Born – London, England 1958
Peter Howson lives and works in Scotland. He trained at the Glasgow School of Art from 1975-1977 and 1979-1981. Here, the string academic traditions of figurative art give him and other painters of his generation a solid basis on which to formulate a recognized way of working. Howson was one of the driving forces behind the so-called New Image painting that revolutionized British art in the late 1980s. A return to narrative and to powerful figuration came from an acknowledgment of Glasgow’s socio-economic difficulties at the time. A socialist element infiltrated Howson’s painting, which tended to focus on the struggles of the working classes. A Night That Never Ends was a typical example of Howson’s oeuvre of this period, a multi-figurative scene comprising individuals representing “the common man”. They inhabit a tough, violent world where nihilism rules. There is little hope, little sun and no joy. Howson’s assured, bold technique lends a note of reassurance; the viewer is in no doubt that this is not the real world. It is, however, an extraordinary visualization of humanity as both feared and fearful. In 1993 Howson was official British war artist in Bosnia, making some bleak images. His nude paintings of superstar Madonna, exhibited in 2002, excited a different form of controversy.
Masterpieces:
• Patriots
• Cleansed
Text: The A-Z of Art, Nicola Hodge and Libby Anson.