As part of Dundee”s first-ever WestFest, a very special exhibition is running at the University Tower Building”s Lamb Gallery.
Paola continued, “One of the paintings in the show, borrowed from Ann Patrick, James McIntosh Patrick’s daughter, is a still life that my father gave to him on his 80th birthday.
“There’s also an Alberto Morrocco cartoon of Jimmy painting and the cartoon not only captures him at work, but also the well-known elements of a McIntosh Patrick picture the landscape and blue sky.
“In fact, the card was a gentle dig because at the time that Jimmy was painting that blue sky, there was a huge storm going on with thunder clouds and lashing rain!
“People will also recognise well-known works from some of his study drawings.
“The McManus Galleries have Autumn at Kinnordy and we have a grid plan of that, squared off, so people can see the roots of a painting they know and love.”
Fascinatingly, there are also insights into the role art, in some form or other, played in daily life, even in the most stressful circumstances.
James McIntosh Patrick was called up in 1940 and served as an officer in the Camouflage Corps in the Middle East and in Italy.
Already recognised as an artist, in 1943 he sent a Christmas letter home to his daughter Ann, including doodles of insects he had studied to work out and understand how they camouflaged themselves.
He also used photographs sent from home by his wife to create collages and new works of art.
These doodles and sketches were part of a box of McIntosh Patrick paraphernalia kept together and donated to the Dean Gallery in Edinburgh.
In the new exhibition, there is also a cabinet of objects seen in various still lives and there will be a chance to view sketchbooks, such as David McClure’s which have hitherto remained in the family.
There are also personal memories in some of the major paintings on show.
Paola explained, “There is one of Ann Patrick’s works called Paola on the Beach which based on a holiday in Sutherland, one of many shared with both families and branches of the Morrocco clan.
“I am the yellow dot on the shoreline and I remember that smock top to this day!
“There are also artistic links between the generations, even where styles are very different or people are working in very different fields.
“Ann Patrick is a highly respected artist in her own right, very different from her father but some of the objects and colours she uses relate to his influence and you can spot some of the clues leading from one generation to the next.
“I know myself that my work, which uses fabrics and textiles in a sculptural way, relates to my father’s use of figures and the female form and there are decorative elements I have used that are inspired by his pictures.
“It shows that a thread of creativity can adapt through different generations and that original and contemporary work can be based very much on what has gone before.”
The succeeding generations of these artistic families are represented by Paola herself, Ann Patrick and her daughter Susannah Hunter, designer who creates applique work in leather.
Grandson Julian Hunter, an architect, also contributed designs he did for his uncle, Andrew Patrick and there are contributions from Alberto Morrocco’s wife Vera, herself a talented artist and their son and daughter, artist Leon and designer Lisa.
Morrocco-McClure-McIntosh Patrick runs at the Lamb Gallery in the University of Dundee’s Tower Building until August 14.
Morrocco-McClure-McIntosh Patrick celebrates the intertwined lives and internationally acclaimed works of three distinguished artists with the closest of personal and family links to the city of Dundee.
Helen Brown found out more from artist and guest curator of this special show, Paola McClure.
Friends and neighbours in Dundee’s West End and all tutors at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art, David McClure, Alberto Morrocco and James McIntosh Patrick died within months of each other in 1998.
Between them, they made a lasting and indelible mark on the world of art locally, nationally and internationally, with reputations that have stood the test of time.
This show, including some major paintings from all three artists, also highlights the personal and family links that brought them together as friends as well as colleagues.
Paola McClure explained, “Dad was only in his 70s, Alberto was 80 and Jimmy in his 90s when they died so they did cross the generations but between them, they had years of friendship in common and the families were all closely connected.
“In 1999, in fact, the RSA exhibition of that year staged a memorial tribute by showing a separate room of paintings by all three artists.
“Apart from the purely artistic merit of their work, there are lots of happy personal memories and we really felt we wanted that to be an integral part of this show.
“It’s not a major retrospective, but there are some important pieces of work from each of the three and many of the less obvious pieces will never have been seen by the general public before.”
The varied works come from family collections and from corporate collections such as the Royal Bank of Scotland Collection and from personal collections.
Paola and WestFest organiser Kay Macfarlane visited the RBS Gogarburn HQ to select a series of pictures, including works by both Alberto Morrocco and his son Leon and McIntosh Patrick.
The family contributed work by David McClure.
Paola commented, “Frank McGarry, who is in charge of buying for the RBS collection says that Alberto’s Boy With Eggs is the painting he gets most calls about from researchers.”
It’s the personal touches that make this show particularly special and revealing.