Peter Howson: A Retrospective

Peter Howson has established a formidable reputation as one of his generation's leading figurative painters. Many of his paintings derive inspiration from the streets of Glasgow, where he was brought up. He is renowned for his penetrating insight into the human condition, and his heroic portrayals of the mighty and the lowly. His experiences of abuse - whether self-inflicted and substance-related or the traumatic events of his childhood - have moulded his view of the world and afforded him an affinity with those individuals who are classed as somehow 'on the edge'. His ability to speak to those on the margins is proof of his enduring skill at capturing the maverick, the excessive and the non-conformist. In 1992 he was commissioned by the Imperial War Museum to record the conflict in the former Yugoslavia. He was appointed official British war artist for Bosnia in 1993 and in 1996 was awarded Doctor of Letters at The University of Strathclyde. His work is in numerous international private and public collections. This publication is the first major statement about Howson's work for almost twenty years and accompanies a major retrospective at Edinburgh City Art Centre. It illustrates his consummate skill in a range of media and documents his religious work as well as his graphic responses to recent global events.