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Robert Montgomery 5 Things to Know Robert Montgomery 5 Things to Know

Robert Montgomery

5 Things to Know
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Robert Montgomery is a Scottish-born, London-based contemporary artist and poet. He is renowned for his large-scale light works installed in public spaces. As well as his evocative light poems, he is well known for his billboard poems, fire poems, woodcuts, paintings and watercolours.

Below, discover 5 Things to Know about Robert Montgomery. 

If you are interested in adding to your collection, speak to one of our art consultants now - email us at info@halcyongallery.com

1. Robert Montgomery鈥檚 light works were inspired by the 鈥榤aster of light鈥 James Turrell
Robert Montgomery, The People You Love Become Ghosts Inside of You, 2013. Recycled PVC, 12volt LED light, and gilded wood, 185 x 182 x 11 cm

1. Robert Montgomery鈥檚 light works were inspired by the 鈥榤aster of light鈥 James Turrell

Montgomery studied at Edinburgh College of Art, where painting was initially his medium of choice. However, this soon evolved into vast installations which incorporated text and light. After completing a BA and an MFA at Edinburgh, he was offered a place as a Core Fellow at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. A pivotal moment in his career came when James Turrell, pioneer of the groundbreaking Light and Space movement, visited Montgomery’s studio in the 1990s. Captivated by the spirituality of Turrell and his light installations, Montgomery was inspired to explore the creative possibilities of the medium. Using environmentally friendly LEDs, Montgomery’s light works have a mesmerising effect, with the gently pulsing lights forming a haze around the words, often provoking a trance-like experience.

Montgomery’s large-scale installations in public spaces are perhaps his best-known works, with the light poem The People You Love Become Ghosts Inside of You and Like This You Keep Them Alive, has been shared online over 20 million times, and a number of fans across the world have gotten tattoos of the poem. The popularity of these works is testament to their resonance and ability to capture universal feelings. Often set in vast, atmospheric landscapes at dusk, these light works evoke a Romantic reverie, harnessing the Sublime and the therapeutic qualities of nature. Montgomery’s works are arresting: his emotive verse forces the viewer to slow down and reflect, much like the awe-inspiring landscapes they inhabit. These are dynamic works, with a perceived blurriness – inspired by Turrell’s use of light – evoking an experience of infinite space around the words. As the artist notes, his smaller light works designed for indoor installation, which are roughly the size of a Rothko painting, offer a similar invitation for meditation and introspection.

'The poems are about trying to express something very interior and putting this into a public space – with the instinct that these are universal feelings.' – Robert Montgomery

2. He exploded on to the scene as 鈥榯he Banksy of poetry鈥
Robert Montgomery, We Love Our NHS, 2020

2. He exploded on to the scene as 鈥榯he Banksy of poetry鈥

Montgomery started making billboard poems in 2004, as part of his mission to reach a wider audience of people who do not typically encounter art in their daily life. Inspired by the tradition of street art, this practice involved going out at night in East London and covering billboards with poems, in a bid to ‘set poetry free in the city.’

The billboard poems and subsequent public installations reflect the artist’s belief that poetry and art should be accessible. His hope was that people would see these billboard poems, despite not knowing what they were, that the words would emotionally resonate. The artist never signed these works and left them without context, which led the press to dub him ‘the Banksy of poetry’. The billboard poems are Montgomery’s antidote to the dominant language of advertising and news media, which typically dominate our public space. While advertising treats us purely as consumers, the artist notes, poetry can unlock spiritual and emotional dimensions:

Poetry is a language that speaks to the whole person. Poetry speaks to the child inside of us, and it can help us to reconcile our innermost, and most vulnerable feelings with the harsh material world outside.’ - Robert Montgomery

Here, the artist subverted the billboard, exploring the dichotomy between public and private realms. Repurposing advertising space, where a billboard message is typically glib and superficial, his poetry invites stillness and introspection. The billboard poems have evolved into other mediums, including his correlating landscape paintings and his ceremonial fire poems. While his journey started with co-opting billboards, Montgomery’s work has now been recognised in institutions around the world, including the Albright Knox Museum in New York, The Musée du Louvre in Paris, and The Museum of Contemporary Art, Yinchuan.

3. The Surrealists are a significant influence for Montgomery
Andr茅 Breton, Egg in the Church or The Snake, 1932

3. The Surrealists are a significant influence for Montgomery

Montgomery’s endeavour to blur the lines between art and poetry began with the father of Surrealism, André Breton. As a student, he came across a book of poetry by Breton in the library at Edinburgh College of Art and was instantly struck by the power Breton's poetry to uncover the magic in the mundane, as well the Surrealists’ ability to adeptly bridge the gap between visual art and the written word. This provoked his ambition to become both a visual artist and a poet, approaching this challenge in a variety of mediums and graphic forms. The artist credits the Surrealists with ‘planting a seed in my mind that you can be, should be, a painter and a poet at the same time.’ In 2024, to commemorate the 100th Anniversary of Surrealism, Montgomery was commissioned by BAM Museum in Mons to produce seven large-scale public works, four of which directly referenced the words of Surrealist poets.

Beyond the Surrealists, Montgomery has also been influenced by other trailblazers of Modernist poetry. Guillaume Apollinaire’s concrete poetry, where the visual form of the poem reflects the meaning of the words, has been expanded by Montgomery beyond the confines of the page, inspiring his monumental installations. His poetry also contains echoes of the intimate and lyrical voices of Sylvia Plath and Philip Larkin. Montgomery’s interior voice, sometimes melancholic, sometimes hopeful, spans universal feelings like love, loss and grief, but always with an unwavering belief in the power of art and the natural world. While his work traverses the domains of art and poetry, Montgomery describes himself as an artist first and foremost.

I think melancholy is really interesting, because it is the creation of beauty from sadness.’ - Robert Montgomery

4. Landscape paintings mark a return to his artistic roots
Robert Montgomery
M20 Painting (Remember The Sky), 2024
Acrylic and glaze on canvas
160 x 225 cm

4. Landscape paintings mark a return to his artistic roots

Montgomery’s career has been characterised by his conceptual art. His best-known work is his light installations that cast his poetry in the sky, set against the backdrop of the physical landscape that they inhabit. However, in Halcyon's exhibition Songs of the Open Road, Montgomery comes full circle, by incorporating his poetry into painted landscapes. The Romantics were formative in Montgomery’s development as a young artist and his artistic journey began with him painting sunsets in his hometown of Prestwick. While Surrealism is the movement that most inspires his poetry, his landscapes reflect his affinity with the great painters of the Romantic period. The artist explains that he created these paintings with ‘the ghosts of Caspar David Friedrich and Turner always present in my mind.

Montgomery’s latest landscape paintings are overlaid with words which appear almost like a mantra or a veil descending over the mind as the eye surveys the horizon. The landscapes, from snapshots of frequent journeys along the M20, to expansive seascapes depicting his native Scotland, are a full expression of the artist's desire to combine his poetry with his art.

5. Montgomery鈥檚 work is a call for reconnection in the digital age
Robert Montgomery
Barming Place Trees, Late Winter, 2024
Acrylic and glaze on canvas
196 x 270 cm

5. Montgomery鈥檚 work is a call for reconnection in the digital age

So much of Montgomery’s work is a call to reconnect with nature and one another in an age where modern technology threatens to separate us. Hanging in the exhibition Songs of the Open Road is a piece entitled Barming Place Trees, Late Winter (2024), which boldly delivers this message. The painting consists of a vast landscape and trees that are inspired by those that the artist sees from his back garden every day. This landscape is overlaid with words, including the sentence, ‘No matter how much they try to steal you away in the digital world, the trees won’t give up on you.’

The M20 Paintings are also a clear expression of this sentiment. These landscapes appear on the canvas as a blurred countryside, seen from a car that is blazing down the motorway. Montgomery explains that these scenes capture what he sees on route between London and his studio in Kent. He describes these paintings as follows:

You are hurtling by on the motorway, and you see brief glimpses of beauty, the landscape in sunlight, how the light plays on the trees in a beautiful field, glimpses of nature that you are kept separate from and can’t quite reach. There’s a longing to be in that landscape that, from the road, we can’t quite fulfil.’

If you are interested in adding to your collection, speak to one of our art consultants now - email us at info@halcyongallery.com

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