RSA Scottish Art
Transparencies
 | Artist: James Cowie |
| Title: Transparencies | |
| Year: c. 1947 | |
| Medium: gouache & chalk on paper | |
| Dimensions: | |
| Suggested topic: figure composition | |
| Source: RSA | |
| View full screen image of this work | |
| Open print version of this work | |
| © the artist’s family | |
| Description: James Cowie's work is distinctive for his use of muted colours. In this composition, called Transparencies, the arrangement of the figures is complex, with many overlapping layers and crossing diagonals. It is held together by the two upright figures and the long central vertical lines running from top to bottom. Tonally the painting is quite light, which effectively represents transparency and ghostliness. The palette is restrained, consisting mostly of earth colours, shades of chalky blue-grey and some subtle pinks and purples. The context of this painting is surreal and this feeling of “otherworldliness” is carried on through the execution of the idea. A cascade of images lies at the centre of the painting. These stylised figures seem almost flat, with no attempt to make them more “realistic” by adding texture through brushstrokes or chalk-marks. Another figure appears off to the right-hand side, but is only suggested by chalk lines and has not been completed. The pale outlines around the figures and the dark features make them almost appear to be in a photographic negative.During the 1930s and 1940s Cowie was employed at a summer art school at Hospitalfield, outside Arbroath. As well as supervising students, he was able to carry on with his own work. In Transparencies he has incorporated visual references to such items as postcards of Old Master paintings and plaster figurines. These would have been part of his surroundings at Hospitalfield but here he turns them into a strange and surreal image by playing with the idea of mirrors, reflections and layers of transparent slides. Using images of earlier artworks to create new artworks became much more common towards the end of the 20th century, particularly in American art. This tendency is known as Appropriation. | |