Steven Campbell (artist)
Encyclopedia
Steven Campbell was a painter from Scotland
. He died in 2007.
as a mature student, from 1978 to 1982. Initially he studied the then still new subject of performance art, but quickly gave this up for painting.
At the end of his studies he was awarded the Bram Stoker gold medal, and gained a Fulbright Scholarship which he used to go to New York to study at the Pratt Institute
. This move resulted in many of his early exhibitions taking place in New York, including his first solo show, in 1983, at the Barbara Toll Gallery.
There is some dispute as to whether Campbell was one of the core group of students nurtured by the artist and tutor Alexander Moffat at Glasgow School of Art, including Peter Howson
and Ken Currie
, but Campbell was certainly included by Moffat in the 1981 group show The Vigorous Imagination at the New 57 Gallery, Edinburgh, later known as the Fruitmarket Gallery
, which was the first public showing of this group. He was also included in the seminal exhibition at Glasgow's Third Eye Centre entitled New Image Glasgow, again curated by Moffat, which is still regarded as an exemplar in how a non-metropolitan centre can promote art and culture on the international stage. In this exhibition Moffat presented Campbell and other Glasgow artists as a 'New Scottish School'. He was also included in the 1985 Hayward Annual exhibition held at the Hayward Gallery, London, and had a joint show with the British Pop Artist Colin Self
at the Fruitmarket Gallery in Edinburgh.
Campbell returned to live in Glasgow in 1986, and that same year his painting The Dangerous Early and Late Life of Lytton Strachey was acquired by The Tate. The following year he was included in a group show, also called The Vigorous Imagination New Scottish Art held at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art in Edinburgh as part of the Edinburgh Festival
, at which he cemented his elevated status within the new Scottish art world by being one of the most prominently displayed artists. 1987 was also the year of his first exhibition of paintings with the London art gallery Marlborough Fine Art. This was only Campbell's second solo show in London, the first having been at the Riverside Studios in 1984. In 1988, Campbell's painting A Man Perceived by a Flea, painted in 1985, was acquired by the Scottish National Gallery,
Further works were acquired by state collections in Britain
, including Napoleonic Silhouettist Cutting the Progress of the War by the Arts Council
in 1987, Painting on a Darwinian Theme by the British Council
in 1988, and Three men of exactly the same size in an unequal room by Leeds City Art Gallery in 1989.
In the late 1990s Campbell withdrew from public life with worries over his health. It was not until 2002 that he exhibited again, with what proved to be his last major show, at the Talbot Rice Gallery in Edinburgh.
Campbell died of a ruptured appendix on August 15, 2007, aged 54. He was married and had three children.
Campbell's Estate is represented by Marlborough Fine Art, London.
His subject matter has been described as focusing on the surreal ridiculousness of the English gentleman, with almost Bertie Wooster
type scenarios shown in his paintings. Certainly a number of his paintings show slightly old fashioned looking men dressed in tweed suits
, as in The Dangerous Early and Late Life of Lytton Strachey in the Tate.
As this suggests, there is a strong literary element in the paintings, and in common with many other artists who were showcased by Alexander Moffat in his exhibition New Image Glasgow at the Third Eye Centre, Glasgow, in 1985, one of the sources for this narrative bent in Campbell's work is the Neue Sachlichkeit
artists of 1920s Germany. Of particular relevance would seem to be the paintings of the Neue Sachlichkeit artist Otto Dix
whose colouring, subject matter and sharp realist drawing style in paintings like To Beauty, prefigures the work of Campbell closely. However, Campbell's images have also been linked to English painters of the same period, including Stanley Spencer
. Certainly this linear, or as the art critic Tim Hilton called it 'illustrational', quality is evident in a painting like Campbell's Battle of Myths! The Tree Man/The Green Man,oil on canvas, which was unfinished at the time of his death in 2007.
Campbell's paintings include many recurring motifs, such as skulls, birds and anthropomorphic foliage, but also recurring patterns, such as the paisley
pattern that reappears in several of his late paintings. This use of visual motifs to hint at possible narratives which are rarely straightforward or easy to decode led to some critics dismissing Campbell's work, with the critic of The Independent newspaper in London calling it as a 'soup of arcane motifs'. But following his death Campbell's store amongst art critics seemed to rise, with The Times' newspaper calling him 'one of the most forceful and original artists to have emerged lately in Britain’, and the The Guardian ‘The most exciting painter to emerge anywhere for many years’.
Certainly Campbell's importance to the renaissance in Scottish art in the 1980s, which saw Glasgow become one of the major international centres for contemporary art at that time, is acknowledged to be very great. According to John McKechnie, the director of the Glasgow Print Studio, at which Campbell exhibited in 2004,: "If it wasn't for Steven Campbell, we would never have the focus we do now on visual art in Glasgow. Before Steven came along there really wasn't any expectation that you could make it as an artist on an international scene."
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
. He died in 2007.
Biography
Campbell was born in Glasgow and worked as an engineer before studying at Glasgow School of ArtGlasgow School of Art
Glasgow School of Art is one of only two independent art schools in Scotland, situated in the Garnethill area of Glasgow.-History:It was founded in 1845 as the Glasgow Government School of Design. In 1853, it changed its name to The Glasgow School of Art. Initially it was located at 12 Ingram...
as a mature student, from 1978 to 1982. Initially he studied the then still new subject of performance art, but quickly gave this up for painting.
At the end of his studies he was awarded the Bram Stoker gold medal, and gained a Fulbright Scholarship which he used to go to New York to study at the Pratt Institute
Pratt Institute
Pratt Institute is a private art college in New York City located in Brooklyn, New York, with satellite campuses in Manhattan and Utica. Pratt is one of the leading undergraduate art schools in the United States and offers programs in Architecture, Graphic Design, History of Art and Design,...
. This move resulted in many of his early exhibitions taking place in New York, including his first solo show, in 1983, at the Barbara Toll Gallery.
There is some dispute as to whether Campbell was one of the core group of students nurtured by the artist and tutor Alexander Moffat at Glasgow School of Art, including Peter Howson
Peter Howson
Peter Howson OBE is a Scottish painter. He was an official war artist in the 1993 Bosnian Civil War.Peter Howson was born in London and moved with his family to Prestwick, Ayrshire, when Howson was aged four...
and Ken Currie
Ken Currie
Ken Currie is a Scottish painter, one of the most influential living artists in Scotland. His paintings are displayed in public and museum collections worldwide....
, but Campbell was certainly included by Moffat in the 1981 group show The Vigorous Imagination at the New 57 Gallery, Edinburgh, later known as the Fruitmarket Gallery
Fruitmarket Gallery
The Fruitmarket Gallery is an art gallery in Edinburgh, Scotland. It is located in the centre of the city on Market Street, beside Edinburgh Waverley train station....
, which was the first public showing of this group. He was also included in the seminal exhibition at Glasgow's Third Eye Centre entitled New Image Glasgow, again curated by Moffat, which is still regarded as an exemplar in how a non-metropolitan centre can promote art and culture on the international stage. In this exhibition Moffat presented Campbell and other Glasgow artists as a 'New Scottish School'. He was also included in the 1985 Hayward Annual exhibition held at the Hayward Gallery, London, and had a joint show with the British Pop Artist Colin Self
Colin Self
Colin Self is a British Pop Artist, whose work has addressed the theme of Cold War politics.As a student at the Slade School of Fine Art from 1961 to 1963 Colin Self received encouragement for his drawings and collages from the artists David Hockney and Peter Blake...
at the Fruitmarket Gallery in Edinburgh.
Campbell returned to live in Glasgow in 1986, and that same year his painting The Dangerous Early and Late Life of Lytton Strachey was acquired by The Tate. The following year he was included in a group show, also called The Vigorous Imagination New Scottish Art held at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art in Edinburgh as part of the Edinburgh Festival
Edinburgh Festival
The Edinburgh Festival is a collective term for many arts and cultural festivals that take place in Edinburgh, Scotland each summer, mostly in August...
, at which he cemented his elevated status within the new Scottish art world by being one of the most prominently displayed artists. 1987 was also the year of his first exhibition of paintings with the London art gallery Marlborough Fine Art. This was only Campbell's second solo show in London, the first having been at the Riverside Studios in 1984. In 1988, Campbell's painting A Man Perceived by a Flea, painted in 1985, was acquired by the Scottish National Gallery,
Further works were acquired by state collections in Britain
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
, including Napoleonic Silhouettist Cutting the Progress of the War by the Arts Council
Arts council
An arts council is a government or private, non-profit organization dedicated to promoting the arts mainly by funding local artists, awarding prizes, and organizing events at home and abroad...
in 1987, Painting on a Darwinian Theme by the British Council
British Council
The British Council is a United Kingdom-based organisation specialising in international educational and cultural opportunities. It is registered as a charity both in England and Wales, and in Scotland...
in 1988, and Three men of exactly the same size in an unequal room by Leeds City Art Gallery in 1989.
In the late 1990s Campbell withdrew from public life with worries over his health. It was not until 2002 that he exhibited again, with what proved to be his last major show, at the Talbot Rice Gallery in Edinburgh.
Campbell died of a ruptured appendix on August 15, 2007, aged 54. He was married and had three children.
Campbell's Estate is represented by Marlborough Fine Art, London.
Style and Influences
Campbell's style of painting is figurative, with a hard linear quality to the application of paint. The colour palette is strong, with rich colours tending to be dominated by a blue-green light. Campbell would boast of being a very fast painter, although it has been suggested he liked to exaggerate claims like this.His subject matter has been described as focusing on the surreal ridiculousness of the English gentleman, with almost Bertie Wooster
Bertie Wooster
Bertram Wilberforce "Bertie" Wooster is a recurring fictional character in the Jeeves novels of British author P. G. Wodehouse. An English gentleman, one of the "idle rich" and a member of the Drones Club, he appears alongside his valet, Jeeves, whose genius manages to extricate Bertie or one of...
type scenarios shown in his paintings. Certainly a number of his paintings show slightly old fashioned looking men dressed in tweed suits
Tweed (cloth)
Tweed is a rough, unfinished woolen fabric, of a soft, open, flexible texture, resembling cheviot or homespun, but more closely woven. It is made in either plain or twill weave and may have a check or herringbone pattern...
, as in The Dangerous Early and Late Life of Lytton Strachey in the Tate.
As this suggests, there is a strong literary element in the paintings, and in common with many other artists who were showcased by Alexander Moffat in his exhibition New Image Glasgow at the Third Eye Centre, Glasgow, in 1985, one of the sources for this narrative bent in Campbell's work is the Neue Sachlichkeit
New Objectivity
The New Objectivity is a term used to characterize the attitude of public life in Weimar Germany as well as the art, literature, music, and architecture created to adapt to it...
artists of 1920s Germany. Of particular relevance would seem to be the paintings of the Neue Sachlichkeit artist Otto Dix
Otto Dix
Wilhelm Heinrich Otto Dix was a German painter and printmaker, noted for his ruthless and harshly realistic depictions of Weimar society and the brutality of war. Along with George Grosz, he is widely considered one of the most important artists of the Neue Sachlichkeit.-Early life and...
whose colouring, subject matter and sharp realist drawing style in paintings like To Beauty, prefigures the work of Campbell closely. However, Campbell's images have also been linked to English painters of the same period, including Stanley Spencer
Stanley Spencer
Sir Stanley Spencer was an English painter. Much of his work depicts Biblical scenes, from miracles to Crucifixion, happening not in the Holy Land but in the small Thames-side village where he was born and spent most of his life...
. Certainly this linear, or as the art critic Tim Hilton called it 'illustrational',
Campbell's paintings include many recurring motifs, such as skulls, birds and anthropomorphic foliage, but also recurring patterns, such as the paisley
Paisley (design)
Paisley or Paisley pattern is a droplet-shaped vegetable motif of Indian, Pakistani and Persian origin. The pattern is sometimes called "Persian pickles" by American traditionalists, especially quiltmakers,The Persian Pickle Club, Sandra Dallas. St. Martin's Press,...
pattern that reappears in several of his late paintings. This use of visual motifs to hint at possible narratives which are rarely straightforward or easy to decode led to some critics dismissing Campbell's work, with the critic of The Independent newspaper in London calling it as a 'soup of arcane motifs'. But following his death Campbell's store amongst art critics seemed to rise, with The Times' newspaper calling him 'one of the most forceful and original artists to have emerged lately in Britain’, and the The Guardian ‘The most exciting painter to emerge anywhere for many years’.
Certainly Campbell's importance to the renaissance in Scottish art in the 1980s, which saw Glasgow become one of the major international centres for contemporary art at that time, is acknowledged to be very great. According to John McKechnie, the director of the Glasgow Print Studio, at which Campbell exhibited in 2004,: "If it wasn't for Steven Campbell, we would never have the focus we do now on visual art in Glasgow. Before Steven came along there really wasn't any expectation that you could make it as an artist on an international scene."
Further reading
- Moffat, AlexanderNew Image Glasgow, exh. cat. (Glasgow: Third Eye Centre, 1985)
- Calder, Angus, 'Art for a New Scotland', in Circa, no. 64, Summer 1993
- Godfrey, Tony, Steven Campbell (London: Marlborough Fine Art, 1987)