Stephen Conroy

Marlborough Fine Art, London;
The Everard Read Gallery, Johannesburg

The canvas is original. There is some extremely light surface dirt in places visible on very close inspection. Otherwise the work is in good original condition. Ultraviolet light reveals a varnish but no signs of retouching. Held in a heavy black painted wooden frame with some minor damage, primarily to the upper edge.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

Stephen Conroy was born in Helensburgh in 1964 and gained his formative artistic training at the Glasgow School of Art between 1982-7. His fellow students included Ken Currie, Adrian Wiszniewski and the recent graduates Peter Howson and Steven Campbell who were, and still are, some of the leading exponents of contemporary Scottish painting and collectively generating significant attention as The New Glasgow Boys. Conroy was quick to develop a formidable reputation and in the years immediately following his graduation his work was included in The Vigorous Imagination at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art in Edinburgh in 1987 and in New British Painting, which toured five American venues between 1988-90. Conroy held a solo exhibition at Marlborough Fine Art in London in 1989 which after much acclaim was toured to Manchester and Glasgow in 1992. Marlborough still represent Conroy and some of his most recent exhibitions include another solo show at Marlborough in 2000 and a Retrospective Exhibition which was shown at Schloss Gottorf in Germany in 2003 as well as an Exhibition of Recent Paintings, Etchings and Lithographs at Marlborough in New York in the same year. Conroy, like Howson and Campbell, was fortunate enough to be given an international platform early in his career which exposed his work to an important set of collectors abroad, particularly in the United States, as well as in Britain.

Man in Landscape is highly typical of the new figural language which Conroy developed in the early 1990s focusing entirely on the monumental, solitary human figure. The turning point seems to have come in 1992 with the ironically titled Abstract Painting in which for the first time we see the isolated figure of modern man standing alone beside a telephone and beneath three precision clocks. This image was used as the frontispiece for the 2000 edition of George Orwell's novel Nineteen Eighty-Four, published by Penguin. Few artists focus their attention so singularly on the lone human figure and in this way he belongs to a unique artistic tradition alongside the likes of Anthony Gormley. Conroy, like Peter Howson, draws heavily on the monumental figurative tradition of Old Master paintings and on the modern realism explored by the Camden Town Group, in particular Walter Sickert. Man in Landscape displays the quintessential power and brutality of Conroy's figures, often in formal dress, positioned at the centre of a carefully balanced, semi-abstracted setting.