William Turnbull: International Modern Artist

By Bill Hare, 19.07.2022

William Turnbull, 15-1965, 1965. Oil on canvas, 254 x 188 cm. © Prudence Cuming Associates

William Turnbull (1922-2012) was born in Dundee, but as with many other ambitious modern artists of the immediate post-war generation, he pursued his career out with Scotland. Throughout his life his work was rarely seen here and this unfortunately meant that many people have remained unfamiliar with both his sculpture and painting. This neglect is still to be found in the fact that sadly nowhere in Scotland is there a Turnbull centenary exhibition planned to celebrate this major Scottish modern artist. In marked contrast however, Turnbull's long and rewarding creative career is held in wide and high regard within the British and International art worlds. Lund Humphries’ publication of William Turnbull: International Modern Artist, celebrating the artist’s centenary, undoubtedly confirms this.

With this new major publication, the editor Jon Wood, distinguished curator and critic, has brought together a very impressive body of wide-ranging writings from an array of important supporters and admirers of Turnbull’s art. These include a foreword by long-time champion of Turnbull, Nicholas Serota, and over sixty critical testimonies from the likes of fellow artists, such as Philip King and Sean Scully, art critics, Margaret Garlake and Matthew Collings, curators, Richard Demarco, Pat Fisher and Patrick Elliott and art historians, Daniel Herrman and Amanda Davidson (who published the excellent Lund Humphries monograph The Sculpture of William Turnbull in 2005).

The contextual text, in the form of ten essays, covering the development of Turnbull’s dual artistic career of sculptor and painter, is presented in three historical periods; first, the early experimental period of 1950s, second, the more conceptual and abstract era of 1960s and early 70s and third, the anthropological imaginary from the late 1970s onwards.

If I might finish on a personal note, I never had the privilege of meeting Turnbull in person, but I was fortunate to carry out a correspondence interview with him in 2012, which sadly proved to be his last. This can be found in Scottish Art News Issue 19 and Issue 20, and in my book, Scottish Artists in an Age of Radical Change - 1945 to the 21st Century.

William Turnbull: International Modern Artist is published by Lund Humphries and edited by Jon Wood.