Muscle and guts are at the heart of Peter Howson’s work in this major exhibition, as one of Scotland’s most formidable and most sensitive artists squares up to his back catalogue on an epic scale. A holy trinity of self-portraits introduce each of the three floors, from Jekyll and Hyde (1995) to the Repentant of 2001, and, in his most recent study, a man etched with the lines of experience. This points all the way back to Howson’s early images of boxers, bruisers, prostitutes and dossers, who seem to be threatening a square go with the viewer. Like the prowling beast in Tiger (2000) painted during a wildlife commission in India, many of Howson’s subjects look ready to pounce. Howson’s choices of celebrity portraits are as telling, as a toned and pneumatic ‘Madonna’ (2002) sits in repose, while a defiant but wary looking ‘Steven Berkoff’ (2002) occupies the mean streets. On the second floor, under the umbrella title of Suffering and Salvation, Howson charts his religious awakening
An archive of arts writing by Neil Cooper. Effete No Obstacle.