Peter Howson (Flowers East, London 30 October - 29 November 1998)

HOWSON, Peter ] Robert Heller (essay)

ISBN 10: 1873362935 / ISBN 13: 9781873362938

Published by Flowers East, London, 1998

About this Item

4to in colour printed stiff card covers, unpaginated, approx. 24pp on thick glossy art paper, colour plates, etc . [CONDITION: An extremely well preserved AS NEW unread and unmarked copy ] . __To see more of our Art Monographs etc type DbbARTIST in the Keywords search box . . We always ship in STRONG PROTECTIVE CARD PARCELS.

Seller Inventory # T202350

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Peter Howson (Flowers East, London 30 October - 29 November 1998)
• Publisher: Flowers East, London
• Publication Date: 1998
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1873362935
• ISBN 13: 9781873362938
• Binding: SOFTCOVER
• Edition: 1st Edition.
• Condition: As New

About this title

Synopsis

Peter Howson’s last decade has been tumultuous even by the standards of one of Britain’s most turbulent artistic lives. The artist has suffered personal crises, the horrors of war (as the official war artist in Bosnia), controversy after controversy and latterly mental and physical collapse. This new study by Robert Heller tells the story of a man who, through it all, has pursued his high ideals of drawing and painting with total commitment and striking success. The book looks closely at all the events that have shaped Howson’s work and made him the most celebrated artist to come from Scotland. From his childhood as a precocious prodigy to his breakthrough as a star of the famous New Image Glasgow exhibition: from his hard-won Balkan experiences to his rehabilitation from drugs and alcohol at all times Howson has drawn upon rich sources of imagery and vision to create an astonishing range of work. Delicate drawings in pastel rub shoulders with huge, dynamic canvases of burly, battered boxers or milling apocalyptic crowds. From his concentration on the darker sides of life Howson draws the hope of bright redemption. Robert Heller follows the interleaving of life and art in work of an artist who follows with courage and originality in the grand tradition of figurative painting.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

After surveying his work from the early days to the present, an abiding image is the recurrent self-portrait, sometimes explicit, at other times just one of the chorus, and often partly disguised. The artist always seems to be painting, not the external image of the self, but the disturbed spirit within. As the third year of the New Millennium began, Howson had more to say about humanity than ever before, more to tell about himself, and also more to accomplish an artist who is committed to demonstrating, in more wonderful words of Milton’s, that:
Long is the way And hard, that out of hell leads up to light