Facing the Nation
The portraiture of Alexander Moffat
2nd Edition
Published on 30. December 2024
Book
Paperback/Softback
978-1-80425-167-6 (ISBN)
Description
'In all of his portraiture, Moffat aims to find a balance between emotional expression and compositional order. Over the last 50 years or so, almost single-handed, he has upheld the importance of modern portraiture in Scotland. A determined champion and outstanding practitioner of modern portrait painting, he has produced a body of work not only of high artistic quality, but also of national and historical importance.' BILL HARE
'"I am a poet but I'm attracted to clarity, to clear, sparse detail." Muriel Spark was writing about her own prose style but she might equally have been describing the art of Alexander Moffat who was commissioned to paint her portrait in 1984...' A Companion Guide to the Scottish National Portrait Gallery
'Moffat's portrait started from studies done in MacDiarmid's home shortly before his death, but developed into something more complex: a likeness that is also an account of him as a thinker and worker.' NORBERT LYNTON, Picturing People: British figurative art since 1945
'"I am a poet but I'm attracted to clarity, to clear, sparse detail." Muriel Spark was writing about her own prose style but she might equally have been describing the art of Alexander Moffat who was commissioned to paint her portrait in 1984...' A Companion Guide to the Scottish National Portrait Gallery
'Moffat's portrait started from studies done in MacDiarmid's home shortly before his death, but developed into something more complex: a likeness that is also an account of him as a thinker and worker.' NORBERT LYNTON, Picturing People: British figurative art since 1945
Reviews / Votes
Illuminating, lavishly illustrated and long overdue retrospective of Moffat's work. ALAN TAYLORMakes an impressively clear-sighted assessment of the ways in which he adapted and updated the genre [portraiture]... there are some choice anecdotes about Moff at's experiences of painting some of his more famous subjects.The Scotsman
More details
Edition
2nd edition
Language
English
Place of publication
Edinburgh
United Kingdom
Product notice
Unsewn / adhesive bound
Dimensions
Height: 203 mm
Width: 158 mm
Thickness: 19 mm
Weight
388 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-80425-167-6 (9781804251676)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
E-Book
11/2024
Luath Press
€15.59
Available for download
Person
BILL HARE was born in Edinburgh in 1944 and studied at the University of Edinburgh and the Courtauld Institute, University of London in the 1970s. Since then he has taught art history at the University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh College of Art and the Open University. In 1985 he was appointed Exhibition Organiser at the Talbot Rice Gallery, working with many Scottish artists. Since 1995 he has concentrated on teaching and freelance curating, with his main focus on Scottish art since 1945. He has curated a number of important exhibitions both in Scotland and abroad, and has published books and catalogues on a range of different aspects of historical and modern Scottish art. He is currently an Honorary Fellow in Scottish art history at the University of Edinburgh.