William Scott 1913-1989
Untitled, 1963
oil on canvas
30.8 x 35.7 cm
12 1/8 x 14 in
12 1/8 x 14 in
1963 saw another busy year for Scott, he was featured in a number of exhibitions, in Britain and across Europe, including his first solo show in a few years and...
1963 saw another busy year for Scott, he was featured in a number of exhibitions, in Britain and across Europe, including his first solo show in a few years and ones alongside other artists such as Victor Pasmore. In the present example four white forms, two reaching out of the pictorial space almost dissect the black space, creating a cross-like form within the negative space. Two white forms can be seen in their entirety, a square and a cup-like shape. The palette harkens back to the monochrome still life work Scott did in the 1950s, the simple composition is almost identical to an all-white version completed in 1960 which suggests the artist must have deemed it successful. What distinguishes it from the earlier version are the formal characteristics, whereas in the white version the forms seem to almost be clean cut-outs, like collage; here they are worked-over, his brushwork describing them, with the smoother black paint of negative space overlapping the white slightly in a more expressive manner.