Overview

'This is the book I've eagerly awaited for almost a half century .Andrew McPherson's study of Gillies is nothing less than a game-changer, presenting a new and very different story about one of Scotland's greatest 20th-century painters' - Alexander Moffat Shows how European modernism inspired Gillies to engage with universal issues of purpose, meaning and fate to produce idiomatic and unique works Reveals an artist who informs and challenges the constitutive narratives of modernism in Britain Shows how competition between Scottish and English nationalisms has shrouded Gillies in myth Combines social, political, cultural, and art history to explain the emergence of Gillies as artist and modernist Examines new biographical evidence on questions of sexuality, gender, mental and physical health, scepticism and faith Providing new evidence on the life and times of this Scottish painter, Andrew McPherson shows Gillies to be a modernist thinker. Presenting paintings never seen before, he reappraises his creative output, including the relationship of portraiture to still life, placing him firmly within not only a Scottish context but a British and European one too. McPherson has been researching the life, times and works of William Gillies for over twenty years. He has rethought the formative influence of his art of two World Wars, gender inequalities and the modernist crisis of meaning and belief.

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9781399518345

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"""Published to celebrate both the 125th anniversary of his birth and the 50th of his death, this is a revelatory account of the life and art of the Scottish painter William George Gillies (1898-1973). Until now he has been considered a ruralist, a Neo-romantic and a traditionalist. This detailed biography dispels the myth of such interpretation and for the first time places him securely within the modernist canon. In his persuasive analysis Andrew McPherson reveals the tight relationship of Gillies's art to personal experience from the trauma of family history to the 'theatre' of war, both of which were counterbalanced by the attraction of new European art. McPherson reveals how Gillies's grief at the early death of his artist sister Emma became formalised through his art. A thorough and skilful analysis of selected art works identifies many signifiers of remembrance over time. This is a compelling book which closely interrogates art and in so doing not only repositions a modest and sensitive artist but also illuminates the nature of Scottish art in the central decades of the twentieth century."" -Elizabeth Cumming, Edinburgh College of Art, University of Edinburgh"

Author Information

Andrew McPherson is Professor Emeritus in Sociology at the University of Edinburgh. He has been researching the life, times and works of William Gillies for over twenty years. He is the author of (with Raab) Governing Education, Edinburgh University Press, 1988.

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