Clare Henry finds Scotland's main art galleries indifferent to a
partnership valued in London, the US, and Falkirk
FALKIRK photographer and businessman John Rae took delivery yesterday
of two paintings commissioned 18 months ago from artist Jenny Saville
and her partner Paul McPhail -- just hours before the couple fly out to
America to a six-month residency with free studio, free materials,
accommodation, and car, courtesy of art patrons Sony president Bob
Summers and his wife Susan.
Saville, 23, a Glasgow School of Art graduate, is currently Britain's
most talked-about young painter, seen as a hot property in the United
States after the success of her current London exhibition at the Saatchi
Gallery.
Rae commissioned the paintings for his home after seeing just one of
their works. He gave each of them #750 cash as a down payment, he
explained yesterday. ''No receipt. I did it on trust. But it has paid
off really well. The paintings are stunning; fabulous. Well worth the
wait.''
Rae began collecting new Scottish art in 1990. He first saw Saville's
work in Edinburgh's Society of Scottish Artists annual exhibition.
''There was this big nude reflected in a mirror. It blew me away. I'd
heard Saville's name, and read about her in The Herald. They came to my
house to see the space. They had carte blanche to paint anything they
wanted. I didn't know anything then about Saatchi or the London show.''
Yesterday two giant canvases 7ft by 5ft, the paint still wet, were
handed over amid palpable excitement. Both artists paint controversial
nude figures. Saville's feminist stance on the perception of ideal
beauty versus reality takes the form of obese fleshy females.
McPhail focuses on the vulnerability of naked men, and the inevitable
tensions of two nude male figures together. He says: ''I'm exploring the
use of male flesh as portrayed in heterosexual and homosexual
advertising, especially in America. On one hand male bodies are used to
promote Calvin Klein underwear to heterosexuals and the next are
employed to highlight Aids. There is a curious dichotomy here. I don't
go along with the current trendy lefty fashion for seeing men as
victims.''
Rae is unfazed by what Falkirk neighbours might say to his paintings
of Saville's famous bulbous female and McPhail's naked couple in the
pose of a secular pieta.
Rae is just one of many Saville fans, but one of only a handful who
have spotted McPhail's undoubted talent. ''He's a very, very fine
painter. He's not had the best of luck what with his first dealer going
bust, then peritonitis which nearly killed him. Now he's painting again
he'll have to promote himself or he'll miss out. He should be working
towards a big show.''
Neither Glasgow Art Gallery nor the Scottish National Gallery have any
work by Saville or McPhail. ''They've never been near us nor showed us
any interest,'' they said yesterday. Prices for their work will
undoubtedly rocket. Charles Saatchi owns almost all Saville's output, so
her pictures are increasingly rare. Scottish museums may have reacted
too slowly and missed out on acquiring pictures, depriving Scots of
seeing home-grown talent outside London or America.
''We're looking forward to America tremendously,'' said Saville
yesterday. ''We hope to do lots of work and plan to live in London on
our return.''
Both brand-new oils handed over yesterday are worthy of any national
gallery. Neither artist has stinted in quality, size, or ambition.
There's no selling short or cutting corners here. Falkirk's gain is
Glasgow's loss.
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