The City Art Centre has announced that it will be hosting a major retrospective, this May, of leading figurative painter Peter Howson. Howson, who lives in Glasgow, was the official British war artist in 1993 during the Bosnian War.
"When the Apple Ripens: Peter Howson at 65" will run from 27 May to 1 October 2023. The exhibition will bring together around 100 works spanning the artist’s career, many never seen before in Scotland.
Howson is renowned for his heroic portrayals of how the mighty and the lowly confront human conflict and destruction.
His experiences of abuse—whether self-inflicted and substance-related, or the traumatic events of his childhood—have moulded his world view, and afforded him an affinity with individuals on the margins of society.
The City Art Centre’s Curatorial and Conservation Manager, David Patterson has been planning the exhibition since 2019, working closely with Howson and his London gallery.
Howson has previously shown at the City Art Centre, when his critically acclaimed solo exhibition devoted to Scotland’s patron saint Andrew was displayed in 2007.
“This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to see works assembled from public and private collections,” said Patterson. “This retrospective will illustrate Peter’s consummate skill in a range of media and explore his religious work as well as his graphic responses to recent global events including the covid pandemic and war in Ukraine.”
Emerging from Glasgow School of Art in the 1980s, Howson quickly proved his skill of capturing the maverick, the excessive, the non-conformist and his own personal understanding of the struggles of everyday life.
In 1992 he was commissioned by the Imperial War Museum to record the conflict in the former Yugoslavia. He was appointed official British war artist for Bosnia in 1993 and in 1996 was awarded Doctor of Letters at The University of Strathclyde. His work is included in numerous national and international museum collections.
When the Apple Ripens: Peter Howson at 65: A Retrospective opens at the City Art Centre in Edinburgh on 27th May 2023 and runs until 1st October 2023. A new book will accompany the exhibition, published by Sansom and Co.
Adult tickets are £8.50, concessions are £6.50, and children 12 and under go free. Buy in advance on the Museums & Galleries Edinburgh website.