Robin Philipson: 100, A Centenary Exhibition

robin philipson

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100 centenary exhibition 2–30 MARCH 2016

16 Dundas Street, Edinburgh EH3 6HZ TEL 0131 558 1200 EMAIL mail@scottish-gallery.co.uk www.scottish-gallery.co.uk Front cover: Humankind, 1973, watercolour, 102 x 102 cms (detail) (cat. 19) Left: Self Portrait, c.1940, pencil on paper, 37.8 x 27.8 cms (detail) (cat. 1)

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THE ACADEMIC AND THE ROMANTIC To meet Sir Robin Philipson was to encounter a man of charm and distinction, dressed slightly self-consciously in a bowtie and either a dapper, sometimes striped, jacket or else one splattered in paint. Conversation could range widely, revealing his interest in poetry as much as the visual arts to which he was making such a vital contribution. He can be considered to have been the most successful figure in Edinburgh’s art establishment in the third quarter of the twentieth century. Early on he had been elected a member of the Society of Scottish Artists and the Royal Scottish Society of Painters in Watercolour and in later life many honours would be bestowed on him.

But it was as President of the Royal Scottish Academy for a full decade from 1973 that he made a deep mark in art officialdom, opening up new avenues and introducing its student exhibitions which continue to this day. As Head of the School of Drawing and Painting at the art college he maintained the ideals of the post-war Edinburgh School so concerned with expressive colour to which in temperament he was ideally suited: as an Edinburgh student in the late 1930s, his teachers had included William MacTaggart, Anne Redpath and John Maxwell.

After the war Philipson became fascinated by the uncompromising expressionism of European painters, most famously Oskar Kokoschka. Although attracted to British abstraction and the inherent value of paint, he soon began to explore raw personal experience through developing specific themes which could combine aggression and violence with lyricism. This formed the bedrock of his career. Several paintings from these series from the 1950s to the 1980s (cockfights, cathedral interiors, the Crucifixion, war imagery, women and animals, poppies) are included in this exhibition, and they demonstrate a mature commitment to the pictorial: abstraction, where present, never dislodges representation of the world about us. He explores the human condition in many of his key academic paintings, and in the most ambitious – here, for instance, in Nevermind II and Threnody for our Time – he tackles brutalism head on.

These paintings, informed by what war can do and constructed with passion, are never easy but have an important niche within British art. Man’s inhumanity to man is explored in another key series, Humankind, where political and resultant emotional values are played out. These major works were the result of constantly rethinking the delicate balance between the empirical and the intuitive – a balance which is Scottish in its essence. At the same time, Philipson was one of the most lyrical painters of his generation, producing canvases which can convey the purest forms of beauty via traditional subjects and at times extraordinary colour choices.

With his sensitive, serious temperament Philipson was a romantic but his work is essentially academic: apart from a commitment to subject matter, the potential and values of materials were important to him as to generations before him. For a period in the late 1950s he was one of the artists whose prints came off the St James Square presses of Harley Brothers, while as Head of Drawing and Painting he made sure not only that Edinburgh’s students had the opportunity to take printmaking as a final year diploma subject. His form of expressionism certainly gave him a lifelong commitment to the intrinsic values of art materials, sometimes straying from a standard oils palette. He experimented with help from the local paint manufacturer Craig & Rose who mixed a ‘Philipson blue’ for him as well as suggesting he use vinyl toluene to attach gold leaf – with the vinyl itself then becoming a common binding agent in his paint. However we see his art, its free handling, its meaningful decorative values and its sometimes dark subjects, it remains a serious investigation of life. For him the production of art was essential but brave.

He once spoke of the dread of starting a studio day, of the waiting easel – but then good art is never an easy business.

Elizabeth Cumming Robin Philipson by Elizabeth Cumming is due to be published in 2017 by Sansom & Co.

Robin Philipson in his studio, 1970. The painting behind is the triptych Threnody for our Time, (cat. 17)

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Left: Robin Philipson, c.1964

1 Self Portrait, c.1940 2 Brenda: Spring Portrait, 1951 3 Landscape with Two Seagulls, c.1954 4 Menton, 1957 5 King, 1958 6 Nude in Mirror, 1960-65 7 Odalisque and Tiger Cub, c.1963 8 Flight from Fire, 1964 9 Abstract Pink and Blue, 1964-65 10 Nevermind II, 1965-84 11 Fighting Cocks, Red and Yellow, 1968 12 Fighting Cocks, 1969 13 Crucifixion, 1969-70 14 Bathers, c.1969 15 Talk in the Afternoon, c.1970 16 Towards the Night, 1970 17 Threnody for our Time, 1971 (Triptych) 18 Threnody - Sleep, 1970 19 Humankind, 1973 20 Iconostasis, 1975 21 Women Observed, c.1979 22 Women Observed V, c.1979 23 Fishermen, 1979 24 Fruit, c.1980 25 Horsemen by the Sea, 1982 26 Cockfight, c.1980 27 Fruit, 1984 28 Companions III, 1985

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1 Self Portrait, c.1940 pencil on paper, 37.8 x 27.8 cms EXHIBITED Sir Robin Philipson 1916-1992, Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh, Sept-Nov 1999, cat. 2 PROVENANCE The Artist’s Estate

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Philipson married painter Brenda Mark in 1949; tragically she would die in 1960 of a brain haemorrhage.

This, the best known of several portraits, is strongly influenced by the work of Oskar Kokoschka, whom Philipson met in 1947 and belongs in a group of early landscape and figure paintings which predate the artist’s commitment to thematic subject matter and mark him out as an expressionist.

2 Brenda: Spring Portrait, 1951 oil on canvas, 102 x 61 cms signed and dated lower right, title and artist’s name inscribed verso EXHIBITED Robin Philipson Retrospective, Edinburgh College of Art, Edinburgh, 1989, cat. 5; Sir Robin Philipson 1916-1992, Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh, Sept-Nov 1999, cat. 7; Sir Robin Philipson – A Memorial Exhibition, The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh, 1995, cat. 8 PROVENANCE The Artist’s Estate ILLUSTRATED Maurice Lindsay, Robin Philipson, University Press, Edinburgh, 1976, p.16; Sir Robin Philipson 1916-1992, National Galleries of Scotland, 1999, plate 2, p.30

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Philipson’s landscape is neither explicitly sea nor land, wave nor mountain, but rather a mindscape depicting the raw power of nature made in a romantic, symbolist tradition which continues to ally him with the northern European painters: Nolde, Kokoschka and Soutine.

3 Landscape with Two Seagulls, c.1954 oil on canvas, 51 x 101.5 cms signed lower left PROVENANCE The Artist’s Estate

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Like many painters, who make up the Edinburgh School, Robin Philipson divided his energies between watercolour and oil. Amongst his peers and in the preceding and proceeding generations however he was the most technically ambitious, experimenting with polyptych in all media, collage, vinyl toluene grounds, powder pigments and working on a monumental scale. When travelling, particularly in the early period, his watercolour block would serve best to record his subject. Here, in the south of France we can see a clear acknowledgement of Gillies’ early, wet technique.

4 Menton, 1957 gouache, 36 x 54 cms signed and dated lower right EXHIBITED A Private Collection: Property of Hilary and Keith McCallum, The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh, 2012 PROVENANCE Hilary and Keith McCallum, Edinburgh; Private Collection, Liverpool

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Robin Philipson working on the King lithograph at the Harley Brothers printing press, 1958

Philipson responded to the invitation of Harley Brothers, an Edinburgh firm of commercial lithographers, to collaborate on several stone lithos including King. The Kingly theme of this time, possibly influenced by a meeting with the Spanish painter and theatrical set designer Antoni Clave, produced many memorable paintings, enigmatic, richly rendered, with illuminated colour. In 1958 King and Hunchback (Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool) won him a prize at the second John Moores exhibition.

5 King, 1958 lithograph, 60 x 45 cms edition of 25 signed lower right PROVENANCE Private Collection, East Lothian

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The nude and interior is one of the richest subjects in Philipson’s oeuvre. Combined are themes such as mixed race lovers, Adam and Eve and the Waiting series (with all the languor of the harem, or Victorian opium den). This subject is also referenced in other themes; the merry-go-round, and African animals.

In perhaps hundreds of small watercolour and pastels, as here, it is sufficient subject of itself.

6 Nude in Mirror, 1960-65 gouache, 24 x 24 cms signed lower left PROVENANCE Rowland, Browse and Delbanco, London

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7 Odalisque and Tiger Cub, c.1963 watercolour, 17.5 x 17.5 cms signed lower right EXHIBITED Christmas Exhibition, The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh, 1963, cat. 7

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In 1963 Philipson spent several months as visiting Professor of Painting at Boulder University, Colorado.

From this experience two very different themes emerged. The first, inspired by Native American Art emerged in an abstract idiom, depicting fire and feather, evoking the spirit world, rituals as well as the artefacts he would have seen. The second theme was inspired by a visit to the Mexican border when he looked at several primitive church interiors.

8 Flight from Fire, 1964 watercolour and gouache, 13 x 24 cms signed lower right, titled on label verso

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9 Abstract Pink and Blue, 1964-65 watercolour, 73.5 x 50.5 cms signed lower right EXHIBITED Sir Robin Philipson, The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh, May 2012

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Philipson painted a series of paintings inspired by the pity of War, sparked by his viewing of Joseph Losey’s King and Country (1964), a harrowing account of a shell-shocked Tommy executed for desertion in WW1. In Nevermind II a soldier is slumped, tied to a post while a Wellingtonian officer, representing the military establishment, stands in mock-heroic judgement. This and several other significant works including Stone the Crows, were exhibited in his Festival Exhibition with The Scottish Gallery in 1965.

10 Nevermind II, 1965-84 oil on canvas, 91.5 x 123 cms EXHIBITED Festival Exhibition, The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh, 1965; Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh, 1985; Robin Philipson Retrospective, Edinburgh College of Art, Edinburgh, 1989, cat. 55; Sir Robin Philipson, The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh, May 2012 PROVENANCE Private Collection, London ILLUSTRATED Patricia R. Andrew, A Chasm in Time, Scottish War Art and Artists in the Twentieth Century, Birlinn, Edinburgh, 2014, p.229

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The theme of fighting cocks, which had its origin in Malaysian War-time memories, endured for over twenty years and was celebrated in the survey show Cockfight, Rose Window (The Scottish Arts Council, 1970). The violent action provided a pictorial challenge, resolved brilliantly with flurries of paint and rich colour. In interviews Philipson played down the psychological context of these works and stressed instead their decorative and improvisatory qualities, as Jack Firth observed “more and more the subject matter retreated and the painting took over.” However the theme is a significant example of the artist’s consistent need to address the darker aspects of instinct and atavism in animal and human.

11 Fighting Cocks, Red and Yellow, 1968 oil on canvas, 25 x 36 cms signed on verso EXHIBITED Robin Philipson Exhibition, The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh, 1968, cat. 32; Cockfight and Rose Window Exhibition, The Scottish Arts Council, 1970, cat. 50 PROVENANCE J A Eddison Esq and thence by descent

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12 Fighting Cocks, 1969 watercolour, 51 x 76 cms signed lower right EXHIBITED The Royal Scottish Society of Painters in Watercolour, Edinburgh; Cockfight and Rose Window Exhibition, The Scottish Arts Council, 1970, cat. 53; Christmas Exhibition, The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh, 1969, cat. 130 PROVENANCE J A Eddison Esq and thence by descent

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Philipson was anti-intellectual, his sources all visual rather than literary and he was unwilling to provide an explanation for his art. Instead he wanted the unveiling of a painting to provoke an initial reaction; to be shocking, beguiling, seductive, thought provoking but above all personal. In the same way that his cockfights could be decorative and beautiful, belying the violence of the subject matter, Crucifixion with its glorious blue and yellow chords is as decorative as it is shocking. Without a professed belief Philipson asserts his right as a modernist to paint whatever he chooses, to appropriate the central image of Christian iconography without being constrained by its utility as a Christian message.

13 Crucifixion, 1969-70 oil and vinyl toluene on canvas, 214 x 152 cms signed upper left verso EXHIBITED Festival Exhibition, The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh, cat. 9; Robin Philipson Retrospective, Edinburgh College of Art, Edinburgh, 1989, cat. 70; Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, London, 1990; Sir Robin Philipson 1916-1992, Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh, Sept-Nov 1999, cat. 49 ILLUSTRATED Sir Robin Philipson 1916-1992, National Galleries of Scotland, 1999, plate 16, p.44 PROVENANCE The Artist’s Estate

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14 Bathers, c.1969 watercolour, 25 x 18.5 cms signed lower right EXHIBITED Christmas Exhibition, The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh, 1969, cat. 128 PROVENANCE Private Collection, Edinburgh

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15 Talk in the Afternoon, c.1970 pastel, 33 x 34 cms PROVENANCE Cyril Gerber Fine Art, Glasgow; Private Collection, Dumfries and Galloway

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16 Towards the Night, 1970 pastel on sandpaper, 17 x 17 cms signed and dated lower right EXHIBITED Festival Exhibition, The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh, 1970, cat. 31; Robin Philipson Retrospective, Edinburgh College of Art, Edinburgh, 1989, cat. 100, titled ‘Companions’ PROVENANCE Collection of Mr and Mrs Rankin, Edinburgh

Philipson possessed the élan of the Renaissance master in his concept. The broad gesture, mastery of space, balance of detail and structure are all worthy of Titian. In Threnody for our Time there is a Venetian warmth of colour and exoticism which recalls the sixteenth century master. But it is to a twentieth century master that the most meaningful comparisons can be made; to Francis Bacon. The triptych format, the claustrophobic psychological space, distorted or tortured human presence and triumphant arm-wrestle with the materials are closely present in this work and Bacon’s Three Studies for Figures at the Base of a Crucifixion (1962, Guggenheim).

Overleaf:

17 Threnody for our Time, 1971 (Triptych) oil and vinyl toluene on canvas, left: 274 x 142 cms, middle: 274 x 228.5 cms, right: 274 x 142 cms EXHIBITED Robin Philipson Retrospective, Edinburgh College of Art, Edinburgh, 1989, cat. 71; Sir Robin Philipson Retrospective Exhibition, The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh, 2006, cat. 1 PROVENANCE The Artist’s Estate

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There is a story of Philipson inviting his friend the poet and polyglot George Bruce to his studio before an exhibition, placing his ready pictures on the easel one by one while his guest reeled off possible titles; when Robin liked one he would hold up his hand and then write the title on the verso. A threnody is a song or poem of remembrance or lamentation and the work appears in the title of a number of paintings at this time.

18 Threnody - Sleep, 1970 oil on canvas, 25.5 x 51 cms signed verso EXHIBITED Festival Exhibition, The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh, 1970, cat. 33; Christopher Hull Gallery, London PROVENANCE Collection of Lady Dugdale

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The division or compartmentalisation of his composition became the defining motif for Philipson from the seventies onwards. This device, like that of the polyptych, allowed him to introduce different, disparate material, to frame subjects within subjects and resolve complex issues of balance within a satisfactory whole. In Humankind lovers disrobe beneath a herd of zebra flanked by an abstract band to the left and a monumental African figure, who could be Ryder Haggard’s She to the right

19 Humankind, 1973 watercolour, 102 x 102 cms titled ‘Night’ on label verso EXHIBITED Robin Philipson, The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh, 1973, cat. 62, titled ‘Night’; Robin Philipson Retrospective, Edinburgh College of Art, Edinburgh, 1989, cat. 85 PROVENANCE Collection of Lady Laing

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Iconostasis, 1975, is based on the interior of the Greek Orthodox chapel at St Catherine’s Monastery in Sinai; which is famed for its large collection of early icons and an important library of the earliest Christian texts. A chapel was built on the site in the fourth century on the orders of (St) Helena, the emperor Constantine’s mother. The Monastery itself was established in the sixth century.

20 Iconostasis, 1975 oil on canvas, 91.5 x 122 cms signed on verso EXHIBITED The Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh, 1975 PROVENANCE Sir Anthony Wheeler

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This subject did have an answering theme of Men Observed made over a similar period where the men are psychologically isolated and somehow more vulnerable than the women. The women, by any critique, are sex-workers and the setting the brothel, but the viewpoint does not seem overtly voyeuristic (despite the title) and like earlier depictions of suffering (human and animal) the artist subverts a literal interpretation with the beauty of his paint.

21 Women Observed, c.1979 oil on canvas, 66 x 66 cms EXHIBITED Sir Robin Philipson, The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh, May 2012 PROVENANCE Private Collection, London

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22 Women Observed V, c.1979 oil on canvas, 64 x 64 cms EXHIBITED Sir Robin Philipson, The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh, May 2012 PROVENANCE Private Collection, Edinburgh

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23 Fishermen, 1979 watercolour, 21 x 26 cms signed lower right; signed, dated and inscribed with title on label verso PROVENANCE Collection of Richard Demarco

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Philipson enjoyed the medium of pastel for its soft, saturated quality of pigment, for its delicacy and for the technical challenge of working alla prima.

24 Fruit, c.1980 pastel, 23 x 37 cms signed verso PROVENANCE Private Collection, East Lothian

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25 Horsemen by the Sea, 1982 pastel, 22 x 27 cms signed and titled on label verso EXHIBITED Robin Philipson Exhibition, Macaulay Gallery, Stenton, 1982, cat. 22 PROVENANCE Private Collection, Dumfries and Galloway

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The motif of the easel allowed Philipson to include a picture within a picture and to locate the studio as the real setting for the painting.

Towards the end of his life this emphasis on his real location seems like a meditation on the life of a painter and in this work we can see a retrospective of subjects; cockfight, horsemen and waiting women.

26 Cockfight, c.1980 oil and vinyl toluene on canvas, 122 x 122 cms EXHIBITED Sir Robin Philipson, The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh, May 2012

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27 Fruit, 1984 oil on canvas, 91 x 76.5 cms signed and inscribed on label verso EXHIBITED Modern Masters II, The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh, 2014, cat. 27 PROVENANCE Private Collection, Kirkcudbrightshire

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28 Companions III, 1985 pastel on sandpaper, 22 x 28 cms signed and titled on label verso; label inscribed ‘To Roy and Marie, 12th Night 1986, with love Robin’ verso PROVENANCE Collection of Mr and Mrs Rankin, Edinburgh

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SIR ROBIN PHILIPSON PPRSA, RA, HRA, RSW, RGI, D.(UNIV), LL.D, FRSE, HRIAS, RCAA, HRHA, DA(EDIN) (1916-1992) SELECTED BIOGRAPHY 1916

Born Broughton-in-Furness. Educated Whitehaven Secondary School 1930 Family moved to Gretna. Educated Dumfries Academy 1936-40 Studied Edinburgh College of Art 1940-46 Served in India: King’s Own Scottish Borderers attached to Royal Indian Army Service Corps 1946 Teacher training at Moray House, Edinburgh 1947 Joined staff of Edinburgh College of Art, first as librarian and then Lecturer in School of Drawing and Painting 1948 Elected member of the Society of Scottish Artists 1949 Married Brenda Mark 1952 Elected Associate of the Royal Scottish Academy 1955 Elected member of the Royal Scottish Society of Painters in Watercolour 1960 Death of Brenda Philipson. Succeeds William Gillies as Head of Drawing and Painting, Edinburgh College of Art 1961 Married Thora Clyne 1962 Elected Royal Scottish Academician 1963 Visiting Professor of Painting, Summer School, University of Colorado 1964 First major illness. Visited Warsaw 1966 Completed Mural for Glasgow Airport 1967 Cargill Award, Royal Glasgow Institute of the Fine Arts 1969 Elected Secretary of the Royal Scottish Academy 1970 Cockfight, Rose Window, SAC Exhibition, Edinburgh (and touring) Right: Robin Philipson, c.1975

1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976

1977 1978 1980

1981 1982 1985 1989 1992

Member of the Scottish Advisory Committee, British Council. Thirty minute film profile Scope for BBC Sabbatical – interrupted by major illness at Boulogne Elected Associate of the Royal Academy.

Elected President of the Royal Scottish Academy Elected Honorary Member of the Royal Hibernian Academy. Elected Honorary Royal Academician Divorced. Visited Belgrade Knighted for service to the arts in Scotland. Commandeur de I’Ordre du Mérite de la Republique Francaise.

Honorary Doctorate of the University of Stirling. William Thynne Travelling Scholarship from the English-Speaking Union to visit South Africa and Kenya.

Married Diana Pollock Completed Mural for Dundee College of Education Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh.

LID University of Aberdeen Elected Member of the Royal Glasgow Institute of the Fine Arts IRGII Member of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts Elected Royal Academician Retired as Head of School of Drawing and Painting, Edinburgh College of Art Honorary Doctorate of Heriot-Watt University Robin Philipson Retrospective, Edinburgh College of Art Died in Edinburgh, 26 May

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SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS 1954 1958 1960 1961 1962 1964 1965 1967 1968 1969 1970 1970 1970 1970 1971 1971 1973 1974 1974 1975 1976 1976

The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh Roland, Browse and Delbanco, London Festival Exhibition, The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh Roland, Browse and Delbanco, London Roland, Browse and Delbanco, London Festival Exhibition, The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh Roland, Browse and Delbanco, London The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh The Loomshop, Lower Largo, Fife Festival Exhibition, The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh Cockfight and Rose Window, The Scottish Arts Council, Edinburgh Retrospective Exhibition, Carnegie Festival of Music and the Arts, Dunfermline Retrospective Exhibition, The Scottish Arts Council Roland, Browse and Delbanco, London Compass Gallery, Glasgow Boulogne and After, The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh Exhibition of Cathedral Paintings, Elgin Festival Exhibition, Haddington House Roland, Browse and Delbanco, London The Loomshop, Lower Largo, Fife Watercolours and Paintings, Festival Exhibition, The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh

1977 1978 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1982 1983 1983 1983 1985 1987 1989 1995 1999 2003 2006 2012 2016

Retrospective Exhibition, Macrobert Centre, University of Stirling Browse & Darby Gallery, London The Loomshop, Lower Largo, Fife Stirling Gallery Macaulay Gallery, Stenton Browse & Darby Gallery, London Macaulay Gallery, Stenton The Loomshop, Lower Largo, Fife English Speaking Union, Edinburgh New Peter Potter Gallery, Haddington, as part of Teamwork Exhibition The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh Browse & Darby Gallery, London Browse & Darby Gallery, London Robin Philipson Retrospective, Edinburgh College of Art, Edinburgh Sir Robin Philipson – A Memorial Exhibition, The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh Sir Robin Philipson 1916-1992, Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh Sir Robin Philipson, The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh Sir Robin Philipson Retrospective Exhibition, The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh Sir Robin Philipson, The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh Centenary Exhibition, The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh

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SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS 1952 1954 1955 1958 1959 1959 1963 1963-64

1964 1965 1967 1968 1968 1974 1975 1977 1977 1987 2008

Eight Young Contemporary British Painters, Arts Council, Scottish Committee Three Scottish Artists, Crane Gallery, Manchester Festival Exhibition, The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh Edinburgh-Nice Exhibition, The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh Six Scottish Artists, Nottingham University, Arts Council, Scottish Committee Stirling Festival Fortnight Exhibition, Stirling Four Scottish Painters, Arts Council, Scottish Committee Fourteen Scottish Painters, Commonwealth Institute, London Arts Council, Scottish Committee Contemporary Scottish Art, Reading Art Gallery Seven Scottish Painters, I.B.M. Gallery, New York Contemporary British Painting, Warsaw Scottish Painting, The Demarco Gallery, Edinburgh Three Centuries of Scottish Painting, National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa The Bruton Gallery, London English and Scottish Painter ’75 – The Mainstream, Fieldborne Gallery, London Four Scottish Painters, Ashmolean Museum, Oxford Sir William MacTaggart – Sir Robin Philipson, Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh David Donaldson and Robin Philipson at 70, The Fine Art Society, Edinburgh Works by Sir William Gillies and Sir Robin Philipson, The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh

SELECTED PUBLIC COLLECTIONS Aberdeen Art Gallery and Museums Atkinson Art Gallery, Southport Auchterderran Centre, Fife Beecroft Art Gallery, Southend Brighton and Hove Museums and Art Gallery, Brighton British Council, London Clackmannanshire Council Dundee Art Galleries and Museums Durham County Council City of Edinburgh Council Contemporary Art Society, London Glynn Vivian Art Gallery, Swansea Government Art Collection, London Gracefield Arts Centre, Dumfries Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh Highland Council, Inverness Hunterian Art Gallery, Glasgow Kettle’s yard, University of Cambridge Kirkcaldy Galleries, Fife Laing Art Gallery, Newcastle Lillie Art Gallery, East Dunbartonshire Council Manchester Metropolitan University MIMA, Middlesbrough

Museums Sheffield National Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh National Museum of Wales, Cardiff NHS Lothian, Edinburgh North Carolina Art Gallery and Museum, USA Paisley Museum and Art Galleries Perth Art Museum and Art Gallery Royal Academy, London Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh Sunderland Museum and Winter Gardens, Tyne and Wear The Argyll Collection, Argyll and Bute The Fleming Collection, London The Royal Society of Edinburgh The Scottish Arts Council, Edinburgh University of Edinburgh University of Aberdeen University of Colorado, Boulder, USA University of Dundee Fine Art Collections University of Strathclyde, Glasgow Victoria Gallery and Museum, Liverpool Walker Art Gallery, National Museums Liverpool Whitworth Art Gallery, University of Manchester

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Top row: Philipson children, 1929, back Robin and Phyllis, front Audrey and John; Second Lieutnant Philipson, 1941; Captain Philipson far right and education committee, Singapore, c.1945; Middle row: Philipson points up alterations at Harley Printing Press, 1957. Photo Ronald Wilkie; Robin Philipson, c.1957; Bottom row: Robin Philipson working on the King lithograph, 1958; Robin Philipson, c.1964

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Top row: Philipson in his studio at ECA, 1969, working on Ascension and Crucifixion; Robin Philipson in his Studio, c.1969; Middle row: Robin Philipson in his studio, 1970; Robin Philipson, President of the RSA, introducing the Queen to Elizabeth Blackadder, John Houston stands back right, 1973; Robin Philipson, c.1975; Bottom row: Robin and Diana Philipson at The Scottish Gallery, 1983; Robin Philipson, c.1987

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Published by The Scottish Gallery to coincide with the exhibition ROBIN PHILIPSON: 100 – CENTENARY EXHIBITION 2–30 March 2016 Exhibition can be viewed online at www.scottish-gallery.co.uk/robinphilipson ISBN: 978 1 910267 33 2 Photography by John McKenzie Printed by Barr Colour Printers ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The Scottish Gallery would like express thanks to Lady Diana Philipson and Dr Elizabeth Cumming for their kind help with this exhibition.

All rights reserved. No part of this catalogue may be reproduced in any form by print, photocopy or by any other means, without the permission of the copyright holders and of the publishers.

16 Dundas Street, Edinburgh EH3 6HZ TEL 0131 558 1200 EMAIL mail@scottish-gallery.co.uk www.scottish-gallery.co.uk

Right: Crucifixion, 1969-70, oil and vinyl toluene on canvas, 214 x 152 cms (detail) (cat. 13)