Joan Eardley - 'Conversations with Joan" an exhibition by Kate Downie
Joan Eardley - 'Conversations with Joan" an exhibition by Kate Downie
Kate Downie's 'finished' Joan Eardley painting to go on public display for the first time next month at Glasgow Women’s Library. Conversations with Joan runs from 12 September 2024 to 25 January 2025
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Glasgow Women’s Library is pleased to present ‘Conversations with Joan’, an exhibition bringing together two acclaimed women artists, Joan Eardley and Kate Downie.
In 2021 Fife based painter-printmaker Kate Downie embarked on a project to ‘finish’ Joan Eardley’s Two Children (1962–63), a painting left unfinished on Eardley’s easel in her Townhead studio following her untimely death from breast cancer at the age of 42 in 1963.
Throughout the process, Downie felt like she was engaging ‘in conversation’ with Eardley, building a strong emotional connection as she tried to figure out how the painting would have been finished. Collaborating with a dead artist is not easy, but ‘Two Children’ in its unfinished state was a blueprint of intention and a masterplan of painterly innovation in 1962.
Drawn to the possibilities left open by ‘Two Children’, Downie has created two new paintings: one in which she ‘finished’ the painting in her own way, the other a new major banner painting ‘Dead or Alive’, co-created with ten local children aged between one and twelve, incorporating their marks with hers. It reflects her continuing interest in childhood sibling relationships and the role of children, their creative output and the impact upon both Joan Eardley’s art and her own.
Visitors to the exhibition can expect to see Four Children, 1962 - 2022 by Kate Downie (after Joan Eardley) which is on loan from Glasgow Museums and on public display for the very first time, a large banner painting titled Dead or Alive (Conversations with Joan), 2023 - 2024 alongside sixteen other artworks. The exhibition will take you with Downie as she documents her journey, sharing her insights and discoveries as she looks, thinks, draws and paints to better understand Eardley and her final ambitious canvas.
Downie approached the task of ‘finishing’ Eardley’s work in a forensic, scientific manner - attempting to get ‘under the skin’ of the late artist. She was conscious of staying faithful to, and respectful of Eardley, whilst at the same time, making the work her own, updating the piece for the 21st century.
he original (unfinished) painting features foil sweetie wrappers and newspaper cuttings to represent the flotsam and jetsam of Glasgow street life. Downie’s version includes the silver Dr Martens and red wellington boots worn by her young models, included a number of contemporary objects in the pram such as a flat screen tv and anglepoise lamp, and incorporated collaged scraps of newspaper centred around Cop26, which was just beginning as she started work on the painting.
Kate Downie's 'finished' Joan Eardley painting to go on public display for the first time next month at Glasgow Women’s Library. Conversations with Joan runs from 12 September 2024 to 25 January 2025
InboxSearch for all messages with label InboxRemove label Inbox from this conversation
Glasgow Women’s Library is pleased to present ‘Conversations with Joan’, an exhibition bringing together two acclaimed women artists, Joan Eardley and Kate Downie.
In 2021 Fife based painter-printmaker Kate Downie embarked on a project to ‘finish’ Joan Eardley’s Two Children (1962–63), a painting left unfinished on Eardley’s easel in her Townhead studio following her untimely death from breast cancer at the age of 42 in 1963.
Throughout the process, Downie felt like she was engaging ‘in conversation’ with Eardley, building a strong emotional connection as she tried to figure out how the painting would have been finished. Collaborating with a dead artist is not easy, but ‘Two Children’ in its unfinished state was a blueprint of intention and a masterplan of painterly innovation in 1962.
Drawn to the possibilities left open by ‘Two Children’, Downie has created two new paintings: one in which she ‘finished’ the painting in her own way, the other a new major banner painting ‘Dead or Alive’, co-created with ten local children aged between one and twelve, incorporating their marks with hers. It reflects her continuing interest in childhood sibling relationships and the role of children, their creative output and the impact upon both Joan Eardley’s art and her own.
Visitors to the exhibition can expect to see Four Children, 1962 - 2022 by Kate Downie (after Joan Eardley) which is on loan from Glasgow Museums and on public display for the very first time, a large banner painting titled Dead or Alive (Conversations with Joan), 2023 - 2024 alongside sixteen other artworks. The exhibition will take you with Downie as she documents her journey, sharing her insights and discoveries as she looks, thinks, draws and paints to better understand Eardley and her final ambitious canvas.
Downie approached the task of ‘finishing’ Eardley’s work in a forensic, scientific manner - attempting to get ‘under the skin’ of the late artist. She was conscious of staying faithful to, and respectful of Eardley, whilst at the same time, making the work her own, updating the piece for the 21st century.
he original (unfinished) painting features foil sweetie wrappers and newspaper cuttings to represent the flotsam and jetsam of Glasgow street life. Downie’s version includes the silver Dr Martens and red wellington boots worn by her young models, included a number of contemporary objects in the pram such as a flat screen tv and anglepoise lamp, and incorporated collaged scraps of newspaper centred around Cop26, which was just beginning as she started work on the painting.
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NewsTranscript
00:00What's amazing is that when I'm drawing you, I find that you're really used to being drawn.
00:06Is your surname still Samson?
00:09No, it's Maclean.
00:11Me and John used to be seamers and we'd make paper aeroplanes out of them.
00:15Then again, we didn't know how it was going to work out because John was quite poor, it was a shame.
00:20I mean, it was hard for her to sell her work.
00:23But have you any idea, even then, the cost of the paint?
00:26She used to put all her money into renting the studio, I suppose.
00:31And then paying for the paint, paying for the canvas and everything.
00:34So she would have...
00:35Put a lot of money into it.
00:36Yeah, yeah.
00:37I liked her landscape scapes and her seascapes, I didn't really like the ones of hers.
00:41I think it's just because I had the pure character of a tern that's going to hang in.
00:46And I thought, what a horrible way...
00:48My name is Kate Downey. I live in Fife. I'm an artist.
00:53Today we are in the main hall of Glasgow Women's Library.
00:59Behind me is my exhibition due to open this Thursday evening.
01:05And it's called Conversations with Joan.
01:07The main idea for this exhibition began way back in 2021.
01:15And it was the anniversary of the centenary of the birth of Joan Eardley.
01:22Anyone who knows me and knows my work knows that I have an enormous respect for her art and her practice.
01:31And like many Scottish artists, there's always this feeling of a life cut short
01:38because she died when she was 42 of breast cancer.
01:42She passed away in Glasgow, but she lived actually between two places primarily.
01:48And that was Glasgow and her studio was just down the road from here.
01:52And Catralline, south of Stonehaven.
01:55I read an article that was written as part of a kind of lockdown appreciation of various artists' work.
02:05And it was all about this painting here behind me.
02:09And it was called Two Children.
02:11Now this is not the original Eardley.
02:14It's actually quite a bit bigger.
02:16It's 130 by 130 centimetres.
02:19I've known this painting as I've known a lot of her work and I've seen it in various exhibitions.
02:25It was the painting that was left unfinished on her easel in Glasgow after she died.
02:32And it was actually purchased for Glasgow museums shortly after her death.
02:40Anyway, you know how in lockdown you get a lot of strange ideas as an artist.
02:44You've got time to think.
02:45And I read the article and I thought about how fascinated I am by her work
02:52and also by the fact that this painting was interrupted by her death.
02:57And I thought, she's got plans for that painting.
03:00It's so unfinished.
03:01And I had this idea that it would be an amazing project
03:05to celebrate the 100th anniversary of her birth
03:09by bringing the conversation of her practice alive into the 21st century.
03:15So I wrote to one of the curators at Glasgow Museums, Joe Meacock,
03:21who is an art historian for British art,
03:24and said, Joe, what about if Glasgow Museums was to print,
03:29make an inkjet print, life-size, 20 times,
03:33and send it out to 20 key artists in Scotland
03:37and ask them to finish the painting in their own way?
03:41So I thought this was a great idea.
03:43You know, you get these ideas.
03:45Anyway, so I contacted her.
03:47She said, great idea, Kate, but we've no money, no money at all.
03:50But since you've thought of the idea, why don't you do it?
03:53And I went, yeah, actually I would.
03:55But I was really sad because I thought it's not about me.
03:58I just wanted to see how the influence of her practice
04:02and where she was going with it,
04:04rather than it's like, oh, she was just cut short.
04:07You know, I felt like she was interrupted by death, I suppose.
04:11So anyway, that became a 16-week project for me.
04:16And in order to do it, I needed to actually do the painting from scratch.
04:21I couldn't just paint on top of an inkjet print
04:24because as I started making the drawings,
04:26I realized I was actually covering up my source,
04:30my content of learning how to paint like her.
04:33So instead, I got a brand new piece of canvas, linen,
04:36and I primed up with oil-based primers,
04:38did everything in the right order with the right type of paint.
04:42And then I had to create a copy of this painting,
04:47the unfinished painting, but keep going.
04:50And in order to do that, I also had to have child models.
04:54So, of course, Joan was in the East End of Glasgow
04:57and she had lots of kids running around
05:00and she worked a lot with some of the children from the Samson family,
05:05two of whom have been here today.
05:07So I got other children at the same age,
05:10but as I was drawing and as I had people looking at the painting,
05:14they said, that's, that wee arm over the girl's face,
05:18that's not her arm, that looks like a baby's arm.
05:21So then I thought, yes, that's a baby, that's not,
05:24so she's holding a baby.
05:26So the more I looked, the more I saw.
05:29So by the time I finished the painting,
05:31I ended up not two children, but four children.
05:34Now that the exhibition's on the walls, how are you feeling about it?
05:37I'm really happy to see it together.
05:39I suppose the thing I'm most proud of is this large painting
05:42to the right here, and it's called Dead or Alive.
05:45And that painting is a co-creation
05:48between myself and 11 local children,
05:52many of whom modelled for me,
05:54but they got a chance to be part of this painting
05:57and they drew into it, they modelled for me.
05:59And in the way that Airdlie was fascinated by the graffiti
06:03and the chalk marks and the games that children played,
06:06I've always been very interested in that duality of, you know,
06:10childhood art and adult art
06:12and how children can only be children in their art.
06:16They can't be...
06:17You know, that it exposes so much about them and their joyousness
06:21and they're so free in the way that they make marks.
06:25So the big painting, Dead or Alive,
06:28was me trying to come back to myself
06:31and yet carry the influence of the experience
06:34that I had been through
06:36whilst finishing the two children painting.
06:39And what was it like to speak to the Samson sisters?
06:42It was really lovely.
06:43I met Anne, first of all, in June
06:45and I've made a drawing of her
06:48and that's actually the only picture that's for sale as such
06:52in this exhibition.
06:54And because she only got paid thruppence at a time
06:57to model for Joan,
06:59so I'm looking for a buyer who's going to pay a little bit more
07:02and all of the funds for that are going to go to Anne Samson.
07:05Where was Joan's practice when she died?
07:08I mean, was she a successful artist?
07:11She was very, very respected and successful
07:15in amongst the art world.
07:17She was gaining huge recognition
07:20but that doesn't mean,
07:22and any artist in Scotland can tell you
07:24that having a reputation does not mean you're wealthy at all
07:27and she was actually quite poor.
07:30She had her first London show the year that she died,
07:34just a few months before she died.
07:37She had just become a member of the Royal Scottish Academy
07:40but she was actually quite young at 42 to become that
07:43and she'd been winner of prizes at Glasgow School of Art
07:47where she studied
07:49and she was hugely respected amongst artists themselves.
07:52So I think people could see her coming,
07:55could see that talent.
07:57On the wider level, on a public level,
08:00perhaps not so much.
08:02I mean, she was quite radical in the way she painted
08:04and very free
08:06and she didn't do cute children,
08:08she didn't do it in that way
08:10and now in Scotland,
08:13everyone's really familiar with her work now
08:16and it's extremely well known
08:18but remember at the time,
08:20it must have looked quite harsh to the eye
08:22and you only have to look at a bad painting of Catiline
08:25to realise that she transformed the way
08:29perhaps that we look at the Scottish landscape,
08:31especially the East Coast landscape.
08:33She really did.
08:35At first I was scared
08:37because I said to my mum,
08:39I don't like the way that man dressed
08:41because I thought she was a man at the time
08:43the way she dressed
08:45and the duffle coat
08:47and the corduroy trousers
08:49and the short hair
08:51and things like that
08:53and mum, I said, she's not a man, she's a woman.
08:55She was a fantastic woman.
08:57She gave us a throbbing about
09:00when we were posing for her
09:03and a piece of cheese and treacle.
09:06My older brother Andrew,
09:08she was painting in the streets
09:10and he asked her what she was doing
09:12painting
09:14and he went back to paint me
09:16so he used to disappear after school
09:18and my ma says to him one time,
09:20where are you getting to go after school?
09:22Going to a woman's house.
09:24So she grabbed him by the scruff of the neck
09:26showed me where this woman stays
09:28took her down to Joan's studio
09:31and my ma and her got friendly
09:35and my ma says I've got 12 veins
09:37can paint any one of them
09:39so we used to all get sent down to Joan's
09:41to get painted out my ma's road.
09:43How many years was Joan painting your family for?
09:46I'd say about 6 or 7 years.
09:49She told my ma she had cancer
09:51and she didn't want treatment for it.
09:53She was going back to Catalina to die
09:56and my ma told us
09:58she can't go to Joan's any more
10:00because she's going back home.
10:03So that was the last we seen her.
10:05Did you enjoy being painted?
10:07Being a model?
10:09We'd run amok in her studio
10:11because it was maybe about 4 or 5
10:13was the time we used to run amok
10:15jump on top of her bed and all that
10:17and she'd say if you sit down
10:19I'll give you a piece and take it home to you
10:21so we were sitting like that.
10:23That was a luxury.
10:25At that time the Lord Provost of Glasgow
10:27didn't want to paint in Joan.
10:29And why was that?
10:31It made Glasgow look poverty
10:33and it was poverty.
10:35It was 10 years ago.
10:37Well if she made a wee mistake in one
10:40she'd say take that home with you.
10:43Which she gave us a few.
10:46But she wasn't famous or nothing
10:49we didn't think anything.
10:51She was going to become famous or anything.
10:54Because she'd say right take that home
10:58We'd go down the street and make a paper aeroplane out of them
11:01fire them a bit straight.
11:03My ma would go like that
11:05you'd better stop bringing that to the cairn
11:07roll them up and kill them by the fire.
11:09Afterwards we had a lawyer come to the house
11:12to ask if we had any Joan's paintings to sell.
11:15It was the reason I wish we did have.
11:17Did you not keep any?
11:19No, none of them.
11:21How do you feel when you look at the paintings?
11:24I don't like the paintings.
11:26As you say, we're just looking at them like oh no.
11:30When she was doing the paintings we used to go
11:32how are they going to turn out a painting?
11:34Because it was stabbing, it was
11:36oh this and look
11:38we were sitting like that.
11:40Just hurry up.
11:42Hurry up till we get our throttles.
11:45If my ma was skint she'd say
11:47go down to Joan's, there's one for you
11:50bring your throttles back.
11:52People go like
11:54you're actually famous and I'm like
11:56I don't feel famous.