Lot 113
PAT DOUTHWAITE (SCOTTISH 1939-2002) §
NUDE WITH RED STOCKINGS
Auction: 17 August 2017 at 12:00 BST
Description
Signed and dated 1971, oil on canvas
Dimensions
122cm x 122cm (48in x 48in)
Footnote
Exhibited: The Richard Demarco Gallery, Edinburgh
Note: Pat Douthwaite, born in Glasgow in 1934, learnt mime, movement and dance from Margaret Morris from the age of 13. During this time she also received art classes from J D Fergusson, Morris' partner who recognised her artistic potential and encouraged her to become an artist. Practising outwith academic tuition or institutional influence, Douthwaite developed a distinctive painting style; knowingly primitive and with a unique mastery of line. Her child-like figures, inspired by her sons' pictures, are reminiscent of Jean Dubuffet's 'art brut' or outsider art. But, though she fits the description of an outsider artist, Douthwaite's work should not be misread as naïve.
From her early subjects of the dandies and grotesques of the urban landscape, her work became increasingly focused on the female experience and life's torments. Referred to as a modern 'peintre maudit,' Douthwaite projected her emotions onto reimagined female characters in covert self-portraits expressing her isolation, anxieties and frustrations. However these dark themes and subjects are juxtaposed with a vibrant palette of colours, child-like lines and often humour, successfully capturing the absurdity of the human experience.
The bright orange, green and red in the Nude in Red Stockings, 1971, are a perfect example, the joyful palette contrasting with the disturbing potential subject matter of the Charles Manson murder Trials of 1970-1. The nude figure is believed to represent one of Charles Manson's 'girls,' accomplices in the murders and who, during the trial, shaved their heads and carved 'X' on their foreheads. Douthwaite became fascinated by these events; the unsettling beauty of the women's insanity and extreme devotion to Manson. Following the trial attentively and collecting press clippings, she made it the subject of her Edinburgh exhibition Charles Manson Trial and American Woman Bandits, in 1972-3. In the text accompanying the catalogue, she explains her works are all against Manson and although she is anti-violence, they are 'not protest-pictures - but entirely imaginary portraits about misdirected power.' This beautiful yet haunting image offers an intensely personal insight into Douthwaite's art and a rare commentary on current events.