Nevill Johnson (1911-1999) Sleeping Village (1978) Acrylic on board, 50 x 56cm (19.75 x 22'') Signed, inscribed and dated on artists label verso Provenance: Tom Caldwell Gallery Sleeping...

Nevill Johnson (1911-1999) Sleeping Village (1978) Acrylic on board, 50 x 56cm (19.75 x 22'') Signed, inscribed and dated on artists label verso Provenance: Tom Caldwell Gallery Sleeping Village prefigures the more abstracted treatment of the image in Johnson's work of the 1980s and 1990s. The late 1970s saw his return to prominence in Ireland; having shown successfully with Victor Waddington until the late 1950s, he then abandoned painting for several years, before holding three solo exhibitions in London. Tom Caldwell invited Johnson to exhibit with him in 1978 and this first exhibition was strikingly successful. As well as the Bank of Ireland purchasing Sleeping Village for ?250, the Arts Council for Northern Ireland bought four drawings and the Ulster Museum acquired the large painting Summer Solstice. Later that same year Johnson was awarded the silver medal at the Royal Ulster Academy. Even Johnson's most apparently non-referential later paintings are all abstracted from a specific image. Here the motif remains clear, of the village by night seen from above, but he uses the rigid forms of roofs, roads and pathways, the outlines of houses and a softer patchwork of land and fields to break the image down into the faceted geometric shapes that occur throughout his later work. This gives the viewer a sense of distance from the place he describes and the delicate palette maintains this mood of peace. Despite the continuing difficulties of Johnson's life, his work from the 1960s on has a remarkable sense of mature pleasure and spiritual harmony. Dickon Hall, November 2010

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