William Scott CBE RA (1913-1989)
Counter Change, 1972
Gouache, 77.5 x 59cm (30¼ x 23¼'')
Signed and dated (19)'72
Archive no. 1016

Provenance: with Nicholas Gallery, Belfast, label verso

Exhibited:...

William Scott CBE RA (1913-1989)
Counter Change, 1972
Gouache, 77.5 x 59cm (30¼ x 23¼'')
Signed and dated (19)'72
Archive no. 1016

Provenance: with Nicholas Gallery, Belfast, label verso

Exhibited: Milan, Falchi Arte Moderna, 1972 cat. no. 12

 

Counter Change is connected to A Poem for Alexander, a suite of 16 screen-prints made by William Scott in 1972. The poem in question is also by Scott, and it is titled Towards Euclid. The Alexander is thought to be his grandson. The poem can be read as a characteristically laconic description of the role of Euclidean geometry in pictorial composition. In the course of the verses, the dry mathematical rules are enlivened by the painterly process and the magic of colour: head and heart.

Mathematical principles and geometric forms are fully evident in this poised, elegant composition, but the human touch introduces an essential, organic irregularity, a textural richness and variety, a play on colour harmony, an avoidance of hard edges, all combining to create something that invites our consideration and enjoyment. The title Counter Change alludes to an act of transposition - switching light-on-dark for dark-on-light, for example, in figure and ground - that is often employed in the process of image-making.　

Born in Greenock, Scotland, to a Scottish mother and an Irish father, Scott spent his teens in his father’s hometown of Enniskillen. His talent was encouraged by art teacher and artist Kathleen Bridle and he went on to study in Belfast and London. He had an exceptionally strong artistic personality from the first and throughout his working life he negotiated a sure path between representation and abstraction, alternately veering in one direction or another.　

Unusually among 20th century artists, he made still life his main area of concern, landscape and the human figure following next.　 His still lives, though, have the same universal, abstract quality as is found in the paintings of Giorgio Morandi. Open to American painting as well as classical influences, including Egyptian and Oriental art, he had great feeling for line, colour and form.

Aidan Dunne, March 2026

 

　

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