RSA Scottish Art
Stone the Crows
 | Artist: Robin Philipson |
| Title: Stone the Crows | |
| Year: c. 1963-65 | |
| Medium: oil & vinyl on tissue paper & canvas | |
| Dimensions: | |
| Suggested topic: | |
| Source: RSA | |
| View full screen image of this work | |
| Open print version of this work | |
| © the artist’s family | |
| Description: Robin Philipson based much of his work on powerful themes, including subjects such as cathedrals and fighting birds.The memories of military service and animal cruelty (which the artist witnessed in the Far East) gave a sharp edge to Philipson's paintings. Stone the Crows looks back to the trench warfare of the First World War (the title being a phrase much in use at the time). The bodies of soldiers going 'over the top' of their trench into the battlefield, are echoed in the forms of dead crows suspended from wires. The action is presented in strips that remind us of reels of film, and the patterned borders which run vertically down each side suggest the sprocket holes found at the edge of a film strip. This painting attempts to link the scenes of trench warfare and equate it with the killing of birds.The long narrow horizontal strips of the composition recall the tightly packed spaces and narrow channels of the trenches, where soldiers lived and fought for weeks on end. The rigid composition evokes the boredom, tension and claustrophobia of fighting in the trenches. There are no sweeping curving lines here, no open horizons and no way out of the composition itself. The arrangement of shapes in this image is stark and limited to evoke the starkness of the trenches themselves.The execution of this image is sketchy and rough, showing only the outlines and shadows of the soldiers. The brush strokes are rapid and bold, and use only grey or black paint. It seems as though we are looking at a scratchy old film of the First World War, and we do not see any faces or encounter a personal relationship with a soldier, only unknown uniformed men risking their lives. | |
Find us on