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  • A Cultural Biography of William Johnstone: The Making of British Modern Art

    A Cultural Biography of William Johnstone by Williamson, Beth;

    The Making of British Modern Art

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    Product details:

    • Publisher Edinburgh University Press
    • Date of Publication 28 February 2026
    • Number of Volumes Print PDF

    • ISBN 9781399540513
    • Binding Hardback
    • No. of pages320 pages
    • Size 234x156 mm
    • Language English
    • Illustrations 32 colour and 65 black and white illustrations
    • 700

    Categories

    Short description:

    Tells the virtually forgotten story of pioneering educator and influential artist William Johnstone.

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    Long description:

    Scottish artist William Johnstone (1897–1981) has been significantly overlooked in the histories of British modernism, yet his role as the progressive Principal of Camberwell School of Arts and Crafts and subsequently the Central School of Arts and Crafts in London helped shape the the work and careers of artists such as Richard Hamilton, Victor Pasmore, Nigel Henderson, Alan Davie and Eduardo Paolozzi.
    Drawing directly on Johnstone’s personal archive as well as a range of newly researched primary sources, Beth Williamson studies Johnstone’s ideas and his artworks within the context of his working relationships with other important British artists of the period. His dialogues with significant thinkers in the wider cultural field serve to illuminate these intellectual debates in a lively way.
    Williamson considers these important relationships against the background of Johnstone’s thinking and theirs, examining key texts, artworks, and moments in British art and art education in an international context, revealing Johnstone’s intellectual formation considering its significance then and now.

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    Table of Contents:

    List of figures
    Acknowledgements


    Timeline

    Introduction: William Johnstone: Artist and Teacher

    1. Journeys: From Edinburgh to Paris, circa 1919 to 1927
    A Borders Childhood
    An Edinburgh Education
    William Richard Lethaby
    Patrick Geddes
    D’Arcy Wentworth Thompson
    To Paris and beyond
    André Lhote
    Method and Materials
    Elsewhere

    2. Landscapes: Between America and the Borders, circa 1928 to 1949
    Scottishness
    An international artist
    Johnstone in America
    The nineteen forties
    Abstract painting
    Industrial design

    3. Time: A Point in Time, 1929/1937
    Time
    Experiment
    Chasm
    Change
    A Place in Time
    Theosophy

    4. Children: From Child Art to Man Art, 1941
    A history of child art
    Froebel and Ciek
    Marion Richardson
    Herbert Read
    Johnstone and R.R. Tomlinson
    Writing on child art
    Creative Art in England
    Children as Artists
    Child Art to Man Art
    New methods

    5. Art School: Camberwell (1938–46) and Central (1947–60)
    Interdisciplinarity
    Responsiveness
    Internationalism
    Adventurous Experiment

    6. Poets: MacDiarmid, Scott, Muir, 1930s and 1970s
    A New Scottish Renaissance
    Endarkenment: Unreasoned Relationship with Art
    Re-emergence

    7. Peers and Painters: Scottish Artists, 1960 to 1980
    A Borders Return
    Abstract Landscapes
    Portraits and Patrons
    Miraculous Objects
    Plaster Reliefs
    Tachism

    8. Reflections: In Retrospect and Conclusion

    Appendix
    Bibliography

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