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This week’s blog post sees Outside In Manager Jennifer Gilbert in discussion with Art Therapist Joyce Laing, who discovered the work of Angus McPhee. Replicas of Angus’ work are included in Radical Craft: Alternative Ways of Making at Pallant House Gallery until 12 June 2016.
Angus McPhee was born in 1916 and lived in the Outer Hebrides, Scotland in Uist. His mother died when he was eight years old, and this profound loss was said to have stayed with him for the rest of his life. He was the son of a crofter and helped his father on the land with the animals of the croft. After leaving school he became known for breeding sturdy working horses and this was a trait that stayed with him throughout his life. He was recruited to the Lovat Scouts army at the start of the Second World War. In 1941, after two years in post, he became ill and was diagnosed as a schizophrenic. His illness seemingly disappeared on his return to Scotland, but soon returned and his family were unable to cope. It was at this point that he was admitted to a psychiatric hospital in Inverness where he remained for fifty years, choosing to be a mute on arrival. It is not clear why he chose to do this, and several differing accounts have been made.
Joanne B Kaar, Grass Boot Replica (after Angus McPhee) (c) Joanne B Kaar
With his crofting background Angus was considered a natural farm worker in the hospital where he was a resident and each day would spend some time working in the fields. He did make small conversations out on the field, but maintained his silence in the hospital. Each evening he turned his hand to grass weaving, but this was only really discovered when Art Therapist Joyce Laing visited the hospital with an Art Historian called Jim. The hospital workers at the time said that he worked discreetly, not secretively, but avoiding any unwanted attention. Joyce has re-told the story to me of when she found Angus’ work:
“Following a trip to Lausanne to see the Collection de L’Art Brut, Tom, a Glasgow Art Gallery Director, became passionate about this raw form of art. He contacted myself and sent me for a one week trip with an art historian to discover this form of art in Scotland. We went to Inverness via train, to the hospital where Angus was and only came across his work at the end of a very long day. We saw hundreds of paintings and craft objects across the day, many of which were extremely interesting and clinically significant, but they were not art extraordinary. Art extraordinary is extremely rare and possesses that powerful quality which impinges itself on the memory, for nothing quite like it will have been seen before. It is arresting, beautiful and without any hint of affectation.
Joanne B Kaar, Hat 9 Coppergate Stitch (after Angus McPhee), (c) Joanne B Kaar
We walked out to the end of the hedgerow, and underneath the bushes we excitedly found boots, a coat, trousers etc. The hospital staff fetched Angus straight away from the fields so that we could meet him and tell him of our plans. We took several pieces to show at an exhibition at the Glasgow Print Studio Gallery in 1978, which also featured around 10 other artists. The poster for the exhibition had a red keyhole on it … The keyhole represented a means of glimpsing into the world of these artists. We cannot enter their world, nor can they leave it, the only mutual contact is their art. From their art, we are privileged to encounter the visual imagery from each artist’s unique universe.”
Angus was flown back to Uist following the closure of the hospital after 50 years stay. He was moved to a home for the elderly called Uist House, but passed away suddenly in 1997 aged 81. His works formed part of The Art Extraordinary Collection and this is now held at Glasgow Museums.
Joanne B Kaar, Hat 15 Oslo Sitch (after Angus McPhee), (c) Joanne B Kaar
Joyce also said the following of why her collection is called The Art Extraordinary Collection: “The term outsider can carry with it more derogatory meanings and can alienate rather than attract. In my own search for this form of art in Scotland, I soon felt handicapped by the use of the term outsider. Following the repeated utterances of viewers to whom I showed examples of this art. I began to call it ‘art extraordinary’. People would react with gasps of amazement, often they were particularly fascinated by these artists’ use of materials, not normally associated with art work. The exclamation ‘extraordinary’ seemed to belong to the works I had discovered and thus The Scottish Art Extraordinary Collection was established. Art Extraordinary, Outsider Art, L’Art Brut are timeless examples of an art which has existed since the beginning of time.”
As Angus McPhee’s work is now so delicate, replicas created by Joanna B Kaar will be on display in Radical Craft: Alternative Ways of Making alongside a film of the artist until 12 June 2016 at Pallant House Gallery before touring nationally. One of the pieces can be handled so that visitors can experience the texture.
I am as always amazed and excited by the work and the stories behind the work. I believe this form of art to be the truest art form.
Thirty years ago I knew Joyce Laing and she exhibited my work in her
Pittenween Gallery. Wonderful to know that she is still working and lecturing on such amazing discoveries as Angus McPhee (I saw her exhibition of his work in Stornoway, about 20 years ago, riveting and beautiful.
Is it possible to get in touch with her? I think she’d be interested in a book I’ve recently had published by Seren Books (www.jimneat.com).
I was called Mary Toms when she knew me.
I am amazed after Googling Angus’s name to find all this information on him. As my mother Patricia always talked about him with sadness, she would be surprised his fame has spread so far. To her Angus was a big brother who spend most of his time with the horses kept at the end of the croft in Balgarva, Iochdair, South Uist. My grandfather, was always amazed how docile the young foals were at the end of the summer. Angus and his friends had spent all their spare time in the field with the young horses, so they were very used to human contact and broken in as soon as they were able to carry a small child on their backs. Angus loved horses, he breathed horses.
I spoke to an ex-serviceman who worked at the Cameron Centre in Dalneigh, Inverness. He used to work as a stable hand at the Bught Stables near the River Ness and used to exercise horses up past Craig Dunain Hospital just after Angus was sent there in 1948. Angus used to stop them to admire their charge taking in the joy of being in their company.
When I stood with Angus as he wove the grass he picked, a beautiful horse in the next field would put his head over the rickety fence to grab a mouthful of Angus’s precious hand pulled grass. He was allowed one mouthful but was then tapped on the nose gently by Angus and he knew it was best to retreat back to his grazing.
Angus got great joy from being in the horse’s company but did not speak to me. I did hear he would chat to other people from Iochdair when they came to visit him but I felt he was happy with his life.
Hello Eilidh. I heard about Angus from a friend on Berneray, and I want on to write and direct the play ‘Angus: Weaver of Grass’ which toured the Islands and the mainland in 2011 and 12. I also involved the artist Joanne B Kaar in the project, and it was Joanne’s reconstructions of Angus’s woven costumes that did so much to help develop his reputation.
Of course I undertook a lot of research in order to write the play, and inevitably visited his family. I agree that their reaction was astonishment that his fame had developed so much. I sensed it was a surprise for them both that this relative, who had been kept away from Uist for so many years during the long period in Craig Dunain hospital, had then suddenly been returned to them for a few short and happy years, and that this was followed by so much unexpected acclaim for his work at an Outsider Artist.
It was lovely to read your recollections of Angus’s relationship with horses too. Especially the joy he got from them. It was something I tried to suggest in the play.
Best wishes, Bob Frith