Carel Weight, R.A.

Thomas Agnew & Sons Ltd, London
Sale, Phillips London, 23rd November 1993, lot 49, where acquired by David Bowie

London, Thomas Agnew & Sons Ltd, Recent Paintings by Robert Buhler, Roger de Grey, Carel Weight, 13th October - 7th November 1959, cat. no.29, illustrated.

The board is sound. The board has been affixed to the support bar with nails, the heads of which are visible along the edges, including one to the centre of the work, with associated lines of craquelure and associated losses. There are some fine lines of reticulation in several isolated places, most apparent in the lower left corner. There are two small scuffs to the sky in the upper right quadrant. There is a light layer of surface dirt to the work with one or two small specks of matter in places. There are traces of studio detritus and a possible uneven varnish at the left vertical edge. Subject to the above the work is in good overall condition. Inspection under ultraviolet light reveals an uneven layer of varnish, which makes the surface of the picture difficult to read, but there are no obvious signs of restoration or retouching. The work is held within a gilt and wood frame with a linen slip and a painted wooden rebate. Please telephone the department on +44 (0) 207 293 6424 if you have any questions regarding the present work.
"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.
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As a professor of painting at the Royal College of Art (1957-1973), Weight presided over a new generation of British artists at the forefront of the post-war British Pop movement, including David Hockney, R.B. Kitaj and John Bratby. Though Weight’s art initially appears very different than these artists, his outlook is also essentially urban. His landscapes are the environs of south-west London, which were for him the equivalent of what Cookham was to Stanley Spencer. Having spent his childhood raised by a foster-mother in the impoverished neighbourhood of World’s End and only visiting his busy parents at the weekends, the suburban streets, dark alleyways and parks were the playground of his childhood – a lonely time, tense with the danger of violent headmasters or rough gangs from Putney and Fulham. Influenced by Munch and the Pre-Raphaelites, yet with a vision entirely of his own, Weight’s paintings have a haunting and captivating quality, weaving together invented figures from his unsettling imagination and placing them in the meticulously observed, familiar streets of London. As he comments: 'I aim to create a world superficially close to the visual one but a world of greater tension and drama ... My art is concerned with such things as anger, love, hate, fear, and loneliness, emphasised by the setting in which the drama is played’ (Carel Weight quoted in Mervyn Levy, Carel Weight, London, 1986, p.62).
     The theme of attack and escape recurs throughout Weight’s work in his exploration of the brutality and frailty of man’s existence. Children’s Games is a tense and loaded scene that draws us in to a highly dramatic moment. Placed at street level, the viewer witnesses the ferocity of the attack with the lead persecutor, club raised, about to lash out viciously at the terrified girl who stumbles in panic, her hair caught, capture imminent, whilst her younger companion desperately grabs at her. Weight generates a sense of distressing uncertainty over what will happen next: will the girls escape? Is the man running towards them a saviour or a tormentor? The emotionally charged atmosphere of this disturbing scene is heightened by the street setting that enhances the sense of entrapment - the barricading walled gardens, the trees thrashing in turmoil as if joining the fray, and the sky overcast with foreboding - yet for Weight there is a sense of detachment evident in the almost comic irony of the title he assigns the work.