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.
About Alexander Fraser
Alexander Fraser RSA (1940–2012) was one of Scotland’s most respected painters and influential art educators, celebrated for richly imaginative works that fused memory, mythology and the landscapes of the North-East of Scotland. Born in Aberdeen, he studied at Gray’s School of Art under Robert Henderson Blyth before continuing his development at Hospitalfield, where the painter James Cumming proved a formative influence. Cumming’s demanding and unconventional compositional exercises encouraged Fraser to think beyond direct observation, shaping the poetic and symbolic visual language that would define his mature work.
