The exhibition Basil Beattie: Onward and Upward, Twenty Five Years of Work (1986 – 2011) is on view at James Hyman Fine Art, London, through January 21, 2012.

This post, by Sue Hubbard, looks at Beattie's Janus Series II paintings. Hubbard writes that "Basil Beattie’s career spans the emergence in Britain, in the late 1950s, of abstract expressionism, through to his more recent emphasis on figurative signs that meld gritty northern muscularity with a voluptuous sensuality towards the painted surface. Yet his uncompromising, expressive canvases, with their ambiguities and ironies, their depth and intelligence are, perhaps, too demanding to be ‘popular’ in these times that insist on easy access and constant novelty."