Never particularly keen on exhibiting his work, British artist Euan Uglow (1932-2000) maintained a lower profile than other artists of his generation and kept many of his paintings out of the public view. Even so, his name is increasingly well known, and his beautiful, intelligent, humane and often witty landscapes, still lifes and figure studies are gaining the recognition they deserve. Appreciative critics are now joined by growing numbers of admirers who consider Uglow one of Britain's greatest post-war artists. This is the first book to examine Uglow's entire output in paintings. Richard Kendall's essay explores the formation of Uglow's fundamental attitudes, beliefs, and processes in the years 1950 to 1970, and Catherine Lampert looks at the content and personal nature of the artist's paintings over a lifetime, emphasizing especially his growing attention to colour and light. The volume reproduces every known oil painting by Uglow – a total of more than 400 works, some 80 of which are here reproduced for the first time. In addition to a chronology, bibliography and exhibition history for each work, the catalogue entries provide many other details and illuminating notes about the paintings, including the artist's own observations and the recollections of models, friends and critics.
About the Author
Catherine Lampert, former director of the Whitechapel Art Gallery, organized the major exhibitions of Uglow's work in 1974 and 1979. She is the author of "Rodin: Sculpture and Drawings", published by Yale University Press.
Richard Kendall is an independent art historian and the author of many works on Impressionism and contemporary painting, including "Degas: Landscapes", "Degas: Beyond Impressionism" and" Degas and the Little Dancer", all published by Yale University Press.
Reviews
"...scrupulous and immensely informative... Even in the form of the excellent colour reproductions in the book you can sense the glow of the paint and the sensual warmth of the engagement with the subject" – Tom Rosenthal, The Independent on Sunday
"The arrival of Catherine Lampert's new catalogue raisonne of Uglow's work, whose exemplary texts (perceptive, lucid, factual, crisply written) reveal the richness and significance of his painting, has rendered his neglect inexcusable" – Simon Wilson, RA Magazine
"By two reliable admirers unreserved in their affection and respect, this is the perfect book on Uglow, a careful catalogue raisonne of 442 paintings, a chronology with biographical facts that perhaps seemed irrelevant to the two introductory essays, and the essays themselves, constant in the warmth of their unquestioning appreciation" – Brian Sewell, Evening Standard
"The book is excellent, a model, the balance of text and catalogue perfection, the illustrations as truthful as can be, demonstrating Uglow's development (or lack of it) with the turn of every page" – Brian Sewell, Evening Standard
"A catalogue rasionne may sound daunting, but this is anything but a dry book. It displays the variety of Uglow's output: holiday landscapes, holiday nudes, small rough pictures, a handful of 'autobiographical' ones, which reveal unexpected sides to the tortured perfectionist we are more familiar with – Jane Rye, The Spectator
"This is the first book devoted to Uglow and his oeuvre... Lampert looks at the content and personal nature of the artist's paintings over a lifetime, emphasizing his growing attention to color and light" – Pallant House Gallery Magazine
