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British Murals & Decorative Painting 1910 - 1970 13 February - 9 March 2013
SCOTTISH ART NEWS
Gilbert Spencer RA (1892-1979), Hebridean Memory (detail), oil on canvas, 50 x 117 inches EXHIBITED London, RBA Galleries, Sixty Paintings for ‘51, 1951 (20)
ISS U E 1 9
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LAND AND LANDSCAPE: JAMES MORRISON TRACY CHEVALIER ON TAPESTRIES FOR STIRLING CASTLE WILLIAM TURNBULL (1922-2012) THE SCOTTISH COLOURIST SERIES: SJ PEPLOE
Helen MacAlister AT THE FOOT O’ YON EXCELLIN’ BRAE 28 FEBRUARY–6 APRIL 2013 Ben Dorain 2010, oil on linen, 148 x 210 cm
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NEW WORK 16 MAY–22 JUNE 2013 The Taste of Clouds (detail) 3.5 x 7 m, mixed media on card panels, 2009 From the re-statement painting of the Berlin Wall painting, East Side Gallery, Berlin
Image: Monarch of the Glen, Peter Saville, after Peter Blake, after Edwin Landseer (detail) 2012
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FRANCIS CAMPBELL BOILEAU CADELL (SCOTTISH 1883-1937) MISS DON WAUCHOPE'S ROBE (DETAIL) Signed, oil on canvas. 112cm x 86.5cm (44in x 34in) Sold for £250,000 November 2012
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Joan EardlEy ThE ScoTTiSh GallEry, EdinburGh 3 – 27 april 2013 www.scottish-gallery.co.uk/joaneardley
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Children and Chalked Wall, c.1962, mixed media on paper, 36 x 56 cms
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Ranunculus signed ‘Peploe’ (lower left) oil on canvas 20 x 16 in. (50.8 x 40.6 cm.) Painted circa 1921 Price Realised £541,250 Modern British and Irish Art Evening Sale, 23 May 2012
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Scottish Art News 3
CONTENTS The Fleming Collection 8 Land and Landscape: The Painting of James Morrison An insight into the evolution of Morrison’s painting and the impetus behind his work since his student days, ahead of an exhibition of the artist’s work at The Fleming Collection. (
John Morrison)
16 Making Time
Author Tracy Chevalier recalls her first visit to West Dean Tapestry Studios where the weavers were embarking upon the Hunt of the Unicorn tapestries, a series of seven medieval tapestries being recreated for the Queen’s Inner Hall at Stirling Castle. Now as the 12-year project nears completion, one of the finished tapestries will be the focus of a major exhibition at The Fleming Collection.
Scottish Art News 24 Scottish Art News round-up 26 William Turnbull (1922-2012) Between September and October 2012 Bill Hare interviewed Dundee-born sculptor and painter William Turnbull. In this issue we publish part one, which provides a rich account of Turnbull’s early career and influences. The Fleming Collection is widely recognised as the finest collection of Scottish Art in private hands and was originally conceived as a corporate collection in 1968 for Robert Fleming Holdings Ltd in the City of London. Since 2000 the collection has belonged to The Fleming-Wyfold Art Foundation which aims to promote Scottish Art to a wider audience. The collection consists of works by many of Scotland’s most prominent artists, from 1770 to the present day, including works by early nineteenth century artists, the Glasgow Boys, the Scottish Colourists, the Edinburgh School and many contemporary Scottish names. In Gallery One The Fleming Collection holds regular exhibitions drawn from the Collection as well as loans from public and private collections of Scottish art, which can be viewed free of charge. Selected works from the Permanent Collection are displayed in Gallery Two which opened to the public in June 2011.
34 The Scottish Colourist Series: SJ Peploe
Alice Strang, curator of the Scottish Colourist Series of exhibitions at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, examines the work of SJ Peploe, the second artist to be shown in this series, and the most successful of the four Colourists.
38
The Fleming Collection | 13 Berkeley Street | London | W1J 8DU tel: +44 (0) 20 7042 5730 www.flemingcollection.com | gallery@flemingcollection.com Opening Hours: Tuesday – Saturday 10am–5.30pm Admission Free 4
Image: SJ Peploe, The Black Bottle (detail) c.1905, oil on canvas, 50.8x61 cm Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art
Shaun Fagan ‘Untitled’
BUYERS & COLLECTORS OF SCOTTISH ART
Regulars 54 Art Market Round-up by Will Bennett 56 Books 60 Preview 2013 Eileen Hogan at Little Sparta: Eileen Hogan writes about her series of paintings inspired by Ian Hamilton Finlay’s Lanarkshire garden, Little Sparta, New Art Centre, Wiltshire / The Fleming Collection, London
Be inspired and invest in our artists of tomorrow with The Royal Scottish Academy of Art & Architecture RSA NEW CONTEMPORARIES: 13 April - 8 May 2013 60 artists from 5 art colleges in 13 Galleries - Expert advice on buying and collecting - Complementary Private View tickets - Personal exhibition tours
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66 Listings 68 The Fleming Collection News and Exhibitions
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Fine art by fine printers
Kisimul Castle, Isle of Barra, oil on canvas, 24 x 36 inches
Peter Graham ROI ‘ F RO M M A N H AT TA N TO B A R R A’ 18th April – 5th May 2013 ALEXANDER GALLERY 122 Whiteladies Road, Clifton, Bristol BS8 2RP
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Scottish Art News 5
EDITOR’S NOTE
To subscribe to Scottish Art News please complete the subscription form on p.72 of this magazine. Alternatively, contact The Fleming Collection. T: 0207 042 5730 E: admin@scottishartnews.co.uk or complete
As a major 12 year project by West Dean Tapestry Studio and
a subscription form online at
Historic Scotland to recreate seven medieval tapestries for Stirling
www.flemingcollection.com/scottishartnews.php
Castle nears completion, author Tracy Chevalier contrasts the kind
Scottish Art News is published biannually by
of time demanded of the weavers with the often frenetic pace of our
The Fleming Collection, London. Publication dates: January and June.
own daily lives in her feature article Making Time (pp.16–21). With so much value in our lives placed upon efficiency and speed, the
To advertise and/or list in Scottish Art News please contact:
labour-intensive progress of the tapestries is determined by time
Briony Anderson | T: 020 7042 5713
spent weaving, rooted in its traditional temporal framework.
E: briony.anderson@flemingcollection.com
In James Morrison: Land and Landscape (pp.8-13), the temporality of the landscape is in focus. Whether depicting
Behind Scottish Art News at The Fleming Collection:
the ice-covered Arctic or a bright, breezy day on the east coast
Editor: Briony Anderson | briony.anderson@flemingcollection.com
of Scotland, the changing seasons and weather make Morrison’s
Gallery assistants: Nancy Cooper and Sophie Midgley
paintings full of action, despite being emptied of people. We are also given an insight into the development of an artistic practice over time. Throughout his career, from his emergence as an artist in
Revised design concept by Flit (London) and Briony Anderson
the 1950s through to the 1990s when many of the ideas he had been
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working with began to come together, and into the present, we learn
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that painting the landscape posed a set of problems for Morrison, constantly presenting its own predicaments to be worked through.
We also learn of the early career of sculptor and painter
William Turnbull as he looks back on occasions in his life which impacted not only on the direction of his work, but on his very decision to work as an artist. Between September and October 2012 Bill Hare interviewed Turnbull but sadly, before the publication of
Scottish Art News Issue 19 is kindly sponsored by:
the interview, on 15 November we learned of the artist’s death, aged 90. We publish posthumously part one of this special interview in this issue preceded by an introduction to the artist’s life and work (p.26). I would like to thank Bill Hare and Alex Turnbull, the artist’s son, for all their efforts to make this interview possible, which gives such a rich insight into the artist’s career. We were also saddened to
© Scottish Art News 2013. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be
hear of the passing of Cyril Gerber, aged 94, and publish a tribute to
reproduced, copied or transmitted in any form or by any means without the written
the Glasgow gallerist by Douglas Hall. (p.53)
permission of the publisher. Scottish Art News accepts no responsibility for loss or damage
Katie Baker looks back on a 2012 exhibition Studio 58
(pp.38-43) (and related publication and symposium), which has done
of unsolicited material submitted for publication. Scottish Art News is published by The Fleming Collection but is not the voice of the gallery or The Fleming-Wyfold Art Foundation.
much to bring a number of overlooked post-war women artists and a rich period of artistic activity into focus. Regular news, art market
All images copyright of the artist or artist’s estate unless otherwise stated.
round-up, books and previews conclude this issue. I would like to thank everyone who has contributed to
this edition of Scottish Art News, and to thank all the advertisers, in particular Lyon and Turnbull, Scotland’s oldest established auction house, for their continued support and generous sponsorship that makes this magazine possible. (Briony Anderson)
Cover Image
JAMES MORRISON
Old Montrose Winter, 1984 91x122 cm, oil on board The Fleming-Wyfold Art Foundation
Correction In Bill Hare’s interview with Jock McFadyen (issue 18/autumn 2012), Jock was cited as being the second living artist to have a one-person show at The Fleming Collection with his exhibition Made in Hackney (2012). In 2009 The Fleming Collection showed Victoria Crowe’s A Shepherd’s Life: Paintings of Jenny Armstrong, making Jock the third living artist to have a solo exhibition at the gallery.
6
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Scottish Art News 7
JAMES MORRISON
Floe Edge Otto Fiord, 1995, oil on panel, 152x275 cm. University of Aberdeen
LAND AND LANDSCAPE
8
I
n 1989 James Morrison was introduced to an Arctic botanist.1 She was keen to press on him the idea of painting landscape in the Canadian High Arctic, and with her encouragement he joined a diverse group travelling to Lake Hazen on Ellesmere Island the following year. At 81° north, Ellesmere in the Canadian territory of Nunavut, is the tenth largest island in the world yet contains only three settlements and has a permanent population of under 200 people. Morrison camped and painted at Lake Hazen in the summer of 1990 and returned to the High Arctic on a further three occasions over the next six years.2 The paintings from these campaigns are diverse and reflect both increasing engagement with the desolate landscape, and an uneasiness of response to the experience of working there. Floe Edge Otto Fiord offers a majestic, colossal landscape, simultaneously forbidding and serenely beautiful. These two qualities encapsulate a central contradiction in many of Morrison’s Arctic images. As physical sensation they are transcendent but they are also utterly devoid of humanising empathy. It is not simply that they offer no human referent. They acknowledge no human existence. In effect they offer an answer to George Berkeley’s eighteenthcentury philosophical proposition ‘to be is to be perceived’.3 Berkeley suggested that without human observation, nothing could be said to exist, making humanity the causal agent of all existence. In contrast, these paintings appear to suggest that even at its most significant, human presence is an irrelevance. Beauty, emotion, metaphor, ‘meaning’ are all a human conceit, superimposed on a world unaware of such irrelevances. That understanding of the world, while only crystalising for the painter in the early 1990s, nevertheless underpins much of the work of his entire career. As a commentator on James Morrison’s paintings I am rather vulnerable to charges of partisanship. I am, after all, his son. That also makes me rather well qualified
Walker Street, 1956, oil on canvas, 49x60 cm. Private collection Nets at Catterline, 1963, oil on canvas, 30x91 cm. Location unknown
These paintings appear to suggest that even at its most significant, human presence is an irrelevance. Beauty, emotion, metaphor, ‘meaning’ are all a human conceit, superimposed on a world unaware of such irrelevances
Scottish Art News 9
to introduce the work, given that I have spent my entire life watching it evolve. I am happy to acknowledge the former. I am partisan. I generally like the paintings. I would rather insist on the latter also however, and with a retrospective exhibition considering his career to date opening at The Fleming Collection in February, offering that long view of the paintings is appropriate. James Morrison was born in 1932 and brought up in Glasgow, attending Glasgow School of Art from 1950 and emerging to begin trying to work as a painter in 1954. Morrison’s painting began to evolve in the artist’s third year at art school when he joined the studio section presided over by David Donaldson. The teaching was rooted firmly in the gestural mark making and colour painting tradition of Rubens and Manet. This late Realist approach stressed the creation of form through both gesture and colour, and the method was problematic for Morrison. Then, as now, the painter insisted that he ‘did not understand colour’. However, students were taught to underpin their high-key paintings with loose, blocked-in monochrome tonal massing. This underpainting was carried out in thinned down very liquid paint and it was that apparently preliminary technique that was to develop into a painting language for the artist. This method was, as has often been observed, more akin to watercolour painting than oil painting and it lent itself to working rapidly outdoors. It was, from the beginning, applied to subjects drawn from the artist’s experience, and initially that meant the urban environment around him. With 1950s Glasgow a virtually black city, the method could also make a virtue of the absence of colour and rely heavily on gradations of tone. As in watercolour, the thin liquid paint allowed the white of the support to shine through and the lights in the paintings were drawn up from the pale ground
St Cyrus Abstract, 1969, ink and tempera on board, 69x110 cm. Private collection
10
As the painter increasingly drew the landscape in an attempt to grasp its underlying form, what emerged were not realist recordings of outward appearance, but explorations of the tenets of landscape
rather than imposed through the use of white paint. Morrison began to paint the city of Glasgow during his final two years of art school. A painting such as Walker Street painted two years after graduation is indicative of the work which emerged from this thinking. The painting is almost monochromatic. It is entirely an exercise in tonal painting, from rich lustrous blacks to dirty white highlights. Its understated dark sobriety and stark angular linearity appear as uncomplicated documentation. There is no overt invitation to reflect on the human cost of a rotting tenement and the spectator supplies the human context. The painting makes a point of communicating solely in aesthetic terms, as if the emotion inescapably inherent has been consciously excised. But the building is seen almost face on and is cut on three sides. A relentlessly bleak and cramped vision offers no space, either literal of figurative, for objective distance. The colourless, coarse surface imposes itself and its nihilism on the viewer unremittingly. This disavowal of overt emotional content has run right through Morrison’s career, attracting alternately approbation and censure. Morrison visited Catterline, on the coast south of Aberdeen, on honeymoon in the spring of 1955. In 1958, increasingly uncomfortable in the city, he conceived of the relative isolation of life in the North-East as a relief from the attendant pressures of Glasgow. Initially painting drying fishing nets and beached boats Morrison struggled to come to terms with painting landscape. As exercises in drawing, the nets and the boats were attractive as subjects because they had a clear affinity with the Glasgow paintings – both present structures rising vertically from the ground plane. Although the nets are transparent and the boats present a top surface which recedes from the viewer, they are as akin to the problems of tenement painting as anything likely to be encountered in this new location. Landscape painting offered a different set of formal problems and these were tackled only gradually over perhaps a decade of experimentation and analysis. That work was manifest in a long sequence of often heavily abstracted images which
Summer Isles. Pat Macleod’s View, 2002, oil on board, 97x152 cm. Private collection
sought to come to terms with the underlying structures of the land. As the painter increasingly drew the landscape in an attempt to grasp its underlying form, what emerged were not realist recordings of outward appearance, but explorations of the tenets of landscape. From the early 1970s St Cyrus Abstract is loosely based on the landscape of a salt marsh behind coastal dunes. It was painted in casein, not oil, and is influenced by a combination of contemporary Op Art in general, and a long-term recurring interest in physics and geometry, in this instance in the phenomenon of moiré patterns.4 These twin concerns contributed to repeated shapes of the ink and watercolour becoming formalised abstraction, with the potential for illusions of space and movement to be generated by means other than traditional drawing. The character of beach and bank, marsh and grass remain but are hardened into a language of moulded space. Forms advance and retreat. There is ambiguous depth but also a direct concern for surface pattern. Visual ‘rules’ are established and then immediately broken but underneath all is an attempt to analyse the intrinsic forms of the land. Ultimately, the outcome of this work was a move back to realism with paintings possessing a greater sense of place built upon a firmer understanding of the world as seen, and by the mid 1970s the paintings had undergone an elemental turn towards realism. Over the last 20 years James Morrison has produced painting remarkable for its sheer visual appeal. In itself that is far from simple unalloyed praise. Contemporary painting is only rarely about physical beauty. ‘Skill is a trap’ is a well-worn Modernist cliché, albeit one most frequently deployed by those with too little skill to trap them. It is wrong of course. Skill is not a trap. The deployment of skill without thought is certainly a rather tedious blind alley,
but one may always learn to turn around. That is not to dismiss the ‘problem’ of skill entirely. There is certainly a predicament for painters whose work relies on the overt use of physical skill. The issue is that the more self evident an artist’s physical dexterity, the easier it is, particularly for the superficial observer, to concentrate on the technique and fail utterly to discern the thought. That dilemma is one which has bedevilled many artists across all media in the last 100 years. Jean Sibelius was routinely derided in certain quarters in France as a hack tunesmith by critics determined to champion Modernism and unable to see beyond the dazzling facility with which he crafted his music. Likewise the pointed intellectual critique inherent in Surrealist painters was ignored and their work ridiculed as ‘a certain return to the human-all-too-human, too obvious emotion’ by the pope of Modernist criticism Clement Greenberg, utterly blind to anything but what he frequently misunderstood as pure abstraction. Given relentlessly prosaic titles, paintings such as Montreathmont Forest, Mud, and, Summer Isles. Pat Macleod’s View offer a celebration of the beauty of the Angus landscape or the West Highlands in an apparently wholly unmediated manner. The titles directly lead the viewer to apprehend these images as simple, direct truth, and to the joy to be found in the encounter with the everyday world. The core massing, structure and light of most of these images was painted outside, in the landscape, over a period of around five hours with more detailed touches developing individual elements worked on over a similar amount of time in the studio. The paintings appear effortless and inevitable. So evidently ‘real’ the ‘view’ appears that it is something of a surprise to suddenly acknowledge the violence and scale of the brush strokes, the liquid freedom of the foreground, or the frequent absence of object making. At their best the presence of these marks or absence of definition serves to reinforce both the drama of the painting and enhance the sense of space, pulling the viewer into and around the painting. They also mark these paintings as wholly
So evidently ‘real’ the ‘view’ appears that it is something of a surprise to suddenly acknowledge the violence and scale of the brush strokes, the liquid freedom of the foreground, or the frequent absence of object making Scottish Art News 11
There is only ever here an impression of fidelity, and it is in that obscured space between constructed image and renderings of the seen that the paintings operate
modern images, acknowledging their own artifice while simultaneously denying it. The method, in practice, is some way from inevitable, and the worked-for balance between technique and illusion not infrequently fails, leading to perhaps a quarter of all works begun outside ending in failure and destruction. These paintings are wholly free from sentiment. Their emotional content is derived from the viewer’s identification, in any given work, with an understanding of the world recognised as utterly true, but unseen until revealed by the image in front of them. This leads frequently to misapprehensions of these paintings as being entirely the application of a technique. The implication of that is that given an understanding of the physical process, the pictures could be created by anyone. 12
But Mud or Montreathmont Forest are not successful works because they are the result of a technique which can mimic life. There is only ever here an impression of fidelity, and it is in that obscured space between constructed image and renderings of the seen that the paintings operate. All these works are anchored in 50 years of looking at and thinking about the landscape, the weather, the geology and the space. They bring all that knowledge and experience to bear in the creation of images which offer not a facsimile of actuality, but instead reveal for the viewer a form of seeing, parallel to but distinct from the experience of looking at the world. These paintings, as the Glasgow images before them, offer new insight into perceptions of the everyday.
OPPOSITE Mud, 1998, oil on board, 102x152 cm. Private collection ABOVE Montreathmont Forest, 1990, oil on panel, 60x152 cm. Private collection
1. Dr Jean Balfour CBE, FRSE, See http://www.debretts.co.uk/people/ biographies/browse/b/669/(Elizabeth)%20Jean+BALFOUR.aspx 2. Morrison’s visits to the Arctic were organised through Bezal and Terry Jesudason at Resolute Bay. 3. George Berkeley (1685-1753) A Treatise Concerning the Principles of Human Knowledge, 1710. 4. No particular Op artist was directly influential but both Josef Albers and Victor Vasarely were contemporary interests. In physics, a moiré is an interference pattern created, when two geometric grids are overlaid at an angle.
John Morrison is Head of School of Divinity, History & Philosophy at the University of Aberdeen. He has published widely on modern and contemporary Scottish art and cultural history including two monographs and an edited volume. His major publications include ‘Particles of Light: A History of Aberdeen Artists’ Society 1827-2000’, (RGU Press, Aberdeen) 2000; ‘Painting the Nation: Identity and Nationalism in Scottish Painting 1800-1920’, (Edinburgh UP, Edinburgh), 2003; and ‘Land, Labour and Landscape in nineteenth century Scotland’ (forthcoming). In February a new book Land and Landscape: The Painting of James Morrison by John Morrison will be published, celebrating and exploring the painting of James Morrison over 60 years. Land and Landscape: The Painting of James Morrison will be published by The Fleming-Wyfold Art Foundation, priced £30. Copies can be obtained from The Fleming Collection or by post at £30 + p&p.
Land and Landscape: The Painting of James Morrison 19 February – 6 April 2013 The Fleming Collection 13 Berkeley Street, Mayfair, London W1J 8DU Tel: 020 7042 5730 www.flemingcollection.com James Morrison will be in conversation with his son John Morrison at The Fleming Collection on Monday 25 February, 6.30 pm Friends & Patrons £10; Non members £12.50 See p. 71 for details on how to book tickets
Scottish Art News 13
Eileen Hogan: Vacant Possession
Ian Hamilton Finlay 9 February - 31 March 2013
Roche Court East Winterslow Salisbury, Wilts SP5 1BG
T +44(0)1980 862244 F +44(0)1980 862447 nac@sculpture.uk.com www.sculpture.uk.com
From left to right: Eileen Hogan, ‘FH 172’, 2010, 205 x 158 cm, ‘Goose Hut’, 2012, 117.6 x 109.4 cm and ‘Ian Hamilton Finlay’, 2012, 100.5 x 84.5 cm 14
NewArtCentre.
Black Cat tapestry by Tracey Emin
COMMISSIONS DEMONSTRATIONS DESIGN TALKS Contact Caron Penney, Studio Director, West Dean Tapestry Studio, West Dean, Chichester, West Sussex PO18 0QZ England Telephone +44 (0)1243 818233 Fax +44 (0)1243 811343 Email caron.penney@westdean.org.uk
www.westdean.org.uk
Scottish Art News 15
MAKING TIME
16
The Unicorn is Found Tapestry, 330x340 cm © Crown Copyright. Reproduced courtesy of Historic Scotland
Tracy Chevalier
Scottish Art News 17
In April and May 2013 The Fleming Collection, London presents an exhibition on a project nearing completion by West Dean Tapestry Studio and Historic Scotland. The ‘Hunt of the Unicorn’ tapestries are a series of seven medieval tapestries being recreated for the Queen’s Inner Hall at Stirling Castle. The original tapestries are on exhibition at the Cloisters Museum in New York, part of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The recreations are being woven by West Dean Tapestry Studio, both at Stirling Castle and at West Dean near Chichester in Sussex.
O
ne of the biggest differences between the past and the present is our sense of time. How long does it take to plough a field? Clean a house? Send a letter? Travel from Edinburgh to London? Since the two revolutions – industrial and digital – we have come to expect everything in our lives to happen faster. With mechanisation has come speed, in the art world as elsewhere: painters no longer have to grind and mix their paints; drawings can be made on and printed out from a computer. Perhaps the most astonishing element of the truly astonishing West Dean tapestry project is how long it has taken. Weaving tapestries by hand, and with such intricate designs, is a slow, labour-intensive process, in a way that 21st-century society can scarcely conceive of or measure. It has taken 12 years to weave seven tapestries. Twelve years – that is proper medieval time, not 21st-century time. Since weavers first set up a loom at Stirling Castle in November 2001 to begin work recreating a tapestry called ‘The Unicorn in Captivity’, the world has rapidly changed. Back then September 11th had only just taken place, and there had been no 7/7, no Iraq war, no Arab Spring. No one had heard of David Cameron, or Barack Obama. There was no Facebook, Twitter or YouTube; no iphones, ipods or ipads. Think of your own life over the last 12 years: all those quotidian car trips, restaurant meals, visits to art galleries, walks in parks, Sunday papers, mugs of tea – as well as the bigger things, the marriages and divorces and babies and deaths, the job changes and the holidays. During almost every one of those moments – every cup of coffee, every email sent, every bill paid – the West Dean weavers have been sitting at their looms at Stirling or in the Sussex studio, working on the ‘Hunt of the Unicorn’ tapestries. That is awesome, in the medieval sense: I am full of amazement and a touch of horror at the thought of spending so much time on one thing. In 2002, early into the project, I visited the West Dean Tapestry Studio to see the weavers in action. At the time I was writing an historical novel about a different 18
I was most struck by the serene atmosphere, a rhythm built from love and patience and a desire to make good, sound work, using medieval techniques and embracing a medieval understanding of time
series of medieval tapestries called ‘The Lady and the Unicorn’; they hang at the Cluny Museum in Paris. Through serendipity I discovered the West Dean project and couldn’t believe my luck: it is one thing to read about weaving and view the finished product on a wall, but how much more fascinating and useful to see it being made! I spent the day with weavers Caron Penney, Katharine Swailes and Philip Sanderson, asking questions, peering at drawings, fingering wool and gold thread and, mostly, sitting at the loom and watching their careful, painstaking work on their first tapestry, ‘The Start of the Hunt’. Only a strip of between 11-20 inches is visible at any moment: the work gets rolled in on itself as the weavers go along, and they only see the whole tapestry (some are up to 14 feet long) when it is completed and cut off the loom. That day I could see part of a hunter with long hair, wearing a red and blue doublet and a plumed hat in red and yellow. He carried a spear and held the lead of a greyhound at his side. Above and below him was a field of millefleurs – a beautiful, intricate design of flowers common in medieval tapestries. The weavers were generous with their time and with their work, even letting me weave a tiny bit – though I suspect they surreptitiously unpicked it afterwards. Such a hands-on experience was invaluable to an historical novelist trying to describe a medieval weaving studio: the space, the concentrated silence, the textures, the importance of each thread. I was most struck by the serene atmosphere, a rhythm built from love and patience and a desire to make good, sound work, using medieval techniques and embracing a medieval understanding of time. Caron and Katharine and Philip and the 15 other weavers on this project could not hurry or it would show in the results. Over the next ten years, I have often thought of the weavers at West Dean. Since The Lady and the Unicorn, I have written three more novels about very different subjects; travelled a lot; brought up a son from toddler to teen; drunk many cups of coffee, gone for many walks, and paid many bills. At those odd moments, woven through the strands of my daily life, I think of the weavers in the studio,
West Dean Tapestry Studio Weavers Working on The Unicorn is Found Tapestry, Photograph © Steve Speller
At those odd moments, woven through the strands of my daily life, I think of the weavers in the studio, still working on the same tapestries. They have become a touchstone, a constant in a world that has changed too fast for my liking
still working on the same tapestries. They have become a touchstone, a constant in a world that has changed too fast for my liking. In September 2012 I visited West Dean again. The studios at West Dean and Stirling have completed five of the seven tapestries, and are weaving the final two, which will be completed by 2014. Walking into the tapestry studio ten years later, I was struck by the same atmosphere of focussed calm. What a miracle that the weavers have managed to sustain it for so long. The rest of us may be distracted by Xbox and Netflix and YouTube and Twitter, to the point where we can now barely sit through a film or a book or a conversation without looking for other distractions on our phones. But at West Dean they have held on to the long view, and made it into the most gorgeous works of art. I envy them for it. Tracy Chevalier’s latest novel is ‘The Last Runaway’. Her other books include ‘Remarkable Creatures’, ‘The Lady and the Unicorn’ and the international bestseller ‘Girl with a Pearl Earring’. Born in Washington, DC, she moved in 1984 to London, where she lives with her husband and son. Scottish Art News 19
CLOCKWISE FROM TOP The Unicorn Leaps from the Stream Tapestry – Weaving in Progress, Photograph © Steve Speller Yarn Swatches and Dye Recipes, Photograph © Steve Speller Weaver’s Hands at Work, Photograph © Steve Speller OPPOSITE Detail from The Unicorn is Found Tapestry © Crown Copyright. Reproduced courtesy of Historic Scotland
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In April a new book Finding the Unicorn – Tapestries Mythical and Modern will be published by Historic Scotland, priced £8.00 Copies can be obtained from The Fleming Collection or by post at £8.00 + p&p. Finding the Unicorn: Tapestries Mythical and Modern 17 April – 1 June 2013 The Fleming Collection 13 Berkeley Street, Mayfair, London W1J 8DU Tel: 020 7042 5730 www.flemingcollection.com During the exhibition the following lectures will be held at The Fleming Collection: The Rebirth of a Palace: Rediscovering the Unicorn Tapestries Peter Buchanan, Project Manager, Historic Scotland and Caron Penney, Studio Director, West Dean Tapestry Studio Monday 29 April, 6.45–8pm Tickets £10/Friends of the Fleming Collection £7.50 The Mystic Hunt of the Unicorn: Capturing Beauty Katharine Swailes, Studio Manager, West Dean Tapestry Studio and Sue Prichard, Curator, Contemporary Textiles, Victoria & Albert Museum Monday 13 May, 6.45–8pm Tickets £10/Friends of the Fleming Collection £7.50 See p. 71 for details on how to book tickets Scottish Art News 21
BOURNE
JAMES COWIE
RSA
1886 - 1956
drawings, watercolours and oil paintings from a private collection April 2013 BOURNE FINE ART part of The Fine Art Society 6 Dundas Street · Edinburgh EH3 6HZ 22 557 4050 www.bournefineart.com 0131
Image: Studio Interior 1946, oil on canvas, 28 x 36 inches
MODERN BRITISH AND CONTEM PORARY ART 16–20 January 2013 Business Design Centre Islington London N1 Tickets & Information 0844 8480 137 londonartfair.co.uk Please Quote LAF570 Scottish Art News 23
SCOTTISH ART NEWS ROUND-UP Creative Scotland and its partners have appointed The Common Guild as curators for the Scotland + Venice 2013 presentation (1 June – 30 November 2013 at the Palazzo Pisani, Venice), presenting projects by artists Duncan Campbell, Hayley Tompkins and Corin Sworn. Katrina Brown, Director of The Common Guild believes that the project will continue to foreground Scotland’s artists and its wealth and breadth of talent in a hugely significant international arena. www.thecommonguild.org.uk | www.scotlandandvenice.com
ARTIST ROOMS, a collection of international contemporary art jointly owned and managed by National Galleries of Scotland and Tate, will travel to 16 venues in 2013, ten of which are joining the tour for the first time. Among the new venues participating include the Old Gala House, Galashiels, which will show Robert Mapplethorpe (11 May – 11 August) and Moray Art Centre, Findhorn, which will show Diane Arbus (14 September 2013 – 11 January 2014). ARTIST ROOMS at Ferens Art Gallery, Hull, will show Martin Creed (8 June – 6 October). ARTIST ROOMS is supported by the Art Fund but for the first time the 2013 tour will also be supported by Arts Council England and Creative Scotland. ARTIST ROOMS devotes
Frances Macdonald MacNair (1874-1921) Sleep, 1908-11, watercolour and pencil on vellum, 31x21 cm National Galleries of Scotland
individual rooms to artists from its collection. www.artfund.org
The National Galleries of Scotland have acquired a rare
Hospitalfield Centre for Art and Culture in Arbroath begin 2013
watercolour, Sleep by Frances Macdonald MacNair (1874-1921),
with a new director, Lucy Byatt, following the retirement of William
sister-in-law to Charles Rennie Mackintosh. She was a key figure in
Payne in 2012 after 37 years in the post. Prior to her new directorship
the ‘Glasgow Style’ movement of c.1890-1910 and it will be the first
at Hospitalfield she was head of national programmes at the
work by the artist in the Scottish national collection. The work was
Contemporary Art Society and director of Spike Island in Bristol,
bought for £60,000 from a Lyon & Turnbull auction of the collection
having worked with public art organisations Visual Art Projects and
of The Taffners, an American couple, who had a long association
The Centre, both based in Glasgow after completing her MFA at
with the Glasgow School of Art and a deep admiration for the work
The Glasgow School of Art. www.hospitalfield.org.uk
of Charles Rennie Mackintosh. The new acquisition is one of only a dozen independent watercolours which survive. Frances Macdonald met James Herbert McNair and Charles Rennie Mackintosh while
In November 2012 Museums Galleries Scotland (MGS) announced
studying at the Glasgow School of Art, marrying MacNair in 1899.
funding for three museums to carry out creative collaborations
Biographies of Macdonald and her husband acknowledge serious
with artists around their collections and the history of their local
difficulties in their relationship and her death in 1921 was possibly
communities. The Scottish Fisheries Museum in Anstruther,
suicide. She was not productive as a watercolour artist and her
Timespan Museum and Arts Centre in Helmsdale and the Gairloch
husband destroyed much of her work after her death. This work
Heritage Museum have received a total of £26,267 from the Iconic
will be displayed at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art in
Artists in Iconic Places project, run by MGS and Creative Scotland.
autumn 2013 alongside a key painting, The Mysterious Garden by
Among the collaborations is the temporary re-siting of objects from
her sister, Margaret Macdonald Mackintosh, which was acquired for
the Scottish Fisheries Museum collection to nearby houses and
the national collection in 2011.
streets that have historical links with the men and women of the
www.nationalgalleries.org
fishing industry. www.museumsgalleriesscotland.org.uk
24
In October 2012 over 100 names from the Scottish arts
Elizabeth Price is the recipient of the 2012 Turner Prize, nominated
establishment, including artists Nathan Coley, Callum Innes
for her trilogy of video installations shown in her solo exhibition
and Martin Boyce, signed a protest letter to Creative Scotland,
at BALTIC, Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead, in which she
criticising the management of the Scottish government’s arts
reanimated existing archives of imagery, texts and music to explore
organisation and its ‘confused and intrusive style’, which they
our complex relationship to objects and consumer culture. Among
see as being ‘married to a corporate ethos that seems designed
the other shortlisted artists, Spartacus Chetwynd and Paul Noble,
to set artist against artist and company against company in the
was Glasgow-based Luke Fowler who was nominated for his solo
search for resources’. Under the new arrangement more than £15m
exhibition at Inverleith House, Edinburgh, where he showcased his
in ‘open programme investment’ will be available to around 49
film exploring the life and work of Scottish psychiatrist, RD Laing.
bodies, but concerns have been raised that funding on a project-
www.tate.org.uk
by-project basis would replace ‘secure’ two and three-year contracts for the 49 organisations. In a strongly-worded statement novelist Andrew O’Hagan said: ‘Ireland looks out for its writers and artists,
28 awards totalling over £1m have been made across Scotland to
Scotland does not. Creative Scotland has, unfortunately, created an
improve cultural facilities as part of Creative Scotland’s Small
adversarial atmosphere that feeds on anxiety. This is bad news for
Capital programme. Among the diverse range of work which will
Scottish artists and artistic companies, and it has to change.’ Among
be supported are: The Stove, a new artist-led creative hub being
the issues outlined in the letter was a plea to end the ‘business-speak
developed in the centre of Dumfries; the purchase of a professional
and obfuscating jargon in official communication’ and a revisiting
electric kiln for use by artists and members of the public in Ullapool;
of Creative Scotland’s priorities to emphasise ‘social and cultural
the conversion of a disused building in Caithness into a new centre
as well as commercial values’. Scottish culture secretary Fiona
for arts and cultural activity; and the refurbishment of Scotland’s
Hyslop has told board members to ‘address the points raised and
oldest working theatre in Dumfries. www.creativescotland.com
communicate what action is already being taken’. www.museumsassociation.org Artist Douglas Gordon’s 2007 solid gold sculpture The Left Hand and the Right Hand Have Abandoned One Another, which was The recent publication of Scotland’s draft culture and external
stolen from Christie’s London warehouse in November is believed
affairs budget for 2013-14 (the Scottish National Party’s second
to have fallen victim to metal theft. It is thought that the artwork,
since it formed a majority government in 2011) shows that
which has an insurance value of £500,000, has been melted down
Edinburgh is making slower, less radical cuts than Westminster,
for scrap – its scrap value estimated at around £250,000. The work is
in spite of the austerity measures imposed by the UK government.
normally on display at the Paris gallery Yvon Lambert, but had been
The overall spending portfolio of £240.8m for culture and external
shown at an exhibition organised by Christie’s at Waddesdon Manor
affairs will be slightly higher than the previous year because of a
in Buckinghamshire.
one-off doubling of investment in the recently established Young Scots Fund to support youth employment (including a development programme at the National Conservation Centre). The culture sector’s share of the budget will fall from £149.8m to £148.8m. This includes the funding for cultural collections, which has fallen from £73.4m to £72.9m, and money for other arts sectors, which drops from £51.9m to £51.7m.
As a 2014 Scottish referendum on independence is confirmed, the Museums Association explore how nationhood, devolution and international identity will impact on museums. Several of their sessions and debates fall under the ‘One Nation?’ theme, which is coordinated by Rowan Julie Brown, director of the National Mining Museum Scotland. Brown said: ‘The referendum for Scottish independence in 2014 could bring a seisic change to the UK – the biggest for 300 years – and there’s no question that museums are becoming politicised as part of that change.’ www.museumsassociation.org
Corin Sworn, Lens Prism, 2010 (still), DVD, 16 mins Courtesy the artist and Kendall Koppe, Glasgow
Scottish Art News 25
William Turnbull Portrait by John Deakin
WILLIAM TURNBULL 1922-2012
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Throughout his long and distinguished career William Turnbull has remained a major figure in British modern art. By the 1950s he was already a member of the crucially important Independent Group at the ICA , and had shown with Herbert Read’s internationally famous New Aspects of British Sculpture at the Venice Biennale exhibition (1952). Furthermore, through his direct contacts with Rothko and Newman he also became one of the few British painters who grasped and could match the achievements of American Modernist painting. More recently there have been outstanding retrospective exhibitions of his sculpture and painting at the Tate Gallery (1973 and 2006) and Yorkshire Sculpture Park (2005-6). A strongly independent individual, who has preferred to avoid the spotlight of public institutional recognition and awards, Turnbull’s distinctive work has always been greatly admired and aesthetically appreciated by discerning collectors, perceptive critics and intelligent and knowledgeable art lovers. Bo r n in Sco tland in 192 2 , Tur nbu l l ’s ar tis tic p r actice began af ter his RA F wa r service when he d ecid ed to settled in Lo nd o n. He has wo r ked there ever s ince, apar t f ro m a p e riod in Par is (194 8 -5 0) where he met such modern mas ter s as Br ancus i and Giaco metti, who – alo ng w ith the w r itings and id eas o f Sart re and Mer leau-Po nty – have had a las ting inf luen t ial ef fect o n his wo r k . This can be clear ly seen in his inves tigative and exp er imental treat men t o f the recur r ing subjects to be found in Tur nbull’s ar t – the s tand ing f igure, the rising co lumn and the human and equine head. Yet w ithin this nar row r ange o f subject matter Tur nbull has succeed ed in intro d ucing a wide
vari ety o f i nnova t ive ap p roac he s t o u n ive r sal themes a nd funda me n t al h u man exp e r i e nce s . Another c r u c ial co nt r ibu t i o n to t he p ro g re s s ive develo pment o f Tu r nbu l l ’s wo r k has b e e n the u se of di f ferent ki nds o f mate r ials i n h is scu lp t u re practi ce – fro m plast e r, c lay and b ro nze, to wo o d , fibreg lass a nd st a i nl e s s s te e l . Fu r t he r mo re, whether i n his scu lp tu re o r pai n ti ng, Tu r nbu l l has always ma naged t o move eas i ly and f re e ly between fi gu r a t i o n and ab s t r ac t i o n . Yet wha t make s t h is r i c h mi xt u re o f di f fere nt ma t er ials a nd me d iu ms i n t o a u n i f i e d body o f wo r k is Tu r nbu l l ’s i n t e nse ly fo cu se d and scrupul ously co nsist e n t ar tis t i c v is i o n . Tu r nbu l l has always t aken a no n - t he o re t i cal , d e e p ly medi tat ive approac h t o h is ar t. T h rou g hou t h is central co ncer n has b e e n w i th the way ou r se nses , m i nd and feel i ngs d isce r n and re sp o nd to t he obj ects t ha t o ccu py ou r e nv i ro n me n tal space, and hold ou r a t t ent i o n t h rou g h shap e, scal e, su r f ace, colour, as well as, po s s ib l e mean i ngs . To i nc rease and hei ght en ou r sens i tiv i t i e s and re sp o nse s to the wo r ld o f fo r ms and space arou nd u s Turnbul l ca refu l ly co nce n tr at e s o n par i ng d ow n his scu lpt ures a nd pai n ti ngs to t he i r e s se n t ial tang ib l e a nd visual b e i ng. T h u s , al thou g h Turnbul l has d r awn the ti tl e s fo r mu c h o f h is work f ro m a nc i ent a nd myt ho l o g i cal sou rce s , there is no d ist r ac t i ng mys t i f i cati o n i n th is . From his ear ly plast er mo b i l e s t o h is late s t var iati o ns on the free- st a nd i ng f i gu re, eac h wo r k – whe t he r sculpt u re o r pa i nt i ng – p hys i cal ly co n f ro n t s and ae st het i cally engag e s u s w i t h a lu c i d and i rrefut ab l e prese nce wh i c h he i g h te ns ou r se ns i tivi ty t owa rds ourselves and to our place in the world. (Bill Hare)
Pegasus, 1954 Photo: Prudence Cuming Associates Courtesy Waddington Custot Gallery
Scottish Art News 27
Between September and October 2012, art historian Bill Hare interviewed Dundee-born sculptor and painter William Turnbull. Sadly months before publication, news came that William Turnbull had died, aged 90 on 15 November, 2012. The interview will be published in two parts with the second part of this interview published in issue 20 / June 2013.
William Turnbull interviewed by Bill Hare September – October 2012
Bi ll Hare I am sure ma ny peo p l e who k now and ad mi re your wo r k wi ll st i ll b e u naware o f you r Sco ttish backg round. You were b o r n and b rou g h t u p i n Dundee a nd wo r ke d i n the I l lu s t r at i o n depart ment o f D C T ho mp so n , the p o pu lar peri od i cal co mpa ny b e fo re you we re cal l e d u p fo r war ser vi ce. Lo o ki ng bac k o n the se ear ly year s are the re a ny ex per i e nce s f ro m t hat t i me wh i c h m i g h t have played a par t i n t he d eve l o p me n t o f your lat er wo r k as a n ar tis t ? Wil l iam Tu rnbu l l I gre w u p in Sp r i ng h i l l i n D u nd e e, wh i ch ove rl o o ke d t he Cal e d on sh ipya rd whe re my fat he r wo r ke d as a n i ront u r ne r. Eve ryo ne wo r ke d t he re t i l l t he ya rds c l o se d d ow n d u r i ng t he d e p re ssi on. I had always be e n f asci na te d by d raw i ng. Ou r re lat ive s i n Ame r i ca wou l d se nd t he se wo me ns ’ magaz i ne s to my mot he r. T he y we re fu l l -col ou r i l lu st ra t i ons, qu i te u nl ike anyt h i ng i n Scotla nd a t t he t i me, whe re t he pri nt was b lac k or b lac k a nd re d o nly. I was comp l e te ly st r u ck by t he co l ou rs and wou l d copy t he m f u r i ou sly. I had e n ro l l e d i n a n e ve ni ng class whe n I was 15 and was sp ot te d by one of t he se n io r il lu s t ra tors who hap p e ne d to be teac h ing t he cou rse. T he y aske d i f I wan te d a jo b a nd t ha t was t ha t . At t h is t ime d u ring t he ea r ly 3 0 s , e ve r yone was be ing laid o ff f rom t he sh ipya rds so i t was q u ite a su r p r ise to e ve r yone t ha t I manage d to ge t a re la t ive ly we l l -pa i d j ob draw ing and i l lu st ra t i ng. I had always be e n pas s io na te ab ou t d raw i ng so I 28
ABOVE FROM TOP Head, 1954 Head, 1950 Photo: Prudence Cuming Associates Courtesy Waddington Custot Gallery
co ns ide re d myse l f ex t re me ly for t u na te. T he re was so me t h i ng real ly i nte re s t i ng abou t il lu s t ra t i ng magaz i ne s e sp e c ial ly as I’d spe n t my whol e c h i l d hood l ook i ng at t he m . T he i l lu st ra tors a t D C T homson we re t re me nd ou sly sk i l l e d a t wha t t he y d id and t he y d i d i t so we l l a nd so qu i ck ly. I mean t he ski l l t he se i l lu st ra tors had was n ’t to be s ni f fe d a t j u st b e cau se t he y we re n ’t pain t i ng p i c t u re s t ha t we re go ing in t he m u seu ms a nd I l ea r ne d a n e no rmou s amou nt ab ou t d raw i ng a nd t h ings fro m t he m . Mos t of t he m had be e n to art sc hool , wh i ch was some t h i ng I kne w ve ry l i t tl e ab ou t . I t op e ne d u p a who l e ne w wor l d to me. Mos t of t he m l ive d ac ro s s t he bay a nd I re me mb e r be ing inv ite d to t he i r hou se s on a n u mbe r o f o ccasi ons. T he y i nt rod u ce d me to Van G o g h a nd a nu mb e r of ot he r Impre s s io n is t pa i nte rs. I t was l i ke ano t he r wo rl d , qu i te u nl i ke a nyt h i ng I had be e n ex pose d to or ex p e r i e nce d a nd it o bv iou sly had a p rofou nd i mpac t on me. It ’s ac t u al ly a n i nc re d ib ly ra nd om se t o f e ve n t s , w i t hou t wh i c h my e nt i re l ife wou l d have b e e n ve r y d i f fe re nt . Ce rt ainly t h is i nt rod u ct i on to Eu rop ea n art gave me a more i nte r na t i onal pe rspe c t ive t ha n I m i g h t have had . I t also made it ve ry cl ea r to me wha t I l i ke d a nd what I d id n ’t l i ke. BH : Af t er you l eft t he R A F i n 19 46 you d e c i d e d that you wa nt ed t o b e an ar tis t . I n o rd e r to
I had always been fascinated by drawing. Our relatives in America would send these womens’ magazines to my mother. They were full-colour illustrations, quite unlike anything in Scotland at the time, where the print was black or black and red only
achieve this you f ir s t went to the Slad e School of Fine A r t in Lo nd o n (194 6-4 8) then moved t o Paris (194 8 -5 0). How usef ul d id you f ind these two p er iods in your ar tis tic ed ucatio n? WT: I j o ined the R AF when I was 17. I did my f l ig h t training at Leu c hars and in Canada and end ed u p f lying Catalinas in I nd ia and Sri Lanka (o r Ceyl o n as it was know n then) . I l oved the experie nce of f lying and being u p there ‘by yourself ’ w ithou t anyth ing else. You fel t as if you were in the mid d l e o f nowhere. It was abso lu tely beau tif u l . I th ink these spatial sensatio ns were so d if ferent f ro m what you g o t in a mo to rcar that it cer tainly d id have an ef fec t o n the way you thought abou t ‘space’, as al mo st being an object. W hen the war f inished , they wanted me to beco me a peacetime pil o t and flying instru c to r bu t I always knew that I wanted to beco me an artist. I t was quite a c hang e o f l ifestyl e, f lying and eating in the o f f icer ’s mess then g o ing back to ar t sc ho o l and beco ming a pennil ess ar tis t. W hen I g o t d e- mo bbed , I g o t a small ex- serv ice g rant wh ic h I u sed to enroll at the Slad e – it was o ne o f the bigges t l et d ow ns I had experienced so far. The v iew o f art was so prov inc ial and narrow mind ed that I real ised that this wasn’t where I wanted to be. Having been th rou g h what I ’d j u st experienced it was very d if f icu l t being in th is smal l , shel tered env iro nment. I think , in the end , I o nly end ed u p g o ing to the l ife d raw ing c lasses, to d raw from the mo d el . The rest o f the time I was never there. Lu c kily the gu y who ran the place, who was Sco ttish and whose name u nfo rtu nately I can’t remember, helped me g et my g rant transferred to Paris where I feel my art ed u cati on really began. I went to Paris becau se I wasn’t really interested in the art scene in Lo ndon or the artists in Lo nd o n and I was i nteres ted in the artists in Paris and what had been Scottish Art News 29
go ing o n t he re for qu i te some t i me. I g o t o n real ly we l l w i t h t he p e op l e I me t there. I l ike d t he a r t . I always had d one. I fel t I was in t he p lace I real ly b e l ong e d . T he re were t wo ot he r B r i t ish a r t is t s who we re i n Pa r is a t t ha t t i me, Raymo nd Maso n and Ed u a rd o Paol ozz i . It was in te re s t i ng to me e t a r t ist s l i ke Braq u e and B ra ncu s i – to se e wha t the pe rso n was l i ke asi d e f rom t he i r wo rk. I was inv ite d to P i cas so’s st u d i o a nd that was q u ite u nl i ke a ny st u d i o I ’d e ve r been in . I also had a ve r y st ra ng e ex p e r i e nce at Brancu s i ’s st u d i o whe re he l e t me in (afte r I pu t my foot i n t he d oor ) a nd he l e ft me al one for hal f a n hou r b e fore asking me to l eave. Bu t i t was real ly A lbe rto (G iacome t t i ) t ha t I was c l osest to. He was a ve r y f r i e nd ly ma n to me and we go t o n ex t re me ly we l l a nd I ad m i red h im e no rmou sly. T he re was a r u l e where if you bou g h t a cof fe e you cou l d si t fo r fou r hou rs i n t he ca fe s so e ve r yone wou l d me e t t he re. I had no mone y a nd b e came an au t ho r i ty on Fre nch ci ne ma b e cau se t h is was the only p lace you cou l d keep warm in t he w i nte r. T he only t i me I ate pro pe rly was whe n f r i e nds wou l d come to town a nd t ake you ou t for d i nne r. Eve n t u al ly I ra n ou t of mone y comp l etely and was force d to re t u r n to Lond on bu t by t h is t ime t he a r t sce ne had sh i f te d away fro m Paris a nd t he e mp hasis was sh if ting to Lo ndo n a nd Ne w Yor k .
Britain was still very ‘post war’ and depressed and everyone was looking to America as the future. American culture, films, music and art was beginning to have a big impact. I had always loved the gangster films like Scarface. I liked the clothes, the look 30
Head, 1956. Courtesy Turnbull Studio
BH: W hen you retur ned to Lo nd o n you taugh t at Centr al Saint Mar tins (195 2 -61 ) und er Wil l iam Jo hns to ne alo ng w ith o ther fellow Sco ts Eduardo Pao lozz i and A lan Dav ie. Did you feel there was any par ticular bo nd between you and these ot her Sco ttish ar tis ts? WT: W hen I g o t bac k to Lo nd o n I was co mpl etely bro ke and end ed u p wor k ing the nig h t sh if t at a Lyo ns Maid i ce c ream f ac to ry w ith w riters and an odd asso rtment o f peo pl e. On the f irs t night I g o t so fed u p I j u st wal ked away from the co nveyo r bel t and the ice c ream end ed u p everywhere. I was stil l wor k ing there when my wo rk was sel ec te d for the B ritish Pav il io n at the Venice B i ennale in 19 52 . I remember how f ru strating it was no t being abl e to g o becau se I couldn’t af fo rd it. Teac h ing at the Central prov id ed a mu c h need ed l ifel ine. I never real ly wanted to teac h bu t am g rateful
t hat it al l owed me to a t l east ea r n a l ivi ng d o ing so me t h i ng I e nj oye d . I ne ve r go t o n w i t h Ala n Davi e. He had a ve ry h igh o p i ni on of h i mse l f wh i ch I d id n ’t share. Wi t h re ga rds to Ed u a rd o, I t h ink t hat if t he re was a b ond i t was mo re to do w i t h t he f act we had sha re d ce rt ain ex pe r i e nce s a nd we re i nte re s te d in t he same t h i ngs, ra t he r t ha n i t b e i ng part icu larly b e cau se we we re Scot t ish . In it ial ly Ed u a rd o a nd I we re ve r y c l ose. He was ac t u al ly t he b e st ma n a t my marriage to my f i rs t w i fe Ka t ha r i na a nd we share d a st u d i o i n Pa r is. O ne day Edu ardo came i nto t he st u d i o ( wh i c h we share d w ith a n I r ish a r t is t cal l e d O’ Leary ) and a nnou nce d he had a show. W he n we t u rne d u p a t t he op e ni ng t he owne r came ove r to me a nd aske d why I d id n ’t wan t to ex h ib i t my wor k . W he n I aske d h im wha t he mea nt , he tol d me he had wan te d to d o a show of my wor k bu t t hat Ed u ard o had tol d h i m t ha t I d i d n’t l ike showing my wor k . T ha t was p re t ty typical o f Edu a rd o.
BH: In the 195 0 s you were also o ne o f the young r ad ical Br itish ar tis ts who fo r med t he Ind ep end ent Group at the ICA . I have always felt however, that your wo r k was d if feren t and ‘ ind ep end ent’ f ro m that o f o ther members of the group such as Richard Hamilto n, Nigel Hend er so n and Pao lozz i. Do you agree wit h t h is, and if so, in what ways? WT : The I nd epend ent G rou p fo rmed out o f d iscu ssio n g rou ps we had at the ICA in the early 50s when it was in Dover Street. At f irst the d iscu ssio ns were o pen to the publ ic bu t eventu al ly we made them inv itatio nal as th is seemed to ra ise the l evel o f the d iscu ssio ns. I t was pro bably the f irst time, ce r tainly in B ritain, that artists, w riters, arc h itec ts shared a fo ru m fo r the exc hang e o f id eas. With in the g roup itsel f there were big d if ferences of o pinio n. B ritain was stil l very ‘p os t war ’ and d epressed and everyo ne was l o o king to America as the f u tu re. American cu l tu re, f il ms, mu sic and ar t was beg inning to have a big impact. I had always l oved the gangster f ilms like Scarface. I l iked the c l o thes, the look . I ’ve never real ly u nd ersto o d artis ts wanting to l o o k sc ru f f y, o ne o f the reaso ns I g o t o n w ith Franc is ( B acon) who was always wel l tu rned ou t. As fo r the co nnec tio ns between us , there are, I gu ess you cou l d say, l inks between my wo rk and Ed u ard o ’s, as there are links between h is and Hamil to n’s. Having said that, my wo rk is pretty d if ferent from R ic hard ’s, thou g h we bo th u sed collage. Ed u ard o and R ic hard inco rpo rated the American imag ery into their wor k whereas I never fel t that was what I wanted to d o w ith my wo rk.
Head, 1957. Courtesy Turnbull Studio
BH: Your ear ly wo r k o f the late 194 0 s and 1950s is char acter ised as highly exp er imental and inventive. You f amously said ‘ I began to make a p iece o f sculp ture to f ind out what a piece of scup lture should be like.’ W hy d id you have such an o p en ap p roach? Scottish Art News 31
One of the reasons I enjoy working in plaster is that it’s a very organic process. It starts as nothing, a bag of dust, and becomes something. I’ve never really believed in planning what you’re going to make
WT: I was, during this period, learning about being an artist and how to make the art I wanted to make. Besides my drawing experience at DC Thomson, I had very little formal training, which I think was a good thing. Everything in Britain was so old fashioned and neo-Romantic. I see my art as the opposite of Baroque. I think it was in Paris that I began to serve my apprenticeship among artists like Giacometti and Jean Hélion, who was also a good friend of mine. It was through him ( he was married to Peggy Guggenheim) that I got to meet a lot of these guys. One of the reasons I enjoy working in plaster is that it’s a very organic process. I t s t a r t s 32
FROM TOP Playground, 1949 5-1959, 1959 Photo: Prudence Cuming Associates Courtesy Waddington Custot Gallery
Aquarium, 1952. Courtesy Turnbull Studio
as no t h ing, a bag of d u s t , a nd b e come s so me t h ing. I’ve ne ve r real ly b e l i e ve d i n plan n ing wha t you ’ re g oi ng to make. T he o nly pe rio d whe re I had to ac t u al ly p la n was whe n I wor ke d w i t h s te e l as you ca n’t ju s t s t art imp rovisi ng w i t h b i g she e t s of me t al . T hat was t he nea re st a r t e ve r ca me to be ing co nce p t u al a nd t ha t was si mp ly du e to t he proce ss a nd t he l og ist i cs invo lve d. I’ve always b e e n i nte re ste d i n how l it tl e you ca n have of a n ob j e ct a nd it s t il l be re cog nisab l e .
B il l H are is a curato r and writer and H onora ry Teach ing Fel l ow in Scottish art h isto ry at The University of Edinburgh .
William Tur nbull, sculp to r and painter, b orn 11 Januar y 192 2 ; d ied 1 5 November 2 0 1 2 A n exhibitio n o f William Tur nbull’s scu lpt ure, paintings and d r aw ings w ill be o n show in t he No r th Sketch Galler y at C hatswo r th House, 1 0 March – 3 0 June 2 0 1 3 . w w w.chatswo rt h . org
Scottish Art News 33
SJ PEPLOE The Scottish Colourist Series
Alice Strang
T
he first major retrospective of the work of SJ Peploe in almost 30 years opened at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art (SNGMA) in November 2012. Bringing together more than 100 paintings from private and public collections throughout the UK, it is the second in a series of exhibitions devoted to the work of the Scottish Colourists. In 2011 the SNGMA examined the importance of FCB Cadell and later this year shall do the same for JD Fergusson. Leslie Hunter was the subject of a major exhibition at the City Art Centre in Edinburgh in 2012, and at The Fleming Collection in London in 2012-2013. Peploe was the eldest and most successful – commercially and critically – of the Scottish Colourists and it was his friendship with the others which bound them together. He met Fergusson first, around 1900, possibly in the studio club run by Joseph Simpson in Edinburgh. From 1904 they painted together in France each summer, before Fergusson moved to Paris in 1907. Peploe joined him there in 1910, remaining until 1912. He next became friends with Cadell, most likely in 1909 when they both had solo exhibitions at The Scottish Gallery in Edinburgh. Following Cadell’s demobilisation after the First World War, he and Peploe worked very closely together and influenced each other’s work. In 1920, Cadell introduced Peploe to the Hebridean island of Iona and they thereafter returned virtually every summer for over a decade. Peploe was in touch with Hunter by 1918 and Hunter turned to his older friend for advice and encouragement about his work several times. They worked together in Antibes in 1928 and remained friends until Hunter’s death in 1931. In 1929, Peploe wrote: ‘There is so much in mere objects, flowers, leaves, jugs, what not – colours, forms, relation – I can never see mystery coming to an end.’1 He thus summarised his lifelong interest in painting the genre of the still life. Indeed, Peploe is most celebrated for his still 34
FROM TOP Samuel John Peploe (1871-1935), Self Portrait, c.1900, oil on canvas 50.8x40.6 cm Scottish National Portrait Gallery, Edinburgh, presented by John Thorburn, 1947 The Coffee Pot, 1905, oil on canvas, 62.8x83.8 cm. Private collection, Courtesy, Susannah Pollen Ltd Boats at Royan, 1910, oil on board, 27x34.90 cm. Bequeathed by Dr R.A. Lillie, 1977 Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art
lifes, but of equal significance are the landscapes that he painted throughout his career, usually en plein air, and at certain periods he also created figure studies of beauty and significance. Peploe’s talent was recognised from his first solo exhibition, held at The Scottish Gallery in Edinburgh in 1903. This early success makes his subsequent development all the more remarkable. Rather than simply continuing in this and later successful veins, Peploe persistently experimented with theory, style and technique. By the time of his death in 1935 and the subsequent memorial exhibitions of his work, Peploe was recognised as one of Scotland’s most important modern artists, with a growing international reputation. Peploe was born and grew up in Edinburgh. He was three years old when his mother died and thirteen when his father died. He and his brother William and sister Annie were thus left in the care of eight trustees and were brought up by Mary Sanderson, whom they called ‘Nannie’ and who remained with the family until her death. After attempting various career options, including working in a solicitor’s office, Peploe began his artistic training in 1891. He studied at the Académie Julian in Paris, where he described his teacher William-Adolphe Bouguereau as a ‘damned old fool’ and attended the Life School of the Royal Scottish Academy.2 Peploe began his professional career in 1896, taking on his first studio at 24 Shandwick Place in Edinburgh. That year he also began to send work to the annual exhibitions of the Royal Scottish Academy and Royal Glasgow Institute; his first submission to the Society of Scottish Artists followed a year later. Peploe made his reputation in the 1900s with exquisite paintings which capture a sophisticated lifestyle in a manner reminiscent of Edouard Manet and Dutch Old Masters such as Frans Hals and Rembrandt van Rijn, as can be seen in The Coffee Pot, which is one of his most ambitious and important paintings. It was executed following Manet’s technique of first painting in light areas and then adding darks and half-tones while the paint remained wet. The silver coffee pot itself is on display in the exhibition. In 1894 Peploe made the first of several painting trips to the island of Barra, where he met his future wife Margaret Mackay. Two years later he painted for the first time in North Berwick, a coastal town south of Edinburgh. Using small, transportable panels, these more spontaneous works contrast with the disciplined studio paintings of the period. In 1905 Peploe moved studio to 32 York Place, which had been built in 1795 for the leading Scottish portrait painter Henry Raeburn. His new bright and spacious surroundings had an immediate impact on his work as did an interest in James McNeill Whistler. Peploe began to paint in a lighter key, employing a looser, less disciplined technique and using a new model, Peggy Macrae, who features in some of his most celebrated figure studies.
Green Sea, Iona, 1920, oil on canvas, 50.8x60.9 cm The Fleming-Wyfold Art Foundation Tulips and Fruit, 1919, oil on canvas, 61x51 cm. Private collection
From around 1904, Peploe and Fergusson embarked on painting trips together, most notably to Paris and the Normandy coast. They became steeped in Impressionist and Post-Impressionist painting, including that of Sisley, Pissarro and Cézanne. In 1907, Fergusson moved to Paris and in 1910 he persuaded the newly-married Peploe to join him. Peploe thus spent two years experiencing first hand the latest developments in French painting and was among the first British painters to see and respond to avant garde work by artists including Picasso, Matisse and Derain. As a result his own work underwent an abrupt and dramatic Scottish Art News 35
change, apparent in paintings such as Boats at Royan. Peploe exhibited at the progressive Salon d’Automne and became part of a circle which included Fergusson and his partner Anne Estelle Rice. Peploe returned to Edinburgh in 1912, where he lived for the rest of his life. The Scottish Gallery refused to show his latest paintings, but undeterred, Peploe organised an exhibition of them himself, held at the New Gallery, 12 Shandwick Place – the premises of the Society of Eight exhibiting group co-founded by Cadell. The new work was received with scorn in the Scottish capital, but was widely exhibited in London between 1912 and 1914. After the outbreak of the First World War Peploe was declared medically unfit. He embarked on a period of isolated experimentation, developing a series of startling still lifes, such as Flowers and Fruit (Japanese Background), which are characterised by a pronounced design, tightening of structure and flattening of depth. During the war, Peploe had his first exhibition at Alexander Reid’s gallery La Société des Beaux-Arts in Glasgow in 1915, thus beginning a life-long association with the firm. He was elected an Associate of the Royal Scottish Academy (becoming a full member in 1927) and made the first of several trips to paint in and around Kirkcudbright, where his Paris friends EA Taylor and Jessie M. King had settled. Between approximately 1918 and 1924 Peploe embarked upon another series of still lifes in which he obsessively arranged and rearranged a cast of props, centred first on tulips and later on roses, in Chinese porcelain vases. These were surrounded by objects including fans, books and fruit in compotiers, and were often set before draped backgrounds and depicted in a high-key palette. Partly because of the sheer number that he painted and their immediate and lasting commercial success, these are the works for which Peploe is most celebrated. Between 1920 and 1935 Peploe made almost annual trips to Iona with Cadell and was particularly drawn to the rocks, sands and views at the North End of the island, as seen in The Green Sea. During the 1920s he travelled several times to France to paint, including to Cassis with Cadell in 1924 and Antibes with Hunter in 1928, as seen in Blue Water, Antibes. Throughout most of the 1920s, Peploe had solo exhibitions in Edinburgh or Glasgow or both each year and following the formation of Alex Reid & Lefèvre in 1926 he also had several exhibitions in London, all of which were invariably accompanied by press interest and healthy sales. In group exhibitions with the other Colourists, most notably in London in 1923, 1925 and 1932 and in Paris in 1924 and 1931, Peploe habitually appeared first in the list of exhibitors and was singled out for praise. In contrast, a solo exhibition in New York in 1928 resulted in just two sales. The first work 36
of his to be acquired for a public collection was Still Life of c.1906 (City Art Centre, Edinburgh), which was purchased by the Scottish Modern Arts Association in 1907; in 1924 an Iona landscape was acquired for the French national collection and the Tate purchased Tulips for the British national collection in 1927. Peploe developed a distinct late style, characterised by a more sombre palette and rigorous technique. An interest in trees as subject matter became more pronounced, as seen in paintings made in locations such as Boat of Garten and Rothiemurchus. He joined the teaching staff of Edinburgh College of Art in 1933, but declining health meant that William Gillies took over his duties the following session. Peploe died in Edinburgh on 11 October 1935 and was buried in the family grave in the Dean Cemetery. Memorial exhibitions were held at The Scottish Gallery in 1936 and at the McLellan Galleries, Glasgow in 1937.
Peploe was among the first British painters to see and respond to avant garde work by artists including Picasso, Matisse and Derain
OPPOSITE FROM TOP Flowers and Fruit (Japanese Background), 1915, oil on canvas, 46x30 cm. Kirkcaldy Museum & Art Gallery, purchased as part of the JW Blyth Collection with the assistance of the Local Museums Purchase Fund and the National Art Collections Fund (Eugene Cremetti Fund), 1964 Blue Water, Antibes, 1928, oil on canvas, 63.5x63.5 cm. Private collection ABOVERoses, c.1920-1925, oil on canvas, 50.8x61 cm Bequeathed by the Rev H.G.R. Hay-Boyd 1941, Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art
It seems that Peploe would have shied away from the attention his work is currently receiving in his home town. As his wife Margaret recalled: ‘Sam was extremely modest about himself and his work...[it] pleased and surprised him to find people liked him...he was so unaware of himself, of his own many attractive qualities. Sensitive and shy, never physically very strong himself, he had a great admiration for the strong clean healthy type of man like J.D. Fergusson...Sam loved his own home and I like to remember how contented and happy we were’.3 1. Stanley Cursiter, Peploe: An Intimate Memoir of the Artist and his Work, Edinburgh 1947, p.73. 2. S. J. Peploe, ‘Autobiography’, Exhibition of Paintings by S. J. Peploe, exh. cat., C. W. Kraushaar Art Galleries, New York 1928. 3. Margaret Peploe, ‘Notes for Mr Cursiter’s book’, hand-written notes in leather-bound pad, S.J. Peploe Archive, Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh.
Alice Strang is a senior curator at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art and is curating the gallery’s Scottish Colourist Series of exhibitions. Before joining the National Galleries of Scotland in 1999 she was a specialist in Christie’s 20th Century Art department.
The Scottish Colourist Series: SJ Peploe Sponsored by Dickson Minto
until 23 June 2013, £7 / £5 Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art Two 73 Belford Road, Edinburgh EH4 3DR Tel: 0131 624 6200 www.nationalgalleries.org The exhibition is accompanied by a new publication about the artist with contributions from Elizabeth Cumming, Frances Fowle, Guy Peploe and Alice Strang, priced £14.95. Copies can be obtained the National Galleries of Scotland shop and online: http://www.nationalgalleries.org/shop/ online-shop/ and from The Fleming Collection. Owners of oils and sculptures by JD Fergusson are invited to contact Alice Strang with regard to the forthcoming retrospective of his work to be held at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art (December 2013 – June 2014). All information received will be treated in confidence. Alice Strang, Senior Curator Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art 75 Belford Road, Edinburgh EH4 3DR Tel: 0131 624 6328 | Email astrang@nationalgalleries.org
Scottish Art News 37
STUDIO 58 WOMEN ARTISTS IN GLASGOW SINCE WORLD WAR II Katie Baker
A Message from Garcia proofs for Advertising Monthly Magazine, Garcia Hunter 1938 Courtesy GSA Archives and Collections
When Lowndes was invited two years ago to propose an exhibition for the Mackintosh Museum, she wanted to do something that would relate to the building’s history. The result was a show that drew together works by 53 women artists from the post-war period, all connected by their history with the school connected by their history with the school.
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O
n a visit to Glasgow many years ago, artist Jacki Parry asked a woman on her lunch break for directions. The rain was coming down heavily and the woman insisted on accompanying Parry under her umbrella all the way to the door of British Home Stores. Parry relates this encounter in the catalogue accompanying the Mackintosh Museum’s recent exhibition Studio 58: Women Artists in Glasgow since World War II. It is an act of kindness which Sarah Lowndes, the exhibition’s curator, identifies as exemplifying the generosity and friendliness of the city, traits which have contributed to the emergence of a robust art scene with an international reputation. The background and narrative of that art scene has been previously documented by Lowndes in her book Social Sculpture: The Rise of The Glasgow Art Scene. With her latest exhibition, it is the history and work of the women artists of Glasgow that she has turned her attention to. There is an introspective mood about Glasgow right now. Funding has been granted to The Glasgow Miracle Project, a research project set up to investigate the origins of the city’s visual arts renaissance. Glasgow has produced a flow of successful contemporary artists and among these, there is a healthy representation of women – Lucy Skaer, Karla Black, Christine Borland and Cathy Wilkes to name a few. But the work of their female predecessors in Glasgow has often been overlooked and neglected. When Lowndes, a lecturer, curator and writer based in Glasgow, was invited two years ago to propose an exhibition for the Mackintosh Museum, she wanted to do something that would relate to the building’s history. The result was a show that drew together works by 53 women artists from the post-war period, all connected by their history with the school. Studio 58 was a richly-packed exhibition and the gallery had the feel of a room humming with lively conversation. No space was wasted with works hung closely together, spilling over onto a temporary wall and spreading out with sculptures on the floor – or in the case of Karla Black and her polythene cloud, hanging from the ceiling. The works themselves were an eclectic mix, spanning several generations and encompassing a range of themes, mediums and approaches, from Hayley Tompkins’ paint-splattered, rainbow-coloured wooden chair and Claire Barclay’s small but lethal-looking split steel cone, to Mary Armour’s still lifes and Cordelia Oliver’s 1940s handmade canvas skirt. Glass cabinets containing drawings, objects, artefacts and publications suggested a kind of archive and several dressed mannequins placed around the room were reminiscent of a museum display. It all combined to give the sense of a deep vein of material being tapped. But it was far from an exhaustive account of the last 70 years and Lowndes stopped well short of attempting to cram in an entire and
comprehensive history of Glasgow’s post-war women artists. There were omissions, deliberately and inevitably so, and the works that were there Lowndes resisted hanging in any chronological order. Instead she positioned them so as to set up dialogues with each other and tease out the themes explored by these women across the years. Historical relationships were referenced – Joan Eardley hung near the work of fellow students and friends Nita Begg and Margot Sandeman – but also relationships across the generations, emphasising the lineage and inheritance of women artists in Glasgow. So Joan Eardley’s stormy seascapes and Nita Begg’s colourful still lifes were placed near the contemporary aerial landscapes of Carol Rhodes. There was an interesting arrangement of pattern designs – Mary Viola Paterson’s 30’s linocut prints, Lobster and Sea Shells and Dinner at Eight, were hung by Sylvia Chalmers’ and Dorothy Smith’s mid-century repeat designs for printed textile. Sitting opposite them in a cabinet was the more recent work of Turner Prize nominee Christine Borland – a porcelain pelvis and skull, delicately painted in the blue and white pattern traditionally used for English bone china. The thread eloquently drawn out between the works made a neat reference to the school’s history of ceramics, textiles and pattern design. It was an interesting feature of the show that alongside ‘high art’ forms like painting and sculpture sat embroidery, ceramics, textile design, print and illustration. Examples included Sylvia Chalmers’ 1950s floral design for a cushion cover, Hannah Frew Paterson’s experimental embroidery work and Julie Henderson’s hand-painted vase. While there were many familiar artists in the exhibition one of the most fascinating aspects was the rediscovery of those less well known. A recent exhibition of the Glasgow Girls in 2010 covered the work of women artists in the period up until 1920, but work after this has received little attention. In putting Studio 58 together Lowndes worked Exhibition view, Mackintosh Museum © Janet Lindsay Wilson Photography. Courtesy The Glasgow School of Art
Scottish Art News 39
FROM TOP Cordelia Oliver, handmade dirndl canvas skirt, c. 1940s, stencilled with a pattern based on a Léon Bakst design for the Diaghilev Ballet Russes and Daisy McGlashan handsewn painting smock, c. 1930s, courtesy of Archives and Collections Centre, The Glasgow School of Art; Claire Barclay, Untitled, 2004, from Half Light, stainless steel, courtesy the artist © Janet Lindsay Wilson Photography. Courtesy The Glasgow School of Art
with the collections of Glasgow Museums, the Hunterian Art Gallery, Glasgow Women’s Library and the archives and collections of The Glasgow School of Art (GSA). Friends and relatives of artists no longer living were approached to see if they could unearth any little-known works to place alongside those lent by contemporary artists. Some things had seldom seen the light of day having been languishing in museum collections or passed on within families. These included a plaster head dating from 1958 entitled Head of a Girl, made by sculptor Ivy Proudfoot, which was discovered at Glasgow Museums. Proudfoot has been somewhat overshadowed by 40
her male contemporaries but was an important sculptor in her own right, exhibiting many times at The Royal Scottish Academy. Another interesting inclusion was Garcia Hunter, a graduate of the 20s, who has remained a relatively obscure figure, despite a very successful career producing illustrations for newspapers and advertising work. Hunter makes an intriguing addition to the show. Although she was employed as a commercial artist, some of her work, with its use of photography and overpainting, would not look out of place among the pop art of future generations and blurs a line between art and design. What emerges from the exhibition and accompanying publication is a sense of the stories behind the work. In her introduction Lowndes describes Studio 58 as both tribute to and critique of the building and its use. The name Studio 58 refers to the studio on the top floor of the Mackintosh Building which the early women students were assigned to. The only women’s toilet was at the opposite end of the building, so toilet breaks involved a hurried run along the corridor earning it the nickname ‘the hen run’. Women students at the art school during the Second World War were paid to spend nights fire-watching on the school roof – in artist Cordelia Oliver’s recollection, passing the nights drinking whisky and discussing politics and art. The catalogue, a collection of memories, reflections and anecdotes, from or about the artists, is full of such tantalising glimpses into this wealth of social history. A symposium held to draw out the themes of the exhibition expanded further on some of these details. Speaking at the event, Lowndes talked of the friendships between the women of the ‘fire-watcher generation’. Contemporaries like Joan Eardley and Nita Begg knew each other well but were producing very different types of work, reflecting the contrast in their lives. For a time Eardley inhabited a cottage with no electricity or running water. She painted out in storms on the beach with a canvas weighted down by rocks or lashed to her scooter for support. In contrast, Nita Begg lived a far more domestic life as housewife and mother to three, painting when she could fit it in. This double life of domesticity and art making is evocatively summed up by Begg’s son in his contribution to the catalogue, with his memory of the house he grew up in being filled with either the aroma of turps and linseed oil or the fresh smell of recently mopped stairs. Lowndes suggests that still life can be seen as interior landscapes, that you make when you can’t go outside. The restrictions and demands on women artists is a recurrent theme through these snapshots of their lives. Many of the women studying in the post-war period left to have families. Artists like Garcia Hunter and Sylvia Chalmers were remarkable at the time for going on to make a living for themselves from the skills they had learned. Hunter took a
FROM LEFT Nita Begg, Still Life, 1950, oil on board, Private collection; Karla Black, Now, At The Latest, 2012, polythene, plaster powder, powder paint, thread, courtesy the artist and Modern Art; Carol Rhodes, Open Ground and Mud Flats, 2009, oil on board, courtesy Gorell Fox Collection, London, Resevoir and Dam, 2009, oil on board, courtesy of the artist © Janet Lindsay Wilson Photography. Courtesy The Glasgow School of Art
break from her career following marriage and the birth of her child, but in 1947 employed a housekeeper and returned to work from a studio in her home. Mary Armour, graduating in the 1920s, initially fell foul of the ‘marriage bar’ at GSA after marrying the future head of drawing and painting. She was forced to resign from her teaching position there until the bar was lifted in 1944 and she could resume teaching. She went on to become only the second female academician of the Royal Scottish Academy. The limitations of an archive of works is not only what has failed to be collected, but that which is difficult to collect in the first place. ‘Hidden work’, including more ephemeral pieces like performance, are harder to collect, while artists working in film and large installations can all too frequently be excluded from exhibitions like this because of limitations of space. This is a problem particularly pertinent to women who historically have often turned away from the traditional canon. Studio 58 has gone some way to counter these issues with a film screening held alongside the exhibition and a performance by recent graduate Romany Dear, but inevitably there are gaps. Then there is the work that is not art, done by many of the artists in other spheres. As Ann Vance notes in her text in the catalogue, her art practice has seldom sustained her alone as a living. Many of
the artists in the exhibition have also taught at the school, including co-founder of the school’s MFA course Sam Ainsley. Adele Patrick, another tutor at the school, helped to co-found the Glasgow Women’s Library. Others have gone on to work in fields like social work, counselling and art therapy. The Guerrilla Girls’ tongue in cheek observation ‘having an escape from the art world in your four freelance jobs’ comes to mind. Jacki Parry has another anecdote about trying to find her way around the city. She enquired on a bus the way to Remnant Kings in Maryhill Road. A woman got off with her and walked her to the shop before returning to wait for another bus. Interestingly both of her memories of the kindness of Glaswegian strangers involve another woman helping her out. This seems significant to the story behind such a rich lineage of trail blazers and innovators. A lack of a commercial scene and public funding in the city allowed an art scene to develop in Glasgow which took on a ‘D.I.Y.’ approach to producing work – making use of disused spaces, networks of relationships and establishing makeshift galleries in the artists’ own flats – a supportive and socially cooperative ‘make do and mend’ approach. Many of the women artists were politically engaged, active campaigners, which led to them being naturally involved in an art scene that grew up around a strong political and social conscience. But more Scottish Art News 41
Historically women have, out of necessity, approached art with a ‘make do and mend’ mentality, juggling an art practice with raising children, maintaining homes and paid employment
Jacki Parry, The Book and the Rose – A New Book, 1988, cast handmade paper, linen and cotton rag, courtesy of the artist © Janet Lindsay Wilson Photography. Courtesy The Glasgow School of Art
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than that, in a city whose art scene was built on a spirit of cooperation and collaboration, of finding a way despite lack of formal support, perhaps it is no wonder women artists have thrived. Historically women have, out of necessity, approached art with a ‘make do and mend’ mentality, juggling an art practice with raising children, maintaining homes and paid employment. And along the way they have often lent enormous support to each other, as women’s rights campaigners, teachers, mentors and friends. Many of the women in the catalogue speak of the encouragement and inspiration of other women, with several citing the valuable influence of what Adele Patrick recalls as the fantastic, lone ‘female and feminist figure’ cut by Sam Ainsley. Fittingly, Dear, the youngest contributor to the show and one of the latest generation of women artists to graduate from GSA, describes her practice as being reliant upon the readiness of others to participate or perform. It is a reliance upon the encouragement, generosity and friendliness of others that could be said to have made all these works possible. Times may have moved on from some of the earlier battles women artists faced, but not far enough. Women continue to be underrepresented in the collections of major galleries and there has still only been four female Turner Prize winners since it began in 1984. With such statistics there remains a need for exhibitions like this to redress the balance. Encouragingly, there were no less than three women-only exhibitions in and around Glasgow this year. In addition to Studio 58, Paisley Museum ran Equals, a celebration of a century of female artistic creativity and Glasgow Women’s Library commissioned 21 Scottish women artists and writers to make new work as part of Two Decades of Changing Minds. The coincidental but happy timing of these events suggests there is a current interest in the achievements and contributions of women to art. Studio 58 was a far from complete survey and leaves ample space for a follow up exhibition or publication. What it did do was go a long way to acknowledging some of those women artists neglected by history and neatly grounded contemporary artists within the context of an aesthetic lineage. Virginia Woolf ended her famous argument for a room of one’s own with the exhortation that to work, even in poverty and obscurity, is worthwhile, if it means that future generations of women might be able to live and write their poetry. The women of this show are all pioneering and revolutionary in their own way. Some well known, and suitably lauded, others overlooked up till now. Yet not a stitch or paintstroke has gone to waste if their legacy is to be judged by this exhibition. From that very first room of their own on top of the school, to a room in the Mackintosh Museum last summer, may these fire-watchers, these mothers and teachers, friends and colleagues, counsellors and campaigners, may they have many, many more rooms to come. Katie Baker is an artist and writer based in London.
Published by The Glasgow School of Art (GSA) on the occasion of the exhibition Studio 58: Women Artists in Glasgow since World War II, 7 July – 30 September 2012, the Studio 58 catalogue is designed by GSA graduates Sophie Dyer and Maeve Redmond and features contributions from all of the artists in the exhibition with writer’s texts by Aleana Egan, Liz Lochhead, Sarah Lowndes, Louise Shelley, and Joanne Tatham. The catalogue is available from the GSA shop and Aye Aye books, Centre for Contemporary Arts. www.gsa.ac.uk | www.cca-glasgow.com CLOCKWISE, FROM TOP LEFT Julie Henderson, Vase, late 1980s, courtesy of Glasgow Women’s Library Dorothy Smith, Repeat design for a printed textile, c. 1940-44, hand painted on paper, courtesy of Archives and Collections Centre, The Glasgow School of Art; Garcia Hunter, Black and white illustration and Colour illustration, early 1960s, hand painted on card, courtesy of Archives and Collections Centre, The Glasgow School of Art Sylvia Chalmers, Design for a cushion cover, late 1950s/early 1960s, screen print on paper, courtesy of Archives and Collections Centre, Glasgow School of Art All © Janet Lindsay Wilson Photography. Courtesy The Glasgow School of Art
Scottish Art News 43
James Good Tunny (1820-1887), William Shiels, 1854 (albumen photograph), Royal Scottish Academy
WILLIAM SHIELS
RSA
(1783-1857) AN INFLUENTIAL FIGURE IN THE FOUNDING AND EARLY YEARS OF ART ACADEMIES IN CHARLESTON, SC, AND EDINBURGH Fiona V Salvesen Murrell
At 1pm, on 6 August 1817, the Washington sailed into New York harbour. On board were the Scottish artist, William Shiels, and the future President of the United States, John Quincy Adams. Shiels quickly found an excellent location for his studio at 20 Wall Street, New York, and armed with introductions from Adams and Benjamin West, PRA, set about establishing his business of portrait painting. A few weeks later, Shiels’ success was noted by Adams (who had his portrait painted by the artist): ‘He says he has not been an hour disengaged since he arrived in New York; that he has more work than he can do, and he has more than fifty orders for portraits upon hand.’ 1 44
Shiels, the son of a blacksmith and tenant farmer, was born near Kelso in the Scottish Borders. In 1798 he began an apprenticeship under the leading Edinburgh cabinetmaker, William Trotter. He studied drawing under John Graham at the Trustees Academy, where his propensity for art was noted and cultivated, thus ending his cabinetmaking career. His fellow students included the artists David Wilkie, Alexander Fraser and William Lizars. Following Wilkie’s lead, Shiels progressed in his studies to win prizes, until acquiring the skills requisite for entry into the Royal Academy of Arts life school in London in 1807. Several Americans, such as Samuel Waldo and Charles Bird King, worked alongside Shiels. He then began exhibiting at the Royal Academy and with the Associated Society of Artists in Edinburgh in 1808, living periodically in both cities and around Kelso – a pattern he continued for most of his life. Shiels’ main business was portraiture, landscape, and genre scenes. He notably painted Lord Napier, the Rev. George Home and his wife, Margaret, the owners of Gunsgreen House, Eyemouth, and a charming portrait of the young siblings John and Elizabeth Wilson (c.1816). Following the Napoleonic Wars, however, Britain had a severe economic downturn and commissions were hard to come by. As prospects looked brighter in America Shiels emigrated from London in June 1817. Shiels continued to work in New York, exhibiting at the American Academy of Fine Arts until the economic crash of 1819 affected his patrons’ purses, and he, like most of his fellow artists, sought work elsewhere. This turned out to be Charleston, South Carolina, at this point the sixth largest city in the USA and one of the wealthiest. Samuel FB Morse (later inventor of the Morse code) had just had an extremely successful winter season, being the first academically trained professional artist to visit the city for some time. Morse’s success was noted by Shiels and other artists, and they headed to the city. On his arrival in Charleston, in February 1819, Shiels again met with success, and he spent the next few years painting portraits in the city during the ‘season’ (November to March) when the planter aristocracy gathered from across the state for a series of concerts, balls, parties, and racing events. Shiels is also likely to have painted views of estates, prize animals, and domestic pets, being admired for his paintings of dogs and wildfowl in which; ‘his partridges were living with the frame… & his hawks were ready to fly’.2 In January 1821, Shiels, with several artists including Morse and John S Cogdell, founded the South Carolina Academy of Fine Arts, the first artist-led and directed art academy in America. Morse left Charleston three months later, never to return, and until now it was thought by earlier writers that Shiels was a very minor figure who had little or no input into the Academy. Moreover, no strong correlation has been previously made which recognised
John and Elizabeth Wilson, c.1816, oil on canvas, 91.4x75 cm. Private collection
that the Shiels in Charleston (c.1820) was one and the same Scottish artist who later helped found the Royal Scottish Academy (RSA) in Edinburgh. Recent research now substantiates the fact that Shiels had a major role in planning and organising the first two exhibitions of the South Carolina Academy, which he was effectively running; after Morse left, no other director had the academic grounding, experience, and expertise to do so.3 Under Shiels’ direction, the first exhibition held in 1822 contained over 150 works of art by Old Masters, contemporary professional artists, and a few amateurs. The second exhibition, a year later, was equally successful and Shiels and the remaining directors transformed the attitudes of the Charleston elite who had doubted that the Academy would flourish. Both exhibitions attracted at least 1500 visitors each, a figure which matched visitor statistics of the most successful show ever held by the American Academy of Fine Arts in New York in 1816. Shiels also solicited works of art for the Academy’s collection and received gifts of portraits from Henry Raeburn, Martin Archer Shee and George Watson, who were in turn elected as Honorary Members. It is also likely that Alexander Fraser, who remained a close friend of Shiels, contributed at least one painting as at least three works by Fraser were exhibited in Charleston. During the hot, humid summers Shiels travelled north to escape the increased risk of catching yellow fever Scottish Art News 45
No strong correlation has been previously made which recognised that the Shiels in Charleston, c.1820, was one and the same Scottish artist who later helped found the RSA
The Travelling Salesman, 1810, oil on canvas, 43x56 cm. Private Collection, courtesy of Bourne Fine Art
and malaria. He worked in New York and along the eastern seaboard, probably as far as Boston. By 1823 the economic recession was beginning to hit Charleston badly and Shiels left the city for Savannah, Georgia, in late 1823, where he remained until the following year. The South Carolina Academy faltered after Shiels left Charleston; the last exhibition was held in 1828 and its collection subsequently dispersed. Shiels returned to Scotland and exhibited once at the Royal Institution for the Fine Arts in Edinburgh in 1826, before becoming an enthusiastic founder and promoter of the (Royal) Scottish Academy. This new Academy, like the one in South Carolina and the Royal Academy in London, was founded and run by artists, as opposed to the aristocracy who controlled the Royal Institution and dominated the artists. Over the following three years, 1827-1829, a battle was fought between the two organisations, and Shiels’ actions, mostly forgotten until now, were crucial to the Scottish Academy’s success. The artists who founded the Scottish Academy were looked down upon by the elitist Royal Institution and several artists affiliated with the latter did their best to obstruct and undermine the Scottish Academy’s attempts to establish themselves. Shiels spent several years travelling to London, Newcastle and Norwich personally persuading dozens of artists to support the new Academy by sending their paintings to be exhibited in Edinburgh. Few could resist his mild, genial manner, and their support became a decisive 46
factor in the Scottish Academy’s success. Thus, thanks to Shiels, within three years, the Scottish Academy succeeded in outdoing the Royal Institution’s exhibitions of modern art to such an extent that it became obvious to the remaining artists in Edinburgh that their position aligned to the Royal Institution was untenable. Shiels’ persuasive powers meant that nearly 240 works of art were sent to the Scottish Academy by artists living outside Scotland – a quarter of the overall total in the first three exhibitions. The Royal Institution, by comparison, had just 78 works by artists from outside Scotland over the same time frame. This physical demonstration of support from influential colleagues at the Royal Academy and elsewhere enabled the Scottish Academy to show the public, the press, and their Edinburgh colleagues that it was the leading institution for contemporary artists. Moreover, Shiels helped to induce the ‘Union’ between the artists in 1829 through the visible evidence of the Scottish Academy’s success, and first suggested the special exhibition of the Academy’s Diploma works with Etty’s grand paintings, held in 1831.4 Shiels’ role in the SA did not end with the early exhibitions. He participated in a myriad of ways to make the Academy a successful and respected organisation including acting as an advisor on best practice for exhibitions, and in modern terms, as a marketing officer for the SA through his advocacy with professional networks in London, Norwich, and Newcastle. He served on the hanging committee in 1827-1829
Over the following three years, 1827-1829, a battle was fought between the two organisations, and Shiels’ actions, mostly forgotten until now, were crucial to the Scottish Academy’s success
Chillingham Bull, 1832-1838, oil on canvas, 76.2x91.3 cm Courtesy The University of Edinburgh Fine Art Collection
and 1831, and as a council member in 1828, 1844-46 and 1850. Sheils also elected several artists as Honorary Members of the Scottish Academy and in doing he expanded its culturalpolitical horizons. He supported his fellow artists through friendship, financial loans, advising on the taste of patrons in Edinburgh, and through gifts to the RSA collection. He also assisted with the progress of the much-desired Royal Charter through many meetings with the Academy’s lawyer, John Spottiswoode; the Charter was eventually granted in 1837. Between 1832 and 1844 Shiels painted 100 scientifically accurate illustrations of domestic livestock for Professor David Low’s Museum of Agriculture at the University of Edinburgh. The set were believed to be unique in Europe and unusual in their scale; the horses and cattle were depicted half-life size, and the sheep, pigs, goats, and dogs, life-size. Until now it was assumed that Low selected the animals for Shiels to illustrate, but as contemporary accounts support, it is evident that it was Shiels who actively selected many, if not most of the animals to be depicted. Shiels had a wealth of expertise in this field from his farming background. His paintings were miniaturised in watercolour by William Nicholson RSA (1781-1844) and reproduced as hand-coloured lithographs in Low’s The Breeds of the Domesticated Animals of the British Islands, published in 1842.
in surviving letters comes across as genial and warm, with a strong sense of pride in his Scottish identity. He deserves to be remembered not least for his important contributions to the founding of two Academies and to the survival of the Royal Scottish Academy. 1. Massachusetts Historical Society, The Diary of John Quincy Adams: An Electronic Archive, < http://www.masshist.org/jqadiaries >, entry of 14 Sept. 1817 2. Library of Congress, Morse Papers, John S. Cogdell to Morse, 14 Dec. 1823. 3. National Archives of Scotland, GD492/226, Shiels to W. B. Johnstone, 1 Dec. 1856. 4. The 24 artists who had adhered to the Royal Institution formally joined the Scottish Academy in July 1829 under a legal agreement known as the Hope-Cockburn award which settled the main differences and allowed them to save face. The negotiations for this union were conducted by John Hope (17941858) and Henry Cockburn (1779-1854).
Fiona V Salvesen Murrell is a doctoral candidate at the University of Aberdeen and a freelance art curator and researcher. She is currently completing her PhD thesis on William Shiels. She previously worked as a curator in several museums and galleries, including the National Museums of Scotland. See also: Fiona Salvesen, ‘Shiels, William (1783–1857)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, Oct 2009
The titles of over 300 paintings by Shiels have been traced to date for a Catalogue Raisonnée, but many more remain to be discovered. Shiels’s character as revealed Scottish Art News 47
Collecting the Contemporary A GLIMPSE OF THE LIVING ARCHIVE OF THE ROYAL SCOTTISH ACADEMY OF ART & ARCHITECTURE
Paul Rooney, Kendal Iconoclasm, 2012, three-channel video installation (still) © Royal Scottish Academy. Courtesy Royal Scottish Academy
W
hat sets apart a collection shaped by contemporary art? By supporting emerging artists and contextualising them within the established work of their peers, such a collection builds a dynamic web of relationships between artists of the past, present, and future. Simultaneously perpetuating and challenging artistic ideas, processes and practices has created a living archive, influenced by critical responses and by the artists themselves who are involved in its development. The Royal Scottish Academy’s collection began in 1829 with a courageous act of patronage, establishing what has come to be recognised as a Nationally Significant collection with the work of a contemporary artist.1 Now, as the Academy approaches its 200th anniversary this spirit of supporting contemporary art remains as strong as ever. Initiatives such as the RSA Residencies for Scotland programme and New Contemporaries exhibitions challenge the next generation of artists to bridge the gap between art college and professional practice, while the revitalised format of the Annual Exhibition and programme of temporary small exhibitions brings together emerging and established artists, often using works from the collections to provide historical context. Since the founding of the Academy’s collections almost two centuries ago, the collections have embodied and furthered the cause of emerging and established Scottish artists with key historical developments having marked their evolution. In 1829, as the third Annual Exhibition was approaching, the Academy was looking 48
for ways to entice the public and stir opinion. They approached the eminent English artist William Etty (1787-1849) with a view to borrowing his painting Judith and Holofernes. An agreement was made that should the work remain unsold at the end of the exhibition the Academy would purchase it for a reduced fee of 300 guineas. In addition, the as yet unpainted side panels that would complete Etty’s envisioned triptych would be purchased for 100 guineas each. In 1910 this work, along with many others, was transferred to the nation, enhancing the collections of the National Galleries of Scotland and highlighting the importance of contemporary collecting in creating nationally significant art collections. With the inclusion of Judith and Holofernes, the 1829 Annual Exhibition was so successful that the purchase money was secured early. With this purchase a fruitful relationship was established with Etty that ran the course of the artist’s life, culminating in the Academy’s purchase of his copy of Titian’s Venus of Urbino in 1853 as well as being awarded Honorary Academician status. Another important acquisition of contemporary work was made in the same year – 64 copies of European Old Master paintings by the English artist John Frederick Lewis. By collecting copies in colour the Academy was making an innovative move, which was lauded by the Art Review2 and by Lewis and his fellow artists in England.3 These colour copies gave students access to the full vision of the original works in a way that copy engravings could not, and, from a technical perspective, they demonstrated the potential of watercolour in
creating original refined artworks. Earlier that year a letter from the Scottish artist William Dyce RA to RSA Treasurer William Borthwick Johnstone helped give impetus to the Academy’s inventive art teaching methods:‘The career of a successful Student often depends on a variety of circumstances over which scanty means and bad or imperfect advice have their chief control. Now the Academy…might step in, and by counteracting these baneful influences, have the satisfaction of nourishing and directing talent that may confer honour on the country...When a student has given proofs of ability in the Elementary Classes, the Academy should not limit its assistance to bestowing a mere honorary prize, it ought to direct him in his future course, and furnish him with the means of pursuing it.’4 The landmark acquisition of Lewis’s watercolours instigated an important strand in the Academy’s collecting policy, which continues to thrive today. Supporting living artists through collecting their work and making it visible to audiences has created a legacy for the benefit of those following in their footsteps. Lewis’s copies were immediately displayed for the Edinburgh public, but more significantly for Scotland’s art students, who could now learn from the work of the Old Masters. Before the days of photography and mass communication this was a landmark event. A further nineteenth-century initiative saw the Academy commission the emerging artist Robert Herdman (1829-1888) ‘...to execute an experimental Drawing from one of Masaccio’s Frescoes, in the Carmine at Florence...’5 just as the artist was preparing to leave for Italy. The previous year Herdman had won the Keith Prize, awarded to the most distinguished work by a student in the Annual Exhibition. The Academy was presented with a perfect opportunity to evolve its collection by acquiring the work by the very artist it was encouraging. After a year in Italy Herdman returned with a number of drawings, from which the Academy’s Council selected nine, considering them ‘very creditable to his talents and energy’.6 Herdman’s work therefore joined the works of Etty and Lewis, heightening Herdman’s reputation and confidence. Nearly 130 years later a group of art students were to return to Florence for a three-month period through the aid of the John Kinross Scholarship. The architect John Kinross RSA considered Florence a great influence on his practice and in 1951 his son established the fund in his memory. With the intention that Florence’s artistic and architectural beauty could inspire students, the Academy awarded the first scholarship in 1981 and in 1988 the Academy began to select works from artists’ portfolios to enter the collections. This collection, now numbering nearly 700 works is a fascinating document of the changing idioms and mediums of emerging artists from Scotland’s art colleges over the last quarter of a century. The blueprint of the Kinross scholarship has helped strategically guide the Academy’s collections in recent years with the
FROM TOP William Etty HRSA (after Titian), Venus of Urbino, 1823, oil on canvas, 122.3x169.6 cm John Frederick Lewis HRSA (after Velasquez), The Surrender of Breda c. 1852-3, watercolour and gouache, 28.8x37.2 cm Robert Herdman RSA (after Raphael), The Triumph of Galatea (from the fresco in the Villa Farnesina, Rome), 1855, watercolour and body colour, 59.6x44.6 cm All © Royal Scottish Academy. Courtesy Royal Scottish Academy
Scottish Art News 49
ABOVE FROM TOP Paul Westcombe, Dot – Dot, Playtime, 2003, digital prints and lettraset, 14.4x10 cm Paul Rooney, Gladio, c.1991-2, watercolour, acrylic and magazine cuttings, 40.9x29.3 cm OPPOSITE Michael Visocchi RSA, Drawing for sculpture, 2001, ink and wash, 30.3 x 42.6cm; Tower Group, 2002, wood, acrylic paint and resin, 41x60.7x18.8 cm; Suburban Curve, 2002 (Diploma work), wood, acrylic paint, resin, 90.2x112.1 cm All © Royal Scottish Academy. Courtesy Royal Scottish Academy
50
archive finding its way into different aspects of the Academy’s programme. An important aspect of the living archive is the development of relationships with artists, along with their work and practice. By collecting in the present, vital information is shared between artist and collection, information that could be otherwise be left undocumented. Furthermore, forming a relationship early garners trust and allows the collections to follow the development of an artist’s career. Within the Kinross collection resides the formative work of artists who have later become RSA Academicians.7 For Michael Visocchi RSA the trip to Florence sowed the seeds of his socio-political sculptures and metaphysical landscapes. It also contains multimedia offerings from emerging artists who were subsequently selected as New Contemporaries and the work of artists invited to exhibit in recent Annual Exhibitions. The collections have been able to document the trajectory of artists such as Paul Westcombe, a 2003 Kinross scholar who received the William Littlejohn Award in 2011. His Kinross work has been joined by a fantastical series of watercolours based on his travels facilitated by the award. Further back in time you find the artist Paul Rooney, whose
ideas have adapted from paint to film. Since his 1991 Kinross work, Galileo’s Zebra, popular culture influences have remained intrinsic, while his underlying technique of abstracting and disrupting narrative and iconography has evolved a new identity in his film work. In 2011 Rooney was selected for the Morton Award for lens-based media and his three-channel short film, Kendal Iconoclasm, which uses video, writing and fast-cut images from popular film to collide narratives, playing with the concept of fictional realities. Westcombe and Rooney’s recent work featured in the 2012 Annual Exhibition alongside established academicians and selected works from the collections: a curatorial approach that is set to continue in coming years. Over the next ten years the Academy’s contemporary programme will continue to communicate with the collections, as seen in recent exhibitions such as Drawing from the Landscape (2012) and in the forthcoming Sculptor’s Prints and the RSA Annual Exhibition (2013). New programmes of artistic support and patronage like the Morton and Littlejohn Award and the Barns-Graham Travel Award augment historic initiatives and established scholarships such as the Kinross, creating new opportunities for making the Academy’s living archive visible to new audiences. The pioneers of 1829 would certainly be interested to see how the collection they started all those years ago is rising to new challenges in the 21st century.
1. In 2008 the entire collections of the RSA were recognised as being a collection of National Significance to Scotland by the Scottish Government. 2. Art Review, August 1853 (London, 1853) p.206. 3. John Frederick Lewis to William Borthwick Johnstone, 11 November 1853, letter collection, RSA Archives 4. Extract from William Dyce RA to William Borthwick Johnstone, RSA Treasurer, June 30, 1853, letter collection, RSA Archives. 5. Royal Scottish Academy Annual Report, 1856. p.11. 6. Royal Scottish Academy Annual Report, 1856. p.11. 7. Josephine Ganter, Michael Visocchi, Delia Baillie, Kenny Hunter, Lorna McIntosh.
In a new book Portfolio: Treasures from the Diploma Collection at the Royal Scottish Academy, Tom Normand traces the 200 year history of the Royal Scottish Academy. From Thomas Hamilton to contemporary artists, each featured artist’s history is related with that of the Academy. The book chronologically traces different periods as they influenced the style of what was produced in the Academy, emphasising its role in ‘exhibiting the newest and the best of modern art and respecting the multi-dimensional approaches of contemporary art’.
Sandy Wood is acting collections curator of the Royal Scottish Academy of Art & Architecture The Dean Gallery (Modern Two) in Edinburgh.
Portfolio: Treasures from the Diploma Collection at the Royal Scottish Academy is published by Luath Press, priced £17. Scottish Art News 51
Paul Westcombe, from Not for Travel series, 2011, watercolour and ink on card, (both): 5.4x8.6 cm © Royal Scottish Academy. Courtesy Royal Scottish Academy
Paul Westcombe, from Just Receipts series, 2011, watercolour and ink on paper 1: 10.4 x14.8 cm, 2: 7x10.5 cm © Royal Scottish Academy. Courtesy Royal Scottish Academy
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Sculptors Prints is showing at the Royal Scottish Academy 23 February – 31 March 2013 and the 187th Royal Scottish Academy Annual Exhibition 25 May – 30 June 2013 Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh EH2 2EL T: 0131 225 6671 | www.royalscottishacademy.org Open: Monday – Sunday, 10am–5pm
CYRIL GERBER
1917-2012
AN APPRECIATION DOUGLAS HALL If Cyril Gerber had required a private password, it might have been do something about it. It was a phrase that he often used in accounting for his activities. Others, besides Cyril, saw the need for outlets for artists in Glasgow. Only Cyril decided that he was in a position to do something about it. The result was that for nearly half a century Glasgow was not without a place where modern art could be seen, and bought. Only the last of the three galleries he was involved in bore his name, preceded by the New Charing Cross Gallery (1961-64) which he helped to found, the Compass Gallery and lastly Cyril Gerber Fine Art.
1954, he widened his policy to introduce more international artists to
the public, and later, in Cyril Gerber Fine Art, he enlarged his historic
Cyril Gerber was born in Glasgow in 1917 to parents of
Jewish and Eastern European origin. He was born into a mercantile
viewpoint, looking for value in artists from earlier generations.
family who traded in various commodities. For years he continued
to trade in carpets while running the Compass Gallery. Despite the
nearer to an art museum way of thinking. The 1960s and 70s were a time
opposition to ‘commodifying’ art that was beginning to be expressed
of confusion in the visual arts, with an aggressive if splintered avant
by the new generation of pundits, Cyril was never accused of exploiting
garde, posing sharp problems for museum collections. It was a time
the artists he exhibited. He was the friend of artists and it is all the more
for a reconsideration of values. Cyril’s judgment was never dependent
remarkable that he was so widely respected, even loved, for his standards
on trend-setting critics, self appointed challengers to the status quo, or
were high; selection was one of the functions that artists’ co-operatives
self-publicising curators. As to the art establishment, he judged it by the
found too difficult. If his family background gave him the ability to do
same standards that he applied to its detractors, and as far as Glasgow
something about it and continue doing so, we must look deeper for the
was concerned he found it wanting. For him, innovation in art must rest
reason for his success and his reputation as a unique presence in the
on a fresh expression of human values through the development of the
Scottish art scene. His character, as it seems to me, was based on an
medium. (Not surprisingly he found the perfect exemplar in Van Gogh.)
unusual degree of empathy and I believe his Jewish background, about
It was essential to his project to find such value in the work of young
which he never spoke, informed his essential humanism.
artists, and he was indefatigable in seeking it out. As we have seen, he
soon broadened his scope to include more mature artists. This reflected
Born and educated in a Glasgow of many social problems,
This evolution in Cyril’s thought and practice brought him
Cyril unsurprisingly grew up a man of the left, which his Jewish
his growing understanding of the development of modernism. He saw
upbringing did nothing to discourage. For though he joined the Royal
abstract art as just a new way of conveying human feeling, already
Artillery, served in India and Ceylon, and rose to the rank of captain,
explored in expressionism and symbolism. Sadly he did not live to see
there was nothing of the officer class about his later self. During his war
the recent exhibition of Symbolism, Van Gogh to Kandinsky, which
service, Glasgow had developed a group of left-wing intellectuals, to
would have delighted him.
which Polish and other refugees from Nazi rule contributed. In so far
as this way of thinking continued after the war, Cyril was attracted to it,
but he had his detractors. As a man of the left, he was suspected of bias;
especially to the visual art that emerged from this, and his interest, or
as a businessman, of exploiting his artists. He firmly rejected these
growing passion for art, combined with his social conviction. He saw
absurd suspicions. Although I have emphasised here the value he placed
how difficult it was for young artists to develop their ideas or present
on human feeling, he himself insisted that his judgment was an aesthetic
them to the public and that there was little opportunity for the public
one. He surely knew that these two criteria were inseparable. Cyril was
to be introduced to anything new in art. He regarded this as just one
not in competition with the succeeding generation of gallerists and
aspect of a wider problem, the indifference of the public to art, with its
dealers. His sympathy was with those pioneers of modernism of his own
life-enhancing qualities.
generation who, with dedication and a discerning eye, set up galleries
in Cork Street. I too admired these galleries, where work of museum
These were the convictions that put Cyril Gerber into ‘doing
Cyril Gerber was a most likeable man of evident integrity,
something about it’. The practical application was probably triggered
quality was always to be found, and I drew inspiration from Cyril. In our
by his friendship with artists, as the first venture he supported, the New
different ways, we saw our role as similar, to engage the viewer with a
Charing Cross Gallery, was the brainchild of painters Tom McDonald,
new visual experience which carried a charge of basic humanity.
Bet Low and John Taylor. At first, the emphasis of Cyril’s thinking was on providing opportunities for Glasgow artists working, so to speak,
Douglas Hall, former keeper of the Scottish National Gallery of Modern
outside the box. When he assumed control of the Compass Gallery in
Art from 1961 to 1986. Scottish Art News 53
2012 Art Market Round-up The sale of the Taffner Collection at Lyon & Turnbull in Edinburgh
of watercolours by Mackintosh’s sister-in-law Frances Macdonald
was one of those extraordinary landmarks in Scottish art market
MacNair was led by Girl with Blue Butterflies, a large Symbolist work
history that will be talked about for years to come. Donald and
dating from 1898, which also went to an American, this time for
Eleanor Taffner were quintessentially successful Americans, who
£100,000, well past its £80,000 high estimate.
made a fortune from adapting British television shows for the
American market and developed a passion for Scottish art. They built
Bouleternère, a watercolour from Mackintosh’s period in the south
up a superb collection of early twentieth-century works and were
of France in the mid-1920s, sold for less than expected at £65,000
particularly interested in Charles Rennie Mackintosh and his fellow
to a continental institution. This was probably partly because of its
members of the ‘Glasgow Four’ – the others being his wife Margaret
condition but, like a number of works in the collection, it fetched less
Macdonald Mackintosh, her sister Frances Macdonald MacNair and the latter’s husband James Herbert MacNair. Following the recent deaths of Eleanor and Donald, their children decided to sell the collection, and highlights from the 117 lots attracted plenty of attention when they went on show at The Fleming Collection.
The Taffner sale,
which also included furniture and silver as well as works by the Scottish Colourists, caused a tremendous stir with 200 people packing the room. What was particularly encouraging was that more than half the buying came from Scotland and it was appropriate that the most expensive lot of the day – Yellow Tulips, a 1919 still life by Charles Rennie Mackintosh – was bought by a collector from Glasgow for £130,000 hammer price. But there was also plenty of interest from the continent and the US and it was an American private buyer who took another Mackintosh still life, White Tulips, past its high estimate to fetch £110,000 on the hammer. An important group
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Not everything performed quite as strongly as these and
than it had when it last appeared for sale. This reflected the fact that the Taffners bought much of their collection when the market was at its height as they and other key collectors competed for pictures. When the Taffners stopped buying in the late 1990s, some of the heat went out of this sector of the art market.
Despite that, Lyon & Turnbull had good reason to be
happy with the Taffner sale and just three lots remained unsold in an auction which totalled £1.3m. ‘The result is a fitting tribute to Donald and Eleanor Taffner who made an extraordinary contribution to Scotland’s cultural heritage with their interest in and promotion of the work of Charles Rennie Mackintosh and his circle,’ said John Mackie, director and specialist at Lyon & Turnbull. ‘We are honoured to have been chosen to sell their collection.’
A few weeks earlier the continuing popularity of the
Scottish Colourists helped Bonhams to a £1.5m total at their sale of Scottish paintings in Edinburgh. Art sales north of the border are not what they were just a few years ago before Sotheby’s and Christie’s retreated to London and included Scottish pictures in more broadlybased auctions, but they can still produce a decent return. The 81 per cent selling rate at the Bonhams sale indicates that their policy of putting sensible estimates on middle of the range material pays dividends.
A substantial slice of the value of the sale came from a
single painting by the always popular Colourist Samuel J Peploe. Still Life of Mixed Roses in a Chinese Vase was once owned by Sir William MacTaggart, whose more famous grandfather of the same name was a pioneer of Scottish Impressionism. In 1927 the younger MacTaggart joined the Society of Eight, an artists’ group restricted to eight members which included Peploe, and this may have been how he acquired the painting. This interesting provenance clearly did it no harm at all and the Peploe exceeded its £200,000 to £300,000 estimate, selling to a Scottish private buyer for a hammer price of £350,000.
The Peploe was undoubtedly helped by having been off
the market for more than 20 years and market freshness also helped one of the best nineteeneth-century paintings in the Bonhams sale. Edinburgh Castle from Princes Street by Samuel Bough, dating from the early 1860s, was being auctioned for the first time having been owned by the same family since it was bought by the vendor’s great-grandfather. Although it did not quite reach its £100,000 lower estimate, the £90,000 hammer price paid by a private collector more than doubled the previous record for the artist. This recently rediscovered picture took Bough into new territory. Will Bennett is the former Art Sales Correspondent of The Daily Telegraph who now works for the arts consultants Cawdell Douglas.
FROM TOP SJ Peploe RSA, Still life of mixed roses in Chinese vase oil on canvas, 45.5x40.5 cm © Bonhams Charles Rennie Mackintosh, Yellow Tulips, 1919 watercolour, 47.5x47 cm © Lyon & Turnbull OPPOSITE Samuel Bough RSA, Edinburgh Castle from Princes Street c. early 1860s, oil on canvas, 156x125 cm © Bonhams
Scottish Art News 55
Books bill smith & jill marriner
HUNTER REVISITED
H U NTER R EVISITED · TH E L IFE A ND A RT O F L ESLI E H UNTE R
The life and art of Leslie Hunter
Bill Smith & Jill Marriner
have made a very lucrative career as a popular illustrator in the States.
HUNTER REVISITED The life and art of Leslie Hunter
Paintings by the Scottish Colourists – Peploe, Fergusson, Hunter and Cadell – are recognised and collected internationally. Over the last 30 years prices at auction have soared well beyond the wildest dreams of the four artists. However Leslie Hunter has not received the same level of acclaim as the other three. To an extent his vision of art and his painting is still misunderstood and underrated by many in the art world. Yet Hunter at the top of his form has few equals in Scottish, if not British painting. It was Peploe himself who said of a work by Hunter: ‘That is Hunter at his best, and it is as fine as any Matisse’. He brought a new vibrancy to still life that is rarely matched today. Hunter was an intelligent, sensitive, driven man, who lived for his art to the exclusion of virtually everything else. He was much more attuned to what was happening in artistic circles in France in the first three decades of the twentieth century than the vast majority of his contemporaries in Britain. Colour was to become his guiding principle. In this major biography, the first for 75 years, the authors chart Hunter’s exploration of Cezanne’s theories on colour and form and their influence on his own painting, and the inspiration he gained later from the art of Matisse, whose work had profoundly shocked him some 15 years earlier. New light is shed on his early career in San Francisco and his initial work as an illustrator of magazines and books. Much of the research is based on letters written by Hunter to his friends. The text is supported by over 150 illustrations, almost two-thirds of which are of works in private collections. Front cover: Peonies in a Chinese Vase 1925 (The Fleming-Wyfold Art Foundation)
He had however, serious ambitions for his artistic gifts, and thus felt obliged in 1903 to make the required pilgrimage to Paris – the then mecca of modern art. There Leslie could directly see what visual Modernism looked like in the works of such masters as Van Gogh and Cézanne who were to have a lasting influence on his painting. When not studying in the Louvre or trawling around the shoals of commercial galleries, he instinctively played the role of the Baudelarian flâneur using his keen eye and ready pencil to capture the ‘heroic’ quotidian scenes of ever changing modern city life. With this invaluable Parisian experience to draw upon Hunter went back across the Atlantic, but tragically all his early attempts to display his Modernist credentials
Back cover: Provencal Landscape 1928 (Private Collection)
atelier books
were destroyed in the San Francisco earthquake of 1906. He returned
Atelier Books Limited 6 Dundas Street · Edinburgh EH3 6HZ
isbn 978 1 873830 23 9
to Europe to renew his determination to adapt and develop his 15/05/2012 16:38
potential abilities as an artist, as well as rise to the demanding challenges of a new kind of painting for a new century.
It was in 1908 that Hunter fully realised what those
Hunter Revisited: The Art and Life of Leslie Hunter
daunting challenges would involve when he went to see the most
Bill Smith, Jill Marriner
avant garde art collection in the Paris flat of Gertrude and Leo Stein. By
Atelier Books, 2011 | hardback £40
this time Hunter was familiar with the innovations brought about by Post-Impressionism, but he was unprepared for the seismic changes
Until now you may have found that Leslie Hunter’s name is more
which Matisse and Picasso were now introducing to Western painting.
difficult to remember than the other Scottish Colourists – the fabulous
Initially stunned and overwhelmed by this ‘shock of the new’ Hunter
Fergusson, the peerless Peploe and the chic Cadell. Now however, with
opted to continue with more familiar conventional picture-making
the publication of a major monograph – the first since TJ Honeyman’s
where he could rely on his proven skills in drawing and tonal painting.
Introducing Leslie Hunter, three quarters of a century ago – this lapse in
With these he produced his first solo exhibition in 1913 at Alexander
the collective memory of Scottish modern art will hopefully be rectified.
Reid’s Glasgow gallery which was made up mainly of flower still
This beautiful publication, with over 150 illustrations and a well-
life subjects painted in a sub-Fantin-Latour manner. Despite the
researched and insightful text, should now stimulate the critical and popular attention that Leslie Hunter’s life and art rightly deserves.
Despite appearing to have had little or no academic training,
Leslie Hunter (1877-1931) was a skilled draughtsman. Throughout the radical development of his work from commercial illustrator to Modernist painter, his drawing continued to be the foundation of his art. To underline this, one of the most impressive examples of his artistic vision in a new exhibition Leslie Hunter: A Life in Colour (at The Fleming Collection until 9 February 2013) is a pair of small black and white still life etching drawings from 1913. In these works Hunter has succeeded in distilling the visual essence of his simple subject of fruit on a plate down to such a powerfully intense image that it would not be out of place to make comparisons with Cézanne, or Morandi for that matter.
Although born in Scotland Hunter began his artistic career
in America. From the outset he honed his natural talents as a young graphic artist in California to such a degree that he certainly could
56
Leslie Hunter, Still Life with Apples, Plate and Knife c.1913, pen and black ink on paper, 21.1x26.8 cm Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art
critical and financial success of this work in Scotland, Hunter was still
determined to pursue his ambition to become a genuine European
one is left to ponder how Hunter’s art would have flourished if he had
modern painter. Thus after the First World War he again travelled to
lived to the ripe old of 87, as did JD Fergusson. The indications were
the continent and was back in the French capital by the early 1920s
that Hunter’s work was growing more confident in painterly expertise
to renew his contact and involvement with the School of Paris and the
and creative vision, as exemplified by the Loch Lomond houseboat
Cote d’Azur.
series which he initiated in the last years of his life. Yet for me, Hunter
was always at his best when drawing and colour were perfectly
Throughout this period, especially with the work of
With such a loss to the history of Scottish modern painting
Matisse as model and inspiration, Hunter revised his approach to
matched in his seeming spontaneous response to a humble everyday
painting. His colour gradually shed its predominantly descriptive role
subject such as Summer Spray (1928). In these intuitive sketches, which
and became a much more independent and expressive force within
he produced throughout his career, Hunter truly revealed his acutely
his boldly decorative treatment of his pictorial subject matter. Along
sensitive response to those profoundly beautiful, but ephemeral things
with his fellow Scottish Colourists and with his Post-Fauvist mode of
in the world which lie, as the poet says, ‘too deep for tears’.
painting, Hunter began to receive international recognition with shows
(Bill Hare)
in Scotland and abroad. Yet despite this growing artistic and critical success, his long-term bohemian peripatetic life style was taking it toll and Hunter died at the relatively young age of 54.
Leslie Hunter, Summer Spray, 1928, watercolour, 36x44 cm. Private collection
Scottish Art News 57
Following this are almost 200 letters written by Hamilton from July 1748 to March 1781. To assist readers, the correspondence is preceded by a short biography of each of Hamilton’s correspondents and Cassidy has also prepared a glossary giving the English translation of Italian words regularly used by Hamilton in his letters as well as a guide to the exchange rates between Italian and British currencies.
Volume Two contains approximately 150 letters dating
between May 1781 and April 1796 as well as 95 black and white plates representing Hamilton’s paintings or engravings after his works, a selection of the antique marbles he unearthed, and some of the most prestigious paintings he managed to secure for his British patrons.
Hamilton kept a steady correspondence with Charles
Townley, William Petty, 2nd Earl of Shelburne and Marquess of Lansdowne, and Margaret Georgiana, Countess Spencer, who were among his main patrons and some of the most important eighteenthcentury British art collectors. Although most of the letters sent to The Life & Letters of Gavin Hamilton (1723-1798):
Townley and to Earl Shelburne were published in 2010 by Ilaria Bignamini
Artist & Art Dealer in Eighteenth-Century Rome
and Clare Hornsby in Digging and Dealing in Eighteenth-Century Rome,
Professor Brendan Cassidy
the letters to Countess Spencer are published for the first time. His
Harvey Miller Publishers, 2012. 2 volumes | hardback £142
numerous letters to the Venetian painter and art dealer Giovanni Maria Sasso, who helped Hamilton in his picture dealing, are also published for
Professor Brendan Cassidy’s The Life & Letters of Gavin Hamilton (1723-
the first time in English. Hamilton’s correspondence provides a wealth
1798) provides an account of Hamilton’s life, and gathers the letters
of information on the constitution of some of the main art collections in
written by the artist between July 1748 and April 1796.
Britain, as well as on his work as an excavator and as a dealer in paintings
and antiquities.
Hamilton was born in 1723 in Lanarkshire but spent most of
his life in Rome where he settled in 1756. He occupied a central position
in the cultural life of this city, which was at the time the artistic capital
marbles from him, Hamilton regularly gave detailed accounts of the
of Western Europe, and his history paintings were widely acclaimed
progress of his excavations and comprehensive descriptions of the
by Grand Tourists and Italian and French critics. Although he is now
marbles he had unearthed. He also shared with his patron the difficulties
recognised as a pioneer of Neoclassical art he has attracted little
he had in securing licences from the Pope to export the best antique
scholarly attention until recently. He is mentioned only in passing in most
works, as papal Commissioners of Antiquities were on the lookout for the
books on the Grand Tour as well as in studies on Scottish art. Moreover,
most interesting and original marbles to fill the Pio-Clementino museum
several specialists have written articles on Hamilton focusing on only
founded in 1771. As his letters reveal, selling by correspondence was
one aspect of his career, mainly examining his history paintings and
risky as antique marbles could be severely damaged during transport
assessing their influence on contemporary European artists. Yet as his
to Britain, and several clients were not pleased with the works they
correspondence reveals, Hamilton had a multi-faceted career, working
had purchased from Hamilton. Lord Archibald Hamilton sent him back
as a painter, a dealer in antiquities and in Old Master paintings and
four paintings and Townley refused a statue of Jupiter, expressing his
drawings, and as an excavator of ancient sites. According to Professor
disapproval concerning a statue of Venus restored by Hamilton.
Cassidy, Hamilton was the most successful excavator in eighteenth-
century Rome and was involved in over 40 excavations.
comprehensive study on this Scottish artist available and provides
new insights into his career, bringing to the fore little-known aspects
Cassidy’s book is composed of two substantial volumes, each
To Charles Townley who bought a large number of antique
The Life & Letters of Gavin Hamilton (1723-1798) is the most
of them comprising over 400 pages. Organised into two parts, Volume
of his activities as an excavator and art dealer. It is a book of special
One includes an extensive introduction, which includes a number of
relevance for anyone interested in Gavin Hamilton, the Grand Tour and in
sections. ‘Early Life and Biographical Notes’ outlines Hamilton’s social
eighteenth-century Western European art.
and educational backgrounds, his artistic training and the beginning of his career in Rome, while ‘Dealing in Old Masters’, ‘Digging and
(Dr Marion Amblard teaches at Pierre Mendès France University in
Dealing in Antiquities’ and ‘Hamilton the Painter’ shed new light on the
Grenoble and is a researcher in British studies. She is a member of the French
diversity of Hamilton’s activities. Lastly ‘Hamilton’s Artistic Reputation
Society for Scottish Studies.)
and Influence’ investigates the reason why Hamilton’s history paintings had a cool critical reception in Britain while they were praised in Italy and in France. His influence on contemporary artists is also examined.
58
The Etchings of John Clerk of Eldin
The Scottish Country House
Geoffrey Bertram
James Knox
2012, hardback £35
Thames & Hudson, 2012 | hardback £28
Born in 1728, John Clerk of Eldin had a short-lived etching career, creating over
In this new book, James Knox, managing director of The Art
100 prints of the Scottish landscape in the brief period between 1770 and 1779.
Newspaper, guides the reader on a tour of ten early seventeenth to
His work was often overshadowed by that of his brother-in-law, the architect
early twentieth century houses and castles in Scotland, recounting
Robert Adam. Clerk focused his attention on houses, churches and castles,
their histories. With photographs by James Fennell.
drawn to old buildings and the Scottish architecture that surrounded him. A new publication written by Geoffrey Bertram explores the life and work of the artist and marks 2012 as the 200th year since Clerk’s death.
Self-taught, Clerk studied the work of those printmakers who
had come before him and mastered the medium, developing a better understanding of composition, lighting and definition. The Clerk family were keen print collectors, as was the artist himself, and Clerk would have had access to large numbers of European prints, the works already being readily available in Edinburgh by the eighteenth century. Despite his dedication to studying the work of these skilled printmakers, Clerk never resorted to mere imitation, instead combining all that he had learned into his own distinctive style.
Clerk discovered etching at a time when it was regarded as
the best print medium for capturing the landscape, standing as it does at a midpoint between drawing and engraving and considered in the 1700s to combine the best characteristics of both. Bertram believes Clerk to be the first etcher to master the medium in such a way as to capture the character
Forthcoming: A new multi-authored publication Henry Raeburn:
and mood of the Scottish countryside.
Context, Reception and Reputation will be released in January 2013.
Edited by Viccy Coltman and Stephen Lloyd, this book is the first
Opening with a prologue by Iain Gordon Brown – which provides a
rich and broad family background against which to understand Clerk’s work –
illustrated scholarly work devoted to the reception and reputation
The Etchings of John Clerk of Eldin explores the artist’s life and etchings as well as
of Edinburgh’s foremost Enlightenment portrait painter. Despite a
his art and contemporary aesthetics. Split over two of the four main chapters,
towering reputation within his home country, Raeburn is notably absent
Bertram breaks down the body of Clerk’s work through technique, background,
from most survey books on portraiture produced outside Scotland.
style and sources in an attempt at creating a wider understanding. An essay
by Duncan Macmillan outlines printmaking in the eighteenth century, helping
national and international responses to his work are examined, from
to situate Clerk’s oeuvre within the medium’s rich history. Clerk was, and still
both within his lifetime and posthumously. The book features essays
remains, relatively unknown; the 104 beautifully reproduced plates which serve
from ten international scholars and includes previously unpublished
to conclude the publication leave you wondering whether small print runs, a
archival material. Fourteen chapters examine different aspects of
lack of distribution and an extremely short period of artistic activity combined
Raeburn’s career, setting his work within its cultural, social and
to prevent Clerk from being as well known and respected as he should be.
economic context.
(Nancy Cooper)
Edinburgh University Press | paperback £29.99
With the aim to recover Raeburn from his artistic isolation,
Scottish Art News 59
PREVIEW
2013
Eileen Hogan: Vacant Possession Ian Hamilton Finlay 9 February – 31 March 2013 New Art Centre Roche Court, East Winterslow, Salisbury, Wilts SP5 1BG Tel: 01980 862244 | www.sculpture.uk.com Open: daily, 11am–4pm Eileen Hogan at Little Sparta 11 June – 17 August 2013 The Fleming Collection, 13 Berkeley Street, London W1J 8DU Tel: 020 7042 5730 | www.flemingcollection.com Open: Tuesday – Saturday, 10am–5.30pm I never expected to find myself painting in the cradle of the Pentland Hills. I was born in London and, apart from a period living in Greece, I’ve mainly selected my source material from within that city. I am not a landscape painter and although green spaces have often been my subject matter, they’ve usually been bounded by architecture, particularly in recent years, at Bryanston, Portman, Manchester and Montagu Square Gardens, the sites of my Four Squares series, where I gained access to the private spaces, painting from the inside rather than from the outside looking in. The wildness of the hills and farmland that abut Ian Hamilton Finlay’s fragile poet’s garden, Little Sparta, south of Edinburgh, could hardly contrast more with those urban backdrops, but the same notion of enclosure underlies my impulse to paint there. Seen from the road below, Little Sparta has a defined shape amid the open fields and exposed hills, achieved by the leafy shelter of the trees Finlay planted, many now mature. Beneath their protection is an unexpected and magical environment, a culture
darkly wooded – by myself. I recognised some of the classical
within a culture, both seductive and challenging.
references that thread through the paths and planting – inscriptions
made by craftsmen collaborators of Finlay’s on stone, wood,
I first went to Little Sparta almost by accident and
certainly with no thought that I would work there. In 1997 I went
terracotta and metal – and my art school training steered me to
to collect a friend making an oral history recording with Finlay, and
the art and landscape history allusions but much was mysterious.
discovered how daunting the rise up the unmade track leading to his
Eventually, I returned to the glassed-in cottage porch where the
home could be: stone-pitted, mud-skiddy (it was sheeting with rain)
recording was underway and, looking from the outside through the
and held in common with a herd of cattle. I passed the artwork in one
steamed up panes, began drawing Finlay. Afterwards, he led my
of the approach fields, a metal plate with an embossed image of a
second tour of the garden, and I particularly remember standing with
machine gun and a text quoting Virgil, and absorbed the sign on the
him in the roughest part of the landscape he had shaped, by Lochan
wooden farm gate that opened onto Finlay’s territory: ‘Closed With
Eck (named after his son), where we talked by the goose hut, home to
The Assistance of the Scottish Arts Council’. (Finlay’s long-running
his black swans. On subsequent visits Finlay gave me free run to paint
battle with the Scottish Region was later resolved; the notice is now
wherever I wanted. His presence, emerging beneath topiary arches
removed and the garden is open to the public during the summer.)
and fading into misty gloom, seeped in to several of my paintings, as
did an unexpected trip to the Coffee Spot in nearby Biggar, where I
As the recording was unfinished, I had an intense
introduction to the garden, exploring its different sections – some
60
drew him in the midst of the cafe’s more conventional clientele; later I
ABOVE UL 238 FH 172 FR 59, beehives at Little Sparta, 2011, oil and charcoal on paper, 90x122 cm. Private collection OPPOSITE FROM TOP Ian Hamilton Finlay and Eileen Hogan at Little Sparta in 1997 Photograph of Pembroke Studios, London, August 2012 © Sandra Lousada
Scottish Art News 61
developed these studies into finished portrait heads.
Finlay died in 2006 but I have kept returning to the garden
to paint, witnessing different seasons and dramatically different weathers, seeing the care needed for its maintenance, and, gradually, absorbing its complexity. The goose hut and Lochan Eck have been the subjects of my most recent 2012 paintings, but the main focus has been the trio of white beehives which Finlay placed at the crest of what he named the English Parkland, an open, relatively manicured sweep of lawn rescued from what was once an impenetrable forest of nettles. Unlike other artworks at Little Sparta, the beehives are not bespoke but Finlay made them his own. As he said, ‘Art can be a small adjustment.’ The adjustment here is the addition of lettering, naming and numbering each structure after Scottish fishing boats: Bountiful UL 238, Sweet Promise FH 172 and Golden Gain FR 59. This conveys two themes, the industry of the honey-making bees and that of sea-farers. The sound of the ocean (the wind in the foliage) and its spirit (in texts and sculptures, and in the undulating surface of a lower part of the Parkland) are evoked throughout Little Sparta. The white beehives, crouched beneath the parallel trunks of cherry trees, became the subject of a series of paintings I made between 1998 and 2012. They echo past concerns in my work, where I have repeatedly been drawn to the play of light dappling white surfaces in green surroundings, although it was only after I completed the beehive paintings that I realised this. Eileen Hogan is an artist based in London who has exhibited extensively in the UK and America. Her practice includes painting, book works and printmaking. She is a Research Professor at CCW (Camberwell, Chelsea and Wimbledon Colleges of Art) University of the Arts London. Eileen Hogan at Little Sparta is sponsored by Richards & Partner Consulting
Also showing: A display of works by Ian Hamilton Finlay (1925-2006) drawn from the Tate’s collection, including works in neon, wood, stone, bronze sculptures and printed works on paper, is on show at Tate Britain until February 2013 as part of the series BP British Art Displays. Ian Hamilton Finlay – Tate Britain: Display Millbank, London SW1P 4RG Tel: 020 7887 8888 www.tate.org.uk
FROM TOPIan Hamilton Finlay walking towards the Roman Garden, 2009 Oil and charcoal on paper 153x183 cm. Collection of Lord Farindon Goose hut at Little Sparta, 2012, oil on paper, 115x100 cm
62
Hanna Tuulikki – Air falbh leis na h-eòin / Away with the birds Ongoing, various venues www.triggerstuff.co.uk | www.hannatuulikki.org ‘The word that keeps coming back to me is connectivity,’ says Hanna Tuulikki, the Glasgow-based sound artist and illustrator who puts her own voice at the centre of her practice. Tuulikki is talking about Air falbh leis na h-eòin, or Away With The Birds, an ambitious ongoing project based around Gaelic song and the vocal mimesis of the birds that circulate around the island of Canna, in the Inner Hebrides, where she has just returned from an intense development week working alongside the local community.
At the new work’s heart is a new vocal composition
which has already been performed by Tuulikki in a three-voice version shared with Nerea Bello and Lucy Duncombe at assorted work-in-progress events. With the long-term aim of performing Air falbh leis na h-eòin / Away with the birds in a nine-voice sitespecific extravaganza on Canna itself, as well as Tuulikki, Bello and Duncombe, the piece already involves sound recordist Geoff Sample, film-maker Daniel Warren, choreographer Rosalind Masson, textile artist Deirdre Nelson, environmental psychologist Eleanor Ratcliffe, anthropologist Andrew Whitehouse and Gaelic singer Mary Smith. All of which is overseen by Suzy Glass of left-field producers, Trigger.
‘I’ve been interested in using mimesis to interact with the
environment,’ Tuulikki explains. ‘I’ve become immersed in folk music from around the world, specifically looking at mimesis as a root of music, particularly in environments dependent on land.’ Tuulikki cites Tuvan throat singing and Scots mouth music as examples of influences on a project that is a culmination of sorts of a longstanding interest in replicating bird-song and other natural sounds since the Anglo-Finnish artist graduated from Glasgow School of Art’s Environmental Art course. In Call and Response (Polly Vaughan, 2005), Tuulikki interacted musically with wildfowl at a wetland sanctuary in Sussex. In Salutation to the Sun (Replica, 2006), Tuulikki reproduced field recordings of some thirty different bird sounds. In Alas, Alas, This Woeful Fate, Tuulikki sang to seals while on a boat trip. Airs of the Sea: 100 Breaths, 100 Waves recorded one hundred voices imitating the sound of the sea while Tuulikki was resident in Cromarty.
As an illustrator, Tuulikki has concentrated on images
of wild birds, while as vocalist on three albums with spectral trio, Nalle (Finnish for ‘little bear’) and now with psych-folk quintet Two Wings, Tuulikki’s song-based work has looked to global folk traditions, channelling influences as seemingly diverse as Meredith Monk and
FROM TOP Hanna Tuulikki and Nerea Bello performing at the Glasgow Short Film Festival. Photo by Suzy Glass Hanna Tuulikki, Nerea Bello, Lucy Duncombe, Daniel Warren & Geoff Sample on Canna. Photo by Suzy Glass
Kate Bush.
In 2013, the development of Air falbh leis na h-eòin / Away
with the birds will continue with further development with Bello and Duncombe, a screening of a film by Warren, and a performance as part of an exhibition at the Royal Scottish Academy in Edinburgh. ‘It’s about weaving something together,’ Tuulikki says. ‘I suppose I’m exploring different forms of meaning and experience, and this Scottish Art News 63
the illumination in his sculptures acting to ‘suspend objecthood’, enabling the viewer to see the works as blocks of colour before stacks of objects.
Batchelor’s use of colour, both in solid and in liquid form,
has remained consistently intense throughout his career; over the last 30 years he has continued to eschew ‘natural’ tones for industrial, chemical and neon hues in work that explores the colour of the city and the urban environment. Appearing superficial and somewhat alien, these colours manage to drain what little colour there may be from their surroundings. His ongoing photographic project Found Monochromes evolved from a series of monochrome paintings and drawings begun in the mid-1980s; by the mid-1990s Batchelor was producing largely monochromatic compositions and had photographed his first ‘found monochrome’. While his painted, Hanna Tuulikki, Nerea Bello and Lucy Duncombe performing at Music is the Music Language. Photo by Suzy Glass
drawn, and composed monochromes remain vivid in colour, Found
is the space between. I don’t want to specialise. I like to connect
Monochromes centres mainly on the white panels dotted around the
other people’s specialisms to each other. I learn so much more from
city which Batchelor feels protrude from their background, while
experiencing a diverse array of things. I’m pro-non-specialisation.’
simultaneously creating a kind of void into it. These ‘blanks’ in the cityscape are never around for long, the artist notes, as if they are
Neil Cooper is an arts writer and critic based in Edinburgh who writes on
errors in the visual fabric of the city, mistakes to be corrected.
theatre, music and visual art. He currently writes for The Herald, Map, and The
List, and has also written for The Times, The Independent, and The Scotsman.
in between plane and void, constantly fluctuating between the two
The idea of the the ‘monochrome’ as situated somewhere
and settling on neither, clearly intrigues Batchelor and he continues to explore the monochrome as a way of making both threedimensional and two-dimensional art. Presenting some of his flat, David Batchelor: Flatlands 4 May – 14 July 2013 45 Market Street, Edinburgh EH1 1DF Tel: 0131 225 2383 www.fruitmarket.co.uk Open: Monday – Saturday 11am–6pm, Sunday 12–5pm Born in Dundee in 1955, David Batchelor studied Fine Art at Trent Polytechnic before completing a Masters in Cultural Studies at the University of Birmingham. Originally trained as a painter, Batchelor’s work since his studies has been almost incomprehensively varied, comprising sculpture, installation, drawings, paintings and photography. Arguably better known for his three-dimensional works, the artist’s upcoming exhibition Flatlands at The Fruitmarket Gallery in Edinburgh will be the first major survey of his lesser-known painted, drawn and photographic oeuvre.
Taking unmistakable inspiration from American
Minimalists Donald Judd and Dan Flavin, Batchelor has spent years trawling the streets of London for urban debris and discarded household objects into which he can inject a new lease of life, creating brightly coloured sculptural compositions and totemic towers. Despite celebrating the trashy and the lurid of modern day life, Batchelor’s sculptures are captivatingly beautiful, their sense of material familiarity forging an understanding between work and viewer. Colour forms the basis of both Batchelor’s 3D and 2D work,
64
ABOVE Magic Hour, Installation view, 2012, Gemeentemuseum, Den Haag © David Batchelor, DACS, London, 2012 OPPOSITE David Batchelor, Doughnut drawing, 2009, spray paint, acrylic and ink on card, 595x420 mm © David Batchelor, DACS, London, 2012
vibrant monochrome panels on industrial dollies, Batchelor plays
a heady mix of materials and objects in defiance of the gallery’s
with the idea of the gallery space, removing the work from the wall
blank white walls. It may seem far removed from his origins as a
by distancing it from the floor. Making use of light boxes he discovers
painter, but Batchelor claims painting still informs his work more
in second-hand shops or abandoned in the darkened corners of
than anything else: ‘I can’t get away from painting entirely, at the
the capital, Batchelor creates illuminated monochromes that both
same time I can’t do it. And so probably you could describe all my
command reverence and inject a sense of awe into their environment
work as failed painting’. Likening his work to Robert Rauschenberg
while also managing to be an exuberant celebration of the vulgar
whose work he cites as instigating his ‘entry into the idea of being an
illuminated kebab and sex-shop signs of our inner-city surroundings.
artist’, Batchelor identifies the different colours, materials and visual
In Flatlands curator Andrea Schlieker will bring together a
language of his work as successfully occupying the space all at once,
mix of Batchelor’s paintings, drawings, slide projections, photographs
for ‘it all lives there, richly and confusedly in the same place’.
and preparatory sketches alongside a number of the artist’s sculptures where the artworks’ mass and volume is overshadowed
Nancy Cooper is a gallery assistant at The Fleming Collection.
by a sense of line and plane. It will be interesting to see the different ways in which Batchelor has worked within the confines of the rectangle, after having spent years trying to move away from this most basic of structures. Working in pencil, pastel, ink, acrylic, spray paint, gloss paint, industrial tape and even highlighter pen, Batchelor has continued to push the boundaries of his work, bringing together Scottish Art News 65
LISTINGS ABERDEEN ABERDEEN
The Fruitmarket Gallery 2 Market Street EH1 1DE
Royal Scottish Academy Scottish National Portrait Gallery
David Batchelor: Flatlands Tel: 0131 529 3993
RSA New Buchanan: Contemporaries Roderick Legacy
Aberdeen Aberdeen Art Art Gallery Gallery
4edinburghmuseums.org.uk May – 14 July
13 8 May 14 April July ––16 September
Silver: Handpicked The Aberdeen Highlights Story
45 Market Street EH1 1DF
The Mound EH2 2EL George Jameson
Until Until 313March October
Tel: 0131 225 2383 Edinburgh Printmakers
Tel: 225 6671 2013 Until0131 31 December
Plan Eric B–Side Ravilious A: Photographs – by Oliver Godow
fruitmarket.co.uk Cheer Up! It’s Not the End of the World
royalscottishacademy.org 1 Queen Street EH2 1JD
Until Artist,30Printmaker, March Designer
2 August – 8 September
National Galleries of Scotland
Selling 4 August Dreams: – 24 November One Hundred Years of
Open Gallery Again,Eye A Time Machine
Tel: 0131 624Gallery 6200 The Scottish
Fashion Schoolhill Photography AB10 1FQ
John Bellany CBE RA LLD: 15 September – 3 HRSA November
nationalgalleries.org Sir William Gillies – Works on Paper
2Tel: February 01224 523700 – 20 April
Works on Street Paper:EH1 7 – 30 January 23 Union 3LR
Lisa Hammond – Ceramics
Schoolhill aagm.co.uk AB10 1FQ
Scottish Tel: 0131Landscapes: 557 2479 4 – 20 February
1 – 24 January The Scottish Gallery
Tel: 01224 523700
Donald Provan: 25 February – 13 March edinburgh-printmakers.co.uk
Frances Macdonald – New Paintings The Taste of JW Blyth
aagm.co.uk DUNDEE
34 Abercromby Place
Wendy Ramshaw – The Inventor 4 – 28 July
Edinburgh EH3 6QE The Fruitmarket Gallery
4 – 2 March W.February Barns-Graham: Collector’s Choice
DUNDEE The McManus:
Tel: 0131 558Diaries 9872 Dieter Roth
Joan Eardley: 3 – 27 April 3 August – 5 September
Dundee’s Art Gallery and Museum
openeyegallery.co.uk 2 August – 14 October
16 Dundas Street EH3 6HZ
The Ten Drawings McManus:by Leonardo da Vinci
45 Market Street EH1 1DF
Tel: 0131 558 1200
Dundee’s 31 AugustArt – 4Gallery November and Museum
National Tel: 0131Galleries 225 2383of Scotland
scottish-gallery.co.uk
Reflections Albert Square fromDD1 the Tay: 1DA20th Century
fruitmarket.co.uk
Scottish Tel: 0138 Art230 from 7200 the Permanent Collection
Academy (Scottish National Gallery)
Until mcmanus.co.uk 11 August
John A Passion for Life OpenBellany: Eye Gallery
Tim Rollins & K.O.S: The Black Spot
Albert Square DD1 1DA
Until JanuaryRSA RGI Leon27 Morrocco
The Hunterian Museum Art Gallery Working Papers: Donaldand Judd
Tel: 0138 230 7200 EDINBURGH
Through 22 June –American 10 July Eyes: Frederic
This Unrivalled Collection: The Drawings
mcmanus.co.uk
Church and the Landscape Oil Sketch John Bellany CBE HRSA RA LLD
Hunterian’s firstOctober catalogue 4 August – 20
Bourne Fine Art
11 – 8 –September 13 May August 4 September
15 February 11 August Old College University of –Edinburgh,
EDINBURGH Jock McFadyen: The Ability to Cling…
The EH2 2EL MarkMound I’Anson
University of Glasgow South Bridge EH8 9YL
1 August – 15 September
28 September – 16 October
University Avenue Tel: 0131 650 2210G12 8QQ
Bourne Emily Young: Fine Art New Work
Scottish NationalPlace Gallery of Modern Art 34 Abercromby
Tel: 0141 330 4221 ed.ac.uk
James 12 October Cowie– RSA 3 November
The ScottishEH3 Colourist Edinburgh 6QE Series: SJ Peploe
gla.ac.uk/hunterian
April Charles Simpson at Sixty
Until 23 June Tel: 0131 557 1020
GLASGOW
614Dundas November Street – 1EH3 December 6HZ
75 Belford Road EH4 3DR openeyegallery.co.uk
Kelvingrove Art Gallery & Museum
GLASGOW Talbot Rice Gallery
Permanent Glasgow The Glasgow School Boys of ArtGallery
Tel: 6 Dundas 0131 557 Street 4050 EH3 6HZ bournefineart.com Tel: 0131 557 4050
Scottish Gallery NationalNational GalleriesPortrait of Scotland
Argyle G3 8AG Studio Street 58: Women Artists in Glasgow
bournefineart.com
Edith Tudor Hart
Tel: 276War 9599 since0141 World II
City Art Centre
2Scottish Mar – 26 May Gallery National
glasgowmuseums.com Until 29 September
John City Art Clerk Centre of Eldin (1728-1812)
The House of Annie Lennox Masterpieces from Mount Stuart:
167 Renfrew Street G3 6RQ
Until W. Barns-Graham: 3 February A Scottish Artist
23 – 30 June TheMar Bute Collection
Roger Billcliffe Gallery Tel: 0141 353 4500
W. in St Barns-Graham: Ives A Scottish Artist in St Ives
Ken UntilCurrie 2 December
Postcards gsa.ac.uk 2013 (group exhibition)
Until 24 November 17 February – 17 February
16 – 22EH2 September TheJune Mound 2EL
February
Scottish Leslie Hunter: Art in the A Life 20th in Colour Century
1 Queen Street EH2 1JD
Gordon Mitchell RSA RSW RGI: May Kelvingrove Art Gallery & Museum
The 21 July Derek – 14 Williams October Collection
National Galleries Gallery of Scotland Scottish National of Modern Art
Introducing… (NewArt exhibition opening 500 Years of Italian
Until The Scottish 24 February Colourists:
Tel: 0131Munch: 624 6200 Edvard Graphic Works from the
every two weeks) Until 12 August
2Inspiration Market Street and Influence EH1 1DE
nationalgalleries.org Gundersen Collection
From January Permanent Glasgow Boys Gallery
Tel: 21 July 0131– 529 14 October 3993
ARTIST ROOMS: Sol LeWitt
134 Blythswood Argyle Street G3Street 8AG G2 4EL
edinburghmuseums.org.uk John Clerk of Eldin (1728-1812)
Until 23 September
Tel: 0141 332 276 4027 9599
3 November 2012 – 3 February 2013
75 Belford Road EH4 3DR
billcliffegallery.com glasgowmuseums.com
66
PERTH Perth Museum and Art Gallery
Bakewell, Derbyshire DE45 1PP
Tel: 020 7042 5730
Tel: 01246 565300
flemingcollection.com
chatsworth.org
ARTIST ROOMS: Robert Mapplethorpe
Portland Gallery
until 27 April
New Art Centre
Joan Eardley: 1 – 17 May
George Street PH1 5LB
Eileen Hogan: Vacant Possession
8 Bennet Street, St. James’s SW1A 1RP
Tel: 01738 632488
Ian Hamilton Finlay
Tel: 020 7493 1888
pkc.gov.uk/museums
9 February – 31 March
portlandgallery.com
Roche Court, East Winterslow, Salisbury AROUND SCOTLAND East Kilbride Arts Centre
Wilts SP5 1BG
Tate Britain: Display: Ian Hamilton Finlay
Tel: 01980 862244
Until 17 February
sculpture.uk.com
Millbank SW1P 4RG Tel: 020 7887 8888
Outrageous Fortune: Artists Remake LONDON
tate.org.uk
3 March – 7 April
Art First
AUCTIONS
Old Coach Road G74 4DU
Helen MacAlister:
Tel: 01355 261000
At the Foot o Yon Excellin’ Brae
Christie’s, London, South Kensington
slleisureandculture.co.uk
1 February – 6 April
20th Century British Art: 21 March
Margaret Hunter: New Work
20th Century Decorative Art & Design
Pier Arts Centre
16 May – 22 June
9 April
A Parliament of Lines: aspects of
21 Eastcastle Street W1W 8DD
Modern British Art: 22 May
contemporary drawing
Tel: 020 7734 0386
85 Old Brompton Road SW7 3LD
30 March – 8 June
artfirst.co.uk
Tel: 020 7930 6074
the Tarot (A new Hayward Touring/Focal Point Gallery exhibition)
christies.com
Victoria Street, Stromness KW16 3AA Tel: 01856 850 209 pierartscentre.com
Fine Art Society British Murals & Decorative Painting 1910-1970
Lyon & Turnbull, Edinburgh
13 February – 9 March
40 years of St Andrews Fine Art: The
The Robert Burns Birthplace Museum
148 New Bond Street
Complete Collection: 13 February
Ca’ The Yowes: 18 January – 5 May
London W1S 2JT
Scottish Contemporary and Post War Art
Murdoch’s Lone, Alloway, Ayr KA7 4PQ
020 7629 5116
17 April
Tel: 0844 493 2601
www.faslondon.com
33 Broughton Place EH1 3RR Tel: 0131 557 8844
burnsmuseum.org.uk The Fleming Collection AROUND THE UK
lyonandturnbull.com
Leslie Hunter: A Life in Colour Until 9 February
ART FAIRS / FESTIVALS
Alexander Gallery
Land and Landscape: The Painting of
Peter Graham: From Manhattan to Barra
James Morrison
London Art Fair: 16 – 20 January
18 April – 5 May
The Etchings of John Clerk of Eldin
Business Design Centre, 52 Upper
122 Whiteladies Road, Clifton
19 February – 6 April
Street, London N1 0QH
Bristol BS8 2RP
Finding the Unicorn:
londonartfair.co.uk
Tel: 0117 973 9582
Tapestries Mythical and Modern
alexander-gallery.co.uk
17 April – 1 June
Boswell Book Festival
Eileen Hogan at Little Sparta
17 – 19 May
Chatsworth House
11 June – 17 August
Auchinleck House, Ayrshire KA18 2LR
William Turnbull: 10 March – 30 June
13 Berkeley Street W1J 8DU
boswellbookfestival.co.uk
Scottish Art News 67
NEWS FROM
THE FLEMING COLLECTION The gallery was delighted to host the inaugural Fleming-Wyfold Award at the end of October 2012 which was judged and presented by Simon Groom, Director, Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art and won by Morag Donkin.
The Fleming-Wyfold Award is a new inititative by the
Fleming-Wyfold Art Foundation, the charity that runs The Fleming Collection, and 100 people gathered for a dinner in the Collection’s magnificent upstairs gallery. Surrounded by works by some of the greatest names in the history of Scottish art, they were there to celebrate the launch of an award which aims to identify and reward emerging artistic talent in Scotland. Trustees and Patrons of The Fleming-Wyfold Art Foundation, collectors, art dealers, and leading figures from the Scottish art world mingled over drinks before dinner Shortlisted artists from left: Ewan Murray, Morag Donkin, Allan Davies, Emma Rogers
where they had a chance to meet the shortlisted artists.
Four of Scotland’s leading art schools had nominated final
year students who they regarded as having outstanding promise. The Glasgow School of Art nominated Ewan Murray whose work has been hugely influenced by an exchange programme with Ontario College of Art & Design which took him to Canada and the USA in 2011. Ewan, who was born and brought up in Falkirk, submitted the severely striking The Film Ends for the Award. Whereas Ewan left Falkirk to go to college in Glasgow, Emma Rogers left her home city of Glasgow to study at Gray’s School of Art in Aberdeen. ‘My working practice is centered on the process of making, where undoing is just as important as doing and my practice over the past year has lain in exploring the contrast between control and chance,’ said Emma, who submitted The Folds of Unfolding.
Morag Donkin was born in Edinburgh but her family then
moved to Lincolnshire where she was educated before returning to her home city to study art. She has a fascination with films, particularly horror films and likes to take what she calls ‘an uncanny look at normal life’ which is why her painting of Redhall House came across as disturbingly beautiful. Influenced by artists such as Peter Doig, Gerhard Richter and George Shaw, she has developed a style that is entirely her own. The fourth shortlisted candidate came to art via an entirely different route from the other three. Allan Davies from Kirriemuir, who was nominated by Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art & Design in Dundee, is a 62 year-old retired Ministry of Defence civil servant with two grandchildren. During his many years working on internal audits for the MoD, Allan did some ‘hobby drawing’ but never had time to indulge his love of art properly. On retirement he submitted a portfolio to Duncan of Jordanstone and is now in his final year at the college, specialising in figurative oil paintings such as Copulare, which he submitted for The Fleming-Wyfold Award. From left: David Benson, Chairman of the Trustees of The Fleming-Wyfold Art Foundation; Rory Fleming, Chairman of Patrons of The Fleming-Wyfold Art Foundation; award winner Morag Donkin; Simon Groom, Director, Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art
68
Although Morag was awarded the main prize of £2,000,
the three other artists each received £500 and the paintings were all
exhibited at The Fleming Collection. Everyone present felt that the Fleming-Wyfold Award had had a hugely successful launch. ‘It was a great start and the Award will have a bright future,’ said Rory Fleming, Chairman of the Patrons ‘it highlights the enormous artistic potential that exists in Scotland’s art schools’.
Looking ahead to the coming year our exhibition diary offers
a varied and busy programme. Leslie Hunter: A Life in Colour, sponsored by Lyon & Turnbull, continues until 9 February. This is followed by Land and Landscape: The Painting of James Morrison and The Etchings of John Clerk of Eldin 1728–1812, 19 February – 6 April. We are delighted to be hosting Finding the Unicorn: Tapestries Mythical and Modern, a major exhibition presented by Historic Scotland and West Dean Tapestry Studio (17 April – 1 June) celebrating Historic Scotland’s stunning refurbishment of James V’s Royal Palace at Stirling Castle and the skills of international tapestry weavers. This is followed by Eileen Hogan at
Simon Groom with award winner Morag Donkin
Little Sparta (11 June – 17 August). We look forward to welcoming you to the gallery in the near future. The Fleming-Wyfold Art Foundation wishes to thank: – Selina Skipwith, Director
Fleming Family & Partners Ltd and James Hambro & Partners LLP for supporting our exhibition programme
The Fleming-Wyfold Art Foundation receives no public funding and relies
Lyon & Turnbull, sponsor of Leslie Hunter: A Life in Colour
on the generosity of private individuals, companies, trusts and foundations.
Richards & Partner Consulting Ltd, sponsor of Eileen Hogan at Little Sparta
There are many ways that one can support our work from becoming a Friend,
Friends and Patrons of The Fleming-Wyfold Art Foundation
Patron or through corporate involvement. For further information please email
for supporting our acquisitions programme
gallery@flemingcollection.com or telephone Helen Dyson on 020 7042 5784. Registered charity no.1080197
Morag Donkin, Redhall House 1, oil and ink on canvas, 160x100 cm
Scottish Art News 69
THE FLEMING COLLECTION A N
E M B A S S Y
F O R
S C O T T I S H
A R T
LESLIE HUNTER A LIFE IN COLOUR 24 October 2012 – 9 February 2013 THE FLEMING COLLECTION
13 Berkeley Street, London W1J 8DU Tel: 020 7042 5730 | www.flemingcollection.com Exhibition sponsored by:
Sti ll L i fe wi th Mar g u e r i te s 1930 Pr ivate c ollecti o n 70
Enjoy Scottish Art with Fleming Collection Membership Friends membership enables you to enjoy the gallery and our exhibitions to the full. Members are invited to two private views annually and receive monthly updates from the gallery. Our magazine, Scottish Art News, will be mailed to your home twice yearly and you will be able to shop for books and event tickets at better value. Friends enjoy a varied programme of events such as lectures, studio visits and curator-led exhibition tours. Membership also makes a wonderful gift for
UPCOMING 2013 EVENTS AND TRIPS AN EVENING IN CONVERSATION: THE ARTIST JAMES MORRISON AND HIS SON JOHN MORRISON
Monday 25 February Doors open at 6pm for a 6.30pm lecture, pay bar £10 Friends and Patrons, £12.50 non-Friends THE REBIRTH OF A PALACE: REDISCOVERING THE UNICORN TAPESTRIES
Lecturers: Peter Buchanan and Caron Penney Monday 29 April: doors open at 6pm for a 6.45pm lecture, pay bar £7.50 Friends and Patrons; £10 non-Friends
anyone with an interest in Scottish art.
THE MYSTIC HUNT OF THE UNICORN: CAPTURING BEAUTY
The Fleming Collection is the only museum dedicated to
Lecturers: Katharine Swailes and Sue Prichard Monday 13 May: doors open at 6pm for a 6.45pm lecture, pay bar £7.50 Friends and Patrons; £10 non-Friends
showing Scottish art all year round and provides a platform for Scottish artists and museums to present their work to a London audience.
READER SPECIAL OFFER WITH BADA ANTIQUES AND FINE ART FAIR
The Fleming Collection is supported by The Fleming-
This year the BADA Fair, which is held in a superb location in London’s Chelsea, marks its 21st birthday and its exhibitors will be bringing their best pieces to put on display. There will also be a unique loan exhibition of rarely seen works by the great English watercolourist William Payne. Readers should present a copy of this issue of Scottish Art News to the ticket desk at the BADA Fair. They will receive admission for two for £10, to include one copy of the BADA Handbook and two reentry vouchers for a subsequent visit.
Wyfold Art Foundation which is a registered charity; it receives no public funding and relies on the generosity of private individuals, companies, trusts and foundations. The permanent collection comprises over 750 artworks dating from 1770 to the present day. It is a living collection that continues to grow. The main emphasis is currently on buying the work of young Scottish artists, but opportunities are also taken when appropriate to fill historical gaps.
Fair information: 13–19 March 2013, at The Duke of York Square, off Sloane Square, London, SW3 (Sloane Square tube station) www.bada-antiques-fair.co.uk
To be exhibited by Thomas Coulborn & Sons at the BADA Antiques & Fine Art Fair: Joseph Wright of Derby. Portrait of a Derbyshire Lady in costume, c. 1760
For more information on membership or Friends events and trips, please contact Helen Dyson: 020 7042 5784 | helen.dyson@flemingcollection.com You can also join online: www.flemingcollection.com The Fleming Collection, 13 Berkeley Street, London W1J 8DU Open: Tuesday – Saturday, 10am–5.30pm
T H E F L E M I N G -W Y F O L D A R T F O U N D A T I O N The Fleming Collection is supported by The Fleming-Wyfold Art Foundation Registered charity no.1080197
FRIENDS ANNUAL ABROAD TRIP 2013
The Fleming Collection is delighted to announce that this year’s Friends abroad trip will be to Budapest, from 11 to 15 October 2013
Scottish Art News 71
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Issue 18 | Autumn 2012
Issue 17 | Spring 2012
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Issue 14 | Autumn 2010
Issue 11 | Spring 2009
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Issue 9 | Spring 2008
Scottish Art News
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ISSUE 12 AUTUMN 2009 £3
The Discovery of Spain The Public Catalogue Foundation Edinburgh Art Festival
Issue 13 Spring 2010 |
72
Issue 12 Autumn 2009 |
Helen MacAlister AT THE FOOT O’ YON EXCELLIN’ BRAE 28 FEBRUARY–6 APRIL 2013 Ben Dorain 2010, oil on linen, 148 x 210 cm
A Century of creating contemporary hand woven tapestries and hand tufted rugs, in collaboration with leading international artists, designers, curators, architects and specialist interior designers.
21 Eastcastle Street, London W1W 8DD • 020 7734 0386 • info@artfirst.co.uk • www.artfirst.co.uk
Margaret Hunter
Including: Peter Blake Claire Barclay Peter Saville Victoria Crowe David Hockney Elizabeth Blackadder William Crozier Ian Hamilton Finlay Louise Nevelson Eduardo Paolozzi www.dovecotstudios.com 0131 550 3660
10 Infirmary Street, Edinburgh EH1 1LT
NEW WORK 16 MAY–22 JUNE 2013 The Taste of Clouds (detail) 3.5 x 7 m, mixed media on card panels, 2009 From the re-statement painting of the Berlin Wall painting, East Side Gallery, Berlin
Image: Monarch of the Glen, Peter Saville, after Peter Blake, after Edwin Landseer (detail) 2012
21 Eastcastle Street, London W1W 8DD • 020 7734 0386 • info@artfirst.co.uk • www.artfirst.co.uk
The Fine Art Society 148 New Bond Street London W1S 2JT +44 (0) 207 629 5116 art@faslondon.com www.faslondon.com
A R T
SCOTTISH A RT N EWS
British Murals & Decorative Painting 1910 - 1970 13 February - 9 March 2013
SCOTTISH ART NEWS
Gilbert Spencer RA (1892-1979), Hebridean Memory (detail), oil on canvas, 50 x 117 inches EXHIBITED London, RBA Galleries, Sixty Paintings for ‘51, 1951 (20)
ISS U E 1 9
Dealers since 1876
in association with
SPRI N G 2 01 3
The Fine Art Society
ISSUE 19 SPRING 2013 £3
LAND AND LANDSCAPE: JAMES MORRISON TRACY CHEVALIER ON TAPESTRIES FOR STIRLING CASTLE WILLIAM TURNBULL (1922-2012) THE SCOTTISH COLOURIST SERIES: SJ PEPLOE