/The Canon: Perspectives on Swedish Art Historiography/
The Scot Robert MacBryde studied at the Glasgow School of Art between 1932 and 1937. There he met Robert Colquhoun, who became a life-long close friend, lover and artistic collaborator. In London they were known as ‘the two Roberts’ in the artist circles also frequented by Francis Bacon, Lucian Freud and Dylan Thomas. Influenced by Graham Sutherland and John Piper, MacBryde developed a modernist idiom. Still Life is an example of the artist’s cubist works, in which he used flat, monochrome fields of colour in subdued but at times intense hues.
During the 1940s both MacBryde and Colquhoun had breakthroughs, but in the 1950s their positions were weakened, and it was hard for them to sell works. Their consumption of alcohol increased. After Colquhoun’s swift demise in 1962, MacBryde moved to Ireland, and disappeared from the art scene. Four years later he died in an accident in Dublin. MacBryde is one of countless examples of an artist who is briefly in the art world’s spotlight, but for various reasons fades into the margins. In recent times, ‘the two Roberts’ have been the focus of a major exhibition in Scotland.
/The Canon: Perspectives on Swedish Art Historiography/
