Peter Howson: Deep scars of war experience

Published on 18/11/2010 15:01

In 1993 Peter Howson was named an official war artist for the conflict in the former Yugoslavia and toured with British troops serving there.

The documentary The Madness of Peter Howson suggests that experience had a "profound effect" on the artist, and led to him walking out on his wife and young daughter.

It shows a British soldier telling the painter at the scene of one roadside killing: "That grey object is the man's brains, in case you are interested."

Born in 1958, Howson studied at the Glasgow School of Art alongside artists including Steven Campbell and Ken Currie. His assistant, Douglas McDonald, compared working with Howson to "living with nitroglycerin", while his new partner, Annie McKay, reveals that their bedroom has been turned over to his canvases and the couple sleep separately.