All works: The Fergusson Gallery, Perth & Kinross Council
Presented by the J. D. Fergusson Art Foundation 1991 (except where indicated)
(c) Perth & Kinross Council
Almost unbelievably, it’s been eight months since we had a Scottish Art Pick & as it happens, today’s pick was a good friend of the last one, S.J. Peploe. As close as they were & as similar in their influences were, these two Scottish Colourists to an extent varied in style, discipline & ultimately, subject matter.
It’s high time we looked at John Duncan Fergusson (1874-1961). Recently I had the good fortune of having to hang around Perth before a family party. I’d been desperate to visit the Fergusson Gallery in Perth & never been in that right place at any right time. With a million taxis & buses (plus a lift from my cousin, thank you!), I was able to get a good look round the gallery & be on time for the party.
I knew what the building was like from pictures; an old converted water tower situated beside the River Tay, I knew what to look for. I wasn’t prepared for the fact that it was on such a busy road however but this ended up being a lucky break transport-wise. The staff were very friendly, informative & helpful. They were happy to chat, answer questions & explaining what was happening there right now, also discussing their outreach projects in some depth. I may or may not have spent a small fortune in books.
The upper floor is currently dedicated to an exhibition of artefacts & artworks related to the founding of the dance school by dancer & artist Margaret Morris, Fergusson’s long-time partner. This was fairly interesting but meant the actual Fergussons on show were limited to a few pieces.
As it is the thirtieth year of the water tower being the gallery, the ground floor exhibition was comprised of selections by staff & other people involved with the gallery. There was a wide variety, which entirely reflects Fergusson’s output: a bit of sculpture, several painted sketches & some enormous paintings.
Own photo
It was genuinely thrilling to see some of the paintings made by one of my favourite Scottish artists for the first time. They have such presence, particularly the larger ones & to see lots of his works in the same place at once, one can compare different styles & applications of paint more easily.
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So why the fuss over Fergusson? For me, one of the reasons is I don’t always know how he sees what he sees. Often, if you can see it, you can make it. His patterning & style of painting flowers, backgrounds & decoration is a beautiful mystery to me. It is so flighty, yet perfectly placed & painstaking. Placed behind the solid planes & blocks of colour, it’s more detailed & clever than it might first appear, forcing the background further back & creating a blurred effect. It’s how you see when you are focusing on something nearer you. I know what he sees, but I don’t know how.
Another is, in my opinion he’s the true genius of the Scottish Colourists. They were the natural next step from the Impressionists but Fergusson took the influences, inspirations & ideas further than the others & became expert in more disciplines. Each of the Scottish Colourists is very distinct from the others & Fergusson feels the most European. In fact, he lived & worked in Paris (attempting to have Peploe join him) where he could be befriend other artists & be open to more influences & indeed Fauvist notions about colour had an enormous impact on his work. Fergusson soaked it all in & evolved.
You get the sense that he was interested in the concept of artistic community, including encouraging his partners (who appear in many of his paintings) in their artistic endeavours. He never fully shook off his roots in any case. He helped Margaret open the Celtic Ballet Club & they also founded more inclusive art clubs (the New Art Club & the New Scottish Group) for artists of all types, who could perhaps not afford to join the more elite & expensive art clubs of the time. The couple returned to Glasgow at the start of WWII, Fergusson having found a new impetus to create following the first world war.
Christmas Time in the South of France (1922)
(Purchased 1998)
Seeing the works & being able to study them closely, you realise how little you knew them. The size is one thing of course – some are more huge than you imagined, others are tiny – but no reproduction truly captures the brushwork nor the dryness of the paint in some areas. A nose might be represented by two expertly placed sweeps of very thick, almost 3D shiny paint on either side, yet you can see the under-painting show through on an arm in the same piece.
Plenitude d'Olivier
Then there are the sculptures & you see how he gets to the almost sculpturally painted women. Painting these planes of colour in discrete shapes is very Fauvist (although Fergusson stuck with more representative colour than the Favists) & it translates to the brass sculptures. These however smack more of Art Deco. They are at times jagged, other times rounded & smooth. They have a feeling of being composites, as if the different shapes have been stuck together to create something new. They are also distinctively his.
Few artists have such a sumptuous & celebratory element to their work as Fergusson. As clever & considered as much of the art is, it’s also devil-may-care. It smiles & winks at you, it sizzles. It’s terrifically un-Scottish (haha) & as such it marks him out as special. He’s wine, garlic, 2am parties, overly-loud music, full colour, lazy days, carefree sex, forgotten canapés, mess to clear up in the morning, meaningful stares, abandonment, warm flesh, cool breezes wafting through sweeping leaves, feeling pleasantly full, bright sun, lush vistas & hot bed sheets.
John Duncan Fergusson, we salute you.
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