John Graham Coughtry

Heffel Auction House Biography and Notes

For John Graham Coughtry, the resolution of the post-war artists' conflict between figure and ground was an endless source of exploration. In his earliest iterations of the figure-ground dichotomy, he often depicted a lone body in relief over a smooth backdrop. In his revolutionary series from the 1960s, informed by his fascination with Greek mythology, Coughtry painted nestled, intertwined lovers floating on a bright coloured ground. By the early 1970s, his Water Figure series posited the figure in a watery ground, inspired by film stills of his daughter playing in the Mediterranean surf. Despite its scale and expressive paint application, Rajasthan remains, somehow, an intimate work. It once hung in his wife's Pavlychenko Studio, and it is easy to associate his lyrical, sensual application of paint with the dancers themselves. Here, the figures are in motion, dissolving into the rich, murky atmosphere that surrounds them. In some areas, the paint is applied strongly with impasto, and in others, the pigment is incised. A superb example of Coughtry's rich use of colour, Rajasthan, with its dominant palette of ochre and orange, evokes the exotic spices of India.