John Luke (artist) - Later Life

Later Life

John Luke died in Belfast on 4 February 1975, just a month into his sixty-ninth year. A retrospective exhibition of his work was held, in association with the Arts Councils of Ireland, in the Ulster Museum in 1978, and was accompanied by a short monograph on his life and career written by John Hewitt. Since that time his reputation has grown enormously, his loss rekindling memories in many of his former students of a fastidiously arranged life-room in the College of Art, his coat folded to perfection and his soft, gentle manner of instruction.

--==About His Art== As an artist John Luke presented an enigmatic view to the world. Reserved by nature and, perhaps, a little opinionated, he lived a very private life. His prowess as a draughtsman was evident in all he did and can be seen clearly, for example, in an early Self-portrait (Ulster Museum), done in pencil in about 1927. Here his sense of purpose is complete, his 'line' precise, taut and economical; qualities which can be seen, too, in another Self-portrait of the same time, but done in oils (Ulster Museum). This concern for line is evident also in The Lustre Jug, 1934, where he has also taken delight in conveying the surface qualities of the various items in the composition. This picture was shown in the memorable Ulster Unit exhibition, held in Belfast in 1934, perhaps Luke's only foray into the avante-garde. His aesthetic otherwise embraced strictly traditional values, much of his inspiration, especially with regard to his interest in tempera painting, being drawn from the early masters of the Italian Renaissance such as Piero della Francesca and Botticelli.

In the mid and late 1930s Luke's preoccupation with formal structures began to assume a greater importance in his work. One of the first paintings in which this change is noticeable is Connswater Bridge, 1934, in which large masses have been juxtaposed boldly one with another in a highly stylized manner, yet the clarity of the actual scene is retained. But two years later, in 1936, when he painted The Bridge, his technique had matured to a degree which, perhaps, he never surpassed. Here his formalism, expressed in flowing and rhythmic lines and shapes, is carefully matched to the undulating landscape and the colours are bright, the mood optimistic. But this buoyancy was short-lived and by the following year, in The Fox, currently being exhibited in the Ulster Museum, his mood had changed and a seriousness of purpose began to emerge which eventually overwhelmed him. The strict stylization seen in the latter composition became his hallmark for more than a decade, during which time he nevertheless produced some of his most memorable pictures, including The Road to the West, 1944, and The Old Callan Bridge, 1945. In The Road to the West he is still at the height of his powers, his treatment of the landscape being entirely original, a sense of discovery still evident, the whole in keeping with the mood of the times. The Callan Bridge picture presents him in an unusually light-hearted state of mind, although one still senses that the encroaching dark colours of the hedgerows betray a metaphorical colouring of mood.

Certainly by the late 1940s and early 1950s Luke had become obsessed with technique, and in pictures such as The Three Dancers, 1945, Northern Rhythm, 1946, The Dancer and the Bubble, 1947, and The Rehearsal, 1950, all of which are technically of the highest order, one begins to wonder about the paucity of content, for these are exercises in pure technique. the murals which he executed in the early Fifties in the City Hall and Rosemary Street Masonic Hall were to be virtually his last paintings and thereafter, apart from the uncompleted mural in the Millfield Technical College (building demolished 2002, remains of mural retained by demolition contractor) and the coats-of-arms carved for the Governors of Northern Ireland, he did little new work.

Luke, as we have seen, was a quiet, somewhat withdrawn figure. His severely Spartan lifestyle seems to have sapped his energy completely by the mid 1950s and possibly, too, he suffered a crisis of confidence as the post-war world took shape and the inexorable advance of Modern painting overwhelmed the traditional values which he espoused. Nowadays, with Modernism itself everywhere in retreat, the values represented by John Luke have again become appealing and reassuring to us.