Dr Paul Gough has been invited to act as Adjudicator for the Royal Ulster Academy’s 132nd Annual Exhibition at the Ulster Museum (18 October 2013 – 5 January 2014).
Dr Paul Gough is RWA Professor of Fine Arts at the University of the West of England, Bristol where he is the Deputy Vice–Chancellor (Academic). A broadcaster, painter and writer, he has exhibited widely in the UK and abroad, and is represented in the permanent collection of the Imperial War Museum, London; the Canadian War Museum, Ottawa, and the New Zealand War Memorial.
He has published in a wide range of topics, including the processes and iconography of commemoration, the cultural geographies of battlefields, and the representation of peace and conflict in the 20th/21st century. Amongst his recent books is a monograph on the British artist Stanley Spencer, Journey to Burghclere (2006) and A Terrible Beauty (2010) an extensive study of British art of the Great War. During ten years work as television presenter, researcher and associate producer he worked for UK’s ITV, BBC and C4 on a range of creative arts programmes from dance to drama, poetry to painting, including the award winning documentary Redundant Warrior, about the war photographer, Don McCullin. As part of his leadership role in higher education he has worked throughout UK, Australia and New Zealand, advising on the formal assessment of university research.
He has a particular interest in the graphic language used to describe places of conflict, and has carried out extensive research into the history of military sketching and panoramic drawing, whereby graphic and cartographic conventions and line drawing have been used (and indeed still continue to be used) for sniping, surveillance and target indication on the battlefield. See for example his blog: http://militarysketching.blogspot.com/
He has also researched the role of regimental painters in recording the appearance of battle, concentrating in particular on issues of exactitude and authenticity. His essay on the British painter David Rowlands is available on: http://eprints.uwe.ac.uk/7880/ and on his Vortex website: www.vortex.uwe.ac.uk/warg4.htm
Paul Gough’s research is based on several decades of drawing en plein air and also having been commissioned for a number of multi–national companies to produced visual records of places, events and incidents, including a number of commissions with the British army and Royal Marines, and drawings of former battlegrounds: see www.vortex.uwe.ac.uk/gallipoli.htm
14 prizes will be awarded to exhibiting artists of merit by Dr Gough at the official opening of the exhibition and including include theYoung Artist Prize, Portrait Prize, Paul Henry Landscape Prize and the RUA President’s Prize for a full–time student.