The Modern Scots exhibition shows 20th century works from different movements including abstraction, surrealism and expressionism. In this article I focus on the connections between two paintings: the younger William MacTaggart’s After The Storm, Loch Tay (1932) and Joan Eardley’s Children Playing (c1955). Both are influenced by expressionism, which in turn drew on children’s art.
A project by Perth Art Gallery (PAG) in conjunction with Perth High School (PHS) led to the exhibition labels being written by S4 pupils; I quote from two later on as they encapsulate the mood of the paintings.
The expressive freedom of children
Expressionism emerged from a rejection of the dominance of representational and academic painting. It valued feelings over content, vigorous brush strokes, bold forms and bright colours, while often abandoning traditional perspective. The artists’ groups Die Brucke and Der Blaue Reiter were cornerstones of expressionism. They reappraised so-called primitive art and the work of children, who were admired for their simplicity, spontaneity and directness.
In 1912 the expressionist Auguste Macke wrote in Der Blaue Reiter Almanac:
“To create forms means: to live. Are not children more creative in drawing directly from the secret of their sensations than the imitator of Greek forms?”
Expressionistic elements in After the Storm, Loch Tay.
William MacTaggart spent time in France and was influenced by expressionism. He was also impacted by the Munch Exhibition at the Edinburgh Society of Scottish Artists in 1931, the same year he started painting After the Storm, Loch Tay. The painting shows a steamboat tugging uneasily through the calmed loch, but it attracted criticisms for its ‘childish’ rendering of the scene. As noted on the curator information provided by PAG one critic talked about Mactaggart’s “kindergarten style”. Generally, early 20th century art was bedevilled by critics suggesting that artists were wild, unskilled or decadent.
There were intended simplified elements to the painting. The boat is toy-like, painted sideways on as a young child might do. The mountains are like chunky boulders, the water looks glacial and noneffervescent, the foreground trees which frame the scene seem plastered on.
But clearly the simplification conceals sophistication; the precarious look of the boat on the water is captured adroitly. The realistic angles and sizes utilize visual perspective, and the painting’s mood and light evoke the recent calm. I don’t find it as atmospheric as landscapes such as a later painting by MacTaggart, Fields at Pontarme (1948), but suggestions of ineptness are misplaced.
Lily Dryden (PHS) picks up that the painting overwhelmingly conveys the feelings of the scene, writing that:
“This painting depicts the calm and peaceful landscape after the chaos of the storm. The colours and shades used are blues, greens and greys … shows the sadness and anxiety that would have been felt in the storm”.
Joan Eardley’s expressionism
Joan Eardley was also influenced by expressionism. Like MacTaggart she spent time in Europe: in France and Italy. She is well-known for her paintings of the tenement children in Glasgow’s Townhead, whom she started painting in 1949, but she takes her expressionistic impulse further towards abstraction than MacTaggart. Her work too is rooted in the seen world, but while MacTaggart’s space is often naturalistic with conventional perspective, Eardley may dislocate perspective, use collage and more high-key hue and tonal contrasts.
Painting children
In the Glasgow works, Eardley adopts childish motifs, which give a sense of actually being in the children’s world. In many of her paintings, including Children Playing, there is shallow space and lettering a bit like comics. She uses urban features such as walls as compositional devices. But they may also suggest unlit enclosed spaces. In 1949, some poorer areas of Glasgow still did not have electricity. Olivia Ashton (PHS) picks up on Eardley’s humanism and the sense of togetherness in Children Playing:
”There is a black line which clearly separates the different backgrounds, the card game that they are all playing stays the same on both sides which I believe shows they are all kids just wanting to play, even if their upbringing is different”.
It’s plausible that Eardley painted as she did, with bright colours, slightly cartoonish forms and graffiti, partly for the children. In other words, as well as the Edinburgh, Glasgow and London audiences of gallery goers, she had an audience of children, who would have looked up at her easel curious about her work. This may have contributed to the originality and warmth of these paintings.
Catterline
In 1955 Eardley bought a cottage on the coast in Catterline, returning to Glasgow some of the time. Painting children who are always moving would have entailed working fast, lending itself to painting the sea. But in Eardley’s landscapes, there are fewer contrasts of colour and shape. This probably reflects the open environment, but maybe also when painting on the windy beach she did not have her usual audience of children.
The Modern Scots exhibition
For this article I have focussed on just two paintings. However, there are several expressionistic works within the exhibition, including John Houston’s Pigeons and Village(c1960) and Robin Phillipson’s Altar at Chimayo (1968). Other art movements are also well-represented. There are also exhibition labels written by children, these responses to the paintings present interesting insights in themselves.
Modern Scots is at Perth Art Gallery, 78 George Street, Perth , PH1 5LB. It is an ongoing exhibition. Admission is free.
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