Craigie Aitchison, R.A.

Galerie Claude Bernard, Paris

Andrew Gibbon Williams, Craigie, The Art of Craigie Aitchison, Canongate Books Ltd, Edinburgh, 1996, cat. no.107, p.148, illustrated.

Original canvas. There is a very minor spot of undulation to the extreme top right corner. There is a further very slight, single fine line of slight compression to the canvas, measuring approximately 2.5in. in length to the centre of the pink sky, most visible in raking light. There is a very minor light surface abrasion in the top right hand corner, with a further very slight, minor frame abrasion to the extreme tip of the top right hand corner. There are further, smaller minor possible frame abrasions visible upon extremely close inspection, including a small one to the centre of the right hand edge. There are a couple of further very minor spots of very mild studio detritus and a single slight possible surface rubbing to the foreground below the base of the cross, but this excepting the work appears in very good overall condition. Ultraviolet light reveals two very small, minor spots of fluorescence and probable retouching to the centre of the extreme left hand edge, just above the horizon. These have been very sensitively executed. Housed in a thick black gilt and painted wooden frame. Please telephone the department on +44 (0) 207 293 6424 if you have any questions regarding the present work.
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`I paint [the crucifixion] because I want to  ... it is certainly an event worth recording' (the Artist, quoted in Craigie Aitchison,(exh. cat.), Timothy Taylor Gallery/Waddington Galleries, London 1998, un-numbered).

Crucifixion demonstrates Aitchison’s masterful ability to convey the mood of his paintings through a simple balance of shape, colour and tone. Aitchison was fascinated by the symbolic power of the Crucifixion and he returned to the subject periodically in his work. In his works from the 1980s he explored the subject in a larger scale and in a brighter palette than earlier works from the 1950s and 1960s. The present work is amongst the largest Crucifixion paintings from the series and the scale of the work displays the majesty of his subject.

Though not a churchgoer, Aitchison was introduced to religion by his father who despite being Presbyterian, took his family to churches of various denominations. Aitchison’s visit to Italy in 1955 confirmed his delight in the exuberance of the Catholic churches and the vibrant colours in the iconography of religion. Despite the popularity of the Crucifixion scene in art history, Aitchison, in his simplification of the subject and arrangement of colour, found an originally fresh way of telling his story of Christ’s death.

In Crucifixion the landscape background is abstracted into two blocks, clearly defined by their changing colour tones. The solitary figure of Christ on the Cross is placed off center in this empty landscape, his white body luminous against the deep red of the sky and the soft hues of brown. Aitchison was not interested in anatomical detail: the figure of Christ is so reduced that his body merges with the shape of the cross, almost appearing to become part of it. The shaft of light descending form the top right corner of the picture is reminiscent of Aitchison’s series of paintings portraying his dog Wayney’s death in the early 1980s (see Wayney Dead I, 1986). In Medieval art the stigmata would be delivered through this bolt of lightning; thus Christ is here blessed and sanctified. In Aitchison’s crucifixions from this period, animals join Christ by the cross playing the role of silent mourners, sometimes peaceful and accepting, like the colourful bird which flutters beside Christ in the present work, and sometimes urgent in their grief as in the baying chimera in Crucifixion (1986-1987, Tate, London).