Watch | Ken Currie's ‘A Tree of Liberty’

Watch | Ken Currie's ‘A Tree of Liberty’

with Specialist Carly Shearer

Monumental and undoubtedly of museum-quality, ‘A Tree of Liberty - 1988’ is a landmark work from Ken Currie from a significant moment in his career. Join Specialist Carly Shearer as she discusses this superb work which encapsulates Currie's vision of the status quo being swept away to make room for a new approach based on freedom, justice and education.

 

Ken Currie views his art as a political tool, a way of expressing his understanding of the world around him and suggesting new ways for society to evolve and adapt. His early paintings promote his ultimate goal of an egalitarian and just society and try to offer easily read and understood visual encapsulations of this vision.

‘A Tree of Liberty’ was painted in a period where utopian views had fallen out of favour, so Currie was going against the grain in this respect. Yet, this painting also dates from a time when large-scale figurative work was having a revival in contemporary Scottish art and so stylistically it would have felt very current.

Currie’s vision is vivid and bold, he paints with conviction and passion, with all the skills of his figuration and colour utilised to unleash this striking and hopeful new vision upon us.

 

View lot 55 ⇒ 

 


 

Auction Information 

 

MODERN SCOTLAND:

A Private Collection of Scottish Art
Wednesday, 20th January 2021 18:00
Live Online

 

View the auction catalogue ⇒

 


 

Modern Art Department

 

We are delighted to offer several auctions a year across the UK featuring to Modern British painting, sculpture, prints and drawings. These Modern British art auctions feature works from the likes of Walter Sickert and the Camden Town Group to Terry Frost and the St Ives School, we also handle selected works by all of 20th century Europe’s major figures and movements. This area continues to lead the UK art market and is going from strength to strength.

 

Learn more about our Modern British Art department ⇒

 
 

 

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