Joan Eardley - 'Conversations with Joan" an exhibition by Kate Downie
The Scotsman
2024-09-11
Views 3.3K
Joan Eardley - 'Conversations with Joan" an exhibition by Kate Downie
Kate Downie's 'finished' Joan Eardley painting to go on public display for the first time next month at Glasgow Women’s Library. Conversations with Joan runs from 12 September 2024 to 25 January 2025
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Glasgow Women’s Library is pleased to present ‘Conversations with Joan’, an exhibition bringing together two acclaimed women artists, Joan Eardley and Kate Downie.
In 2021 Fife based painter-printmaker Kate Downie embarked on a project to ‘finish’ Joan Eardley’s Two Children (1962–63), a painting left unfinished on Eardley’s easel in her Townhead studio following her untimely death from breast cancer at the age of 42 in 1963.
Throughout the process, Downie felt like she was engaging ‘in conversation’ with Eardley, building a strong emotional connection as she tried to figure out how the painting would have been finished. Collaborating with a dead artist is not easy, but ‘Two Children’ in its unfinished state was a blueprint of intention and a masterplan of painterly innovation in 1962.
Drawn to the possibilities left open by ‘Two Children’, Downie has created two new paintings: one in which she ‘finished’ the painting in her own way, the other a new major banner painting ‘Dead or Alive’, co-created with ten local children aged between one and twelve, incorporating their marks with hers. It reflects her continuing interest in childhood sibling relationships and the role of children, their creative output and the impact upon both Joan Eardley’s art and her own.
Visitors to the exhibition can expect to see Four Children, 1962 - 2022 by Kate Downie (after Joan Eardley) which is on loan from Glasgow Museums and on public display for the very first time, a large banner painting titled Dead or Alive (Conversations with Joan), 2023 - 2024 alongside sixteen other artworks. The exhibition will take you with Downie as she documents her journey, sharing her insights and discoveries as she looks, thinks, draws and paints to better understand Eardley and her final ambitious canvas.
Downie approached the task of ‘finishing’ Eardley’s work in a forensic, scientific manner - attempting to get ‘under the skin’ of the late artist. She was conscious of staying faithful to, and respectful of Eardley, whilst at the same time, making the work her own, updating the piece for the 21st century.
he original (unfinished) painting features foil sweetie wrappers and newspaper cuttings to represent the flotsam and jetsam of Glasgow street life. Downie’s version includes the silver Dr Martens and red wellington boots worn by her young models, included a number of contemporary objects in the pram such as a flat screen tv and anglepoise lamp, and incorporated collaged scraps of newspaper centred around Cop26, which was just beginning as she started work on the painting.
Kate Downie's 'finished' Joan Eardley painting to go on public display for the first time next month at Glasgow Women’s Library. Conversations with Joan runs from 12 September 2024 to 25 January 2025
InboxSearch for all messages with label InboxRemove label Inbox from this conversation
Glasgow Women’s Library is pleased to present ‘Conversations with Joan’, an exhibition bringing together two acclaimed women artists, Joan Eardley and Kate Downie.
In 2021 Fife based painter-printmaker Kate Downie embarked on a project to ‘finish’ Joan Eardley’s Two Children (1962–63), a painting left unfinished on Eardley’s easel in her Townhead studio following her untimely death from breast cancer at the age of 42 in 1963.
Throughout the process, Downie felt like she was engaging ‘in conversation’ with Eardley, building a strong emotional connection as she tried to figure out how the painting would have been finished. Collaborating with a dead artist is not easy, but ‘Two Children’ in its unfinished state was a blueprint of intention and a masterplan of painterly innovation in 1962.
Drawn to the possibilities left open by ‘Two Children’, Downie has created two new paintings: one in which she ‘finished’ the painting in her own way, the other a new major banner painting ‘Dead or Alive’, co-created with ten local children aged between one and twelve, incorporating their marks with hers. It reflects her continuing interest in childhood sibling relationships and the role of children, their creative output and the impact upon both Joan Eardley’s art and her own.
Visitors to the exhibition can expect to see Four Children, 1962 - 2022 by Kate Downie (after Joan Eardley) which is on loan from Glasgow Museums and on public display for the very first time, a large banner painting titled Dead or Alive (Conversations with Joan), 2023 - 2024 alongside sixteen other artworks. The exhibition will take you with Downie as she documents her journey, sharing her insights and discoveries as she looks, thinks, draws and paints to better understand Eardley and her final ambitious canvas.
Downie approached the task of ‘finishing’ Eardley’s work in a forensic, scientific manner - attempting to get ‘under the skin’ of the late artist. She was conscious of staying faithful to, and respectful of Eardley, whilst at the same time, making the work her own, updating the piece for the 21st century.
he original (unfinished) painting features foil sweetie wrappers and newspaper cuttings to represent the flotsam and jetsam of Glasgow street life. Downie’s version includes the silver Dr Martens and red wellington boots worn by her young models, included a number of contemporary objects in the pram such as a flat screen tv and anglepoise lamp, and incorporated collaged scraps of newspaper centred around Cop26, which was just beginning as she started work on the painting.
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