Screenprint on paper
Tate Collection
Works with images
General Collection
Collection
<a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/john-bellany-732" aria-label="More by John Bellany" data-gtm-name="header_link_artist" data-gtm-destination="page--artist">John Bellany</a>
Janus
Purchased 1983
abstraction
adults
anxiety
artist, painter
arts and entertainment
body
classical myths: gods and heroes
despair
diseases and conditions
emotions and human qualities
emotions, concepts and ideas
figure
formal qualities
from recognisable sources
gestural
head / face
illness
inscriptions
Janus
man
memory
name
people
portraits
religion and belief
self-portraits
symbols and personifications
title of work
vulnerability
work and occupations
paper print screenprint
Janus
image: 915 × 685 mm
Purchased 1983
<p><a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/bellany-janus-p07902" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>P07902</span></a> <b>Janus</b> 1982
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<br/>Screenprint 36 × 27 (915 × 685) on cream Velin Arches, printed by Chris Betambeau and Bob Saitch at Advanced Graphics, not editioned
<br/>Inscribed ‘Bellany’ 82' b.r. and ‘A/P’
<br/>Purchased from Monika Kinley (Grant-in-Aid) 1983
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<br/>The following entry is based on information supplied by the artist in a letter dated 20 April 1986. It has been approved by the artist.
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<br/>‘Janus’ is ‘a plea from the heart’. It was created at a time when Bellany's ‘life and health were in a desperate state of peak emotional strain’ during which his wife Juliet was suffering from a chronic illness which eventually proved fatal. Janus was the Roman god of doors, gates and entrances and is normally represented with two faces looking to past and future. It was an image which had haunted Bellany ‘over a period of years’. In this work, and relating to the circumstances under which it was created, the double face is transformed into a self-<a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/portrait" title="Glossary definition for 'Portrait'"><span>portrait</span></a>. As with the Roman original, the faces are turned to past and future but Bellany also uses the image as an icon of ‘self-appraisal’ and ‘self-challenge’. It invokes the questions ‘What are you? Where have you been? Whither do you go?’ and represents ‘an artist looking inwards on himself and on looking outwards is devastated by what he is seeing’.
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<br/>This feeling of devastation and personal conflict with adverse external forces is amplified by and embodied in the words ‘Spes Bona’ which form part of the image at the bottom. Although these words may be translated, ironically, as ‘good hope’, they refer more directly to an incident in Bellany's childhood at Port Seton, Scotland which made an unforgettable impression. ‘Spes Bona’ was the name of a fishing boat which ran onto rocks during a heavy storm with the loss of all the crew. Bellany recalls that ‘the skeleton of the boat lay on the rocks of the harbour bar ... until the timbers were eventually completely smashed to pieces by thunderous seas over the years’. Relating this to the meaning of the work as a whole, Bellany has stated that ‘the paradox of the Latin name of the boat and her dreadful demise commemorates man's feebleness to contest in an elemental drama’. Bellany also produced a <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/w/watercolour" title="Glossary definition for 'Watercolour'"><span>watercolour</span></a> with the title ‘Spes Bona’ 1985 (repr. John Bellany, exhibition catalogue, Fischer Fine Art, February–March 1986, no.26). On a wider level, the ideas of human vulnerability and personal conflict, which find metaphorical articulation in the image of sailors pitched against an overwhelming and irresistible sea, are further connected with the Roman Janus who was also a god of war and peace. That Bellany sees the work as a ‘plea’ stems from the heart-shaped motif containing the initials ‘JB’ drawn on the neck of the Janus head. ‘JB’ stands both for John and Juliet Bellany. This symbol was designed by the artist's wife and made into a love necklace which she wore as a ‘ray of hope’ during her illness. Bellany has stated that ‘The prayer endemic in this is portrayed in the disturbing “Janus” silkscreen which is a plea from the heart.’
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<br/>Although inscribed 1982, the work was executed between 1982–3. It evolved out of many preliminary watercolours and <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/d/drawing" title="Glossary definition for 'Drawing'"><span>drawings</span></a> including portraits made from life. All preparatory works were executed in the artist's London studio and are now in the artist's collection. The silkscreen was realised at Advanced Graphics in collaboration with Chris Betambeau and Bob Saitch at the same time as another silkscreen, ‘The Gambler’. Bellany has indicated that silkscreen was the chosen <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/print" title="Glossary definition for 'Print'"><span>printmaking</span></a> technique for this work because he valued the directness of drawing on the screen and the richness of colour which he felt was required. He explored the image further in ‘several [related] <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/painting" title="Glossary definition for 'Painting'"><span>paintings</span></a> and watercolours coming to a zenith in “Janus”’ 1983, oil on <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/c/canvas" title="Glossary definition for 'Canvas'"><span>canvas</span></a> (repr. in col., <i>The British Art Show</i>, exhibition catalogue, AC tour, November 1984–December 1985, no.17).
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<br/><b>Published in:</b>
<br/><i>The Tate Gallery 1982-84: Illustrated Catalogue of Acquisitions</i>, London 1986
<br/></p>

Catalogue entry
2004-10-13T00:00:00
catalogue-entry
CATALOGUE_ENTRY
abstraction adults anxiety artist, painter arts and entertainment body classical myths: gods and heroes despair diseases and conditions emotions and human qualities emotions, concepts and ideas figure formal qualities from recognisable sources gestural head / face illness inscriptions Janus man memory name people portraits religion and belief self-portraits symbols and personifications title of work vulnerability work and occupations