Ken Currie (born 1960 in North Shields,

Northumberland Northumberland () is a county in Northern England, one of two counties in England which border with Scotland. Notable landmarks in the county include Alnwick Castle, Bamburgh Castle, Hadrian's Wall and Hexham Abbey. It is bordered by land ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe ...

) is a Scottish artist and a graduate of Glasgow School of Art (1978–1983). Ken grew up in industrial Glasgow. This has had a significant influence on his early works. In the 1980s Currie produced a series of works that romanticised

Red Clydeside Red Clydeside was the era of political radicalism in Glasgow, Scotland, and areas around the city, on the banks of the River Clyde, such as Clydebank, Greenock, Dumbarton and Paisley, from the 1910s until the early 1930s. Red Clydeside is a ...

depicting heroic Dockworkers, Shop-stewards and urban areas along the

River Clyde The River Clyde ( gd, Abhainn Chluaidh, , sco, Clyde Watter, or ) is a river that flows into the Firth of Clyde in Scotland. It is the ninth-longest river in the United Kingdom, and the third-longest in Scotland. It runs through the major cit ...

. These works were also in response to then British Prime Minister

Margaret Thatcher Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher (; 13 October 19258 April 2013) was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990 and Leader of the Conservative Party from 1975 to 1990. She was the first female British prime ...

's policies that he believed were the greatest threat to culture of labour.

Works

Currie's paintings show a profound interest in the body (physical and metaphorical) and the "terror" of mortality. His works are primarily concerned with how the

human body The human body is the structure of a human being. It is composed of many different types of cells that together create tissues and subsequently organ systems. They ensure homeostasis and the viability of the human body. It comprises a hea ...

is affected by

illness A disease is a particular abnormal condition that negatively affects the structure or function of all or part of an organism, and that is not immediately due to any external injury. Diseases are often known to be medical conditions that a ...

ageing Ageing ( BE) or aging ( AE) is the process of becoming older. The term refers mainly to humans, many other animals, and fungi, whereas for example, bacteria, perennial plants and some simple animals are potentially biologically immortal. ...

and physical

injury An injury is any physiological damage to living tissue caused by immediate physical stress. An injury can occur intentionally or unintentionally and may be caused by blunt trauma, penetrating trauma, burning, toxic exposure, asphyxiation, o ...

. Closely related to these themes, his work also deals with

social Social organisms, including human(s), live collectively in interacting populations. This interaction is considered social whether they are aware of it or not, and whether the exchange is voluntary or not. Etymology The word "social" derives from ...

and

political Politics (from , ) is the set of activities that are associated with making decisions in groups, or other forms of power relations among individuals, such as the distribution of resources or status. The branch of social science that studi ...

issues and

philosophical Philosophy (from , ) is the systematized study of general and fundamental questions, such as those about existence, reason, knowledge, values, mind, and language. Such questions are often posed as problems to be studied or resolved. Some ...

questions. Although many of the images dealing with metaphysical questions do not feature figures, a human presence is nevertheless suggested. He was labeled as one of the "New Glasgow Boys" along with

Peter Howson Peter Howson OBE (born 27 March 1958) is a Scottish painter. He was a British official war artist in 1993 during the Bosnian War. Early life Peter Howson was born in London of Scottish parents and moved with his family to Prestwick, Ayrs ...

Adrian Wiszniewski Adrian Wiszniewski (born 1958) is a Scottish artist and one of the members of the New Glasgow Boys a group of artists who emerged from Glasgow School of Art and led the resurgence of Scottish figurative painting in the late 20th century. Other memb ...

and Steven Campbell who studied together at the

Glasgow School of Art The Glasgow School of Art (GSA; gd, Sgoil-ealain Ghlaschu) is a higher education art school based in Glasgow, Scotland, offering undergraduate degrees, post-graduate awards (both taught and research-led), and PhDs in architecture, fine art, an ...

. His Glasgow History Mural was commissioned on the 200th anniversary of the Calton weavers massacre in 1787 and is displayed on the ceiling of the People's Palace. He has occasionally worked as a portraitist. ''Three Oncologists'' (2002) is in the collection of the

Scottish National Portrait Gallery The Scottish National Portrait Gallery is an art museum on Queen Street, Edinburgh. The gallery holds the national collections of portraits, all of which are of, but not necessarily by, Scots. It also holds the Scottish National Photography Co ...

; it depicts Professor Robert J Steele, Professor Sir

Alfred Cuschieri Sir Alfred Cuschieri (born 30 September 1938) is a Maltese-British surgeon and academic. He is most notable for his pioneering contribution to the development and clinical implementation of minimal access surgery, also known as key-hole surgery ...

and Professor Sir David P Lane, three doctors from Ninewells Hospital, Dundee, in a "haunting", "spectral" painting that reflects the popular fear of

cancer Cancer is a group of diseases involving abnormal cell growth with the potential to invade or spread to other parts of the body. These contrast with benign tumors, which do not spread. Possible signs and symptoms include a lump, abnormal b ...

. Currie was commissioned by the

University of Edinburgh The University of Edinburgh ( sco, University o Edinburgh, gd, Oilthigh Dhùn Èideann; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in post-nominals) is a public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Granted a royal charter by King James VI in 1 ...

to paint a portrait of

Peter Higgs Peter Ware Higgs (born 29 May 1929) is a British theoretical physicist, Emeritus Professor in the University of Edinburgh,Griggs, Jessica (Summer 2008The Missing Piece ''Edit'' the University of Edinburgh Alumni Magazine, p. 17 and Nobel Prize ...

, the theoretical physicist, which was unveiled in 2009. He is a "reluctant portraitist", and this was only his second portrait. He said, referring to the

Higgs boson The Higgs boson, sometimes called the Higgs particle, is an elementary particle in the Standard Model of particle physics produced by the quantum excitation of the Higgs field, one of the fields in particle physics theory. In the Stan ...

, "I am very interested in Peter's work. I don't for one second claim to grasp the theory, but I do understand the sublime, and there is a sublime quality to it all, a beauty, an awesome quality. In some respects, the subject is quite terrifying." Most recently, Currie painted a large-scale portrait of preeminent forensic anthropologist Professor Dame Sue Black titled ''Unknown Man'' (2019). Currie's portrait is on long-term loan to the

and is displayed publicly. Ken Currie expressed he was, “delighted to be able to loan the painting Unknown Man to the Scottish National Portrait Gallery. This will make the painting more accessible to a wider public and hopefully draw attention to the astonishing work that Sue Black has undertaken in her long career as an Anatomist and Forensic Anthropologist throughout the world”. The idea for the portrait came to fruition when Currie and Professor Black crossed paths during a

BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC that replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. It broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history from the BBC's ...

programme
The Anatomy Lesson
which featured discussion around the relationship between art and anatomy. Following on from this meeting, Currie was invited to Professor Black's workplace at the

University of Dundee , mottoeng = "My soul doth magnify the Lord" , established = 1967 – gained independent university status by Royal Charter1897 – Constituent college of the University of St Andrews1881 – University College , ...

, where she gave him a tour of the dissection room. The artist was so moved by what he witnessed and encountered, he later asked Professor Black to sit for a portrait. Christopher Baker, National Galleries Scotland, director of European and Scottish art and portraiture, said: “Encounters between accomplished artists and subjects can have electrifying results and that is certainly the case with this powerful portrait of the distinguished forensic scientist Professor Dame Sue Black by Ken Currie". Unfamiliar Reflection, 2006, Oil on canvas

Unfamiliar Reflection, 2006, Oil on canvas

Portrait of Peter Higgs, 2008 Oil on canvas

Bibliography

Exhibition Catalogs *''Ken Currie: Tragic Forms'' atalogue of the exhibition held at Flowers 2016London. *''Ken Currie: Immortality'' atalogue of the exhibition held at Flowers 2010London. *''Ken Currie: Animals'' atalogue of the exhibition held at Flowers 2008London. Monographs * Tom Normand, ''Ken Currie: Details of a Journey'', Lund Humphries Publishers (1 June 2002), * Ken Currie, ''Ken Currie Painting & Sculpture'', 1995–96, Panart Publishing Limited (1 January 1996) * Harrison, J. and Topp, G. (1995) ''Ken Currie: The Fourth Triptych and Other Works.'' Cleveland County Council.

References

External links

Works in the National Galleries of Scotland

Ken Currie's artist page on Flowers Gallery
* : works by Ken Currie in British public collections {{DEFAULTSORT:Currie, Ken 1960 births Living people People from North Shields Alumni of the Glasgow School of Art 20th-century Scottish painters Scottish male painters 21st-century Scottish painters 21st-century Scottish male artists 20th-century Scottish male artists