In his studio at the family farm near Selkirk, William Johnstone made hundreds of wash drawings chiefly employing a broad brush and colour limited to sepia and black. For Johnstone these later works are the culmination of a lifetime of looking and distillation of the subject. Together they represent an extraordinary body of work, a commitment to his own inner eye as well as the landscape which surrounded him, the low hills, copses, watery sun and sharp profiles of buildings and dykes. Most are upright in format, made on a good arches paper in imperial scale, 30 x 22 inches. They have an oriental presence, very few western artists having the complete mastery of the gesture, and are at once decorative and profound. Each seeks an essential truth and together they form an exploration of time and space, landscape and the artist’s inner vision.

William Johnstone

Born: 1897

Place of Birth: Denholm

Died: 1981

William Johnstone, born the son of a farmer in the Scottish Borders, was at the forefront of British art world throughout the twentieth century. He became one of the first British artists to break with representation and paint purely abstract pictures; he also had evolutionary impact on art education. He was Principal at Camberwell College of Art from 1938- 1946 and then Principal at Central School of Arts and Crafts from 1947 to 1960. He developed the Basic Design course which stemmed from the Bauhaus and his instinct to defy convention and his eye for talented staff made Central a tour de force. Alan Davie, Anton Ehrenzweig, Patrick Heron, Earl Haig, John Minton, Eduardo Paolozzi, Victor Pasmore, Gordon Baldwin, William Turnbull all worked for him – which made for an explosive, creative mixture of artistic personalities. He received an OBE for his contribution to art education in 1954 then returned home to the Borders in 1960 to concentrate on painting and return to farming.

The Inner Eye

William Johnstone

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