P A U L

GODS, HEROES AND BEASTS

R E I D PAUL REID GODS, HEROES AND BEASTS

1 MARCH - 1 APRIL 2017

WWW.SCOTTISH-GALLERY.CO.UK/PAULREID THE IMAGERY IN THIS NEW BODY OF WORK FROM PAUL REID SEEMS RANDOM, APART FROM THE CONSISTENT MYTHOLOGICAL REFERENCES AND INCLUSION OF STUDIES FOR FINISHED PAINTINGS, BUT THE ARBITARY NATURE OF HIS DRY, MATTER OF FACT, CREATED WORLD IS A VISUAL PARADIGM FOR A WORLD OF GODLY CAPRICE, CHAOS, NEMESIS AND HUBRIS, CRUELTY AND FRUSTRATION, UNDERSTOOD BY ANCIENTS AND MODERNS ALIKE AS OUR MORTAL INHERITANCE. HERE THE WOUNDED PHILOCTETES AWAITS HIS LIBERATION BY ODYSSEUS, ACHIEVED ONLY BECAUSE THE HERO NEEDS HIS BOW AND POISONED ARROWS TO DEFEAT TROY. ELSEWHERE ODYSSEUS PLEADS WITH HIS CAPTOR/LOVER TO RELEASE HIM BACK TO HIS WIFE PENELOPE (ONLY TO BE SUSPICIOUS ABOUT HER FIDELITY). A HERD OF LONELY MINOTAUR SEARCH FRUITLESSLY FOR SOME LOST TOKEN. THE HEIGHTENED REALITY DERIVED FROM THE ARTIST’S METICULOUS APPROACH DEMANDS OUR DETAILED CONSIDERATION OF HIS SUBJECT, WHICH REMAINS IMPENETRABLE BEYOND THE UNEASE DERIVING FROM THE PREDICAMENT OF THE PROTAGONISTS. Typhon, son of Gaia (Earth) and the dreadful deity Tartarus, was a terrifying monster who made war on Zeus and the Olympian Gods. He was a personification of chaos and a threat to the order and sovereignty of Zeus in the newly created cosmos. Typhon was victorious in the first battle with Zeus, taking away his weapon, a sickle, and with it removing the sinews of the god’s limbs, leaving him helpless on the ground. Zeus and his sinews were then placed in a cave guarded by Delphyne, a fearsome she-dragon in the service of Typhon.

Hermes and Pan aided Zeus, Pan playing his famous pipes in order to distract Typhon and eventually lull him to sleep. Hermes, a trickster and god of thieves, stole past Delphyne and restored Zeus’s sinews to his body. Upright once more, Zeus defeated Typhon in battle using his thunderbolts and incarcerated him beneath Mount Etna, whose eruptions signify the convulsions of this terrible creature.

1 | Pan, Hermes and Typhon, ink & acrylic on board, 54 x 77.5 cms 2 | Tree Study (Summer), ink, charcoal & acrylic on board, 40.5 x 55 cms 3 | Odysseus, oil on board, 59.5 x 38.5 cms 4 | Odysseus Study, pencil on paper, 51 x 42 cms 5 | Odysseus on Ogygia, oil on board, 32 x 59 cms Hermes was the Greek messenger of the Gods whose speed helped him deliver the decrees of his father Zeus. He was often depicted with a winged hat or sandals and a herald’s staff crowned with two snakes.

6 | Hermes, oil on canvas, 60.5 x 45.5 cms 7 | Hermes Study, ink, charcoal & acrylic on board, 52 x 42 cms 8 | Tree Study (Winter), oil on canvas, 56 x 45 cms Thor was the Germanic God of Thunder. He defended the Gods from their arch rivals the Frost Giants with his famous magical hammer Mjollnir and his belt which increased strength.

In this painting,Thor sneaks upon a sleeping Frost Giant in order to deal a fatal blow with Mjollnir.

9 | Thor, oil on canvas, 52.5 x 40.5 cms 10 | Thor Study, charcoal on paper, 51 x 41 cms 11 | Sleeping Giant, oil on canvas, 45.5 x 60.5 cms 12 | Sleeping Giant Study, charcoal on paper, 45.5 x 58 cms Philoctetes was one of the Greek commanders who set off to invade the city of Troy with Agamemnon, Achilles, Odysseus etc. He was the owner of the famous ‘Bow of Hercules’ which the great hero had given him as he died. The bow and poisoned arrows never missed their target.

On the journey towards Troy the fleet stopped off at Tenedos to make a sacrifice to the God Apollo. Unfortunately, Philoctetes was bitten on the ankle by a poisonous snake and the wound festered and would not heal. The Greeks were forced to leave Philoctetes on the Island of Lemnos as they could no longer suffer the stench of his wound or his constant anguished cries of pain.

Philoctetes survived alone on the island with the help of his bow and arrows, hunting the animals and birds which lived there. After 10 years, the Greeks were forced to return to Lemnos in order to persuade Philoctetes to journey with them to Troy after a prophet foretold that they could not take the city without the Bow of Hercules. Troy was eventually taken with the help of Philoctetes who shot the Trojan prince Paris with a poisonous arrow.

13 | Philoctetes, oil on canvas, 75 x 100 cms 14 | Mauricewood Tree Study, pen & charcoal on paper, 42 x 59.5 cms The idea was to depict a small herd of Minotaurs on a pilgrimage to a holy site in the mountains, the figure with the staff being a Shaman or Priest calling to the others to follow. I imagined it taking place on The Island of Circe, a setting I often revisit, with these former human characters retaining a semblance of their humanity and culture.

15 | Minotaurs, oil on canvas, 75 x 105 cms Circe was a powerful sorceress, daughter of Helios and the Oceanid Perse. She lived on the mythical island of Aeaea, transforming her enemies, or those who offended her, into various animals. She was responsible for turning Picus into a woodpecker for refusing her love, Scylla into the monster that terrorised the Straits of Messina, and also Odysseus’ crew into pigs in Homer’s Odyssey.

16 | Stranded on the Island of Circe, 2014, oil on canvas, 65 x 105 cms C O L L E C T I O N S His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales Duke and Duchess of Roxburghe P A U L R E I D The Royal Scottish Academy Perth Museum and Art Gallery Perth and Kinross Council University of Dundee Museum Services Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art Collection The Fleming Collection 108 Fine Art

1975 Born in Scone, Perth S O L O E X H I B I T I O N S S E L E C T E D B I B L I O G R A P H Y 1994-98 Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art, 2017 Gods, Heroes and Beasts, The Scottish Gallery, ‘The Dictionary of Scottish Painters, 1600 To The Dundee, First Class Honours in Drawing and Edinburgh Present’, Julian Halsby & Paul Harris, Birlinn Ltd, 2010 Painting 2015 Myth Making, The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh ‘Six of the Best Painters Point the Way Forward’, Iain Awarded the Carnegie Trust Vacation 2014 The Art of Myth Making, 108 Fine Art, Harrogate Gale for Scotland on Sunday, 30th January 2005 Scholarship and a John Kinross Scholarship 2013 Mythologies, The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh ‘A History of Scottish Art’, Selina Skipworth & Bill Smith, Studied in Madrid and Florence 2009 Paul Reid, Isis Gallery, London Merrell, 2003 2004 Accompanied His Royal Highness The 2008 Paul Reid, Perth City Art Gallery (touring exhibition) ‘Myths Remade’, Iain Gale for Scotland on Sunday, Prince of Wales on a visit to Italy, Turkey and Paul Reid, Dundee University Art Gallery (touring 2002 Jordan, completing a series of paintings exhibition) ‘Paul Reid, New Works’, Phillip Long, Senior Curator, and drawings based on the landscape and 2007 Paul Reid, Hull University Art Gallery (touring Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, The Scottish people of the areas visited exhibition) Gallery, 2002 2009 Accompanied HRH on a visit to Canada 21st Century Painting, 108 Fine Art, Harrogate ‘Art Tomorrow’, Edward Lucie Smith, Terrail, 2002 2004 Orion, The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh ‘Best of Young British’, New Statesman, July 2002 2003 Apollo and Pan, Art London with The Scottish ‘Artists Eye Art Review’, Main Feature, November 1998 Gallery ‘Rising Stars in the Arts Firmament: Paul Reid, John 2002 New Works, The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh Russell Taylor’, The Times, 1999 1999 The Rendezvous Gallery, Aberdeen The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh