‘History had followed me to my future! Those old stained scraps of yesteryear. Actually I was glad to have them’. Scottish artist Donald Urquhart has a conflicted view of the objects that have come to define his past. Maureen Paley have just opened a show of his recent works, that comment on the universal fragments of social and political history from 1978.
The show comprises drawings on paper and walls, alongside a new sculptural work. Urquhart’s visual inspiration comes from beauty magazines, Babel comics and the work of many pop artists. His aesthetic fits authentically with the 1970s, with black ink forming slick marks that define graphic shapes and figures, as well as inks printed to look like collage.
He features known and abstract characters, from the Kennedys, to strong, suited women and beauty shots of made-up eyes. One-liners and captions pull many of these characters into stock roles, often referencing the fears and social worries, serious and light, of 70s society. ‘Straight or flared’, ‘atomic bomb’ and ‘camp David’, are written across works as bold statements, reducing a time in history to a few choice slogans.
Urquhart is interested in history, taking a residency at Paris’ Cité International des Arts in 2012, and commenting on the way in which Paris treats its own former years. While he recognised that ‘Paris is a shrine to history’, he also noticed the selective memory of events. Some events and people are totally forgotten, while others come to define the past. He has carried this realisation into his current body of work and his thoughts about his own past.
As a music buff he speaks of the ‘diamonds of disco’ that came from ’78, yet mentions his ‘horror’ when two friends saved some of his old clubwear, telling him ‘You can’t throw that away. It’s history’. After moving to Paris and getting a ‘clean fresh break from living with my history’, he was sent some ephemera from a past ICA show. Although originally irritated, he decided to give in and adorn his walls with these in homage to the ‘guano of disco decorations past that had choked my London flat’.
Donald Urquhart, 1978 is showing at Maureen Paley until 12 July.
