William Scott Scottish 1913-1989
William Scott, painter, print maker and teacher, was one of the leading British painters of his generation. He was an influential teacher, as well as a widely exhibited and much collected artist.
Although born in Scotland, as a child, Scott‘s family moved to Ireland. It is in Ireland where Scott was educated where he attended Belfast Collage of Art. He won a scholarship to the Royal Academy in 1931. In 1937 to 1939 William Scott lived in France, and he said of this period, “I picked up from the tradition of painting in France that which I felt most kinship with – the still-life tradition of Chardin and Braque, leading to a certain kind of abstraction that comes directly from that tradition.” On the onset of the Second World War, William Scott returned to Britain finally settling in Bath where he helped to run an art school. Working for the army during the Second World War for the Map making section, Scott learnt about lithography. After the war, Scott became a taught at Bath School of Art from 1946-56. In the summer of 1953 he visited the USA, meeting with the American Abstract artists
Throughout his long and distinguished career his work continued to be based on the tradition of still-life, with varying degrees of abstraction.
Early in his career, Scott worked in Cornwall, alongside the St. Ives artists; he represented Britain at the 1958 Venice Biennale; and he was awarded the first prize at the 1959 John Moore’s exhibition; he exhibited at Hanover Gallery in London; Martha Jackson Gallery in New York; Kasahara Gallery, Japan; had a retrospective at the Tate Gallery, London in 1972; he was elected to the RA in 1977; Irish Museum of Art, Dublin in 19989 & Jerwood gallery in 2013.
