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Lot Essay
Euan Uglow declared that 'I am not a still life painter. I am not a portrait painter. I am not a painter of nudes. I am just a painter' (the artist, quoted in R. Kendall, Euan Uglow: Ideas 1951-1991, London, Browse & Darby, n.p.). Whether a nude figure, a sitter or a selection of everyday objects, Uglow approached his subjects as forms to be represented, carefully positioning a model or still life object within his studio to construct a technically rigorous composition. Painted in 1998, An Arc from the Eye encapsulates Uglow’s exacting working methods, the culmination of a lifetime dedicated to precision, harmony and geometry. In this intimately scaled composition, Uglow captures two ox-eye daisies growing from a small plant pot in perfect miniature, an exquisite demonstration of his mastery in structure and form.
While meticulously capturing the structure and essence of his subject, Uglow’s approach upholds his assertion that ‘art is artifice’ (the artist, quoted in Euan Uglow, Controlled Passion: Fifty Years of Painting, Kendal, Abbot Hall Gallery, 2003, p. xxxviii). Feeling most comfortable working in the confines of his studio, the daisies are presented upon an artificial stage. The plant pot stands off-centre on a stark white base, juxtaposed with near-abstract blocks of colour in the foreground and a black background, positioned at a subtle angle upon the table. The present work is a rare example within Uglow’s oeuvre of a living, growing still life subject - the vitality of the daisies, standing tall - in contrast with the carefully constructed, highly artificial studio setting. In this carefully composed arrangement, Uglow seems to embrace vivid colour, revelling in the depiction of the verdant green plant as its radiant white and yellow blooms bask in the light.
What makes the present work so compelling is Uglow’s scrupulous attention to structure and geometry. Delicate blue lines mark the precise distances between each petal and the golden centre of the flowers, evidencing his rigorous process of observation, measurement and correction. Behind the daisies, faint traces of previous markings bear witness to his painstaking practice of refining proportion and balance, reconstructing an image upon a deliberately flattened and fictive two-dimensional plane. 'I’m painting an idea, not an ideal', he explained, 'basically, I’m trying to paint a structured painting full of controlled, and therefore potent, emotion. I won’t let chance be there unless it’s challenged. I don’t make a brush mark and think, ‘oh that looks nice’. I’m not interested in that. Painting’s too serious to take flippantly. I think one should behave morally with paint, though that doesn’t stop one taking risks' (the artist, quoted in ‘Snatches of Conversation’, Euan Uglow, Whitechapel Gallery, London, 1989, p. 59).
Richard Kendall observed of his depiction of flowers: ‘the possibility that still life represented an adult playground for Uglow’s visual imagination is difficult to resist. The profound artificiality of the still life form, exploited by modern painters as varied as Manet and Picasso, Giacometti and Morandi, has stimulated free-wheeling invention and bursts of giddy sensuousness, as well as complex, textural and semiotic punning that is largely undistracted by narrative. Uglow seized some of this territory and made it his own, typically combining seriousness of intent with a kind of conceptual acrobatics on the same canvas’ (R. Kendall, ‘Uglow at Work: The Formative Years’, in C. Lampert (ed.), Euan Uglow: The Complete Paintings, New Haven and London, 2007, p. xxxiii).
At the heart of An Arc from the Eye is the dynamic relationship between its two protagonists: the intersecting daisies, growing from a single small pot. The work stands as a testament to the intense scrutiny that Uglow applied to his subjects, as he sought, throughout his career, to meticulously capture the structure and essence of the world around him.
While meticulously capturing the structure and essence of his subject, Uglow’s approach upholds his assertion that ‘art is artifice’ (the artist, quoted in Euan Uglow, Controlled Passion: Fifty Years of Painting, Kendal, Abbot Hall Gallery, 2003, p. xxxviii). Feeling most comfortable working in the confines of his studio, the daisies are presented upon an artificial stage. The plant pot stands off-centre on a stark white base, juxtaposed with near-abstract blocks of colour in the foreground and a black background, positioned at a subtle angle upon the table. The present work is a rare example within Uglow’s oeuvre of a living, growing still life subject - the vitality of the daisies, standing tall - in contrast with the carefully constructed, highly artificial studio setting. In this carefully composed arrangement, Uglow seems to embrace vivid colour, revelling in the depiction of the verdant green plant as its radiant white and yellow blooms bask in the light.
What makes the present work so compelling is Uglow’s scrupulous attention to structure and geometry. Delicate blue lines mark the precise distances between each petal and the golden centre of the flowers, evidencing his rigorous process of observation, measurement and correction. Behind the daisies, faint traces of previous markings bear witness to his painstaking practice of refining proportion and balance, reconstructing an image upon a deliberately flattened and fictive two-dimensional plane. 'I’m painting an idea, not an ideal', he explained, 'basically, I’m trying to paint a structured painting full of controlled, and therefore potent, emotion. I won’t let chance be there unless it’s challenged. I don’t make a brush mark and think, ‘oh that looks nice’. I’m not interested in that. Painting’s too serious to take flippantly. I think one should behave morally with paint, though that doesn’t stop one taking risks' (the artist, quoted in ‘Snatches of Conversation’, Euan Uglow, Whitechapel Gallery, London, 1989, p. 59).
Richard Kendall observed of his depiction of flowers: ‘the possibility that still life represented an adult playground for Uglow’s visual imagination is difficult to resist. The profound artificiality of the still life form, exploited by modern painters as varied as Manet and Picasso, Giacometti and Morandi, has stimulated free-wheeling invention and bursts of giddy sensuousness, as well as complex, textural and semiotic punning that is largely undistracted by narrative. Uglow seized some of this territory and made it his own, typically combining seriousness of intent with a kind of conceptual acrobatics on the same canvas’ (R. Kendall, ‘Uglow at Work: The Formative Years’, in C. Lampert (ed.), Euan Uglow: The Complete Paintings, New Haven and London, 2007, p. xxxiii).
At the heart of An Arc from the Eye is the dynamic relationship between its two protagonists: the intersecting daisies, growing from a single small pot. The work stands as a testament to the intense scrutiny that Uglow applied to his subjects, as he sought, throughout his career, to meticulously capture the structure and essence of the world around him.