Peter Howson
New Glasgow Boy who went to Bosnia as a war artist and painted what it did to him.
Peter Howson was born in London in 1958 and raised in Ayrshire, served briefly in the army, and emerged from Glasgow School of Art with Ken Currie, Steven Campbell and Adrian Wisniewski as one of the New Glasgow Boys. The paintings are heavily muscled, heavily worked figure compositions of soldiers, boxers, drinkers and crowds. He was appointed official British war artist in Bosnia in 1993, and the work he brought back — including the disputed Croatian and Muslim, which the Imperial War Museum declined — marked a turning point in his life and in his subject matter. He has been open about addiction, breakdown, faith and a late Asperger's diagnosis.
The market is principally British and is led by the large 1980s and 1990s figure paintings and the Bosnia work. Drawings in charcoal and conte are numerous, frequently very strong, and are the most accessible part of the output; Howson draws constantly and the supply is substantial. There is a print output in lithograph and etching. Some paintings from the 1990s are on unprimed or lightly primed board and have surface and support issues that are worth checking. Signature is usually on the reverse.
If you own a work by Peter Howson
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