William Gillies: Modernism and Nation in British Art

Andrew McPherson's book on William Gillies presents a new and different story about the Scottish painter, revealing how European modernism inspired him to engage with universal issues of purpose, meaning, and fate. It challenges the constitutive narratives of modernism in Britain and examines new biographical evidence on questions of sexuality, gender, mental and physical health, skepticism, and faith. McPherson has been researching Gillies for over twenty years and rethinks his creative output in light of two World Wars, gender inequalities, and the modernist crisis of meaning and belief.

Format: Unspecified
Length: 248 pages
Publication date: 31 October 2023
Publisher: Edinburgh University Press

This is the book I have eagerly awaited for nearly half a century. Andrew McPherson's study of Gillies is nothing short of a game-changer, presenting a new and very different story about one of Scotland's greatest 20th-century painters. - Alexander Moffat. Shows how European modernism inspired Gillies to engage with universal issues of purpose, meaning, and fate to produce idiomatic and unique works. Reveals an artist who informs and challenges the constitutive narratives of modernism in Britain. Shows how competition between Scottish and English nationalisms has shrouded Gillies in myth. Combines social, political, cultural, and art history to explain the emergence of Gillies as an artist and modernist. Examines new biographical evidence on questions of sexuality, gender, mental and physical health, skepticism, and faith. Providing new evidence on the life and times of this Scottish painter, Andrew McPherson shows Gillies to be a modernist thinker. Presenting paintings never seen before, he reappraises his creative output, including the relationship of portraiture to still life, placing him firmly within not only a Scottish context but a British and European one too. McPherson has been researching the life, times, and works of William Gillies for over twenty years. He has rethought the formative influence of his art of two World Wars, gender inequalities, and the modernist crisis of meaning and belief.

Weight: 922g
Dimension: 220 x 241 x 19 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781399518352