British draughtsman, born Louis (or Lewis) Freeman in Glasgow in 1891 (1888 according to some sources), died in London on 26 March 1972.
Life
From a modest Jewish family in Glasgow, Scottie Wilson left school at eight to help his family. Enlisting in the Scottish Rifles in 1906, he served in India and South Africa, left the army in 1911, then re-enlisted in 1914 and fought on the Western Front.
After the war he emigrated to Canada, landing in 1920, before settling for good in Toronto in 1932. A junk dealer, he kept a small shop on Yonge Street. It was there that he began to draw, with a fountain pen taken from his stock. Supported by the collector Douglas Duncan, he first exhibited in Toronto in 1943.
In 1945 he moved to London and a few months later exhibited at the Arcade Gallery. Yet he continued to sell his drawings in the street, for a fraction of gallery prices. In the early 1950s, at Jean Dubuffet’s invitation, he stayed in France; Dubuffet and Picasso owned works by him. In the 1960s he designed a dinner service for Royal Worcester inspired by totem poles, produced until 1965. He died in Kilburn, in north London.
The work
Meticulous pen drawings, peopled with characters of his invention, the “evils” and the “greedies”, set against symbols of goodness and truth: fish, birds, flowers, trees, self-portraits, totem figures. The Surrealists admired his work.
Exhibitions and collections
- Tate, London; National Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh; National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa; Carleton University Art Gallery, Ottawa.
- Collection de l’Art Brut, Lausanne; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Zander Collection, Cologne.