Bill Hare – författare

In his latest book, Bill Hare offers a comprehensive view of Scottish art from 1945 to the present day.

Following the fi rst volume of Bill Hare’s exploration Scottish Artists, Scottish Artists in an Age of Radical Change, this new volume, Scottish Art and Artists in Historical and Contemporary Context will expand on the invaluable contribution to the cultural development of modern and contemporary Scotland.Joan Eardley, Alan Davies, the Boyle Family, Ken Currie, Anthony Hatwell, Doug Crocker, Jack Knox, Lys Hansen, William Turnbull, Iain Robertson, Douglas Gordon and John Kennedy – are just some of the artists who Bill Hare explores in both their historical and contemporary contexts. From body politics to the Athenian way to Scottish artists in Venice, this book will reveal the importance and intellectual power this generation of Scottish artists have had over decades of time through a compilation of in-depth essays and interviews.

‘In all of his portraiture, Moffat aims to find a balance between emotional expression and compositional order. Over the last 50 years or so, almost single-handed, he has upheld the importance of modern portraiture in Scotland. A determined champion and outstanding practitioner of modern portrait painting, he has produced a body of work not only of high artistic quality, but also of national and historical importance.’ BILL HARE‘“I am a poet but I’m attracted to clarity, to clear, sparse detail.” Muriel Spark was writing about her own prose style but she might equally have been describing the art of Alexander Moffat who was commissioned to paint her portrait in 1984…’ A Companion Guide to the Scottish National Portrait Gallery‘Moffat’s portrait started from studies done in MacDiarmid’s home shortly before his death, but developed into something more complex: a likeness that is also an account of him as a thinker and worker.’ NORBERT LYNTON, Picturing People: British figurative art since 1945

Illustrated with 167 full colour images, this landmark book charts Alexander Moffat’s career from student days at Edinburgh College of Art in the 1960s to the recent Scotland’s Voices. Iconic portraits of major figures in literature and the other arts are represented. The cultural significance of the visual chronicle Moffat has created lies in his approach to portraiture. He aims not only to capture a sitter’s appearance but also to convey something of their inner character, reaching ‘a balance between emotional expression and compositional order’.