Artist: Alison Watt

Lévy Gorvy Dayan opens Alison Watt, a presentation of new works by the artist to coincide with her solo exhibition at Pitzhanger Manor & Gallery in Walpole Park, west London.

Watt’s still life paintings are distinguished by a deft realism informed by perception, memory, and art historical research. The paintings on display at Lévy Gorvy Dayan and Pitzhanger form part of a series that engages with the life and collection of Sir John Soane (1753–1837), one of the foremost architects of the British Regency era. Soane is known for his eclectic collection of paintings, sculptures, architectural fragments and models, books, drawings, and furniture. Pitzhanger was Soane’s main residence between 1804 and 1810, and he turned the large manor house into a showcase of his architectural style.

Fascinated with Soane’s use of light to manipulate space and create atmosphere, Watt depicts objects bathed in contemplative stillness, intimacy, and quietude. Highlights of Lévy Gorvy Dayan’s exhibition include the canvases Flaxman (2024) and Butterfly (2024) which show items traditionally associated with the memento mori—a skull and a rose, respectively. The work Flaxman makes reference to Soane’s friend, the artist John Flaxman. After the latter’s passing, Soane acquired a number of objects from his estate, including a skeleton used for anatomical drawings. In Butterfly, the rose—a recurring motif in Watt’s oeuvre—is enlisted as a symbol of beauty and transience, relating to Soane’s lifelong preoccupation with themes of decay and memorialisation.

Human resonance and implied narrative are felt everywhere in Watt’s still lifes. For the artist, the objects she paints hold imprints and impressions that represent “shadows of what had been before,” a sense of bodies at once present and absent. “The still life can be very intimate,” she has said. “By its very nature, it is linked to the portrait. The still life is a portrait without likeness.” The paintings William (2024) and Ink (2024), also on display at Lévy Gorvy Dayan, strikingly convey this concept. They are linked to a portrait of Soane by William Owen, wherein the architect is depicted with an open book and a feather pen—items symbolizing learning and erudition. Letting these objects stand on their own, Watt creates enigmatic tableaux full of mystery and life.

Alison Watt: From Light at Pitzhanger Manor & Gallery is open from March 5 through June 1, 2025.

ABOUT THE ARTIST
Born in 1965 in Greenock, Scotland, Alison Watt (OBE) completed her under- and postgraduate studies
at the Glasgow School of Art (1983–88) and garnered critical acclaim after receiving the 1987 John Player Portrait Award, presented by the National Portrait Gallery, London, as a student. Her monumental quadriptych Still (2004) hangs in the Memorial Chapel of Old Saint Paul’s Church, Edinburgh, in remembrance of the fallen soldiers in World War I. Beginning in 2006, she was an artist in residence at the National Gallery, London, for four years. Solo exhibitions of the artist’s work have taken place at the Scottish National Portrait Gallery, Edinburgh (2021–22); Abbot Hall Art Gallery, Kendal, England (2018–19); Perth Museum and Art Gallery, Scotland (2014); National Gallery, London (2008); Dulwich Picture Gallery, London (2002); and the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh (2000, then the youngest artist to feature in a solo presentation at the museum), among others. Her paintings can be found in permanent collections including those of the Aberdeen Art Gallery, Scotland; Arts Council Collection, London; British Council Collection, London; National Portrait Gallery, London; Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh; Scottish National Portrait Gallery, Edinburgh; and the Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence.