Latest news with #Bellany
Scotsman
17-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Scotsman
John Bellany: A Life in Self-Portraiture, Edinburgh review: 'a unique artistic voice'
Sign up to our Arts and Culture newsletter, get the latest news and reviews from our specialist arts writers Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to The Scotsman, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... John Bellany: A Life in Self-Portraiture, City Art Centre, Edinburgh ★★★★★ IN 1965, the year he left Edinburgh for the Royal College of Art, John Bellany painted on the ceiling of his bedroom these lines from Hugh MacDiarmid's A Drunk Man Looks at the Thistle: 'To be yersel's - and to mak' that worth bein', nae harder job to mortals has been gi'en'. So much is encapsulated here: Bellany's Scottishness, his love of a drink, but most of all his passionate commitment to bringing his unique artistic voice into the world. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Installation view of John Bellany: A Life in Self-Portraiture at the City Art Centre, Edinburgh, showing The Kiss | Ian Georgeson Photography Artists use the self-portrait in different ways. For some it is an occasional, technical exercise, for others a building block in a larger project. For a few, it is an obsession, a determination to explore, unflinchingly, their own internal struggles and by that lens to examine the human condition. John Bellany was one of these. A Life in Self-Portraiture is the first big survey of Bellany's work in Scotland since his death in 2013. So important is the self-portrait within his oeuvre that it does not feel like a narrowing down, more an opening up of a rich seam which runs through everything he did. Put together with the assistance of his wife Helen and lifelong friend Sandy Moffat, it feels personal, if not intimate. It includes examples of his sketchbooks, fragments of a handwritten memoir and a good number of paintings rarely exhibited before. These are large works, presented with a minimum of interpretation. Walking among them is a discombobulating experience, a reminder of Bellany's dazzling skill and ambition, but also that the raw material with which he chose to work so fearlessly was the product of a psyche unlike any other. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Once established at Edinburgh College of Art in 1960, having grown up in the East Lothian fishing village of Port Seton, he transformed swiftly from a quiet, studious teenager into the life and soul of every party. He, Moffat and the poet Alan Bold became a triumvirate who imbibed thirstily all they could about art, ideas, politics, culture. Detail from Self Portrait, 1965, by John Bellany | City Art Centre In 1965, just before he left ECA, Bellany painted a monumental self portrait. He is a towering, solemn figure in a fishermen's jersey and sheepskin jacket, paintbrushes in hand, the boats of Port Seton behind him. The dark background adds gives it an Old Master gravitas. The uncompromising stance and broad shoulders recall Hans Holbein's portrait of Henry VIII. In the years that followed, he would paint many more self portraits, but none in which he occupied the space as authoritatively as he did at the age of 23. His early work was in a realist, if always painterly, style. He depicted himself as an uncertain young father, holding the hand of his equally uncertain first son, and a face at the window of a fish-gutter's cabin. In his 1966 portrait of his sister Margaret, his face skulks in a mirror at her side. Installation view of John Bellany: A Life in Self-Portraiture at the City Art Centre, Edinburgh, showing Homage to John Knox (1969) | Ian Georgeson Photography In 1969, he painted his first major triptych, Homage to John Knox. By this time, the triumvirate had travelled in Europe, seen the work of Beckmann, Ensor and Munch, and stood in the ruins of Buchenwald. Now, Bellany was reckoning not only with the guilt-heavy Calvinism of his childhood but the problem of evil in the world at large. Art historian Bill Hare has described him as a religious painter, and with reason. He never stopped wrestling with its hold on his psyche. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad And he had evolved a language in which to do it, a personal lexicon of symbolism and allegory drawn from classical myth, seafaring superstition and the folds of his own imagination. He appears in the final of the three panels, floundering among arcing waves. In a Bellany painting, the sea is never far away. Strange creatures and figures began to populate his work as portents and tormentors. In the self-portrait painted on his 30th birthday in 1972, he wears a white spotted cap and a voluminous black cape which opens to reveal a fish, a monkey, and the ribcage of a skeleton. Death always haunted him: he painted an eerie Skull Self Portrait when he was just 27. The 1970s were Bellany's 'wild years' in which he drank heavily and painted prolifically, often working all night. He divorced Helen and married his second wife Juliet. His work became raw and expressive. Demonic faces and skeletons seem to press in from the margins. In Sad Self Portrait (1976) only his face is clearly described, part obscured by a bird hood, while the lower half of the painting fragments into abstract brush strokes. Installation view of John Bellany: A Life in Self-Portraiture at the City Art Centre, Edinburgh | Ian Georgeson Photography In 1985, as his health began to pay the price for the wild years - ironically at the time when he was achieving long-deserved recognition - he painted Charon's Boat, still managing a pun on the vessel's name with the biblical Rose of Sharon; such is the existential force of his painting, its black humour is easy to miss. In the boat, he stands shoulder to shoulder with his demons, stoically playing his accordion like the orchestra on the Titanic. The lifebuoy, with its legend 'Hope', is ignored. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad A medical diagnosis that his only hope of survival was a liver transplant seemed, paradoxically, to bring a kind of calm. He remarried Helen; a watercolour self portrait in Êtretat, where they had a brief honeymoon, shows him grounded again in realism (Bellany's watercolours are one of the revelations of this show). In The Old Man and the Sea - Homecoming (1987) he rows his little boat resolutely through shark-infested waters. Installation view of John Bellany: A Life in Self-Portraiture at the City Art Centre, Edinburgh, showing The Old Man and the Sea - Homecoming (second left) | Ian Georgeson Photography When the liver transplant came, in Addenbrookes Hospital in 1988, it was a new John Bellany who emerged from the fug of the anaesthetic asking for pencils and paper. He sketched his way back to life: a man to whom fate had granted a second chance, who had no time to lose. He painted as prolifically and energetically as ever for a further 20 years. This exhibition, however, crescendos up to a wild apex in the 1980s and then loses momentum. There are a few examples of outstanding post-transplant pictures, such as Prometheus III, in which he paints himself as the figure from classical mythology who, as a punishment for stealing fire from the gods, is tied to a rock by Zeus so an eagle can peck out his liver, and his birthday self-portrait from 1993 which is as rich and strange as anything here. But the show then hurries on to a final group of works from his closing years, where the emphasis is on hospital stays and declining health. Vividly, he paints himself painting the portrait of a nurse in Addenbrookes in 2008, but there is little in this show of the reborn Bellany, the one who buys a home in Barga, Italy, becomes a happy grandfather and paints, paints, paints. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad His last birthday self-portrait is his 70th in 2012. By then, his health was poor again and macular degeneration was working on his sight - though not on his ability to see himself. He looks diminished but unafraid, wearing a dinner jacket and holding his paintbrushes. Some of the animal symbols are there, but they look more like benign familiars than tormentors. He does not loom, like he did in 1965, but he looks, once again, like a man who knows who he is. Two floors of Bellany is a lot to take in. The strange symbols and bright colours come at one with such force that one has to will oneself to take note of how well and vividly he uses contrasts, how assured and ambitious his compositions are, how he drunk from the well of modern European expressionism while remaining entirely Scottish. My only complaint is what isn't there: particularly the works from the 1990s and 2000s which would allow us to form our own opinions about whether or not the 'wild years' paintings are truly his best work. But they would have needed another floor of the City Art Centre for that. This is a strong exhibition about which the chief criticism is that it's one floor too small.
Edinburgh Reporter
05-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Edinburgh Reporter
John Bellany: A Life in Self-Portraiture
An exhibition John Bellany: A Life in Self-Portaiture and a programme of associated events and talks will take place at the City Art Centre from 31 May to 28 September. John Bellany, CBE, RA, is one of the most significant painters of modern times. He was born in Port Seton, the son and grandson of fishermen, and his art regularly features fish and seaside themes. The assembled works on display will include paintings, drawings, prints and sketchbooks from the 1960s to 2103 when he died. He was a prolific artist and in particular he drew many self-portraits almost to the point of obsession. His work helped him to explore personal and universal themes and he often depicted himself as a mythical figure or fantastical character. Some of the exhibition includes art which has never been on public display before, and which is on loan from collections both public and private, as well as some from the artist's estate. His work is on display in many places worldwide including MOMA in New York and the Metropolitan Museum there, and the Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, Connecticut which has a vast collection of art in lofty airy rooms. The works will span his whole career. and there will be a book to accompany the exhibition. This will include a foreword by John Bellany's widow, Helen and essays by Sandy Moffat who was a contemporary at Edinburgh College of Art, and Bill Hare who have curated the exhibition. John Bellany died in 2013 and he is buried in Dean Cemetery, near the National Galleries of Scotland the Modern. Event Programme Highlights Lectures: Thursday 31 July, 2pm – 3pm: A Life-Long Friendship A reflection on the enduring friendship between John Bellany and Sandy Moffat. Sandy will discuss Bellany's boyhood in Port Seton, their time together at Edinburgh College of Art, his turbulent London years and final years in Italy will all be explored. Thursday 14 August, 2pm – 3pm: 'I don't borrow – I steal': John Bellany and the Art of Visual Quotation Bill Hare will explore Bellany's technique of incorporating visual references from European art history into his own distinctive style, creating rich, multi-layered works. Thursday 21 August, 2pm – 3pm: Time Will Tell Reading from her critically acclaimed memoir, The Restless Wave, Helen Bellany will talk about her enduring relationship with John Bellany. Wednesday 24 September, 2pm – 3pm: The Bellany Sketchbooks Helen Bellany will lead exclusive exploration of Bellany's private sketchbooks, which reveal the raw, personal side of his creative process. In Conversation: Thursday 10 July, 2pm: John Bellany: In Conversation with Bill Hare and Sandy Moffat Join the curators for a conversation about Bellany's artistic journey, his impact on Scottish art, and the special connection they had with him. Gallery Tours: Monday 11 August, 2pm – 3pm: Gallery Tour with Curators Bill Hare and Sandy Moffat An intimate guided tour of the exhibition with the curators, offering expert insight into Bellany's work and career. Saturday 23 August, 2pm – 3pm: Gallery Tour with Curators Bill Hare and Sandy Moffat Another opportunity to experience the exhibition with the curators, who will discuss the life and art of John Bellany in detail. Described Tours and BSL Tours: Friday 15 August, 11am – 12pm: BSL Interpreted Tour of 'John Bellany: A Life in Self-Portraiture' A British Sign Language (BSL) interpreted tour, offering a deeper understanding of Bellany's artistic journey for the Deaf community. Friday 15 August, 2pm – 3pm: Described Tour for the Visually Impaired of 'John Bellany: A Life in Self-Portraiture' A guided tour specifically designed for visitors with visual impairments, offering detailed descriptions of the artworks on display. Adult Creative Workshops: Saturday 12 July, 10.30am – 3.30pm: Self-Portraiture in Ink and Watercolour A hands-on workshop exploring Bellany's techniques, encouraging participants to create their own self-portraits using ink and watercolour. Saturday 9 August, 10.30am – 3.30pm: From Sketchbook to Masterpiece A workshop that delves into the process behind Bellany's iconic works, guiding participants through transforming initial sketches into finished art. John Bellany, 'Sad Self-Portrait', 1976. © The Estate of John Bellany Like this: Like Related
