The Art of Euan Uglow

Euan Uglow, "Self Portrait," oil on card, ca 1960

Recently, while reading a review of an old exhibition of Lucian Freud's works the name Euan Uglow (1932-2000) came up. I had heard of Mr. Uglow in an oblique way a long while ago and forgotten him, probably because although he was a well-known figurative painter in the United Kingdom, he isn't well known here. Mr. Uglow has been said to be second only to Freud as a figurative artist, but few of his works are on this side of the Atlantic, and he's received little press here in comparison to his contemporaries.

Mr. Uglow was born and educated in the U.K. but unlike some (Freud, eg), he was slow to succeed. By the early 1960s though, he began to sell his works in the U.K. but his analytical and slow painting process meant that those were few. He painted numerous subjects during the early years, many, if not most, of the human figure.

Euan Uglow, "Woman in a White Skirt," oil on canvas, 1954

In his work he was meticulous almost to the point of obsession, laying out his studio according to the Golden Mean and other mathematical schemes then measuring carefully to lay in his subject. He was so deliberate that one might call him obsessive. For example, he is supposed to have said that he began painting a model when she was single and kept going on the same picture through her entire marriage and divorce--that is, several years. Moreover, he was fond of squares, rectangles based on the golden mean, and other mathematical relationships for his supports. His approach to his work included building specific stands for his models so that when he sat to paint each place on the model's body could be specifically positioned time and again as the model returned over many months. In most of them, such as Zagi (below), the residual marks are easily seen on the support. Note, too the elliptical leading edge of the model stand, incorporated in the painting.

Euan Uglow, "Girl in the South of France," oil on canvas, 1961

But besides his mathematical and obsessive approach, he was also meticulous about color, working hard to make his canvases muted but expressive. Even in more casual works like "Girl in the South of France" (left) his care for color and form are clear. This particular work, painted rapidly from life in one afternoon is a fascinating look at how he handled warm yet muted colors while modelling the forms.

Euan Uglow "Salt Triangle at Hyeres France," oil on canas, 1961

During that same trip, Mr. Uglow painted a pile of salt, again despite the early morning light a very muted work. His interest was actually in the forms and sky and the enormity of the salt pile. Note the tiny figure against the mass.

"Nude from 12 Regular Vertical Positions"

During his later years Mr. Uglow's work became more and more analytical. An example is "Nude from Twelve Regular Vertical Positions from the Eye," a life-sized figure painted over a year and a half. Mr. Uglow's approach in this work was to build a platform more than six feet tall for the model, then he marked off divisions on the back at six inch intervals. He painted the figure from bottom to top while sitting on a purpose-built scaffold that was raised with each step upward so that his eyes were at the same level as each of the succeeding divisions. Mr. Uglow later said that he was attempting to reduce the visual distortion he had introduced in previous works. This barrel distortion he had introduced inadvertently by staying too close, so in this work he adjusted both distance from the model and height of his eyes. The result is a strangely elongated and unusual figure whose legs and torso don't quite match and yet somehow holds together. This particular work won prizes and sparked much discussion, mostly about the technique rather than the figure, a discussion deplored by Mr. Uglow, who commented that the figure was the subject, not the method.

Euan Uglow, "Zagi," oil on canvas, 1981

Probably paradigmatic of Mr. Uglow's work is "Zagi," a full length nude that is about three-fourths life size. Zagi is a Chinese word for acrobat, a nod to the acrobat doll used for the pose. In this work, the painter's complicated ideas about figures and mathematics are realized in detail. According to his catalog raisonne he decided to use a rectangle where the longer side is the square root of 2 and the short side is 1. That is, the ratio of the sides is 1.414:1.0. He also kept the internal dimensions equally proportional. Along the right side he placed a series of circles intended to define the space within which the model stands and also to allow certain consistencies in the figure. Mr. Uglow was also trying to establish the intent of movement within the stillness of the body. That is, she looks as if she is about to move, as if her forward leg could fold and lift as she gathers herself for a gymnastic move. Moreover, the artist has explored the model's flesh in all of its varieties and subtleties of color in ways that show the body as shapes occupying volume against the background.

These few works are only indicative of the oeuvre Mr. Uglow left behind. For those with an interest, there is a video on YouTube of his painting process, made in 1976, that provides much of interest and repays the time spent.