John McKenzie: SCDA Design, late 1930's

John McKenzie: SCDA Design, late 1930's - on Art WW I

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John McKenzie:
SCDA Design, late 1930's
Framed (ref: 5431)
Signed with initials.
Welsh slate, carved in high relief

Provenance: The artists personal collection until 1972; the artist's housekeeper; thereafter by descent

Literature: John McKenzie, Liss Fine Art 2012, Cat. 2

The remarkable work of John McKenzie has only recently come to light.

Despite exhibiting his slates at the Royal Scottish Academy Summer

Exhibition, the Royal Glasgow Institute of Fine Arts, and The Arbroath

Art Society, (and in two solo exhibitions at the Arbroath Public Library),

McKenzie sold no more than a handful of sculptures during his lifetime.

Initially McKenzie worked in wood, but disappointed with the

results, he turned to roof slates and other materials found to hand.

Mckenzie accentuated the depth of his shallow designs by polishing them

with linseed oil mixed with slate dust. The works have retained their

original presentation _ the wall plaques with a narrow oak moulding and

the free standing reliefs set onto angled stands with bronze coloured resin

set around the asymmetrical edges. He produced no more than three to

four reliefs a year, which amounted to less than one hundred and fifty

over his entire career. By day a charge-hand mess-man on HMS Condor

(and later a railwayman), the reclusive McKenzie indulged his passion for

carving by night and at the weekends.

Inspired by Antiquity and his own system of recurrent motifs, he found it

entirely natural to add into his compostions figures in contemporary dress.

A rich symbolism imbues his work, complemented by lyrical titles such as

‘Lightsome Interlude’, ‘Fruitful Tree’ or ‘Moon Shot’.

When McKenzie died, in 1972, his estate was left to his housekeeper. A

type written inventory lists 112 works of art. The twenty-seven works selected

for this catalogue include some of McKenzie’s finest designs.