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Framed dimensions: 27 x 33.5 cm
signed and titled on label verso
The relationships between Fraser’s figures are not intended to be ‘real’, but metaphorical and compositional, blending ideas of abstract depiction of volume with a disquieting sense of the surreal. Figures within boxes, such as Self Portrait in a Box, suggest psychological disturbance. Like his fellow Aberdeenshire artist, James Cowie – Fraser clothes the everyday in the guise of the extraordinary.
Alexander Fraser was born in Aberdeen, where he trained at Gray’s School of Art under Robert Henderson Blyth. He began to find his own direction at Hospitalfield where James Cumming proved an inspirational tutor, setting impossible exercises in composition which were to have a lasting effect on the development. Alexander Fraser taught at Gray’s School of Art from 1966, becoming head of Drawing and Painting from 1987-1997. He was a hugely influential teacher and art educator. On retirement, he returned to full time painting and held several solo exhibitions with The Scottish Gallery. His late intricate paintings are both atmospheric and beguiling, offering the audience intriguing compositions of people, animals, architecture and landscapes. He drew inspiration from memories of travel and the history and folklore of his native Aberdeenshire, saying I paint my family and my environment transformed by myth.
The Scottish Gallery exhibitions: 1998, 2001, 2004, 2007, 2011
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