ROBERT COLQUHOUN (1914-1962) Biography

Provenance

Private collection, London

Description / Expertise

As a student at the Glasgow School of Art, Robert Colquhoun was more interested in the work of Wyndham Lewis and the avant-garde developments on the continent, in particular Braque and Picasso, than the more traditional teachings of the school. In this watercolour, an unmade bed becomes an imaginative and vibrant abstract composition through the lively haphazard rhythms of disarranged sheets, blankets and pillows. Bryan Robertson explained: the attack had commenced because even in these early works a sharp sensibility and an urge to re-make, to re-articulate the subject were beginning to show themselves. Even Colquhoun’s landscapes demonstrate his interest in movement and line through a synthesis of animated inter-locking shapes and forms.

Colquhoun’s talent was soon recognized and along with his soul companion Robert MacBryde, he was awarded first prize for drawing. This was followed by a post-diploma award to study for a further year. In 1938, he won a European traveling scholarship for which the school governors provided the finance for MacBryde to accompany him.

When three years later Colquhoun and MacBryde moved to London, they became part of an artistic circle, which included John Minton, Michael Ayrton, Keith Vaughan and Dylan Thomas. They became known as the ‘Wild Boys’ sharing a studio in Bedford Gardens with John Minton and the Polish artist Jankel Adler. A former member of the Bauhaus, Adler brought with him a variety of new European influences which lead to the precocious maturity, energy and drive of Colquhoun’s later war time paintings.


(1)Bryan Robertson, Robert Colquhoun - Paintings, drawings and prints from 1942-1958, Whitechapel Art Gallery, 1958, page 5