Euan Uglow : An Arc from the Eye

A beautifully illustrated study of one of Britain’s most significant 20th century painters, featuring over 40 of his most ambitious paintings.

Euan Uglow (1932–2000) was one of Britain’s most significant twentieth-century painters, known for his sustained observation and painstaking technique, often taking months, if not years, to complete a work. Each picture pursues a particular idea, seeking to depict the visual reality of the concept, expressed with radiant colours and light. This book accompanies the first solo exhibition of Uglow’s work in a UK public institution (MK Gallery) for 20 years and features over 40 of his most ambitious paintings.

Uglow often had three or four active ‘set-ups’ in his Battersea studio, using particular rectangular compositions in an attempt ‘to paint a structured painting full of controlled and therefore potent emotion’. Almost mathematical in his methods, Uglow left markings on his canvases that reveal his processes, including how the passage of time affected the depiction of his subjects.

Best known for his large-scale nudes, Uglow also made landscapes in the summer light of the Mediterranean and still lifes, taking up the challenge of painting materials such as plastic, as well as organic material in gradual decay, such as fruit.

With essays by Catherine Lampert and Kate Aspinall the book also includes drawings and examples of work by his artistic influences, Paul Cézanne, Alberto Giacometti and his former tutors William Coldstream, Victor Pasmore and Claude Rogers.