posted on 22 Jun 2016

It's all writ out for you: the art of Scottie Wilson by George Melly

There's nothing I love more than stumbling across a book I didn't know existed about a subject I should know something about but don't. Initially it was George Melly's name that drew me to pick this up in a charity shop - I'm a big fan of his autobiographical musings in Owning Up and Rum, Bum and Concertina and he was an engaging and perceptive cultural critic. But who is or was Scottie Wilson and why was Melly writing about him?

As I stood in the shop browsing the book, It didn't take me long to realise that Wilson's paintings are a bit special - so why, I wondered,  hadn't come across them before?  Well the answer to that could be that, as Melly points out, Wilson confuses the critics because he defies obvious categorisation and this unsettles what is an essentially conservative art establishment. That hasn’t stopped them trying to slap a label on him though - he has been called a Surrealist or an Innocent but they mostly tend to opt for calling him an Outsider artist. By ‘Outsider’ in this case what they actually mean is someone who seems disinterested or determinedly indifferent to art traditions and the opinions of others - and that certainly seems to describe Wilson who was concerned only with himself and fulfilling his own vision.

Scotty Wilson (1888- 1972) - whose real name was Louis Freeman -  was born into the Scottish working class and his family lived in grinding poverty. He remained almost illiterate despite having an extraordinarily eventful life -  he fought in World War One and then emigrated to Toronto in Canada where he ran a second hand furniture shop and it wasn't until he was 44 that he first picked up a fountain pen and started drawing.

He returned to the UK in 1945 and lived in Kilburn until he died by which time he had become a cult amongst those who valued his work - including Picasso who collected his paintings and facilitated meetings with some of the great post-war European artists. Wilson never really dated his work and he frequently didn't give them titles, so it's virtually impossible to plot any line of development in his drawing. There are, however, some interesting themes that keep coming through, the key one being his notion that the world, which can be intricate and beautiful, can also be  plagued by demons he called 'Greedies' or 'Evils'. Looking at his compositions it’s easy to see the influence of these demons seeking to worm their way his drawings.

George Melly actually met Wilson in the 1940s and they seem to have hit it off well enough despite their very different personalities. Melly, an extrovert, sometime vulgar performer and Wilson, taciturn and introverted - they must have made an odd couple. Melly takes the title of his book from one of Wilson's favourite sayings: 'Life! - it's all writ out for you'.

I loved the book but I loved Scottie Wilson more and without the little bit of serendipity that led me to pick this up, I'd never have known.

 

Terry Potter

June 2016