Scottie Wilson (British 1890-1972)
Scottie Wilson is a self-taught primitive artist who started painting around 1936, at the age of forty-four.
Born Louis Freeman, Wilson liked to keep some mystery about his origins and the exact date of birth. The son of Lithuanian émigré parents, Wilson was born in Glasgow. He left school aged nine to help his family survive by selling patent medicines in the street. He joined the army aged sixteen and served in India and South Africa.
Around 1930, Wilson settled in Canada, initially running an unsuccessful second-hand furniture business. He started drawing and in 1943 had his first and successful one-man show at the Loan Society in Toronto. Wilson then returned to London, where he had a one-man show at the Arcade Gallery, London in 1945. Wilson participated in the Surrealist show at the Galerie Maeght in Paris, 1947, followed by exhibitions in Basel and New York. Back in London, Wilson exhibited at the legendary Gallery One, at the Brook Street Gallery and at the Ben Uri Gallery.
Wilson designed dinner, tea and coffee services for the Royal Worcester Porcelain Company in 1965. He also designed tapestries for the Aubusson workshop in France and for the Edinburgh Weavers' Association, and collaborated with fabric designer Zika Ascher on his Artist's Squares project.
Despite his success, Wilson maintained a deep distrust of dealers, and continued to sell his work on the street for a pittance, for he considered the people in the street as the real intellect. Wilson's work was admired and collected by the likes of Jean Dubuffet and Pablo Picasso and is generally accepted to be in the forefront of 20th Century Outsider Art.
Public collections include
Musée d'Art Moderne, Paris
Museum of Modern Art, New York
Tate, London
Bibliography
Anthony J. PETULLO, Katherine MURRELL, Scottie Wilson: Peddler Turned Painter, Petullo Publishing LLC, 2004
Scottie Wilson, with an introduction by Mervyn LEVY, Brook Street Gallery, London, 1966
Solo Exhibitions
2003, Scottie Wilson, James Colman, London
1998, Scottie Wilson, Cyril Gerber Fine Art, Glasgow
1997, Scottie Wilson, Angel Row Gallery, Nottingham
1993, Parallel Visions, Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Reina Sofia, Madrid; Kunsthalle, Basel, Setagaya Museum, Japan
1989 - 90, Scottie Wilson: The Canadian Drawings, Dunlop Art Gallery, Regina Saskatchewan and touring
1986, It's All Writ Out for You: The Work of Scottie Wilson, 1888 - 1972, Third Eye Centre, Glasgow; An Exhibition in Memory of Victor Musgrave (1919 - 1984) by Scottie Wilson, Mayor Gallery, London; A Private Paradise: Paintings by Scottie Wilson, Gillian Jason Gallery, London; Outsider Archive, London; Picturebrokers Gallery, London; Galerie Art en marge, Brussels; Scottie Wilson (1888 - 1972): Ouvres de 1930 a 1946 de L'Ancienne Collection R. Penrose, Galerie Messine-Thomas Le Guillou, Paris
1982, Scottie Wilson, 1890 - 1972: Exhibition of Pen Drawings and Watercolours, Theo Waddington Galleries, Toronto
1981, The Fantastic Art of Scottie Wilson, The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh
1980, The Penrose Collection of Works by Scottie Wilson, Mayor Gallery, London
1979, Scottie Wilson, Galerie Schreiner, Basel
1978, Scottie Wilson, Collection de L Art Brut, Lausanne
1977, Scottie Wilson, Warehouse Gallery, London; Scottie Wilson, Fieldbourne Galleries, London
1975, Margaret Fisher, London; Gimpel Fils, London
1972, Scottie Wilson, Fieldbourne Galleries, London
1971, Scottie Wilson, Drawings and Ceramics, Ben Uri Gallery, London
1969, Circle Paintings and Sculpture, London
1968, Old and New Images by Scottie Wilson, Circle Paintings and Sculpture, London
1967, Scottie Wilson, New Charing Cross Gallery, London; Scottie Wilson, Brook Street Gallery, London
1966, Scottie Wilson, Brook Street Gallery, London
1962, Ben Uri Gallery, London
1958, Colour Drawings by Scottie Wilson, Picture Loan Society, Toronto; Drawings by Scottie Wilson, Durlacher Brothers, New York
1956, Scottie Wilson: Thirty Recent Works, Clock Room, David Morgan Limited, The Hayes, Cardiff
1953, Scottie Wilson Primitives, Victoria Arts Centre, Victoria, and touring
1952, Galerie Joos Hutter, Basel; Scottie Wilson, Gimpel Fils, London; The Aubusson Tapestry by Scottie Wilson, Galerie de France, Paris
1951, Scottie Wilson, Gimpel Fils, London; Galerie Nina Dausset, Paris
1950, Scottie Wilson and Dennis Williams, Gimpel Fils, London
1949, Pen and Brush by Scottie Wilson, Gimpel Fils, London; Exhibition of Decorative Panels Passedoit, New York
1946, Exhibition of Drawings by Scottie Wilson, Barcelona Restaurant, in association with the London Gallery, London
1945, Thirty Works by Scottie Wilson, Arcade Gallery, London (organized by the London Gallery); Dreams & Designs by Scottie, Picture Loan Society, Toronto
1944, Drawings by Scottie, Picture Loan Society, Toronto
1943, Fantastic Designs by Scottie, Picture Loan Society, Toronto; Vancouver Art Gallery, Vancouver
Group Exhibitions
2002, Outsider Art from the Musgrave Kinley Outsider Collection, Whitworth Gallery, Manchester; Les Chemin de L' Art Brut, Musée de l'Art Moderne Lille Métropole, Villeneuve d'Ascq, France
2000 - 01, ABCD: A Collection of Art Brut, John Michael Kohler Arts Centre, Sheboygan, Wisconsin
2000, Roscrea, Damer House, Ireland
1999, A Collection in the Making, Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin
1998 - 99, Private Words: Classic Outsider Art from Europe, Katonah Museum of Art, New York
1998, Art Unsolved: The Musgrave Kinley Collection, Irish Museum of Art, Dublin
1993 - 95, Driven to Create: The Anthony Petullo Collection of Self-Taught and Outsider Art, Museum of American Folk Art, New York and touring
1992 - 93, Parallel Visions: Modern Artists and Outsider Art, Los Angeles county Museum of Art and touring
1987 - 88, In Another World: Outsider Art from Europe and America, Cornerhouse, Manchester
1986, European Outsiders, Rosa Esman Gallery, New York; Outsiders: Art beyond the Norms, Rosa Esman Gallery, New York; Continent abstrait / Continent surréaliste: Peintres - dessins - collages - object - photographies, Galerie 1900 - 2000, Paris
1984, English Contrasts: Peintures et Sculptures anglais, 1950 - 1960, Articurial, Paris
1983, Ascher Textiles, Redfern Gallery, London
1982, Two British Primitives: Alfred Wallis and Scottie Wilson, Mercury Gallery, London; Aftermath, Barbican Gallery, London
1981, XVI Bienal de SPaulo, SPaulo, Brazil; Paris - Paris, Centre National de l'Art Moderne, Centre Pompidou, Paris
1980, Their Way : An Exhibition of Four Painters : Scottie Wilson, Alf O'Brian, Nicholas Evans, Ken Watts, Bede Gallery, Jarrow, Tyneside ; Wahn oder Wirklichkeit, Galerie Charlotte für naive Kunst, Münich ; Art House, London
1979, Britain's First International Naïve Art Exhibition, Hamilton Fine Art, London; Outsiders, Arts Council of Great Britain, Hayward Gallery, London and touring; Outsiders, Konsten, Liljevalchs Konsthall, Stockholm
1978, Collection de l' Art Brut, Chde Beaulieu, Lausanne; Summer 1978, Mercury Gallery, London; Dada and Surrealism Revisited, Hayward Gallery, London
1974, People's Art: Naïve Art in Canada, National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa
1972, Third Anniversary Exhibition: The Edmonton Art Gallery, Edmonton Art Gallery, Edmonton, Alberta
1971, Gift from the Douglas M. Duncan and the Milne- Duncan Bequest: An Exhibition at the National Gallery of Canada, National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa
1967, Three Naïve Painters: Scottie Wilson, Margaret Baird, Gladys Hamilton Cooper, Moyan Gallery, Manchester; International Exhibition of Naïve Painting, Circle Gallery, London; L' Art Brut: Selections de la Collection de l' Art Brut, Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris; Irreguliers de l'art, Maison de la Culture, Rennes; Some Paintings, Drawings and Prints from the Douglas Duncan Collection, Willistead Art Gallery, Windsor, Ontario
1964, Surrealism in Canadian Painting, London Public Library, London, Ontario
1963, Gallery One, London
1957, Robertson Galleries, Ottawa
1956, Newport Borough Museum, Newport, South Wales
1952, Galerie de France, Paris
1949, L'Art Brut préféré aux arts culturels, Galerie Drouin, Paris
1948, Three Types of Automatism: Ernst Martin, Paul Paun, Scottie Wilson, London Gallery,
1947, Exposition international du surréalisme, Galerie Maeght, Paris
1945, James McLure & Son's Picture Gallery, Glasgow; Twenty-second Annual Exhibition of the Society of Graphic Art, Art Gallery of Toronto
1944, Twenty-first Annual Exhibition of the Society of Graphic Art, Art Gallery of Toronto