William Scott

Scott was born in 1913 in Scotland and grew up in Northern Ireland as the eldest of eleven children. He studied at the Belfast College of Art and then at the Royal Academy Schools in London. The Arts Council's display at the 1951 Festival of Britain brought his work to wider notice, and in 1953 a trip to New York put him in contact with Rothko, Pollock, de Kooning and other painters there, after which he showed in the city regularly. His output moves from abstraction to still lifes that grow increasingly dense with layered meanings.

This book gathers work from every period of Scott's career, with most images printed in full colour. Norbert Lynton, an art historian, writes the introduction and critical assessment. The William Scott Estate granted him unrestricted access to the artist's private archive.

Lynton's account draws on his personal acquaintance with Scott and the art world Scott worked in, on first-hand study of the paintings in collections around the world, and on research in the Scott Archives. He also places the work within the wider currents of Western art during Scott's lifetime.