Page 40 - Studio International - January 1965

1 in the nudes of 1956 an affinity with the sculpture of
While Reclining Nude. 1 956 his friend Kenneth Armitage (and a reminder that Scott.
36 X 59¾ in. too. began as a sculpture student at the R.A. schools).
Martha Jackson Gallery, New York
But here the figure arbitrarily takes the character of
2 landscape and the still-lives become more than 'he
Balance. 1963 and she' dramas; they are crowded and patterned like
63 X 68 in. Figure and Still Life. one of the few where human
Hanover Gallery. London
and inanimate co-exist through their nature is veritably
morte. But with the multiplication of the motives the
intensity in the brushing of the colour increases. impasto
1 thickens and it is as if contemporary art productions

lose their validity and the artist is creating surfaces as
durable. as full of weathered textures as the walls of ..
Somerset where Scott and his wife have spent much
of their post-war life. Or we may see. too. the boats
swinging off the Holy Loch. a childhood retinal image
revived.
In the latest works a growing linear emphasis is
present-red lines frame spaces that were the objects
and in some such as Balance. 1963 there is a faint
suggestion of a figure in the underpainting that else­
where gives vibration to the warm reds. As Alan
Bowness says: ·The general character of Scott's most
recent paintings has been an even more extreme
simplicity. with the most elemental of forms that now
have only a tenuous connexion with the original still life
subjects. Austerity and sensuality are present in
indisguised nakedness. and yet a mysterious quality
remains. It is the final reserve. the "inhibition" in a
painting as he once called it. which defies explanation
or analysis.
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