Rory McEwen (artist)

Roderick McEwen (12 March 1932 – 16 October 1982), known as Rory McEwen, was a Scottish artist and musician.[1]

For the Australian politician, see Rory McEwen (politician).

Rory McEwen
Born	Roderick McEwen (1932-03-12)12 March 1932
Died	16 October 1982(1982-10-16) (aged 50)
Alma mater	Eton College Trinity College Cambridge
Occupation	Artist, musician
Spouse(s)	Romana von Hofmannsthal ​ ( m. 1958; his death 1982)
Children	Flora McEwen, Samantha McEwen, Christabel McEwen, and Adam McEwen
Parent(s)	Lady Bridget Mary McEwen Sir John McEwen
Relatives	Mary McEwen (sister) Sir Francis Lindley (grandfather)

Early life and education

Marchmont House, the McEwen family home

Roderick McEwen was the fourth of seven children born to Sir John Helias Finnie McEwen and Lady Bridget Mary, daughter of Sir Francis Oswald Lindley and great-granddaughter of botanist and illustrator John Lindley, who in 1840 was instrumental in saving The Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew from destruction.[1][2]

McEwen was educated at the family home, Marchmont House, by a French governess named Mademoiselle Philippe, and at Eton where he was taught by Wilfred Blunt who described him as "perhaps the most gifted artist to pass through my hands".[1] After his National Service in The Queen's Own Cameron Highlanders, he gained a degree in English at Trinity College, Cambridge, where, among others, he became friends with Karl Miller, Dudley Moore, Peter Cook, Jonathan Miller and Mark Boxer.[1]

Career

In 1955 he wrote and performed in Between the Lines at the 1955 Cambridge Footlights Revue production at the Scala Theatre in London.[2]

In 1956, he travelled with his younger brother Alexander on the Cunarder Ascania to New York in search of Lead Belly's widow, Martha. When they found her she was so impressed by their understanding of, and skill at, playing her late husband's music, that she allowed Rory to play Lead Belly's custom-made 12-string Stella guitar, inspiring him to set off to find his own. The brothers played their way across America, cutting 'Scottish Songs and Ballads' for Smithsonian Folkways Records, and appearing on the coast-to-coast Ed Sullivan Show on CBS, twice, before returning home to Britain.[2]

By 1957, McEwen had become one of the leading lights in the post-war folksong revival, and was a regular on the daily BBC Tonight TV programme presented by Cliff Michelmore, writing and performing topical calypsos, whilst also working as the art editor for the Spectator magazine.

In the early 1960s, Rory and Alex hosted their own live shows to sell-out audiences at three successive Edinburgh Festivals. George Melly, the Clancy Brothers, Dave Swarbrick (later of Fairport Convention), Bob Davenport and the Americans Dick Farina and Carolyn Hester were among their guests.

Between 1959 and 1963, Rory presented and performed on the seminal folk and blues music programme Hullabaloo for commercial ATV television.[3]

Among his closest artist friends were Jim Dine, Brice Marden, Cy Twombly,[4] Robert Graham, Kenneth Armitage, Derek Boshier and David Novros. Among close poet friends were the Portuguese Alberto de Lacerda and the Americans Kenneth Koch and Ron Padgett. It was typical of Rory McEwen's Scottish internationalism and versatility that, as an offshoot of his admiration for Indian music, George Harrison took sitar lessons from Ravi Shankar in his house, and that he explored Bhutan in the last days before tourism.[2]

Painting

From 1964, he decided to devote himself entirely to his career in visual art, his floral interest also finding expression in colour-refracting perspex sculpture and large abstract works in glass and steel using perspex.[4] In painting he forged his own interpretation of international minimalism, creating works of exquisite beauty in watercolour on velum, of flowers, leaves and vegetables.[5][6]

His work is in the British Museum, V&A, Tate Gallery, Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Hunt Institute, Pittsburgh and MOMA, New York, among other collections.[7]

Influenced

Younger artists such as Billy Connolly, Van Morrison and Eric Burdon of the Animals are just some of those who admit to the influence Rory and Alex had on their formative years. Rory, inspired by Leadbelly, was probably the first person to play 12-string acoustic guitar on TV in Britain.

Personal life

On 15 April 1958, Rory married debutante Romana von Hofmannsthal (d. 2014),[8] a graduate of Sarah Lawrence College.[9] She was the daughter of Raimond von Hofmannsthal and Ava Alice Astor. Her grandparents were Hugo von Hofmannsthal, Strauss's librettist and founder of the Salzburg Festival, and Americans Ava Lowle Willing (who later became Lady Ribblesdale) and John Jacob Astor IV, the multi-millionaire investor, inventor and writer, who drowned on the Titanic.[9] Together, they were the parents of:

• Flora Mary Alice McEwen (b. 1959), who married Anthony David Willard Mason.
• Samantha Mary McEwen (b. 1960), an actress.[10]
• Christabel Mary McEwen (b. 1962), who married Edward Lambton, 7th Earl of Durham. They divorced in 1995 and in 2005 she married the musician Jools Holland.
• Adam Hugo McEwen (b. 1965), an artist and curator.[11]

In the summer of 1982 McEwen was diagnosed with terminal cancer.[3] On 16 October, suffering and in a state of despair, he threw himself under a train at South Kensington tube station. He was 50.[12]

Publications

• Tulips and Tulipomania, with Wilfred Blunt
• Old Carnations and Pinks with Oscar C. Moreton (and an introduction by Sacheverell Sitwell)
• The Auricula, Its History and Character with Oscar C. Moreton
• From the Air with Kenneth Koch
• Rory McEwen The Colours of Reality edited by Martyn Rix

Exhibitions

• 1962: Durlacher Bros., New York
• 1964:

Andre Weill Gallery, Paris

The Hunt Botanical Library, Pittsburgh

National Assembly Rooms, Edinburgh

Gateway Theatre, Edinburgh

• 1965: Durlacher Bros., New York
• 1966: Douglas and Foulis, Edinburgh
• 1967:

Richard Demarco Gallery, Edinburgh

Byron Gallery, New York

• 1968:

Richard Demarco Gallery, Edinburgh

Kunsthalle, Düsseldorf

• 1969: Richard Demarco Gallery, Edinburgh
• 1970: Richard Demarco Gallery, Edinburgh
• 1971: Scottish Arts Council
• 1972:

Redfern Gallery, London

Sonnabend Gallery, New York

• 1974:

Redfern Gallery, London

Tooth's Gallery, London

• 1975: Oxford Gallery, Oxford
• 1976: Redfern Gallery, London
• 1977: Oxford Gallery, Oxford
• 1978: ICA, London
• 1979: Taranman Gallery, London
• 1980: Nihonbash Gallery, Tokyo
• 1981:

Redfern Gallery, London

Fischer Fine Art. London

• 1982:

Steampfli Gallery, New York

Wave Hill, New York

• 1983: Hunt Institute, Pittsburgh
• 1984: Museum of Modern Art, New York
• 1988: Royal Botanical Gardens Edinburgh, and the Serpentine Gallery, London
• 2013: Shirley Sherwood Gallery of Botanical Art at Kew Gardens, London[13]

Discography

• Rory and Alex McEwen, Scottish Songs and Ballads, Smithsonian Folkways Records 1957
• Rory and Alex McEwen and Isla Cameron, Folksong Jubilee, His Master's Voice 1958
• Rory and Alex McEwen, and Carolyne and Dick Farina,Four For Fun, Waverly Records 1963
• Jim Dine and Rory McEwen, Songs, Poems and Prints, Museum of Modern Art, New York 1969

References

1. "RORY MCEWEN THE COLOURS OF REALITY: An Exhibition at the Shirley Sherwood Gallery of Botanical Art". Curtis's Botanical Magazine. 30 (2): 139–147. 2013. doi:10.1111/curt.12028.
2. "Rory McEwen | Biography". www.rorymcewen.com. Retrieved 4 April 2018.
3. "Folk superstar and truth-seeking artist: The real Rory McEwen". BBC Arts. 8 December 2017. Retrieved 4 April 2018.
4. Lambirth, Andrew (29 June 2013). "Exhibition review: Rory McEwen: the botanical artist who influenced Van Morrison". The Spectator. Retrieved 17 January 2014.
5. Blunt, Wilfrid; Stearn, William Thomas (1950). The Art of Botanical Illustration: An Illustrated History. London: Courier Corporation. ISBN 9780486272658. Retrieved 4 April 2018.
6. Blunt, Wilfrid (1977). Tulips & Tulipomania. London: Basilisk Press. Retrieved 4 April 2018.
7. Blossfeldt, K., K. (1929). Urformen der Kunst: Photographische Pflanzenbilder. Berlin: Verlag Ernst Wasmuth A.G. Retrieved 4 April 2018.
8. "Paid Notice: Deaths
   MCEWEN, ROMANA". The New York Times. 30 November 2014. Retrieved 4 April 2018.
9. "NIECE OF ASTOR IS FUTURE BRIDE; Romana von Hofmannstahl Engaged to Rory McEwen, Spectator's Art Director". The New York Times. 22 October 1957. Retrieved 4 April 2018.
10. "Samantha McEwen". IMDb.com. IMDB.com. Retrieved 4 April 2018.
11. Smith, Roberta (16 September 2005). "Art in Review; Interstate". The New York Times. Retrieved 4 April 2018.
12. Hudson, Mark (9 May 2013). "Flowers and rock and roll: The botanical art of Rory McEwen". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 27 April 2015.
13. Dyduch, Amy (17 May 2013). "Camilla at Kew Gardens for celebration of Rory McEwen". Richmond and Twickenham Times. London. Retrieved 4 July 2013.