Alexander Goudie; Scottish painter
Hyfler/Rosner
Alexander Goudie Swaggering Scottish painter whose cycle
illustrating Tam O'Shanter led to accusations of blasphemy
from the Wee Frees
ALEXANDER GOUDIE, who has died aged 70, was a Scottish
painter whose work encompassed many strands, including
portraiture, pastoral realism and the applied arts.
His greatest single artistic achievement was a magnificent
cycle of paintings inspired by Robert Burns's Tam O'Shanter.
Goudie summed up the poem, which had captivated his
imagination since childhood, as "a gothic tale, strewn with
vivid and awesome images".
The Tam O'Shanter series, completed in 1996 and donated to
South Ayrshire Council by three benefactors, is on display
at Rozelle House, a stone's throw from Alloway, the setting
for the poem. Comprising 54 large paintings, it establishes
Goudie as a master both of dramatic composition and
pictorial mood, capable of handling complex scenes of
bucolic conviviality as well as nightmarish visions of hell
and damnation.
His treatment of the black mass in the Auld Kirk, which
contains, as his friend, the singer Kenneth MacKellar,
noted, "more than a hint of spectral sex", led a minister of
the Wee Free Church to protest at the picture's blasphemy.
The narrative cycle brims with much of the energy of the
original poem: Goudie used mixed media to achieve his
effects, marrying passages of charcoal line drawing with
highly accomplished painting. Sly humour pervades the
series. A depiction of Tam about to roast in Hell - "like a
herrin' " - bears scorch marks on the frame, which were
meticulously applied by Goudie with a blowtorch.
The compelling narrative cycle, beautifully realised, was
the culmination of a lifetime's experience and observation
as a painter.
Alexander Goudie was born on November 11 1933, the son of a
Paisley plumber, and drew constantly, even as a small boy.
Paisley Grammar School was followed by the Glasgow School of
Art, where he won a clutch of awards, including the
Somerville Shanks prize for composition. His teacher, David
Donaldson, a great influence, although later a fierce rival,
acquired one of his pupil's drawings at his Diploma
Exhibition. Visits to galleries in Britain and France
informed Goudie's artistic ambitions. The great set-piece
compositions of the French Realists such as Millet, Courbet
and the Pont Avon school, particularly Gauguin, had a
lasting impact.
Marriage in 1962 to Marie-Renee (Mainee) Dorval, the
daughter of a Breton doctor, transformed his life.
Henceforth, holidays were spent at the small fishing port of
Loctudy, where Goudie delighted in depicting the local way
of life, peopled by farmers and fishermen, "stalwart
characters, sun drenched and blasted by wind and rain".
Equally favoured were their harvests, which inspired
succulent still lives before the subject matter was served
at table.
In Glasgow, Goudie's career, particularly as a portraitist,
quickly freed him from the need to teach for a living.
Despising the camera, he demanded, where possible, numerous
and lengthy sittings from his subjects, who included the
Queen, the Lord Chancellor Lord Mackay of Clashfern, and the
comedian Billy Connolly.
At his most successful, Goudie, who drew upon the lessons of
both Raeburn and the Spanish masters, produced robust
portraits, full of insight, but always with a touch of
swagger, especially in his virtuoso handling of fabrics and
decorations.
Goudie was never afraid to take on new opportunities,
whether sculpture, ceramics or opera design. His most
spectacular undertaking was the complete interior decoration
of Le Bretagne (1987-89), the flagship of Brittany Ferries.
Menus, blinds, carpets, china, murals and paintings, all
bearing his stamp, turned the ship into a floating art
gallery. For a period, Goudie took the lease on a studio in
Tite Street, Chelsea, which had once belonged to another
hero, Augustus John, but for the most part, he lived and
worked at Arnewood House, a High Victorian palazzo in the
West End of Glasgow, originally built for a blast furnace
millionaire.
Here the magnificent staircase, galleried hall, hung with a
large cage of fluttering and cooing doves, the black dining
room and vivid green drawing room with sofa and chairs
upholstered in black and white stripes, provided the perfect
backdrop to Goudie's theatrical persona.
Visitors who discovered him in his studio, a slight figure
with long wavy hair, pointed beard and watchful, humorous
eyes, and always hidden amidst a labyrinth of vast
canvasses, were provided with an introduction to Bohemian
Glasgow at its most ostentatious. A dedicated dandy, he
designed his own clothes, providing sketches for his
tailor's guidance.
MacKellar, who worked with him for many years on the
Scottish International Education Trust, recalled how "he
would arrive late at our sober suited meetings, wearing
tartan trews, a yellow waistcoat, foppish shirt and a cravat
loosely tied."
Invariably, MacKellar would dryly remark: "You're back again
Sandy, underdressed as usual." MacKellar, too, pinpointed
Goudie's refined Scottish accent, as betraying "a wee touch
of Potter Hill" the salubrious residential district in the
East End of Paisley.
For all his achievements and bravado, Goudie was prone to
feuds. Dealers, art institutions and clubs were typical
targets. Goudie was a natural outsider, but his sensitivity
was inflamed, with some degree of justification, by the
modern art establishment, made up of influential critics and
bureaucrats, which was loth to acknowledge his talent.
Goudie, confident of his own ability, had the misfortune to
work under an alien artistic regime; one where his gifts as
draughtsman and painter challenged the orthodoxy.
"I have not intentionally set out to ride roughshod over
most of the 20th century's sacred cows," he wrote of the Tam
O'Shanter series, "but simply tell a story in pictures and
to speak with a clear voice." It took great artistic courage
to undertake a cycle of narrative painting at the end of the
20th century. For his admirers, Goudie, who died on March 9,
may either be seen as one of the last in a distinguished
line of European painters, or as a precursor of a revival of
contemporary realism.
His wife Mainee survives him, along with two sons and a
daughter.