Edwin G Lucas: A Purely Individual Painter

Wednesday – Monday 11:00 – 16:00 (closed Tuesday)
Free Admission (Donations Welcome)

An Artist Ahead of His Time Comes to the Borders
Edwin G Lucas (1911-1990) was one of Scotland’s most original 20th century artists.
Unrecognised during his lifetime, he has become known for his unique, imaginative
work since being “discovered” by the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art in 2013.
Since then, high-profile solo exhibitions have been held in Edinburgh and Southend-
on-Sea. Now for the first time his work is being shown in the Scottish Borders at
Hawick Museum – six years after his last exhibition in Scotland.
Lucas’s artistic journey began with watercolour landscape paintings, but his work took
a radical turn when he encountered Surrealism in the 1930s. He later referred to this
period as a “flirtation with Surrealism”. He combined this style with his own original
view of the world to produce highly individual paintings.
During the post-war years Lucas was at his most creative and prolific. Although he had
a day job as a civil servant, he saw himself primarily as a serious painter. During this
period he experimented with many different styles and subjects, resulting in work that
is very varied and unlike anything else which was being created at the time.
Lucas married a Borderer, Marjorie McCulloch, in 1952 and soon paused his painting to
focus on family life, before returning to the easel in the 1980s.
This exhibition shows the full sweep of Lucas’s remarkable career – from early
watercolours to paintings and drawings from his Surrealist period, his striking oil
paintings from the 1940s and 1950s and finally his innovative later work, alongside
rare archival material from the artist’s estate.
Quotes
Alan Lucas, the artist’s son, says:
“My father loved the Borders and he’d be delighted to be having an exhibition
there 35 years after his death. He once described himself as ‘a purely individual
painter’, because he was determined to avoid the -isms and conventions of the
time. I think the unique nature and variety of the work in this show proves his
point.”
Kevin Lang-Marsh, Southend Museums’ Curator of Art says:
“Edwin Lucas was an ordinary man with an extraordinary talent, and you can
see that his work and ability make him one of Britain’s most underrated artists.”

Credit lines for artwork images:-

Edwin G. Lucas, Self Portrait, c. 1947. Lucas Family Collection. © the artist’s estate.
(Photo: John McKenzie)