Willie Rodger: Across the Board

Willie Rodger was the first artist elected an Associate Member of the Royal Scottish Academy under the new discipline of Printmaker in 1989.

Known for his work primarily in the relief printmaking techniques of linocut and woodcut; Rodger famously printed without the use of a press. With an active imagination, an observant eye, and a sure hand, Rodger kept himself very busy over seven decades. His catalogue records several hundred editioned prints, and the same number or more which progressed no further than trial proof stages before being overtaken by the next idea. In selecting the work for the present exhibition, as the title suggests, an attempt was made to choose works which spanned most of the decades during which he was active, as well as introducing works which may be less familiar, or previously unknown, to his admirers. There are works too which reveal him working in less familiar oeuvres, and in collaboration with others. These include a selection of intaglio and screenprints executed under the watchful eyes of Arthur Watson PPRSA and his team at Peacock Printmakers in Aberdeen, with whom Rodger enjoyed a long and fruitful relationship.

This is not a retrospective, nor even a survey of his work, in the fullest sense of either term, but rather a selective body of work which scratches the surface of his prolific output.

Unable to adapt to city life he returned within the year to Scotland, took his teaching qualification, and found himself Assistant to his former master at Lenzie Academy. In 1968 he was appointed Principal Teacher of Art at Clydebank High School where he enjoyed the support and encouragement of the Rector J.T. Robertson, of the recently appointed Art Advisor for Dunbartonshire Bill Wright RSW, and of a departmental team that proved a successful blend of youth and experience. He had the privilege too of teaching some extremely gifted individuals.

In 1987, feeling burdened under increasingly meaningless bureaucracy at the expense of front-line teaching, Rodger resigned to concentrate fully on his own artistic practice which, alongside family and garden, he had juggled throughout his teaching career. His contribution to printmaking was recognised with his election to the RSA as an Associate in 1989, rising to full Academician in 2005. He was elected to the Royal Glasgow Institute of the Fine Arts in 1994, and the University of Stirling awarded him an Honorary Doctorate in 1999.

Rodger also worked in drawings in pen and ink, conté, and coloured pencil; paintings in gouache, acrylic, and oils; book illustrations; LP record sleeves; 11 stained glass windows (in collaboration with John K. Clark), and even attempted sculpture, having a piece exhibited in the International Sculpture Exhibition held at Pittencrieff Park, Dunfermline, in 1967. His sculpture features in profile in his painting Cherry Picker in this exhibition which also includes his designs for the face cards from the award-winning Scottish Historical Playing Cards set of 1975.

The Royal Scottish Academy is grateful for the support of the Willie Rodger Art Trust in the mounting of this exhibition.

Text by Robin Rodger

All images © The Willie Rodger Art Trust

Top image: Willie Rodger in his studio, photograph by Eric Thorburn.