Lot 78
PETER HOWSON O.B.E. (SCOTTISH 1958-) §
WEST END HERO - 2002
£13,860
Contemporary & Post-War Art // Prints & Multiples
Auction: Contemporary & Post-War Art: 09 August 2023 | From 11:00
Description
Signed lower right, signed, titled and dated to stretcher, oil on canvas
Dimensions
Footnote
Note: The ‘Heroes’ that recur throughout Peter Howson’s oeuvre are working-class Glaswegians, and each depiction constitutes an essay on the artist’s relationship with his own masculinity. The monumental ‘West End Hero’ was painted in the aftermath of Howson’s hospitalisation for drug and alcohol addiction, which led him to convert to Christianity. Accordingly, hidden within this Glasgow nocturne are Christian iconographic devices, such as the three glowing streetlights with Crucifix-like crossbars, and the beams from the right-hand window touching the head of the Hero, as if suggesting divine illumination. There is a conscious ambiguity in the Hero’s stance; Howson allows the viewer to decide whether he kneels at a rudimentary altar or balls his fists on a table. The bottle in his pocket suggests that he hasn’t quite shaken off his former struggles.
Peter Howson’s prolific career has recently been celebrated in a major retrospective ‘When the Apple Ripens: Peter Howson at 65’ at the City Art Centre, Edinburgh which is on show until 1 October 2023.
