Blue and White

Ronald Alley, who became Keeper of the Modern Collections at The Tate Gallery in 1965, discusses Scott's work in 1963, 'Though Scott has developed away from still life, the circles and rectangles in his non-figurative pictures still echo the kitchen pots and the table top. He is just as interested as ever in the division of spaces and in creating a tension between a few simple forms; his work is still that of a tonal painter, working within a restricted range of colour. Not only do certain shapes and colours (including a love of pure black and pure white) recur throughout his work, but he has always found it possible to go back to what he had done before. Perhaps most characteristic, however, is Scott's blend of austerity and sensuality: the one is what saves his work from lushness, the other gives it density and richness and, at times, a primitive, instinctive immediacy rare in British Art' (see R. Alley, William Scott, London, 1963, p. 12).