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GODS, HEROES AND BEASTS

PAUL REIDGODS, 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.

1 | Pan, Hermes and Typhon, ink & acrylic on board, 54 x 77.5 cms

Typhon, son of Gaia (Earth) and the dreadful deityTartarus, was a terrifying monster who made war on Zeusand the Olympian Gods. He was a personification of chaosand a threat to the order and sovereignty of Zeus in thenewly created cosmos.Typhon was victorious in the first battle with Zeus,taking away his weapon, a sickle, and with it removingthe sinews of the god’s limbs, leaving him helpless onthe ground. Zeus and his sinews were then placed in acave guarded by Delphyne, a fearsome she-dragon in theservice of Typhon.

Hermes and Pan aided Zeus, Pan playing his famous pipesin order to distract Typhon and eventually lull him tosleep. Hermes, a trickster and god of thieves, stole pastDelphyne and restored Zeus’s sinews to his body. Uprightonce more, Zeus defeated Typhon in battle using histhunderbolts and incarcerated him beneath Mount Etna,whose eruptions signify the convulsions of this terriblecreature.

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

6 | Hermes, oil on canvas, 60.5 x 45.5 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.

7 | Hermes Study, ink, charcoal & acrylic on board, 52 x 42 cms

8 | Tree Study (Winter), oil on canvas, 56 x 45 cms

9 | Thor, oil on canvas, 52.5 x 40.5 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.

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

13 | Philoctetes, oil on canvas, 75 x 100 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.

14 | Mauricewood Tree Study, pen & charcoal on paper, 42 x 59.5 cms

15 | Minotaurs, oil on canvas, 75 x 105 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.

16 | Stranded on the Island of Circe, 2014, oil on canvas, 65 x 105 cms

Circe was a powerful sorceress, daughter of Helios andthe Oceanid Perse. She lived on the mythical island ofAeaea, transforming her enemies, or those who offendedher, into various animals. She was responsible for turningPicus into a woodpecker for refusing her love, Scylla intothe monster that terrorised the Straits of Messina, andalso Odysseus’ crew into pigs in Homer’s Odyssey.

S O L O E X H I B I T I O N S2017 Gods, Heroes and Beasts, The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh2015 Myth Making, The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh2014 The Art of Myth Making, 108 Fine Art, Harrogate2013 Mythologies, The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh2009 Paul Reid, Isis Gallery, London2008 Paul Reid, Perth City Art Gallery (touring exhibition) Paul Reid, Dundee University Art Gallery (touring exhibition)2007 Paul Reid, Hull University Art Gallery (touring exhibition) 21st Century Painting, 108 Fine Art, Harrogate2004 Orion, The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh2003 Apollo and Pan, Art London with The Scottish Gallery2002 New Works, The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh1999 The Rendezvous Gallery, Aberdeen The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh

C O L L E C T I O N SHis Royal Highness The Prince of WalesDuke and Duchess of RoxburgheThe Royal Scottish AcademyPerth Museum and Art GalleryPerth and Kinross CouncilUniversity of Dundee Museum ServicesDuncan of Jordanstone College of Art CollectionThe Fleming Collection108 Fine Art

S E L E C T E D B I B L I O G R A P H Y‘The Dictionary of Scottish Painters, 1600 To The Present’, Julian Halsby & Paul Harris, Birlinn Ltd, 2010‘Six of the Best Painters Point the Way Forward’, Iain Gale for Scotland on Sunday, 30th January 2005‘A History of Scottish Art’, Selina Skipworth & Bill Smith,Merrell, 2003‘Myths Remade’, Iain Gale for Scotland on Sunday, 2002‘Paul Reid, New Works’, Phillip Long, Senior Curator,Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, The ScottishGallery, 2002‘Art Tomorrow’, Edward Lucie Smith, Terrail, 2002‘Best of Young British’, New Statesman, July 2002‘Artists Eye Art Review’, Main Feature, November 1998‘Rising Stars in the Arts Firmament: Paul Reid, JohnRussell Taylor’, The Times, 1999

1975 Born in Scone, Perth1994-98 Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art, Dundee, First Class Honours in Drawing and Painting Awarded the Carnegie Trust Vacation Scholarship and a John Kinross Scholarship Studied in Madrid and Florence2004 Accompanied His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales on a visit to Italy, Turkey and Jordan, completing a series of paintings and drawings based on the landscape and people of the areas visited2009 Accompanied HRH on a visit to Canada

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