The Boy and the Jabberwock - John Byrne

The Boy and the Jabberwock John Byrne

A mini retrospective

The Fine Art Society in Edinburgh

The Boy and the Jabberwock John Byrne

A mini retrospective 28 February - 29 March 2018

The Fine Art Society in Edinburgh

American Boy 1968-1970

signed Patrick; titled verso watercolour, indian ink and gouache | 11 x 15 inches provenance: private collection, UK

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Boy & Jabberwocky 1971

signed Patrick; titled verso watercolour 9 1/4 x 9 1/4 inches provenance: private collection, UK

...Beware the Jabberwock, my son!

The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!

Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun The frumious Bandersnatch...

Jabberwocky Lewis Carroll

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Boy with Streamer 1971

signed Patrick; titled verso watercolour 7 1/2 x 7 1/2 inches provenance: private collection, UK

This work, together with Boy & Jabberwocky, was part of a series of drawings Byrne made for the short animated film An Old Fashioned Picture Book. Created in Los Angeles in 1971, the film was screened at the Edinburgh Film Festival in 1972.

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Donovan Singing 1971

signed Patrick ink, watercolour and pencil 6 1/2 x 14 3/4 inches

Donavan Singing was also drawn by Byrne in the creation of An Old Fashioned Picture Book. Glasgow-born singer Donovan Leitch commissioned the film, which features music from his 1971 album HMS Donovan. He appears in this costume throughout the film.

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Writer’s Cramp 1975

signed; signed, titled and inscribed verso watercolour and bodycolour with ink 13 1/4 x 9 1/2 inches This work was part of the preparatory material Byrne put together for his first theatrical play Writer’s Cramp, which debuted at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival on 22 August 1977 and became one of the most successful shows that year. The play follows anti-hero Francis McDade: writer, philosopher, and painter, through his misadventures in publishing from boarding school to Oxford, World War II, and up to his death in poverty.

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Sylvie, from La Colombe

by Charles Gounod 1984

signed and titled pen, ink, watercolour and crayon on paper 13 3/4 x 9 3/4 inches exhibited: The Scottish Gallery, Christmas Exhibition, Edinburgh 1992, no.37

This drawing forms part of Byrne’s theatre design for the 1984 Buxton Opera production of La Colombe by Charles Gounod.

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Emma Thompson as Suzi Kettles from Tutti Frutti 1985-1986

signed watercolour, pen and ink 8 x 11 inches

Tutti Frutti is a BBC Scotland six-part drama series written by Byrne and broadcast on BBC1 in 1987. Suzi Kettles, played by Emma Thompson, is the guitar player of the rock band at the centre of the drama, The Majestics.

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Ron Donachie as Dennis Sproul from Tutti Frutti 1985-1986

signed and inscribed 6/3 pencil, pen and ink 8 1/4 x 6 1/2 inches exhibited: The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh, December 1994

Another character from Byrne’s 1987 BBC production Tutti Frutti, Dennis Sproul is the roadie of the band The Majestics, played by Ron Donachie.

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Self Portrait with Sea Shells 1992

signed and dated 92 oil on board 48 x 48 inches

provenance: Duncan R Miller Fine Arts, London; private collection, Edinburgh

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The Slab Boys storyboard 1996-1997

each scene inscribed below with description and numbered from 26 to 50; signed by set construction crew on panel verso watercolour, ink and graphite 17 1/2 x 23 1/2 inches In 1996 Byrne was working on turning his successful theatre play The Slab Boys from 1978 into a film. Byrne directed the film himself, also rewriting elements of the script and designing the costumes. Each scene of the entire production was planned on a series of comic storyboards.

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Le Chat c.2006

signed Patrick oil on canvas 20 1/4 x 16 1/4 inches

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Self Portrait with Red Eye c.2010

signed mixed media on panel 17 1/4 x 10 3/4 inches exhibited: Open Eye Gallery, Edinburgh 2011

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Billy Connolly 2016

oil on arches paper 30 1/4 x 22 1/4 inches provenance: The artist’s studio exhibited: The People’s Palace, Billy Connolly, Portrait of a Lifetime, Glasgow 2017

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The Fine Art Society in Edinburgh

6 Dundas Street, Edinburgh, EH3 6HZ +44 (0)131 557 4050 www.fasedinburgh.com art@fasedinburgh.com

Published by The Fine Art Society in Edinburgh for the exhibition

The Boy and the Jabberwock John Byrne A mini retrospective

held at 6 Dundas Street, Edinburgh, EH3 6HZ from 28 February to 29 March 2018 Catalogue Š The Fine Art Society in Edinburgh Images Š John McKenzie Photography All rights reserved Front cover: Boy & Jabberwocky, pp.6-7 Inside front cover: The Slab Boys storyboard (detail), pp.22-23 Left: Self Portrait with Sea Shells, pp.20-21 Overleaf: American Boy (detail), pp.4-5

The Fine Art Society in Edinburgh