Pat Douthwaite (28 July 1934 – 26 July 2002) was a Scottish artist.
She has been notably compared to
Amedeo Modigliani
Amedeo Clemente Modigliani (, ; 12 July 1884 – 24 January 1920) was an Italian painter and sculptor who worked mainly in France. He is known for portraits and nudes in a modern style characterized by a surreal elongation of faces, necks, and ...
and
Chaïm Soutine
Chaïm Soutine (13 January 1893 – 9 August 1943) was a Belarusian painter who made a major contribution to the expressionist movement while living and working in Paris.
Inspired by classic painting in the European tradition, exemplified by the ...
, the ''peintres maudits'' of early twentieth-century Paris.
Life
Douthwaite was born in Glasgow, Scotland, to mother Winifred Rachael, and father Thomas Leslie Douthwaite.
She spent her early life in Paisley. She travelled widely, living in various places across the world until her death in
Dundee
Dundee (; sco, Dundee; gd, Dùn Dè or ) is Scotland's fourth-largest city and the 51st-most-populous built-up area in the United Kingdom. The mid-year population estimate for 2016 was , giving Dundee a population density of 2,478/km2 or ...
, in 2002. Although she was born in 1934, she claimed throughout her life to have been born in 1939.
In 1947, Douthwaite took up expressive dance and ballet classes, only making the decision to be a painter later in her life, and without any formal art education. Her work is featured in several different museums.
She was married to
Paul Hogarth
Paul Hogarth, OBE, RA (born Arthur Paul Hoggarth) (4 October 1917 – 27 December 2001) was an English artist and illustrator. He is best known for the cover drawings that he prepared in the 1980s for the Penguin edition of Graham Green ...
between 1963-1970, and they had one son together.
Douthwaite's extensive travel during her life saw her living in York, Edinburgh, Dumfriesshire, and Berwick upon Tweed. In addition, she travelled to North Africa, India and Peru.
Dance career
Douthwaite took up dance classes in 1947, which were taught by
Margaret Morris. It was there that she met the artist
J.D. Fergusson, Morris' partner.
Fergusson was a landscape artist and taught Douthwaite how to appreciate the light interacting with a landscape. She continued to dance and was a part of Morris's Celtic Ballet in 1954 at Jacob's Pillow Theatre in Massachusetts U.S.A.
Art career
In the late 1950s, Douthwaite made the decision to take up a career in visual art, rather than dance, with Fergusson persuading her not to engage in formal art education.
She had her first solo show at 57 Gallery in Edinburgh in 1958.
She left Scotland in 1958, and associated herself with a wide artistic crowd which included
Robert MacBryde
Robert MacBryde (5 December 1913 – 6 May 1966) was a Scotland, Scottish still-life and figure painter and a theatre Scenic design, set designer. Early life and career
MacBryde was born in Maybole, Ayrshire, to John MacBryde, a cement laboure ...
,
Robert Colquhoun
Robert Colquhoun (20 December 1914 – 20 September 1962) was a Scotland, Scottish Painting, painter, printmaker and theatre Scenic design, set designer.
Colquhoun was born in Kilmarnock and was educated at Kilmarnock Academy. He won a s ...
, Peter Cook,
Roger Law
Roger Law (born 6 September 1941, in Littleport, Cambridgeshire), is a British caricaturist, ceramist and one half of ''Luck and Flaw'' (with Peter Fluck), creators of the popular satirical TV puppet show ''Spitting Image''. Roger Law was a pi ...
, and
William Crozier William Crozier may refer to:
*William Crozier (artillerist) (1855–1942), American general, artillerist and inventor
*William Crozier (Scottish artist) (1893–1930)
* William Crozier (Irish artist) (1930–2011)
* William Crozier (cricketer) (187 ...
, the latter of whom she had met in Glasgow. She moved into Crozier's house in Essex in 1958, however the extent of her relationship with many other of these artists is not clear.
In December 1963 Douthwaite exhibited alongside the artists Philip Jones and Bill Featherstone at the
Grabowski Gallery
The Grabowski Gallery was an avant-garde art gallery opened in 1959 in London's Chelsea by Mateusz Grabowski, anticipating the Swinging Sixties. It hosted some of the earliest shows of the rising pop art movement and was the first venue in Lond ...
in London.
A review of the exhibition by Kenneth Coutts-Smith appeared in ''Arts Review'', where he remarked on her enigmatic, dreamlike and disturbing work which he felt had 'an almost embroidered applique effect'.
[Coutts-Smith, Kenneth, 'Pat Douthwaite, Philip Jones, Bill Featherstone', exhibition review in ''Arts Review'', Vol. 15, Issue 24, 14 December 1963, p. 8.]
Douthwaite exhibited with the
Women's International Art Club
The Women's International Art Club, briefly known as the Paris International Art Club, was founded in Paris in 1900. The club was intended to "promote contacts between women artists of all nations and to arrange exhibitions of their work", and ...
in London between 1960 and 1966.
Although much of her work explores issues surrounding femininity and womanhood, Douthwaite did not self identify as a feminist.
She was the recipient of various awards from the Scottish Arts Council. In 2005, following her death, the
Scottish National Gallery
The Scottish National Gallery (formerly the National Gallery of Scotland) is the national art gallery of Scotland. It is located on The Mound in central Edinburgh, close to Princes Street. The building was designed in a neoclassical style by W ...
in Edinburgh held a memorial exhibition.
Douthwaite's work pursued a variety of themes including the Manson Trial, American Women Bandits and the aviator
Amy Johnson
Amy Johnson (born 1 July 1903 – disappeared 5 January 1941) was a pioneering English pilot who was the first woman to fly solo from London to Australia.
Flying solo or with her husband, Jim Mollison, she set many long-distance records duri ...
.
Exhibitions of work
In 1967, Richard Demarco saw Pat Douthwaite as a talented Scottish artist and displayed her ''Mary Queen of Scots'' in his Edinburgh gallery. In 1967 he debuted her ''Love Pictures''. In 1972-79 her ''Paintings and Drawings'' were shown at the Talbot Rice Art Centre and then in 1982 ''Worshipped Women'' was introduced by Robert Graves at the Edinburgh Festival. Other notable supporters included Douglas Hall and Guy Peploe.
In London, 1982-83 Douthwaite exhibited in the Royal College of Art and in the
Third Eye Centre
The Third Eye Centre was a contemporary arts centre in Glasgow, founded by Scottish writer Tom McGrath in 1975. The building was at 350 Sauchiehall Street, close to the Glasgow School of Art, and was purchased by the Scottish Arts Council. The ve ...
in Glasgow, Scotland, 1999-89. She had a solo exhibition in 1993 at the
Scottish National Gallery
The Scottish National Gallery (formerly the National Gallery of Scotland) is the national art gallery of Scotland. It is located on The Mound in central Edinburgh, close to Princes Street. The building was designed in a neoclassical style by W ...
in Edinburgh of her more recent and final works. The Scottish Gallery held a memorial show in 2005 with an extensive catalogue.
Galleries holding Douthwaite's work
Aberdeen Art Gallery
Aberdeen Art Gallery is the main visual arts exhibition space in the city of Aberdeen, Scotland. It was founded in 1884 in a building designed by Alexander Marshall Mackenzie, with a sculpture court added in 1905. In 1900, it received the art ...
,
Ferens Art Gallery
The Ferens Art Gallery is an art gallery in the English city of Kingston upon Hull. The site and money for the gallery were donated to the city by Thomas Ferens, after whom it is named. The architects were S. N. Cooke and E. C. Davie ...
, Hull and the
Scottish Arts Council
The Scottish Arts Council ( gd, Comhairle Ealain na h-Alba, sco, Scots Airts Cooncil) was a Scottish public body responsible for the funding, development and promotion of the arts in Scotland. The Council primarily distributed funding from the ...
.
* Art in Healthcare
*
University of St Andrews
(Aien aristeuein)
, motto_lang = grc
, mottoeng = Ever to ExcelorEver to be the Best
, established =
, type = Public research university
Ancient university
, endowment ...
* Lillie Art Gallery
*
Ferens Art Gallery
The Ferens Art Gallery is an art gallery in the English city of Kingston upon Hull. The site and money for the gallery were donated to the city by Thomas Ferens, after whom it is named. The architects were S. N. Cooke and E. C. Davie ...
*
City Art Centre
The City Art Centre is part of the Museums & Galleries Edinburgh, which sits under the Culture directorate of the City of Edinburgh Council. The City Art Centre has a collection which include historic and modern Scottish painting and photography ...
*
Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art
The Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art is part of the National Galleries of Scotland, which are based in Edinburgh, Scotland. The National Gallery of Modern Art houses the collection of modern and contemporary art dating from about 1900 to th ...
*
Paisley Museum and Art Galleries
Paisley Museum and Art Galleries is currently closed for refurbishment and is due to reopen 2024. It is a museum and public art gallery located in the town of Paisley and is run by Renfrewshire Council. It houses one of the largest municipal art ...
*
The Fleming Collection
The Fleming Collection is a large private collection of Scottish art. Originally a corporate collection dominating the walls of the Flemings bank, it had a home in a gallery on Berkeley Square, central London, England from 2002 until the gallery's ...
*
The Hepworth, Wakefield
*
University of Stirling
The University of Stirling (, gd, Oilthigh Shruighlea (abbreviated as Stir or Shruiglea, in post-nominals) is a public university in Stirling, Scotland, founded by royal charter in 1967. It is located in the Central Belt of Scotland, built w ...
* The Stirling Smith Art Gallery and Museum
Personal reputation
Douthwaite had a reputation as a "compelling" painter, but also as difficult, and insecure.
She is described by
Cordelia Oliver
Cordelia Patrick Oliver (24 April 1923 – 1 December 2009) was a Scottish journalist, painter and art critic, noted as an indefatigable promoter of Scottish arts in general and the avant-garde in particular.
Early life
Cordelia McIntyre Patr ...
as having felt increasingly "alienated" throughout her life, and hard to please.
References
External links
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*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Douthwaite, Pat
1934 births
2002 deaths
20th-century Scottish women artists
Artists from Glasgow
Scottish women painters