Peter Howson, a religious painter of "suffering" and human monstrosities

ARTNET
By Donald Kuspit

"Jesus Falls for the First Time" (2003) by Peter Howson

UNITED KINGDOM - For Hieronymus Bosch, “only individual abnormalities, excessive individuality, caricature have any meaning,” writes Max Friedländer. The very idea of the Passion of Christ evokes in his mind an orgy of mockery and devilish spite and he cannot invent enough hideous monstrosities to pour down hatred and contempt on the adversaries of Our Lord, whereas the divine suffering seems vague or even ambiguous.” It is the same for Peter Howson, also a religious painter of suffering, but he does not have to invent his hideous human monstrosities: he finds them on the streets of Glasgow. Bosch was also a “moralist,” ....as it is with Howson. [link]