On the Edge of a City

Ken Currie 1960

Summary

A desolate inner city area of waste land and tower blocks. In the foreground, right, a labourer strides away to the right looking suspiciously behind him, towards the viewer. He wears a yellow jacket and blue jeans with a tartan cap. He carries a large bag in his right hand, filled with scrolls of paper and books, a hammer and other carpentry tools. He crosses the street towards a shop with a yellow neon 'TATTOOS' sign and a skull and crossbones over its door. In the window is a well-lit picture of a man's arm with a red heart tattoo. In the middle of the road is a car, its tyres missing, several men inside, one holding a megaphone out of the window. A flag flies from a pole sticking out of another window on the other side. A twisted girder lies on the road next to the car. To the right are two male figures, perhaps involved in some sexual activity. One man stands, looking straight ahead, his arms crossed. The second man squats before him, wearing red and yellow striped trousers and tartan slippers, his head bandaged. Above these two figures, in the top left corner of the painting, above a doorway at the top of a staircase, is another neon sign, with the word ‘Club’ and a shooting star. In the middleground a man stands on a ladder, pasting a Union Jack poster on to one of a row of billboards. At the end of this row is an archway formed of the word 'WORKS' in metal cutout letters. Behind the arch is a group of men, one of whom is digging a hole, the others have their heads covered with hoods. In the distance are several blocks of flats and some ruins of buildings, all edged with bright blue glow from the sky, the light breaking through heavy, dark, clouds. A fire burns near the tower blocks. Smoke rises from small chimney-like pipes which rise up from the road surface, along with two hands, grasping upwards.

Display Label

At the Edge of the City 1987 Ken Currie born 1960 Oil on canvas This painting is an image of social breakdown. Glaswegian painter, Ken Currie was inspired by the sight of a burnt-out car in the Gorbals district of Glasgow. The figure on the right may have been made redundant by the factory in the background. He keeps a watchful eye on the threatening environment where right-wing politicos and their thugs paste up Union Jacks and bellow propaganda through a megaphone. On the left a brutish businessman ignores the appeals of a sick and broken old man. Or perhaps he is indulging in a sexual favour. Currie's painting is inspired by the political satire of artists like William Hogarth and George Grosz. Purchased 1988.190