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Art Alliance Press, Philadelphia, Published date: 1983. Hardcover; 106 pp plus 18 unnumbered pages of plates; 27 cm. First edition. Illustrated with black and white and color reproductions of paintings and drawings, including full-page plates.
In very good condition in very good dust jacket. Light gray cloth boards with gilt lettering on spine; light shelf wear to extremities; binding sound. Interior pages clean and unmarked. Dust jacket has light edgewear and light overall scuffing. Now in an archival quality (removable) Brodart cover. Artist biography and critical monograph devoted to Douglas Portway (1922-1993), a South African-born painter who later worked primarily in England and France. [From front jacket flap . . . ] Douglas Portway first painted and exhibited in his native South Africa, his growing reputation there leading to his being the first person from that country to be awarded a travel grant by the Institute of International Education in New York. It was not until 1957 that he came to Europe, travelling widely before settling in Ibiza where he worked for seven years. Since 1967 he has lived and worked in Cornwall and since 1973 also part of each year in the Dordogne. His output - in oil, gouache, water-colour, as well as many drawings - has been considerable. It has always been marked by a determination to find his own answers to the problems his continuing quest has posed; he has refused to depend on those of other painters, however much he may understand or admire their work. He is represented in many public collections in this country (including the Tate and the Victoria and Albert Museum), on the Continent and in South Africa; and in private collections the world over. It is time for a full-length assessment of the whole range of Portway's work. Dr. J. P. Hodin, the distinguished art-historian and critic, has provided a valuable biographical section and analytical study, in this far-reaching survey of Portway's development as a painter and of his working methods. He gives us an informed insight into the life and art of a highly significant contemporary, a painter who has said of his work that he would wish it to be 'like a pool in which one can swim or float . . . a talisman which can reveal, a charm which may transport'. Contents include: List of Illustrations; Acknowledgements; On the Man and his Work; A Dismal Beginning; The Bewildered Muses; The Tribal Commitment: Early Work; Europe at Last; Selective Trials; The Freedom of the Eye; Thoughts from the Artist's Own Writings; Some Critical Assessments; Chronology; Exhibitions: One Man Exhibitions; Group Exhibitions; Collections: Public Collections; Private Collections; Selected Bibliography. ASCII-only confirmed; no curly quotes; no en/em dashes; diacritics removed.