An atmospheric study of engineering and nature, rendered with the rugged texture of the Scottish landscape.
A concrete bridge cuts a sharp, diagonal line across a misty, mountainous landscape, its powerful form rendered in cool blues and mauves. Hedley works the oil paint with a palette knife, building a heavily textured impasto surface that captures the raw, damp atmosphere and the ruggedness of both the man-made structure and the natural environment. Exhibited at the Edinburgh Festival in 1964, this work is a superb example of post-war British modernism, finding a tough, melancholic beauty in the dialogue between infrastructure and the wild.
Medium: Oil on board
Inscription on Front: Signed 'HANS' lower right.
Inscription on Verso: Inscribed 'HANS HEDLEY', 'THE BRIDGE', and 'EDIN. FESTIVAL - 1964'.The Traverse Gallery held an Edinburgh Festival Exhibition in 1964, Mark Boyle was the most noted artist, along with other exhibitors Xavier Corbero, Olivier Herdies, William Featherston, Esther Gentle, Abraham Rattner and Allen Leepa. The introduction for the exhibition catalogue was written by Douglas Hall, Curator of the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art (Inverleith House).
Condition: Presented in a simple period painted frame. The painting is in excellent condition with its heavy impasto surface stable and intact.
Frame 87cm / 34” by 72cm / 28.5"
Width cm / ”
