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Craigie Aitchison: And the Beaux Arts Generation

Past exhibition
14 November 2019 - 29 January 2020 Piano Nobile
  • Summary
  • Works
  • Media
  • Publications
  • Installation Views
  • Press
Summary
Craigie Aitchison, And the Beaux Arts Generation

It was 1952 when a soft-spoken Scotsman entered the Slade School of Fine Art. Accompanied by his beagle named Somerset, he attended on a part-time basis at first. Few could have missed Craigie Aitchison in those days and he was certainly noticed by another Slade student, Michael Andrews, who later recommended him to Helen Lessore, proprietor of the Beaux Arts Gallery. Aitchison was one of the most original British artists of his generation, his success underpinned by rigorous observation and a painter’s sensitivity to surface texture. The use of saturated mineral colouring in his work betrays a mixture of vision, a view of life beyond appearances, and craftsman-like skill, forging an intoxicating alchemy of yellow and cerulean, umber and viridian.

 

Aitchison belonged to the Beaux Arts generation, a tight-knit milieu of figurative artists that emerged after the Second World War. Along with Michael Andrews, Frank Auerbach, Leon Kossoff and Euan Uglow, he held his first solo exhibition at Helen Lessore’s Beaux Arts Gallery on Bruton Street – a flight-footed enterprise bringing together artists of prodigious talent from London’s leading art schools. The early careers of these five artists were launched under Lessore’s discerning gaze and close friendships were formed, even as a wild divergence of artistic styles took place. By the time of its closure in 1965, the Beaux Arts Gallery had laid foundations for the next five decades of British art.

 

The exhibition showed Aitchison’s work up to the mid-1990s, including a rare early butterfly painting, still lifes from the 1960s and early 1970s, and portraits and crucifixions. In a parallel space, a significant group of paintings and watercolours by Andrews hung alongside nudes and still lifes by Uglow, and substantial early works by Auerbach and Kossoff. The accompanying fully-illustrated catalogue included a memoir by the writer and garden historian Susan Campbell, née Benson. Campbell studied at the Slade, was friends with Aitchison, Andrews and Uglow, and experienced the Beaux Arts Gallery at first hand. The publication presented these artists’ work in a new context, throwing light on Aitchison’s part in this important creative network.

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Works
  • Craigie Aitchison, Butterflies in a Landscape, 1956
    Craigie Aitchison, Butterflies in a Landscape, 1956
  • Frank Auerbach, Building Site near St Paul's: Winter, 1955, c.
    Frank Auerbach, Building Site near St Paul's: Winter, 1955, c.
  • Euan Uglow, Daisy in a Milk Bottle, 1953
    Euan Uglow, Daisy in a Milk Bottle, 1953
  • dark charcoal portrait of a man in a wheelchair by Leon Kossoff
    Leon Kossoff, Young Man Seated, 1961
  • Craigie Aitchison, Portrait of Carl, 1970
    Craigie Aitchison, Portrait of Carl, 1970
  • Michael Andrews, Study of a Head for a Group of Figures, 1967
    Michael Andrews, Study of a Head for a Group of Figures, 1967
Media
Publications
  • Craigie Aitchison

    Craigie Aitchison

    and THE BEAUX ARTS GENERATION Susan Campbell, 2019
    Softback 152 pages
    Publisher: Piano Nobile Publications
    ISBN: 978-1-901192-55-1
    Dimensions: 24 x 28 cm
    Read more
Installation Views
  • 008A1949
  • 008A1978 Edit
  • 008A1817
  • 008A1954
  • 008A1838
  • 008A1820
  • 008A1857
  • 008A1846
  • 008A1931
Press
  • Glass encounters Craigie Aitchison and the Beaux Arts Generation at Piano Nobile Gallery

    Glass encounters Craigie Aitchison and the Beaux Arts Generation at Piano Nobile Gallery

    Glass November 21, 2019
    PERHAPS one of the most British of British painters, Craigie Aitchison entered the Slade School of Fine Art in the autumn of 1952, accompanied by...
    Read more
  • Private view: Three must-see gallery shows opening in November

    Private view: Three must-see gallery shows opening in November

    The Art Newspaper November 20, 2019
    Margaret Carrigan and Anna Brady review their top gallery shows opening in November 2019, featuring Craigie Aitchison and the Beaux Arts Generation.
    Read more
  • Dealers Diary

    Dealers Diary

    Antiques Trade Gazette November 20, 2019
    Craigie Aitchison and the Beaux Arts Generation was featured in the Dealers Diary.
    Read more
  • Craigie Aitchison and the Beaux Arts Generation in The Daily Telegraph

    Craigie Aitchison and the Beaux Arts Generation in The Daily Telegraph

    Colin Gleadell November 19, 2019
    Piano Nobile's autumn exhibition, Craigie Aitchison and the Beaux Arts Generation , has been covered in the art market column of The Daily Telegraph ....
    Read more
  • Capital Gains

    Capital Gains

    What to do in London November 15, 2019
    A round-up of what do in the capital by Clara Strunck featuring the Craigie Aitchison exhibition, she reviewed it as 'vivid and feel-good'.
    Read more

Related artists

  • Craigie Aitchison

    Craigie Aitchison

  • Michael Andrews

    Michael Andrews

  • Frank Auerbach

    Frank Auerbach

  • Leon Kossoff

    Leon Kossoff

  • Euan Uglow

    Euan Uglow

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