a pure land, 2021

Callum Innes (b. 1962) is one of the most significant abstract painters of his generation. He is also one of the few artists working in abstraction to include watercolour as a major part of his practice, his explorations in this medium forming a parallel body of work – in effect, a ​‘break’ from his other painting. a pure land documents a series of 50 watercolours that Innes completed in his Oslo studio, during lockdown, in the spring of 2020. The book draws its title from the poem by Thomas A Clark, which Innes finds inspirational. 

‘When lockdown occurred, I was setting up a new studio, in Oslo. The context was unfamiliar, and I had no reference to earlier work, as I do in Edinburgh. I turned to watercolours again, always starting the day with a black and white one … these being the most elusive. We placed the work sequentially in the book, so you can see how each informed the next, and so on.’ – Callum Innes 

Callum Innes began exhibiting in the mid-1980s and in 1992 had two major exhibitions: at the  ICA, in London, and the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, in Edinburgh. Since then he has achieved international recognition through major solo and group exhibitions worldwide. He was awarded the Jerwood Prize for Painting, in 2002, the Nat West Prize, in 1998, and in 1995, he was shortlisted for the Turner Prize. He works between Edinburgh and Oslo. 

Thomas A Clark was raised in Greenock, Scotland. His poetry has been consistently attentive to form and to the experience of walking in the landscape, returning again and again to the lonely terrain of the Highlands and Islands.

ISBN: 9-781-911422-15-0 
Publisher: Circa Press 
Language: English