William Scott : The Voice of Colours

17 March - 7 May 2005

William Scott is a widely known artist, although not too well known by the Italian public. His works, in sensibility and completeness, approach the main abstract-nonrepresentational currents which were the leading styles after World War II. As Luigi Lambertini writes in his fine presentation in the catalogue, it was a “season full of artistic fermentation” which the artist succeeded in “reproposing” in his work, “together with the contributions of a great many elements drawn from a tradition” which can be traced back, as he suggests, both to the lessons of Morandi and further back to those of Chardin's painting. 

“A constancy in his formal quest”, “a completely Anglo-Saxon sensibility”, and the ability to sense a cultural fermentation coming from beyond his own land (frequent trips: to France, Italy, and United States in the fifties, and later in Mexico, Australia, Canada and Singapore), are the characteristics of the paintings of William Scott , who had also profitable relations with Pasmore, thanks to whom, the artist “at a certain point was thus able to decant his images of any precise intended qualification, although without ever denying his basic point of departure.” (Lambertini) 

Considering more closely Scott's work, the author of the text continues, “forms and spaces” in these very special works “sing with the voice of colour”, creating “an ongoing chromatic polyphony defining the zones of each composition”, where “the brush strokes are fluid and full of light coming from subterranean vibrations”. “Then voice of colours”, in fact , is the title of this exhibition.