t analyse
the process, either of painting or of making meaning. Fellow
Paisley alumni, sculptor Sandy Stoddart, says that to think too
hard is not the business of art or creativity; instead, the image
should appear formed in the mind’s eye – which is as far as
Byrne is ever likely to describe how a composition or subject
has come to him.
Nevertheless, threaded through his work is an extensive
iconography that has developed over 50 years and which
reveals a coherent thematic development. It may not reveal
analytical meaning, but there is an insight into the artist’s
inner workings amounting, in some cases, to a kind of pictorial
autobiography. His pictures of 1950s Ferguslie Park – Feegie,
as it is known locally – capture what was once a new invention, the ‘teenager’, as this strange new being emerged in the
artist’s own youth: both the physical environment and his
Smoking Beach Boy (triptych), 2007
Oil on board · 48 x 108¼ inches
Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh
(Diploma Collection)
Diploma Work deposit, 2007
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internal landscape. In his so-called ‘Underwood Lane’ series,
the Teddy Boys who loiter – some idle, others with intent – are
reminiscences of his own past. Dead End takes its title from
the film showing at the Astoria cinema, featured in the picture
John’s work in the past but this ‘sporting’ element has been
upended. Where once the hunter was an alpha male, brimming with menace, here nature has turned on him. In some
pictures, such as The Huntsman and the Snowy Owl, crea-
and known locally as the ‘Bug Hut’. A 1937 crime drama featuring Humphrey Bogart sets the opulent lives of the rich against
what were then the slums of east-side Manhattan. It follows
the Dead End Kids, a petty gang of street urchins on a path to a
life of crime. The parallels aren’t hard to see. Byrne’s incredibly
complex masterpiece of Paisley nightlife seethes with activity.
All the action – bar the man roaring on top of the roof of a Riley
– takes place in alleys, dark corners and roof tops, peopled like
vermin. Graffiti proliferates and shadows are cast, long and
spindly. John is equally revered as screen writer and artist and
the presentation of the Underwood Lane pictures reference
filmic and theatrical worlds, their backdrops lit like stage-sets.
This exhibition takes its title from the picture of the same
name and pursues largely nocturnal themes: moonlit woods
occasionally populated with a lone hunter; the streets of
1950s Paisley; the self examining artist, alone and wreathed
in cigarette smoke. The moonlit woods and the hunter are
a counterbalance to Underwood Lane, where the pernicious teddy boys are the aggressors: the hunters are as likely
to be the hunted. The huntsman has made appearances in
tures spectate with a subtly comic effect. Either that, or
the menace is coming from within, from the subconscious.
These lunar landscapes resonate with highly pitched emotion,
bordering on ecstasy. John has often referenced aspects of his
Catholic upbringing – and he does so again in the marvellously
titled Discovery of the Missing Benedictine Monk Outside
Paisley Museum by P. McC. on a Winter's Night in 1957. Though
these pictures couldn’t be described as overt representations
of Catholicism, they embody something of its baroque imagery
and transcendental impulse. John’s graphic sensibility is there
in the tightly wrought, leafless trees, set in silhouette against
a full moon. Cowering huntsmen seem to genuflect at a vision
which is not so remote from the ascension – replete with trees
like a crown of thorns and celestial light.
The huntsman’s confrontation with his quarry is as unnerving as Byrne’s self portraits. Driven less by narcissism than the
problem of the elusive self, he has long continued to examine
his own physiognomy. Using the vernacular of our time, the
super-sized Big Selfie shows the artist staring out through red
rimmed, sleep-deprived eyes. Smoke envelops him. There is
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NOT THE INTRODUCTION
physical truth and sometimes caricature in his self portraits,
but what he sees looking back at him we, the viewer, are never
given to understand. Nor perhaps is the artist. The face has
become mask-like by dint of our familiarity with his finelycultivated hirsute visage, crooked nose and hooded eyes. But
this intimacy only serves to distract us from what is really
staring back.
This exhibition coincides with a major retrospective, Sitting
Ducks, at the Scottish National Portrait Gallery, Edinburgh. It
concentrates on Byrnes portraits of his family, of celebrities,
or of actors and performers in character. They are individuals
and types we identify with or those who, through the media
and TV , have come into our homes and with whom we make a
misplaced connection. By contrast, Dead End is a result of the
artist’s introspection, producing something personal to Byrne:
a vision of the outsider, at once Everyman and his own self.
Emily Walsh
Director, Bourne Fine Art
I am hugely disappointed that I just won’t have time to produce a piece on the
genius of John Byrne. I am honoured that he put my name forward –
and with enough time would have loved to have written a piece that
talks not just about his brilliance but also his originality in this jaded
world of conceptual art, which is in evidence at the myriad contemporary art fairs that I have to attend.
I would also have dwelt upon the John as a dandiacal painter in the
great tradition of Whistler and his peers – as the dandy and the artist
promenade arm in arm. Both are outsiders and subversives, who gaze
with ironical detachment upon the subfusc tapestry of life, as John
once said to me: ‘I was already drawing constantly by the age of seven
and I do see a real connection with dress. At about that age, I saw a
photo of an artist with a beret and cloak, who lived in Paris. He had a
goatee beard and from that moment I always wanted a beard. I grew
my first one – under the chin – when a student in 1958 at the Glasgow
School of Art.’ And true to his vocation, Byrne blew his student grant
each term on buying shantung shirts at the outfitters, Esquire, which
he says, ‘were the perfect expression of Transatlantic Glasgow’.
After a lifelong pursuit of dandyism, John recently admitted to
me: ‘My style has all just come together. Originally, I walked down the
street with a sense of bravado, but now I have the self-confidence to
dress how I please. I was hidden for long enough – I’m a much more
odd person now than I ever was before. It’s grand. I’ve come into my
own’. And the pictures in this exhibition are testament to that.
James Knox
Managing Director, The Art Newspaper
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1 BLACK GUY IN FEDORA
Signed · oil on board · 34½ x 30¼ inches
2 CONCH
Signed · oil on board · 23¼ x 18½ inches
3 DEAD END
Signed, inscribed with title verso
watercolour · 32 x 42 inches
4 DEATH OF AN EGGHEAD
Signed · casein on paper · 44 x 33 inches
5 ELVIS AND THE SPACE SPOOK
6 ‘GOOD SHOT!’
Signed · oil on board· 15 x 11 inches
Signed · oil on board · 17¼ x 12¾ inches
7 GRAY’S ANATOMY
Oil on board · 26 x 18 inches
8 THE LINNET
Signed · oil on board · 18 x 16 inches
9 TREE LIFE
Signed · oil on board · 14 x 10¼ inches
10 TREE, CLOUD, HEDGE
Signed · oil on board · 24 x 18 inches
11 WEST END SERENADE
Signed and inscribed with title
Hand-coloured lithograph · edition of ten
30 x 22 inches
12 MOON, SWAN, MARKSMAN
Signed · oil on board · 31 x 26 inches
13 THE DISCOVERY OF THE MISSING
BENEDICTINE MONK OUTSIDE PAISLEY MUSEUM BY P.McC.
ON A WINTER’S NIGHT IN 1957
Signed and inscribed ‘Lost & Hungry’ ·
oil on board · 30½ x 25 inches
14 MOONLIGHT SONATA
Signed · oil and casein on board · 30 x 22½ inches
15 ‘OH, LOOK … A DINKY’
Signed · oil on board · 18 x 23½ inches
16 O, MY LOVE
Signed · oil on Formica board · 28 x 17½ inches
17 SHADOW OF A GUNMAN
Signed · oil on board · 49½ x 30 inches
18 THE HUNTSMAN AND THE SNOWY OWL
Signed, inscribed with title verso · casein on paper · 44 x 33½ inches
19 ALL HALLOW’S EVE
Signed · oil on Formica · 19½ x 21¼ inches
20 ANGST
Signed · oil on board · 24½ x 17½ inches
21 LA BÊTE ROUGE
Signed · oil on board · 29½ x 22½ inches
22 BIG SELFIE
Signed · casein on paper · 28½ x 37¾ inches
JOHN BYRNE
CHRONOLOGY
2014
Dead End, Bourne Fine Art, Edinburgh
Sitting Ducks, Scottish National Portrait
Gallery
A new adaption of Uncle Varick opens at
The Royal Lyceum, Edinburgh
Marries Jeanine Davies
2013
A new mural is completed in the dome at
The King’s Theatre, Edinburgh
Bad Smoky Joe & The Dark Wildwoods,
The Rendezvous Gallery, Aberdeen
2012
The Joyful Mysteries, The Fine Art
Society, London
The Slab Boys Movie Exhibition, Duncan
R. Miller Fine Arts, Glasgow
Me and Them – Self Portraits and
Character Studies, Bourne Fine Art,
Edinburgh
1997
Slab Boys, premiers at Edinburgh Film
Festival
1987
Awarded an Honorary Doctorate from
Gray’s School of Art, Aberdeen
Byrne and Tilda Swinton have twins,
Xavier and Honor
1985
2005
Adaption of The Government Inspector,
Almeida, London
Dead and Alive, The Fine Art Society,
London
2004
An adaption of Chekhov’s Uncle Varick
opens at The Royal Lyceum, Edinburgh
House for an Art Lover, Glasgow
2010
New version of Chekhov's The Cherry
Orchard, Royal Lyceum, Edinburgh
2009
2001
(Byrne later returned it in protest
against the war against Iraq)
2008
2000
Nova Scotia, The Traverse Theatre,
Edinburgh
Post Office issues Byrne designed
20-pence millennium stamp
John Byrne, Moray Art Centre
Byrne@60: The Unsolved Artist, Paisley
Museum and Galleries
2007
BBC 2 transmits Boswell and Johnson’s
1983
The Slab Boys, The Playhouse Theatre,
New York
1982
Still Life, The Traverse Theatre,
Edinburgh
1980
Colquhoun and MacBryde, Royal Court,
London
Becomes Writer-in-Residence, Duncan
of Jordanstone School of Art, Dundee
1991
1979
Returns to exhibiting and begins an
intense period of work at Glasgow Print
Studio
Your Cheatin’ Heart, William Hardie
Gallery, Glasgow
Patrick’s Day, Portal Gallery, London
2006
Flotsam and Jetsam, Art.TM Gallery,
Inverness
Hankies, William Hardie Gallery, Glasgow
Settles in Tain
Becomes Associate Director and
designer at Leicester Haymarket
Theatre
Moves to London
New Editions, Glasgow Print Studio
His Majesty’s Theatre, Aberdeen
Writes episode of Crown Court
Hooray for Hollywood, Louisville,
Kentucky
1999
1998
Designs Peter Arnott’s White Rose at
The Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh
1992
Becomes a full member at the Royal
Scottish Academy
A stage version of Tutti Frutti for the
National Theatre of Scotland opens at
Adaption of The London Cuckolds opens
at Leicester Haymarket Theatre
1996
Tour of the Western Isles, written and
directed by Byrne
Cornerboys and Angels, Glasgow Print
Studio
Tutti Frutti transmitted
1984
1993
Awarded an MBE for services to
literature and theatre
written and directed by Byrne for
BBC Arena
Writes Tutti Frutti
2002
Recent works, Glasgow Print Studio
BBC 2 transmits Byrne about Byrne,
The Slab Boys, The Scottish Gallery,
Edinburgh
New Work, The Fine Art Society, London Directs film version of The Slab Boys in a
A Life in Small Pictures, Bourne Fine Art, Glasgow warehouse
2011
Edinburgh
1995
Moonlight and Music, The Open Eye
New Works, The Scottish Gallery,
2003
Gallery, Edinburgh
Edinburgh
Boogie-Woogie, The Rendezvous Gallery, Writes musical Underwood Lane
1994
Six Portraits of Scots Politicians, The
Aberdeen
La Terre Sauvage, Glasgow Print Studio
National Portrait Gallery, Edinburgh
Awarded an Honorary Doctorate from
The University of Dundee
1988
Small Works – Portraits and Still Life,
The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh
1990
Your Cheatin Heart is transmitted on
BBC 1 with Tilda Swinton as Cissie Crouch
Normal Service, Hampstead Theatre
Club, London
The Loveliest Night of the Year (later
called Cuttin’ a Rug), The Traverse
Theatre, Edinburgh
Becomes Writer-in-Residence,
Borderline Theatre Co. Writes, directs
and designs Dick Whittington for
Borderline; writes Cara Coco for Radio
Scotland
1978
The Slab Boys, The Traverse Theatre,
Edinburgh, transferring to Royal Court,
London, winning Evening Standard
award for most promising playwright
1977
Stage version of Writer’s Cramp,
Edinburgh Fringe, transferring to Bush
Theatre, London and Mickery Theatre,
Holland
1976
Radio version of Writer’s Cramp, BBC
Scotland
1975
Exhibition at Clunes Gallery, Sydney
Withdraws from exhibiting publicly
until 1991
1974
Paints gable-end mural Boy on Dogback,
Crawford Street, Glasgow
1973
Designs set for The Cheviot, the Stag and
the Black, Black Oil for 7:84 Scotland
1967
Correspondence with Magritte, adopts
Patrick persona and begins to exhibit at
Portal Gallery, London
1966
Leaves Scottish TV , joins A.F.Stoddart
as a carpet designer
1965
Daughter Celie born
Exhibition at 208 Gallery, Glasgow
Exhibition at Crestine Gallery,
Edinburgh
1964
Marries Alice Simpson and son
John Francis is born. Lives in Renfrew
and becomes graphic designer for
Scottish TV
1963
Graduates with Diploma in Drawing
and Painting, wins Newbery Medal,
Hutchison Prize for Drawing, awarded
Bellahouston Scholarship to travel to
Perugia
1962
Aitken Dott Gallery, Edinburgh
Returns to Glasgow School of Art
1972
1961
Designs set for The Great Northern
Welly Boot Show, King’s Theatre,
Glasgow
1958
1971
Travels with family to Los Angeles to
work on animated film with Donovan
Leitch, An Old Fashioned Picture Book
Exhibition at Rex Irwin Gallery, Sydney
Nine Large Patrick Paintings, Portal
Gallery, London
1968
Leaves A.F.Stoddart & Co, becomes a
full-time painter
Patrick at Portal, Portal Gallery, London
Transfers to Edinburgh School of Art for
one year
Fails first year exams at Glasgow School
of Art and has to resit
1957
Leaves school without taking Highers,
gets job as ‘slab boy’ in local carpet
factory A.F. Stoddart & Co
1940
Born in Paisley, second son of Patrick
Byrne and Alice, née McShane
Published by Bourne Fine Art for the exhibition
John Byrne: Dead End held at 6 Dundas Street, Edinburgh,
4 July to 30 August 2014, in an edition of 750 copies.
Fifty copies are bound in patterned paper boards
with a signed lithograph by the artist.
Catalogue © Bourne Fine Art
Paintings © John Byrne
Photography by Andy Phillipson
Designed and typeset in Sentinel by Dalrymple
Printed in Belgium by Albe De Coker
Front cover: detail from Moonlight Sonata [cat.14]
Back cover: Angst [cat.20]
Inside covers: pattern paper designed by Sarah
Nechamkin for the Curwen Press, c.1949
Bourne Fine Art
Part of The Fine Art Society
6 Dundas Street · Edinburgh EH 3 6 HZ
+44 (0)131 557 4050 · [email protected]
www.bournefineart.com
Bourne Fine Art
Part of The Fine Art Society