Description
Oil and mixed media on canvas
Dimensions
152.5cm x 152.5cm (60in x 60in)
Footnote
'Monkeys Before a Temple Frieze' is exemplary of several key artistic themes discernible in the work of the innovative and influential Scottish artist Sir Robin Philipson. After training at Edinburgh College of Art, during World War II Philipson served with the King's Own Scottish Borderers in India and Burma, and while unable to paint as much as he would wish under war time conditions, in later life would return to the exotic motifs such as Brahma cattle and Burmese horses first encountered during active service. Here we observe the expressive interaction of two monkeys framed against an exotic temple frieze, reminiscent of the predelle of Catholic altarpieces explored by the artist in his 1960's series of Mexican church interiors. Indeed, in its composition (dominated by strong horizontals), the painting continues a theme first explored in his First World War series and such works as Stone the Crows. Inspiration for the horizontal, strip format first arose when Philipson wandered in to a performance of Joseph Losey's King and Country in a local cinema. A scene in which soldiers drag a young man through the snow to his execution triggered a strong emotional response in the artist, who chose to replicate the format of the film reels in his painting. Nevertheless, the anguished atmosphere of the earlier series is entirely absent from this later work, in which harmonious tones and Philipson's exquisite handling of paint combine with a slight element of humour in the very human figures of the monkeys, one strutting jauntily to the right of the picture plane as his companion observes with a disgruntled expression.