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framed dimensions: 70 x 82.5 cm
signed lower centre
PROVENANCE:
The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh
In this painting, James Cumming transforms a fleeting moment into an abstract and poetic visual statement. Far from a literal depiction, the painting captures the sensation of birds in motion, rendered in a kaleidoscope of mauves, yellows, golds, and pinks, where form dissolves into colour and structure gives way to rhythm. A composition of exceptional clarity and invention, the work is both intellectually constructed and instinctively felt, qualities that define Cumming’s distinctive approach to modern painting.
Ducks in Flight reflects his enduring interest in movement, structure, and visual poetry. It is a painting of balance and imagination, constructed with care, discipline, and a subtle emotional resonance. Cumming’s contribution to Scottish art is marked by innovation, intellect, and integrity, and his legacy continues through the many students, colleagues, and admirers he inspired throughout his life.
As a painter, James Cumming was possessed of a singular and highly personal vision. Several phases of interest took place in his work, Still Life, Portraits, Space Age, Puppets, Circus and the Electron Microscope brought forth another series of works concerning the visual nature of living cells. The hand of the draughtsman is always very much in evidence, an assured line in absolute control of the formal arrangement. James Cumming was born in Dunfermline and studied at Edinburgh College of Art. In the early 1950s a travelling scholarship took him for a year to Callanish on the Isle of Lewis leading to his acclaimed series of Hebridean paintings. His considered and meticulously wrought style became concerned with geometry, structure, and abstraction. He also began to lecture on a regular basis at Edinburgh College of Art from 1950. Whilst artist in residence at Hospitalfield in Arbroath in 1960-61, his work and language in abstraction had a significant impact on John Byrne and Alexander Fraser. His most distinctive work of the 1960s is rich in colour, where it is employed, but essentially tonal. His later career was more concerned with natural and cellular forms, vibrant colour and a more prominent geometry.
The Scottish Gallery exhibitions: 1962, 1971, 1972 (Festival), 1985 (Festival), 1995 (Memorial)
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