Friday 23 May 2014

John Bellany, 1942 - 2013

John Bellany, Male and Female Figures Chained, 1968
John Bellany died on 28 August 2013.
A forthcoming memorial tribute exhibition to John Bellany at Beaux Arts Gallery (5-28 June 2014) has belatedly alerted me to his passing.
The Scottish artist's distinctive, expressionist paintings were (at their best) drenched in a dour, Celtic mythology mixed with Calvinism and rooted in the lives of fishermen; his vision was for much of his life fuelled by alcohol and seemed to channel the spirits of Beckmann, Bosch and Kokoschka. My selection of paintings is taken from the 1960s and 70s when his work was at its darkest - his palette subsequently lightened considerably.
Read obituaries by Janet McKenzie and in The Telegraph.
John Bellany, The Fright, 1968
John Bellany, The Obsession, 1966
John Bellany, Star of Bethlehem, 1965
John Bellany, My Father, 1966
John Bellany, The Kilnlochbervie, 1966
John Bellany, Mizpah, 1978

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