Scottish Art News Issue 18

A R T SCOTTISH ART NEWS

ISSUE 18 AUTUMN 2012 £3

LESLIE HUNTER: A LIFE IN COLOUR JOCK MCFADYEN: MADE IN HACKNEY THE ETCHINGS OF JOHN CLERK OF ELDIN A COLLECTOR’S PASSION: JOHN W. BLYTH ASPECTS OF CONTEMPORARY DRAWING

THESCOT TISHGALLERY CONTEMPORARY ART SINCE 1842

CHARLES RENNIE MACKINTOSH (SCOTTISH 1868-1928) YELLOW TULIPS (DETAIL) Watercolour 47.5 x 47cm £100,000-150,000

4 - 28 July 2012

The Taste of John W Blyth An exhibition of paintings from a major Scottish collection

The Taffner Collection Auction Friday 7th September 2012 The Collection of Donald & Eleanor Taffner centres around a group of works by the Glasgow Four: Charles Rennie Mackintosh, Margaret Macdonald Mackintosh, Frances Macdonald MacNair and James Herbert MacNair. Also included are works by Colourists F.C.B Cadell and J. D. Fergusson. It represents one of the most significant collections of Scottish works of art to be sold at auction.

For more information please contact John Mackie on 0131 557 8844 or email john.mackie@lyonandturnbull.com

THESCOTTISHGALLERY 16 Dundas Street, Edinburgh EH3 6HZ Tel 0131 558 1200 Web www.scottish-gallery.co.uk Image: S.J. Peploe, Douglas Hall, 1916, oil on panel, 33 x 41 cms

EDINBURGH

LONDON

GL ASGOW

The sale will be held in our Edinburgh Saleroom at 33 Broughton Place, Edinburgh EH1 3RR at 11am For sale details, viewing times and fully illustrated catalogues please visit www.lyonandturnbull.com Scottish Art News 2

FRANCIS CAMPBELL BOILEAU CADELL, R.S.A., R.S.W. (1883–1937) Roses oil on panel · 18 x 15 1/4 in. (45.7 x 38.8 cm.)

Painted in the late 1920s

Victoria Crowe

Sold May 2012 20th Century British & Irish Art Evening Sale Price Realised £623,650

12 September – 5 October 2012

Monday to Friday 10.00 - 5.30 Saturday 11.00 - 2.00

19 Cork Street London W1S 3LP Tel: 020 7734 7984 Fax: 020 7851 6650 art@browseanddarby.co.uk www.browseanddarby.co.uk The Shortest day, oil on linen, 28 x 36 inches

World Record for the Artist at Auction Price Realised: £623,650 20th Century British & Irish Art

christies.com

Andre Zlattinger azlattinger@christies.com +44 (0) 20 7389 2074

3

Scottish Art News 4

CONTENTS The Fleming Collection

Scottish Art News

8 Leslie Hunter: A Life in Colour

34 Scottish Art News round-up 36 A Parliament of Lines: aspects of contemporary drawing

Bill Smith and Jill Marriner chart Hunter’s artistic career, in particular the influence of Cézanne’s theories on colour and form, and later, the inspiration he found in the art of Matisse.

18 Jock McFadyen: Made in Hackney

Jock McFadyen is interviewed by art historian Bill Hare ahead of a major survey of the artist’s work.

26

The Etchings of John Clerk of Eldin

An exhibition of work by fifteen Scottish artists who use drawing as a central component of their practice, including Charles Avery, Callum Innes and David Shrigley, opens in Edinburgh before touring internationally. (Max Graham)

40 The Taste of JW Blyth

Forthcoming exhibitions of the work of eighteenth-century Scottish etcher John Clerk of Eldin as well as a new publication mark the 200th anniversary of his death.

(Geoffrey Bertram) 30

The passions of the collector John W. Blyth are explored by Rebecca Wall as the final works from the collection go on display this summer.

William Summerfield selects a painting from The Fleming Collection.

As Dovecot Studios celebrate its centenary with a major touring exhibition and new publication, Francesca Baseby looks specifically at the studio’s development after the Second World War.

In Focus: Craigie Aitchison, Crucifixion, 1993

Market Leaders for Scottish Art Forthcoming Sales

44 Dovecot Studios after the Second World War: Tapestry Weaving in Edinburgh

Page 60 Victoria Morton, Stenographia (detail), 2011, mixed media, 71x34x34 cm Private Collection, London. Photo: Ruth Clark

48 Glasgow Scupture Studios

The Scottish Sale Monday 20 August

0131 240 2297 chris.brickley@bonhams.com

Scottish Pictures Wednesday 12 December

Samuel John Peploe, RSA (British, 1871–1935) Casino, Royan (detail) Sold for £217,250 on 19 April 2012

International Auctioneers and Valuers - bonhams.com/scottishart

Peter Graham ROI

GSS move to the Whisky Bond: a new permanent home after 24 years of transition.

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.

50 Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop

ESW’s new sculpture centre at the waterfront in Newhaven.

52 Tribute

Sculptor Bill Scott (1935-2012)

Regulars Tulips, 30 x 30 inches, oil on canvas

54 Art Market Round-up by Will Bennett 56 Books 58 Preview 2012 Edinburgh Art Festival 2012, various venues

The Fleming Collection | 13 Berkeley Street | London | W1J 8DU tel: +44 (0) 20 7042 5730 www.flemingcollection.com | gallery@flemingcollection.com

Studio 58, The Glasgow School of Art

Opening Hours: Tuesday – Saturday 10am–5.30pm Gallery One: Admission Free Gallery Two: Admission: £3.50 / £4.50 Gift Aid Children (6-16 years) / Students: Admission Free Friends / Members: Admission Free

Craig Coulthard: Forest Pitch

Mark of Beauty, Union Gallery, Edinburgh John Bellany: A Passion for Life, Scottish National Gallery

Page 18 Jock McFadyen, Showcase Cinemas, 2006, oil on canvas

Victoria Crowe, Browse & Darby, London

68 Listings 70 The Fleming Collection News and Exhibitions

A Day by the Sea, 20 x 20 inches, oil on canvas

N E W PA I N T I N G S 1st – 26th October 2012 Llewellyn Alexander (Fine Paintings) Ltd MEET THE ARTIST Wednesday 3rd October at the Gallery 4pm–7pm Gallery open 10am–7.30pm Monday–Saturday 124–126 The Cut, Waterloo, City of London SE1 8LN (opposite the Old Vic Theatre)

5

Tel: 020 7620 1322/1324 | www.lafp.co.uk

Scottish Art News 6

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.

Painting is the focus in the upcoming exhibitions Jock McFadyen:

T: 0207 042 5730 E: admin@scottishartnews.co.uk, or complete

Made in Hackney and Leslie Hunter: A Life in Colour at The Fleming

a subscription form online at

Collection, and also in the John Bellany and Victoria Crowe

www.flemingcollection.com/scottishartnews.php

exhibitions which are highlighted in previews. Although a century

Scottish Art News is published biannually by

apart, both Hunter and McFadyen nonetheless have shared an

The Fleming Collection, London. Publication dates: January and June.

JAKE HARVEY

unwavering belief in painting and its possibilities, remaining firm in their convictions even when it would have perhaps been easier to

To advertise and/or list in Scottish Art News please contact:

produce more expected or predictable work.

Briony Anderson | T: 020 7042 5713

E: briony.anderson@flemingcollection.com

As well as showing four decades of Jock McFadyen’s

STONE

work, the timing of the exhibition, coinciding with the London 2012 Olympics, draws attention to the area in which McFadyen lives and

Behind Scottish Art News at The Fleming Collection:

works (his studio is in Hackney). In an interview with Bill Hare (p.18)

Editor: Briony Anderson | briony.anderson@flemingcollection.com

he talks of his decision in 1982 to paint ‘what lay beyond his front

Gallery assistants: Sophie Midgley, William Summerfield

28 June —18 August 2012

door rather than art’s dialogue with its own history’. This has meant that we have a painterly record of the East End which has undergone significant change within a relatively short period of time. As areas

Revised design concept by Flit (London) and Briony Anderson

are demolished to make way for new developments, his paintings

Printed by Empress Litho Limited

become increasingly firmly rooted in the past and one finds oneself

MADE IN LONDON BY FLIT FLITLONDON.CO.UK

looking for the ‘traces’ of his paintings which still remain.

His use of paint with its drips and stains mirrors the

21 Eastcastle Street, London W1W 8DD • 020 7734 0386 • info@artfirst.co.uk • www.artfirst.co.uk Art First Projects: Jessica Harrison & Atsuo Okamoto

weathered nature of this urban environment. The ‘renewed’ East End of the Olympics has yet to be painted and one tries to imagine how he would represent this altered space. Somehow the way in which he works with paint suits the more neglected, decaying, derelict places and their graffiti-covered walls. Although his East End paintings

Scottish Art News Issue 18 is kindly sponsored by:

are mostly always devoid of human figures, a human presence is sensed through the time-worn nature of the surroundings. These

gallery support group

‘depopulated’ landscapes will conflict more than ever with the crowds of people expected to arrive this summer.

Eighteenth-century etching and contemporary drawing

are explored though two exhibitions, one of which will be shown

© Scottish Art News 2012. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be

at The Fleming Collection in 2013. And in regular features, Will

reproduced, copied or transmitted in any form or by any means without the written

Bennett reports on 2012 Scottish sales, followed by books, exhibition

permission of the publisher. Scottish Art News accepts no responsibility for loss or damage

previews and listings which I hope suggest that the rest of the year

of unsolicited material submitted for publication. Scottish Art News is published by The

has much in store.

Fleming Collection but is not the voice of the gallery or The Fleming-Wyfold Art Foundation.

P r o u dtot osupport s u p p o rthe t T hnew e F lgallery e m i n g at C oThe l l e cFleming tion Proud Collection For installations, lighting, tr ans p o r t , and storage d e d i c a t e d to t h e a r t i n d u s t r y and chosen by museums, galleries, public and private collectors of distinction.

It was with great sadness that we learned of the sudden

passing of sculptor Bill Scott in March of this year. For this issue Bill

All images copyright of the artist or artist’s estate unless otherwise stated.

had kindly contributed two articles and we publish both pieces here Patrizio. (p.52) In May the art world was also saddened to hear of the passing of sculptor George Wyllie, aged 90.

I would like to thank all the artists, writers, and staff at

The Fleming Collection who contribute to Scottish Art News, and

Cover Image

posthumously, accompanied by a tribute by Bill Hare and Andrew George Leslie Hunter (1877-1931)

Still Life with Marguerites, 1930 Private collection

all the advertisers in this edition, 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)

For a quotation, please email:

info@gallerysupportgroup.com

Scottish Art News 8

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27/5/11 13:25:28

LESLIE HUNTER

‘Everyone must choose his own way,

A LIFE IN COLOUR

Bill Smith & Jill Marriner

eslie Hunter is the least appreciated of the four painters – Peploe, Fergusson, Hunter and Cadell – known today as the Scottish Colourists. In the past his vision for art and his painting have been frequently misunderstood by those who considered themselves well-versed in such matters, including many of his fellow artists. During their lifetime the work of the Colourists ‘aroused intense jealousy among their contemporaries. They professed to admire Peploe; they disdained Cadell, and they frankly detested Leslie Hunter, and all swore that he could not draw, because he was an Impressionist…this of course was utter nonsense for he was a very fine draughtsman.’1 To an extent there is still a misunderstanding of the man and his work today. 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, purchased by the French Government in 1931: ‘That is Hunter at his best, and it is as fine as any Matisse’.2 However it is also true that Hunter’s work is uneven, not so much because he was an uneven artist, but because in later life he had the destructive habit, on returning to his studio at night, of reworking the canvas on his easel in poor artificial light, to the point that his friends were forced to ‘snatch’ a painting from the easel before his return!3

The youngest of five children, George Hunter was born in Rothesay on the Isle of Bute, where his father was a chemist. Following the death of two of his siblings in their early twenties within a month of each other, the family emigrated to California in 1892 in search of a more congenial 9

To an extent there is still a misunderstanding of the man and his work today. Yet Hunter at the top of his form has few equals in Scottish, if not British painting

climate, acquiring an orange grove near San Bernardino, some fifty miles east of Los Angeles. When his family decided to return to Scotland seven years later, George took the bold decision to stay on in America and move to San Francisco. It was around this time that he adopted the forename ‘Leslie’, by which he is known today.

From a comparatively early age Hunter loved drawing. In California he was much more interested in art than in helping with the cultivation of the family’s orange ranch. He wanted to be an artist. In San Francisco the bohemian mood of the period suited him well, a way of life he was to retain until his death in 1931. Mixing with a group of artists and writers, Hunter could live very cheaply. While working at his painting, he earned a living by providing illustrations for newspapers and magazines. In 1901 and the following year he exhibited a number of works at the San Francisco Art Association and the newly-established California Society of Artists, of which Hunter was a founder member.

Still Life with Marguerites, 1930. Private collection

and mine will be the way of colour’ – Hunter c.1919

Around the end of 1902 Hunter left San Francisco for Europe. He had not seen his family in Scotland for over Scottish Art News 10

three years and in that time his father had died. He was also anxious to visit Paris. Universally acknowledged as the centre of the art world, Paris was an exciting and stimulating city for an aspiring painter. The focus of interest had moved from the French Impressionists to Cézanne and the PostImpressionists. Matisse, Derain and other fauves were soon to startle the enlightened and open-minded, confound the mass of the art-loving public and be ignored by the majority of other artists. In Paris the lifestyle of an artist was very similar to that in San Francisco. Hunter was by nature a gregarious person. He would have found a cheap hotel or an artists’ commune in Montparnasse where he could sleep. Meals were to be had in a vast number of cafes and restaurants to suit all pockets. He could sketch from life anywhere he cared. In the Louvre he could study the work of the Dutch and French masters, the Italian Renaissance and artists such as Velázquez. Paintings by the French Impressionists and artists such as Cézanne, Gauguin and Van Gogh could be seen in the galleries of art dealers. A wealthy young American who bought some of Hunter’s work in Paris described him later as ‘a young man, ill clad, undernourished, but with a restless activity. He would sit there in the front of the café, always sketching on scraps of paper any head or figure which attracted him.’4 However sales were few and Hunter had to rely for a living on income from magazine illustrations.

Apart from spending time with his family in Glasgow and an extended stay in Paris, there is little evidence to indicate where he went, what he saw and what he did. From the titles of pictures he exhibited on his return to San Francisco, it appears he painted in Scotland, London and Holland. After almost two years in Europe, Hunter sailed for America in November 1904, spending several

The Poultry Market, Paris (detail), 1904. Hunterian Art Gallery

11

A Garden Party, 1903, original drawing for an illustration in Society Pictorial, 11 July 1903.

Private collection

“He would sit there in the front of the café, always sketching on scraps of paper any head or figure which attracted him” Chrysanthemums in a Chinese Vase with Phoenix, 1913. Private collection

months in New York before returning to California. There he resumed his magazine illustration to provide some income while he worked away at his art. By the spring of 1906 he had put together a good body of work for his first solo exhibition, which was to open in the second half of April. In the meantime Hunter and Ralph Stackpole, a sculptor friend, accepted an invitation to spend a few weeks on a ranch in Lake County to the north of the city. At 5.12am on 18 April San Francisco was rocked by a massive earthquake. Fires broke out immediately. Some could not be checked, despite the dynamiting of numerous buildings in futile attempts by the city authorities to create fire breaks. For three days the fires raged, destroying a substantial part of San Francisco.

When Hunter and Stackpole managed to get back to the city, they found to their utter despair that both studios had been gutted by fire. There was nothing left to be saved. All the work Hunter had done in California, Scotland and on the continent had been lost. He had nothing but the clothes he stood up in. What was he to do? Several of his friends and acquaintances had left San Francisco already and more were to follow. He decided to return to Scotland, despite having become a naturalised US citizen the preceding year.

Stackpole and he travelled to Paris, where Hunter remained for several weeks before going on to Scotland.

Reunited with his family in Glasgow, Hunter began to paint again. With financial support from his mother, he did not need to return to hack illustrative work. He spent the next few summers in Paris, immersing himself in the artistic life of the capital. In 1908 a chance meeting in the

Hunter was an intelligent, sensitive, driven man, who lived for his art to the exclusion of almost everything else

Luxembourg Gardens with Alice Toklas, Gertrude Stein’s lover, was to have a significant effect on his art. She took him to see the paintings in the Paris apartment of Gertrude Stein and her brother, Leo. It is likely that he went to see the Cézannes. Perhaps too he was curious about their paintings

by Picasso and Matisse. Nothing could have prepared him for the assault on his senses! Alice recounted that the works by Picasso and Matisse ‘shocked him profoundly. He wished he had never gone to see them.’5 However they must have registered in his subconscious, because later the work of Matisse was to exert a powerful influence on Hunter’s painting.

Hunter’s artistic development after his return from San Francisco right up to the end of the first world war must be viewed against the background of European art, rather than that of Scotland or indeed Britain. He had a great admiration for the paintings of Dutch seventeenth-century artists, such as Vermeer, Frans Hals and Willem Kalf, and the French artists, Chardin and Manet. An arrangement of

objects against a dark background to accentuate a structured perspective, combined with sumptuous, often jewel-like richness, are elements that captivated Hunter. His first solo exhibition was held at Alexander Reid’s prestigious galleries in Glasgow in November 1913. Comprising mainly still life paintings, it was a great success and raised Hunter’s profile considerably. The critic of the Glasgow Herald described him as ‘a vigorous and confident painter with a fine sense of colour’.6 He met a number of local art collectors thereby, many of whom became friends.

Hunter continued his extended visits to Paris well into 1914. He was painting at Étaples in the Pas de Calais in 1913 and the following year, producing a series of beach and harbour scenes that clearly show a lightening of his palette and a concentrated attempt at working with a broader and more loaded brush. Hunter’s initial exposure to the work of Gauguin, Van Gogh and Cézanne dates from the early years of the previous decade. Now Van Gogh’s use of colour enthralled Hunter. However the most lasting influence on him was that of Cézanne. Hunter’s understanding of Cézanne was focused on line, form and design.

Following a second solo exhibition with Reid in 1916, Hunter decided to leave Glasgow and go to stay with his cousin at Millburn Farm in Lanarkshire. The reason may have been the government’s exhortation for all able-bodied men and women to do something to help the war effort, although in reality Hunter appears to have done very little on the farm. However the war years afforded him time and opportunity to experiment in his painting. At first he found it difficult to move away from the format of the Dutch still life, but in time he began to free himself from its constraints and acquire a deeper appreciation and understanding of contemporary French painting. He began to use bright colour in his still life.

Hunter returned to Glasgow at the beginning of 1919. He was moving steadily towards a deeper understanding of Cézanne’s principles, finding expression through a distinctive application of colour and a more thoughtful creation of form. Over the next few years his active and enquiring mind would respond to a wealth of stimuli. His art would develop through new-found sources of inspiration, in particular the landscape of Fife. There were trips to London, Paris, Florence and Venice. There were opportunities for regular study of work by Cézanne, Van Gogh, Édouard Vuillard and Matisse, whose work had so shocked him in 1908. All this would result in a period rich in vibrant, strongly-coloured landscapes and still lifes.

A further significant source of stimulation and support was a small band of loyal friends in Dundee and Glasgow with a common interest in the visual arts. Hunter was an intelligent, sensitive, driven man, who lived for his art Scottish Art News 12

He was moving steadily towards a deeper understanding of Cézanne’s principles, finding expression through a distinctive application of colour and a more thoughtful creation of form

Mill Dam, Fife, 1920. Private collection

Peonies in a Chinese Vase, 1925. The Fleming-Wyfold Art Foundation

use of the curtain as a principal element, along with the introduction of a panelled door, was to fascinate Hunter for several years to come. He had reached a point whereby colour, form and harmony were assured instinctively, allowing him to experiment with a variety of features as integral parts of a stronger design. Of course not all this change can be attributed to Matisse. Indeed the root of this transformation lies more fully in Hunter’s extensive knowledge of Cézanne’s work.

Late in 1926 Hunter believed that he had to have a significant change of location in order to continue moving forward in his art. He had been toying with the idea of going back to Italy, but Peploe suggested the south of France. The setting and weather were perfect, but what convinced Hunter was that artists of the stature of Matisse, Derain, André Dunoyer de Segonzac and Othon Friesz were based on the Cote d’Azur. Fergusson and Peploe too were painting there. Hunter was to spend the next three years in Provence, lodging for the greater part of the time at a good but inexpensive hotel called La Colombe d’Or, which also provided small studios for artists. He was among likeminded artists, rather than the philistines in Glasgow who thought Hunter eccentric and his art weird. However he was a great distance from his sister and his friends, who would not be able to care for him as they had done until then, and

in his passionate and single-minded pursuit of his art he would again neglect his health.

Hunter was immediately drawn to the Provencal landscape. His three years in the region produced works of wonderful colour and vitality. The immediate simplicity of his vision belies the compelling strength of his highlydeveloped sense of line and colour. At once he was attracted to the challenge of capturing that simple relationship between Man and his enjoyment of Nature. He made numerous sketches in ink and coloured crayons, to the point that his dealer back in Glasgow rebuked him for not translating them into oil paintings. In place of a full solo exhibition in the winter of 1927, his dealer, now Reid & Lefevre, put on a small exhibition of his recent drawings of the south of France early the following year, which was not well received in Glasgow. Some of his following ‘professed a regret that he should have fallen so heavily under the influence of Segonzac, Matisse and the other ‘degenerate’ Frenchmen’.8

Still Life with Fruit and Fan, 1921. Private collection

to the exclusion of almost everything else. On occasions in the 1920s this would have a detrimental effect on his physical and mental health. His first line of defence was his married sister, Jeanie, to whose care he would retreat when his health broke down, but his friends too were crucial as constant supporters and counsellors.

In March 1922 Hunter was in Paris – his first visit for seven years – before moving on to Rome, Florence and Venice, where he executed a series of dazzling small oil panels. For Hunter Italy ‘fulfilled that vague nostalgia for California’,7 but his visit to Paris left him feeling unsettled, as if his art was merely at the beginning of its development.

After viewing a Matisse exhibition in Paris, Hunter was determined to achieve another breakthrough in his painting.

The advances he had made between 1919 and 1922 came mainly through the combination of a deeper understanding of Cézanne’s principles on colour and form and Hunter’s ability to apply them in his own work. Now he was convinced that the way forward could be found only through the ‘modern’ use of colour.

The first joint exhibition by three of the four painters now known as the Scottish Colourists opened at the Leicester Galleries in London in January 1923. Organised

by McNeill Reid, Alexander Reid’s son, it featured the work of Peploe, Hunter and Cadell, none of whom had shown a 13

body of work in London before. In 1924 Fergusson joined them for an exhibition in Paris, Les Peintres de l’Écosse Moderne, at the Galerie Barbazanges. The following year all four exhibited together at the Leicester Galleries. All this, coupled with solo exhibitions with Reid in Glasgow in December 1923 and 1925, both of which proved a critical and financial success, raised Hunter’s profile considerably.

However producing work for so many exhibitions put a huge strain on him. Having suffered a mental breakdown in 1923 due to pressure of work, he wisely decided to have a break in New York the following year after completing the pictures for the Paris exhibition. Later that year Hunter chose to switch his painting ground from Fife to Loch Lomond, incorporating the houseboats moored at Balloch at the south end of the loch in his landscapes. He was captivated by the lively contrast between the colourful houseboats, the lush green foliage and the subtle ever-changing reflections they created on the surface of the water. It was a very fruitful interlude, and he returned to Fife with renewed vitality later that year.

During this period Hunter’s interest in the work of Matisse was deepening. It was the way Matisse rendered colour that struck a note with Hunter. By 1925 Hunter had turned again to still life, executing a series of paintings incorporating a richly-designed Persian curtain. The

By then Hunter was back in Provence again, supposedly working towards a solo exhibition in Glasgow in May 1928. Again the promised oils did not materialise and the advertised exhibition had to be cancelled at short notice to the embarrassment of his dealer. Hunter promised faithfully to produce sufficient oils for an exhibition in the Scottish Art News 14

autumn. This duly opened in Glasgow in October 1928.

However his work in the south of France had developed along what his friends and his dealer considered to be a more extreme line, one for which they were unprepared.

His new environment, experience of Matisse’s creativity, and lively contact with numerous artists based in Provence provoked in Hunter a renewed passion for experimentation that did not go down well at home. There was a decidedly mixed response from the critics. Nonetheless Hunter’s faith in his art was unshaken, and he was to be proved right.

In November 1928 he sailed for America, spending seven months in New York, principally to organise an exhibition of his work there. He eventually succeeded in arranging a show at the Ferargil Galleries, which opened in April 1929. The American critics were favourably impressed.

Hunter was heartened by their reaction, although sales were more difficult to achieve. He considered that his prospects were improving at last. He arrived back in Glasgow on 9 June and by the beginning of July he had returned to the south of France. Totally immersed in his work, Hunter painted all summer, increasingly neglecting to eat or sleep.

By September it was clear that he was heading for another breakdown. Then disaster struck: Hunter mistakenly swallowed some turpentine mixture he had stored in a wine bottle in his studio. Typically it was not until the onset of unpleasant symptoms that he sought help. He was admitted to a clinic in Nice and his sister was sent for. It was several weeks before he was sufficiently well to return with Jeanie to Glasgow.

It was not until December 1929 that Hunter regained his physical health, but it took rather longer to shake off the feeling of despondency. He spent 1930 in and around Glasgow, executing still lifes unsurpassed by his earlier work, many paying homage to a still life by Matisse he had persuaded a good friend to purchase in 1925. He also embarked on a series of portraits that challenged the traditional view.

1931 promised a better year for Hunter. The highlight was his inclusion in Les Peintres Écossais, an exhibition of work by Peploe, Fergusson, Hunter, Cadell, Telfer Bear and R.O. Dunlop organised by Reid & Lefevre at the prestigious Galeries Geo Lefevre’s Glasgow gallery in November. He sketched in London’s Hyde Park and decided to move to London permanently, arranging to rent a studio.

Also he was in love with a girl half his age, and they were planning a future there. Briefly he returned to Loch Lomond for a second time, and with a confidence rarely achieved in the past painted a number of stunning pictures that rank among his finest.

Hunter was exhilarated by his recent successes, remarking ‘I have been kicking at the door so long, and at 15

Villefranche, 1928. Private collection

His work in the south of France had developed along what his friends and his dealer considered to be a more extreme line, one for which they were unprepared Houseboats, Balloch, 1931. Private collection

last it is beginning to open’.9 Lately he had been feeling unwell, but characteristically neglected to do anything about it. His condition deteriorated and he was admitted to a Glasgow nursing home on 7 December. Hunter was operated on immediately, but it was too late and he died the same day aged 54. His death was a tragic loss, but he left a rich artistic legacy that deserves to be more fully appreciated.

1. Letter dated 25 September 1950 from Ion Harrison to T.C. Annan.

2. T.J. Honeyman, Introducing Leslie Hunter, London, 1937, p.139.

3. Honeyman, p.161.

4. Honeyman, pp.58-59.

5. Alice B. Toklas, What is Remembered, London, 1963, p.41.

6. Glasgow Herald, 7 November 1913.

7. Honeyman, p.85.

8. Honeyman, p.123.

9. Note prepared by Marnie Scrafton for T.J. Honeyman, Honeyman Papers, Acc.9787, National Library of Scotland.

Bill Smith and Jill Marriner are co-curators of ‘Leslie Hunter: A Life in Colour’ and co-authors of a new biography of the artist. A banker by profession, Bill Smith was Keeper of Art

at Flemings the London investment bank, from 1985 to 1997.

He is a Trustee of The Fleming-Wyfold Art Foundation.

Jill Marriner has worked for over 20 years in the art world, working with Christie’s, Sotheby’s, and the Royal Collection, Windsor Castle. It was as a junior cataloguer for Christie’s Scotland, preparing the international Scottish art sales that she was introduced to Leslie Hunter’s work. Following a change of career in 2001, she is now responsible for regulatory compliance in a London private bank.

An exhibition of around 80 of his paintings and drawings – almost two-thirds from private collections – will open at the City Art Centre in Edinburgh in July 2012. A slightly smaller number will transfer to The Fleming Collection in London in October. In July a new book on Hunter by Bill Smith and Jill Marriner will be published, the first major biography of the artist for 75 years. Hunter Revisited: The Art and Life

of Leslie Hunter is published by Atelier Books, priced £40.

Copies can be obtained from The Fleming Collection or by post at £40 + p&p.

Leslie Hunter: A Life in Colour 21 July – 14 October 2012 City Art Centre, 2 Market Street, Edinburgh EH1 1DE Tel: 0131 529 3993 www.edinburghmuseums.org.uk 23 October 2012 – 9 February 2013 The Fleming Collection 13 Berkeley Street, Mayfair, London W1J 8DU Tel: 020 7042 5730 www.flemingcollection.com

Scottish Art News 16

Wilhelmina Barns-Graham CENTENARY EXHIBITIONS JUNE 2012— FEBRUARY 2013 The Barns-Graham Charitable Trust Balmungo House, St Andrews, Fife KY16 8LW t. 01334 479953 info@barns-grahamtrust.org.uk For information about The Barns-Graham Charitable Trust and other events and exhibitions for 2012—2013 visit www.barns-grahamtrust.org.uk

S T A N d R E w S 9—30 J U N E

ASt Andrews Modernist: Paintings,drawings & Prints bywilhelmina Barns-Graham 1912—2004 Fraser Gallery, 53 South Street, St Andrews KY16 9QR E d I N B u R G H 3 AU G U S T—5 S E P T E M B E R

wilhelmina Barns-Graham—Collector’s Choice Scottish Gallery, 16 dundas Street, Edinburgh EH3 6HZ S T I v E S 3—24 S E P T E M B E R

An Artist in St Ives: Paintings & drawings by wilhelmina Barns-Graham 1912—2004 Belgrave Gallery, 22 Fore Street, St Ives TR26 1HE

d u M F R I E S 8 S E P T E M B E R —18 N O V E M B E R

A different way of working —The Prints of wilhelmina Barns-Graham

Gracefield Art Centre, 28 Edinburgh Road, dumfries dG1 1JQ d I TC H l I N G 30 S E P T E M B E R —20 O C TO B E R

drawn to Colour—Prints & drawings by wilhelmina Barns-Graham 1912—2004 Shirley Crowther Art at The Jointure Studios 11 South Street, ditchling, Sussex BN6 8uQ

TIMELESS ELEGANCE, WORLD RENOWNED ART

E d I N B u R G H 24 N O V E M B E R —17 F E B R UA R Y

Wilhelmina Barns-Graham: A Scottish Artist in St Ives City Art Centre, 2 Market Street, Edinburgh EH1 1dE

S.J. PEPLOE A U T U M N E X H I B I T I O N 2012

In the heart of Mayfair, The Fleming Collection offers two unique galleries, each a dazzling backdrop for a variety of events including daytime meetings, conferences, champagne receptions and inspiring dinners.

For further information please call the events team on 020 7042 5738 or email events@flemingcollection.com

Please contact us if you would consider selling or loaning works.

Portland Gallery and The Scottish Gallery are delighted to announce they are holding a sale and loan exhibition to coincide with the launch of Guy Peploe’s new book on the artist.

Exhibition Enquiries: London emily@portlandgallery.com 020 7493 1888 Edinburgh guy@scottish-gallery.co.uk 0131 558 1200

Edinburgh London 17

8 October - 3 November 8 November - 7 December

L O N D O N Scottish Art News 18

JOCK MC F A D Y E N

MADE IN H A C K N E Y Jock McFadyen discusses his work with art historian Bill Hare ahead of his major survey exhibition at The Fleming Collection

Jock McFadyen Interviewed by Bill Hare February–March 2012 H i Joc k It is g rea t t o t alk t o you agai n af t e r ou r me e t i ng duri ng your recent exh ib i t i o n at B ou r ne Fi ne Art. You seem ver y bu sy th is year w i t h maj o r shows co m i ng up i n Ed i nbu rg h and Lo nd o n . I was i ntri gu ed wi t h your ti tl e Ma de in Ha c k n e y wh i c h you have given t o you r fo r thco mi ng exh ib i ti o n at T he Flem i ng Co ll e c ti o n th is su mme r. W hat is that al l ab out ?

H i Bil l G lad you had a g ood t i me i n Ne w Yor k , I ho pe you d id n’t was te too m u c h of it read ing abou t me. I n f ac t a m j u st 19

bac k f ro m Ed inbu rg h , there are still no trams bu t the resid u e o f the idea is everywhere. . .

I am always moaning that there is a lac k o f d ebate abou t how pic tu re s are mad e, these days it’s al l abou t the idea o f painting rather than the ac t. The title Made i n H ack n ey is intend ed to draw attentio n to the f ac t that mo st pictures are painted in stu d io s, away f ro m the subj ec t. And there is a g reat d if ference in painting, between o bservatio n and inventio n. My stu d io is at Lo nd on Fields in Hac kney.

BH I agree w ith what you say. That reminds

OPPOSITE Jock McFadyen and Horseshoe Jake in front of Popular Enclosure, an image of Walthamstow Dog Track ABOVE Tate Moss, 2008, oil on canvas, 200x300 cm

me of Ad Reinhardt ’s cart oon series of 1946 on modern gal l ery visit ors. T he majority of peopl e – including most con t emporary crit ics – seem fixat ed wit h what pict ures mea n rat her t han concern ing t hemselves wit h how t hey are act ual ly made and how t hey work in pict orial t erms.

Coul d you t el l me what you plan for t he Ma de in Ha ckney ex h ib it ion? Is it al l new work or is t here a ret rospect ive dimension t o it ?

JM Don’t k now about Ad Reinhardt but I think we are at a s tage now where painting that is not har nes sed to a concep tual p remise can hardly be cons idered as par t of the unfolding s tor y of ar t. The left brainers r ule the wor ld so I gues s it was only a matter of time before the r ight brainers began to make left brainer fr iendly ar t (other wise you don’t get wr itten about! ). The up shot of this seems to be that much painting car r ies at its hear t an argument for its

own exis tence.. .

When I was a st ud e n t a t C he lsea i n the 1970s my wor k was sc he ma t i c , wi t ty and wholly p reoccup i e d wi t h t he d e ba te as above, and in t he ea r ly 8 0s a f te r my res idency a t t he Na t i onal Gal l e r y I made a comp lete u- t ur n a nd b e ga n to make wor k base d on ob se r va t i on . The Fleming Collect i on show wi l l sur ve y my wor k from the 70s, 8 0s, 90s, 00s a nd the p resent. The re wi l l b e a not he r show at Bour ne Fine A r t i n Ed i nburg h d ur i ng the Fes tival and a show of re ce n t wor k op ens at the Fi ne A r t Soc i e ty i n June so I am having a b i t of a busy t i me.

BH I don ’t t h ink anyone cou ld accu se you , Jock, of merely making pa in tings ab ou t pain t ing. We migh t re tu r n to this d iscu ssion lat er, but b efore t hat , cou ld I r a ise a nothe r issue concern ing your for thcom ing Fle m ing Scottish Art News 20

Collec t i o n ex hib i t i o n?

I think you a re t he se co nd l iv i ng ar t is t t o have a one per so n show a t T he Fl e mi ng Co l l e c ti o n after Wi ll Mac lea n. As you k now T he Fl e mi ng Collec t i o n has always b e e n ve r y mu c h co mmi t ted to showi ng t he b est o f Sco ttish h is t o r i cal and contempo r a r y a r t i n Lo nd o n . How d o you se e yourself a nd your wo r k w i th i n that nat i o nal context ?

JM I am in a queer position with Scottish art. I was born in 1950 and brought up on the outskirts of Glasgow. McFadyens are from Tiree but generations were drawn to the mainland for work. All the men in my family worked in the shipyards and that was the world I knew but when I was sixteen my father got a job in England so in 1966 we came south. My family moved back to Scotland after a few years but I stayed on in England, got married, had a child, went to art school, got divorced, left art school, got a studio and started exhibiting my work using the difficult- toshed nickname ‘Jock’. It must have been a good twenty years before my mother began to call me Jock instead of Jimmy (same difference to the English).

Having gone to art school in Chelsea, Scottish art wasn’t on my radar. It didn’t figure in any of the books I had swotted up on for college and like any other student I was steeped in the art of the time, Bruce Nauman (Scottish first name...), Gilbert and George, R .B K itaj and Jasper Johns. In 1974 I sold my first painting to Allen Jones, an artist whose entire generation seemed to have an international reputation. Mark Boyle was one of my heroes and I was vaguely aware that he was Glaswegian, Craigie Aitchison was one of the tutors at Chelsea, but their Scottishness was an accident of birth and peripheral to their art.

I me t Jo h n B e l la ny whe n we we re b ot h ex h ibit ing at t he Acme G al l e r y i n t he la te 1970 s and also g ot to k now B r u ce McLea n arou nd t hat t i me. I t was whe n I had my firs t Sco t t ish show a t t he Ne w 5 7 G al l e r y in Edinbu rgh i n 1979 t ha t I b e ca me awa re o f a d o me s t ic Scot t ish a r t sce ne wh i c h 21

was to tal ly u nf amil iar to me. I only had a hazy awareness o f the Co l ou ris ts until I started exh ibiting w ith B il l Jackson at the Sco ttish G al l ery in Lo nd o n in the mid to late 19 80s. By that time the so-called New G lasg ow B oys had emerg ed , but the 80s was a d ecad e- l o ng l ove af f ai r with f igu ratio n and the main pro tag onis ts inc lu d ed Sc h nabel , C l emente, Keifer, Sal l e etc , and they were f ro m al l over the place. I am stil l no t su re that I k now what Sco ttish art is bu t I th ink my f avour ite mu st be Mc Taggart if I can’t have W h istl er. . .

BH Like you, after nearly fifty years in the business, I still don’t know what constitutes Scottish art. I think that has a lot to do with this amorphous concept called ‘Britishness’.

My students sometime challenge my choice of Scottish artists by pointing out that many of them – like your good self – have worked for most of their careers in London. Does not that make them English artists? My argument is that London is the capital of Britain and artists from all over the UK come to the great metropolis to further their careers but that does not necessarily compromise their geographical and ethnic origins. Picasso never became a French artist – even if he became a French citizen – and for all his travelling around David Hockney is still a Yorkshire man – even more so now. As you say in your case, and this is the case for most artists, this is not a big concern.

They have much more pressing challenges to face each day in their studio, wherever that is located.

Let’s turn to something that is much more important – your own work. I recently read David Cohen’s book Jock McFadyen: A Book about a Painter and I noticed that the opening chapter is entitled A Painter’s Progress which seemed to place your earlier work within a Hogarthian tradition of British social realist art. Would that be the case?

JM Yes, I am w ith you o n al l o f that, and where you g o to co l l eg e is impo rtant too.

Art sc ho o l is big inf lu ence o n pa inters becau se you r j o b is to f ind ou t who you real ly are as an artist. I t is a proces s o f c l o sing d ow n o ptio ns (abstract, f igu rative, co nceptu al , painterly, hard,

soft, schematic, inter national, p rovincial, s till life, p or trait, landscap e etc). You have to crack an egg to make an omelette and half way through the omelette you can’t change your mind and go for a boiled egg. You close a lot of doors and what you are left with is what you are.

It is ver y different from being Canaletto and inher iting the family fir m...

Nationality seems ir relevant while all this is going on. The big elep hant in the room is Moder nis m, that great cliff-face of a nineteenth-centur y idea about the twentieth centur y which is s till going s trong today. Nowadays we are in the 21s t centur y and ar t has gone comp letely to the mar ket for its validation and the big p layers are Chinese, Indian or Arabic, and where that leaves Scotland I haven’t got a clue...

Desp ite all this I am from Glasgow and I have tur ned out to be a painter rather than an ar tis t. Painting has a comfor tably tangible his tor y which is full of excitement and yes , there was a Hogar thian element to my wor k in the 1970 s but it was a commentar y on the undoing of painting, us ing p ictor ial for m to comment on ar t as a comedy of manners . But in the end it all became too k nowing and in 1982 I emerged from my s tudio below 2,00 0 old mas ter paintings in Trafalgar Square as a painter who was much more interes ted in contemp lating what lay beyond his front door than ar t’s dialogue with its own his tor y. I began to look at things and wonder if I could make a p icture of what I saw. I dump ed the idea of ar t as a s trategy and s tar ted to look painting squarely in the eye. It was the mos t exciting s tage of my career.

BH I ’d l ike t o pick up on t h is poin t you make ab out seeing yoursel f as a pain t er rat her t han an art ist . Modern pain t ing has b een driven by t he eb b and fl ow b et ween figurat ion and ab st ract ion . I real ise I am t aking you back t o ‘art as a st rat egy ’, and may b e spoil ing your pain t erly pl easures, but how do you see t he devel opmen t of your work t h roughout your career in relat ion t o t h is cen t ral dial ect ic in modern pain t ing?

ABOVE FROM TOP Recreational driving, 1982, oil on card, 137x101 cm Maggie’s Finest Hour, 1983, oil on card, 137x101 cm

Scottish Art News 22

I emerged from my studio below 2,000 old master paintings in Trafalgar Square as a painter who was much more interested in contemplating what lay beyond his front door than art’s dialogue with its own history

Set of Judas Tree, Royal Opera House, 1992 Viviana Durante and Irek Mukhamedhov, Judas Tree poster, 1992

JM Yes, painting o r art. . . I th ink in painting these days it is no t j u st f igu rative v abstrac t bu t a th ree- way th ing between f igu ratio n, abstraction and ‘co nceptu al ’ painting. Painting which is harnessed to a co nceptu al stra tegy mig h t be f igu rative o r abstrac t (Richter po ssibly?) . My early wo rk f itted that bil l bu t I began to see painting as a c red itabl e and o rganic way o f d escr ibing the wo rl d . Issu es o f styl e o r the painter ’s hand were no t as co mpro mising as might o nce have been imag ined . Painti ng – becau se o f its su rf ace, capac ity for scal e, d epth o f f iel d and fo cu s as well as its centu ry o f pic to rial experiment – is mo re so ph isticated than pho to g rap hy o r c inema ( bo th o f wh ic h I l ove) in ver y particu lar ways.

I have to co nfess that I l o o k at a lot of cu rrent art w ith the same ind if fe rence as rag time j azz , g o l f, f ish ing o r motor cars. I f ind the au d ience th ing irr itating to o – al l the caref u l u npic king, decoding and d eco nstru c ting d o esn’t th rill me in the sl ig h test. And it isn’t because I d o n’t speak the langu ag e. I f fo r i ns tance I f ind a pil e o f c rappy o l d paintings l eaning in a d u sty co rner o f a j u nk shop it’s impo ssibl e to resist the u rg e to p ick them u p and pou r over them to tr y and wo rk ou t how the g rou nd mig h t have been appl ied o r whether it inf l ec ts the sur face and where the painter stru gg l ed with this o r su cceed ed w ith that.

I n the end I d o n’t know that much about painting. Al l the g reat mu seu ms not seen and c hapels and caves no t v isite d ensure that I w il l d ie in ig no rance o f mos t of the paintings in the wo rl d . I ’m ignorant o f mo st o f painting bu t I feel tha t the o ther stu f f (art) is l ike an u nf inished c ro sswo rd where I haven’t so lved all the c lu es bu t I know that I cou l d if I could be bo thered . I d o n’t feel that abou t painting becau se painting is so mu c h bigger and mo re co mpl ex, it preced es u s and yawns befo re u s.

Rex, 1995, oil on canvas, 178x178 cm The Fleming-Wyfold Art Foundation

BH I f ind your co mments o n ‘the co nd it ion of 23

Scottish Art News 24

pain t ing’ real ly in t erest ing as you come from a personal and professional posit ion rat her t han an academic t heoret ical one. Coul d we final ly t urn t o t he act ual con t en t of your pain t ings? T here seems t o b e a marked difference b et ween t he sub ject mat t er of your early work and what we find in your pain t ings now. What b rough t ab out t hese changes?

Inganess Bay 1, 1999 oil on canvas, 122x173 cm Looking West, 2003 oil on canvas, 122x183 cm

25

JM In my p eop le paintings the figure would often come quick ly because of wor k ing fas t to cap ture the es sence of someone I had seen. The real wor k would be the s tr ucture and all the painter ly s tuff which ensues from that; for m, r hythm, sur face, resonance, and whether the paint blooms or not – all the p reoccupations of abs traction in fact.

The shift away from the figure towards landscap e was help ed in 1990 when I des igned the sets and cos tumes for Kenneth MacMillan’s las t ballet The Judas Tree at the Royal Op era House. I think MacMillan was the Francis Bacon of ballet and it was fantas tic to wor k with him, but dur ing the p roject it became clear to me that something was mis s ing.

That thing was the figure. There was no figure to invent because there were real p eop le – the dancers . I found myself contemp lating the set and began to feel that p er hap s I had always been a painter of p laces . I tur ned this revelation over in my mind like a new toy and set for th to paint the wor ld. And it is wor th saying that landscap e and p or trait have quite different p sychological and emotional p os itions . Ask any adver tiser...

When I was young I was enthralled by the wor k of other painters and lifted what I could to put my p ictures together.

But by the time I was a s tudent at Chelsea in the 1970s my ambition for painting had become closer to that of the contemp orar y novel, p hotograp hy or the cinema. I see my p ictures as being closer to road movies or even songs about the landscap e than having much to do with cur rent painting. Excep tions might include the late Michael Andrews but Sicker t, Hop p er, Whis tler and Lowr y are

I see my pictures as being closer to road movies or even songs about the landscape than having much to do with current painting

hardly contempora r y. May b e t ha t ap p l i e s to me too. I thi nk i n t he e nd I a m j ust a fair ly intuitive pa i n te r who l ove s movi e s and novels .

B ill Hare is a curator and w ri te r a nd Ho no ra ry Teach in g Fellow in Scot t i sh a rt h i sto ry a t T h e Un iversity of Edinb urg h .

Jock M cFadyen was born i n Pa i sley i n 19 5 0. He st udied at Ch elsea Colle ge of Art a nd D esi g n, a nd lives an d works in Londo n.

Jock McFadyen: Made in Hackney 17 July – 17 October 2012 The Fleming Collection 13 Berkeley Street, Mayfair, London W1J 8DU Tel: 020 7042 5730 www.flemingcollection.com Jock McFadyen: The Ability to Cling 26 June – 14 July 2012 The Fine Art Society 148 New Bond Street, London W1S 2JT Tel: o20 7629 5116 www.faslondon.com 1 August – 15 September 2012 Bourne Fine Art 6 Dundas Street, Edinburgh EH3 6HZ Tel: 0131 557 4050 www.bournefineart.com

Scottish Art News 26

THE ETCHINGS OF JOHN CLERK OF ELDIN G e o ffrey B er tr a m

OPPOSITE Lochmaben Castle, 1776, etching and drypoint, 7.8x20.3 cm ABOVE Dalkeith from the North West, 1777, softground etching, 15x30.6 cm

Two exhibitions open in 2012-13 to mark the 200th anniversary of the death of the eighteenth-century Scottish etcher John Clerk of Eldin

J

ohn Clerk of Eldin’s etching career spanned just a brief time, from 1770 to 1779, and yet in this period he made over 100 prints, all landscapes. What is particularly remarkable is that he was self taught, progressing through trial and error. As his skills improved, Clerk went on to make some of the noted landscape etchings of his day, producing a body of work which is unique within the history of Scottish printmaking.

Born on 10 December 1728, he was the seventh son of Sir John Clerk of Penicuik, Baronet, one of the most remarkable figures of his age. Connoisseur, collector and antiquary, it was Sir John’s view that ‘I recommend to all the young lads of this family to lairn to draw or design as the best means of advancing their fortunes, for they can neither be good sojars nor first seamen if they know not how to design a Country, a Town, a House, and especially a fortified Town or Castle – They will find this the only true way of rising in the world provided they joyn with a competant knowledge of all parts of the Mathematicks particularly Geometry of Fortification…’ It is not known if Clerk of Eldin had a formal art teacher or whether his initial training was passed on to him by family members. He had a natural 27

disposition and passion for drawing which he shared with his friend, the architect Robert Adam (1728-1792). The Clerk and Adam families were brought closer together when Clerk of Eldin married Robert‘s younger sister Susanna in 1753.

It was through the Adam family that in 1747 Clerk was introduced to the English artist Paul Sandby (17311809). Sandby had arrived in Scotland that year to work as a draughtsman with the Board of Ordnance Survey, mapping and recording military construction in the Highlands following the 1745 Jacobite rising. This included the expansion of Fort George, near Inverness which was being rebuilt by William Adam, Robert’s father, who was Mason to the Board of Ordnance. It is known that Sandby, Clerk and Robert Adam spent time sketching together, both Clerk and Adam learning much from the Englishman. Sandby returned to England in 1751, he and Clerk continuing their friendship at a distance.

Clerk studied anatomy at Edinburgh University, as did Robert Adam, but he did not become the ‘top chyrurgeon’ that his father anticipated. Instead, he became a merchant, a clothier in the Luckenbooths on the old High Street. In 1763, having amassed a little money, Clerk bought

an estate near Lasswade, adjoining the Pendreich coalfields in which he had taken a half share in the previous year. On this estate ‘he built his little mansion of Eldin, laid out its beautiful terrace and its singular garden, converted an old cottage into a greenhouse, which was more ornamented with his beautiful clay models than with plants’. The name Eldin derives from the old Scots word elding or eilding meaning fuel, in accord with his involvement with coalmining. In mining coal Clerk was following in the family tradition. His father had established coalmining as the mainstay of the family business, and had become an expert on coal, as did his son

After 1766, Clerk undertook several journeys around Britain, travelling to the Highlands and as far south as Plymouth, with trips into Wales and the Lake District.

Everywhere he went he took a sketchbook. In a letter of 1779 to the renowned antiquarian Richard Gough, Clerk wrote ‘… having for a long time been in the practice of making sketches and views from nature where ever I went, I had collected a great many drawings, particularly such as taken in a great extent of country. I was at last tempted after long and frequent importunitys of virtuosi friends to attempt the same manner in Etching which I had followed in drawing.’

Etching was a popular art form and it was thought to be the best print medium for landscape art. It was perceived as standing between drawing and engraving, reflecting the best creative characteristics of both. However there was little experience of etching in Scotland outside of its use in decorating metalwork. Few artists at that time in Scotland employed it, engraving being the more usual

manner for making prints. A small group of the very few examples of those predating Clerk’s efforts are by the Runciman brothers, John and Alexander, whose subjects were, in the main, not landscapes.

The technique of etching copper plates also appealed directly to the scientific interests of many eighteenth-century individuals. Clerk certainly had a leaning to the sciences. Besides studying anatomy, he had experimented in other spheres as this letter written by the Factor at Penicuik House describes: ‘... John is the chief operator here in Electrical Experiments. He has turned an old worset [worsted, not in best of condition] wheel to an engine and has got a large globe from some of the chymists; but tho his machine be clumsy, yet he performs all the experiments on it, and his mother and systers are to be electrified one of these days by a solemn invitation’. Clerk engaged in many different mechanical and engineering projects throughout his life.

There is record of a notebook in which Clerk described all of his etching experiences, ‘...the process used, and the precise time that the different parts of most of his plates were subjected to the action of the aquafortis, in “biting” the copper, with softenings,” “sweetenings” &c’.

Its description certainly suggests a scientific approach to his printmaking. It is unfortunate that this manuscript entitled Register of Etching, or a Register of the time which my copperplate were bit with the Aquafortis has been lost as it would have given us considerable insight into Clerk’s working methods.

Scottish Art News 28

Clerk’s scenes usually focus on old buildings or distant views of towns. Clerk had been drawing Scottish houses, castles and churches from the outset, demonstrating a keen interest in Scottish architecture. This paralleled one of the objectives of the Society of Antiquaries, of which Clerk was a founding member from 1780, which was to record ‘the ancient castles, houses, and mote-hills of the nobility, greater and lesser...churches, monuments...remains of its [Scotland] antient magnificences’. Indeed, the old baronial castles were the favoured type of residence for Scottish nobles after the 1745 Jacobite uprising.

In composing his scenes Clerk worked within a recognised set of conventions, not only in the manipulation of composite parts, but also in selecting his subjects for their picturesque character. The Reverend William Gilpin in his Essay on Prints wrote that to be picturesque, certain criteria had to be met; both texture and composition were essential in a ‘correctly picturesque’ scene. The texture should be rough, intricate, varied or broken, without obvious straight lines. The composition should work as a unified whole, incorporating several elements: a dark foreground with a front screen or side screens, a brighter middle distance and at least one further distinctly depicted distance. A ruined abbey or castle would add consequence. A low viewpoint, which tended to emphasise the ‘sublime’, was always preferable to a prospect from on high. While Gilpin allowed that nature was good at producing textures and colours, it was rarely capable of creating the perfect composition and therefore some extra help from the artist, perhaps in the form of a carefully placed tree, was usually required. These views reflect an admiration for the work of Claude Lorrain (c.16001682) whose work strongly influenced many eighteenthcentury artists and landscapists. Many of these ‘ingredients’ are recognisable in Clerk’s prints.

Clerk’s drawing skills were well suited to capture the outline information of a landscape. However in order to introduce greater natural truth and expression in his etchings he turned to the prints of artists whose mastery of the medium could offer the necessary guidance (trial and error will only take one so far). Initially he would have known Paul Sandby’s etchings which had been made in Scotland and it is not hard to find points of comparison between Clerk’s first endeavours and Sandby’s Scottish prints of c.1750. Clerk’s manner reflects Sandby’s early techniques and Clerk made two prints based on Sandby’s views of Castle Duart, Isle of Mull, though these are exceptions as Clerk preferred to etch his own views.

In seeking to improve his technical skills, and failing to find sufficient assistance from his compatriots, Clerk turned to European printmakers. European prints were readily available in quantity in eighteenth-century 29

Edinburgh, and a 1770 catalogue from Thomas Philipe, the Edinburgh printseller, includes a comprehensive list of Italian, French and Dutch prints from the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries with works by Dürer, Callot, Rubens, Rembrandt, Hollar, Waterloo, Goltzius, Van Dyck, Berghem and many others. The Clerk family were print collectors, as he was himself.

Clerk based two prints on Claude Lorrain’s Danse au bord de l’eau and another on Rembrandt’s (1606-1669) Landscape with an obelisk. In addition he copied five prints of the Austrian printmaker Edmund Weirotter (1730-71).

Studying these printmakers assisted him in laying out his designs, the lighting of his subjects and the definition of masonry. Zeeman’s (1623-1663) seascape prints are a likely source for the silhouetted figures that inhabit Clerk’s foregrounds, while etchings by Herman van Swanevelt (c.1603-1655) and Anthonie Waterloo (1609-90), both popular at the time, could show him how to improve trees and foliage. Clerk was a quick learner but it should be stated that he was not an artist who slavishly imitated the work of others but one who, having assimilated those aspects of their work which were most useful to him, continuously progressed forward in establishing his own distinct style.

In the earliest of the works illustrated, Roslin I (1771), one can see the roughness of the etching, the lack of control in the etching of the tree and the somewhat crude drawing throughout, which is also seen in areas of Salisbury from Wilton Park (1772) in which much of the right side of the plate has been overworked. His technique had improved considerably by the time he etches Elan Stalker II and Lincluden Abbey which are more confidently done. By 1776 Clerk is making some fine prints such as Lochmaben, and experimenting with soft ground etching as seen in Dalkeith from the North West.

Having achieved a high degree of accomplishment in his etching, Clerk turned away from making prints to writing his noted Essay on Naval Tactics which was privately published in 1782. This book was distributed to influential people, including those in the Admiralty, and arguably altered the way in which sea battles were to be fought. At the time, the book brought Clerk greater fame than his prints.

Another significant achievement was as the illustrator of James Hutton’s seminal book Theory of the Earth. Hutton was a friend whom he had met in the same anatomy class at university and these geology drawings are highly praised for their clear description of Hutton’s theories though they, and their respective volumes, were never published before Hutton died in 1797. Clerk’s drawings disappeared and only resurfaced in 1968.

Clerk stands as a solitary figure in the story of Scottish printmaking. He is the first etcher to truly capture

the character and mood of the Scottish countryside and his scenes reflect a change of attitude to Scotland that complemented the growing rise of the Romantic Movement in the late eighteenth century.

Geoffrey Bertram is a freelance art curator, dealer and writer on art, and chair of the Barns-Graham Charitable Trust.

Although known for promoting contemporary artists, he is curating an exhibition of British and European landscape etchings 1580-1820, arising from his work on John Clerk of Eldin. His first encounter with John Clerk of Eldin was when studying Clerk’s etchings for his M.Litt research degree at the University of Edinburgh (1976).

A fully illustrated catalogue The Etchings of John Clerk of Eldin, by Geoffrey Bertram, priced £35 will be published in 2012. The result of several years’ research, it will be the most comprehensive publication to date on Clerk of Eldin’s life and etching, and will include a considerable amount of previously unpublished information.

The Etchings of John Clerk of Eldin 19 February 2013 – 6 April 2013 The Fleming Collection 13 Berkeley Street, Mayfair, London W1J 8DU Tel: 020 7042 5730 www.flemingcollection.com City Art Centre, Market Street Edinburgh EH1 1DE 24 November 2012 – 2013 3 November 2012 – 3 February 2013 Tel: 0131 529 3993 www.edinburghmuseums.org.uk

Acknowledgements: I would like to thank Sir Robert Clerk, Bt, for his kind permission to quote from documents in the Clerk Archive, and to use etchings from his collection to illustrate this article. I would also like to thank Selina Skipwith, director of The Fleming Collection, and David Patterson, senior curator at the City Art Centre Edinburgh for agreeing to host the anniversary exhibition.

FROM TOP Roslin Castle I, 1771, etching and drypoint, 7.9x9.6 cm Salisbury from Wilton Park, 1772, etching and drypoint, 11.8x16.5 cm Elan Stalker II, 1773, etching 15.8x25.2 cm Lincluden Abbey, 1773, etching and drypoint, 8.8x15.3 cm All photography: Delmar Studio, Taunton

Scottish Art News 30

I

IN FOCUS Craigie Aitchison Crucifixion, 1993, oil on canvas THE FLEMING-WYFOLD ART FOUNDATION 31

(1926-2009)

n the lead up to his recent blockbuster exhibition at the Royal Academy David Hockney incurred animosity from his fellow artists and critics by commenting on the lack of old-fashioned technical expertise in contemporary art practice. Art schools in particular came under fire for their apparently inadequate attempts to try to teach ‘the poetry and not craft’, the results being, in Hockney’s words ‘a little insulting to craftsmen’.1 While these comments are generalising and not always of relevance, they bring this issue to public attention. One artist who these charges certainly could not be levied against, however, is the late Craigie Aitchison, whose work displays an almost seamless fusion of craftsmanship and poetic vision.

As a young man Aitchison studied Law at the University of Edinburgh from 1944-6, probably largely because his father was Lord Justice-Clerk of Scotland until his untimely death in 1941. It was not until Aitchison moved to London to study at the Middle Temple, one of the four Inns of Court, that his career path changed dramatically, encouraged by regular exposure to the Old Masters at The National Gallery and the Tate. Eventually in 1952 he enrolled at the Slade. His training remained informal; as a part time student he had no requirements to pass exams or study anatomical drawing, which gifted these years with a freedom envied by many colleagues. His work was immediately admired and he gained a string of awards, attracting critical and commercial attention. He continued to have success in his career, coming to be regarded as one of Britain’s best loved and most widely acclaimed artists.

The Fleming Collection’s Crucifixion (1993) is a pivotal work from the later stages of Aitchison’s career. It is a significant work, not just for the visual strength of execution, but for the way in which it combines on one canvas three of his trademarks – the crucified Christ, the flat plane of brilliant colour, and the Bedlington terrier. The artist is renowned for the selective number of subjects he confronts in his work, of which crucifixion scenes are perhaps the most frequently depicted, appearing at all stages throughout his career. It is important not to see this as a limitation of his work. Rather, his ability to return continuously to the same theme and yet never exhaust its pictorial impact is perhaps his greatest strength as an artist. As perhaps the most instantly recognisable image in Christian art history, the crucifixion has visually saturated the world, from early icon paintings to other twentieth-century expressions of the subject by the likes of Francis Bacon and Graham Sutherland. Yet Aitchison manages to achieve and maintain within his crucifixion scenes, a visual and emotional uniqueness.

Surviving examples of crucifixion scenes can be found from the beginning of Aitchison’s career, such as the exquisite Small Crucifixion (1958) which shows clearly the

Crucifixion, 1958, oil on wood panel, 13.3x8.9 cm © The Estate of Craigie Aitchison; Courtesy, Timothy Taylor Gallery, London

influence of Byzantine icons. He had made numerous trips to Italy alongside fellow artist and student Myles Murphy where he was entranced by medieval religious painting, particularly Giotto’s frescoes in Padua. The grandson of a vicar, religion was always a major backdrop to Aitchison’s life, however it is likely that experiences in his twenties while at art school were just as formative. At the Slade he was told by tutor William Townsend that the crucifixion was ‘far too serious’ a subject to be attempted by such an artist.2 This put-down, rather than reducing his fervour for the subject, only strengthened his commitment to it. Although Aitchison’s crucifixions varied throughout his career, key elements have remained constant – most crucially, the simplicity, or perhaps even austerity of each work on this theme. Rarely do more than a few elements enter the scene, with the majority of images made solely out of the figure of Christ on the cross against the deep planes of colour that impart a sense of landscape. As such, these paintings are best read as hovering between the symbolic meaning of the central figure, and the formal, decorative function of the shapes on the picture’s surface.

In spite of the religious theme, Aitchison’s crucifixions are anything but classic Christian paintings.

They do not convey any traditional sense of narrative, rather emoting a singular, central feeling through their aforementioned austerity. Even the figure of Christ becomes a type or motif, reducing the historical and theological tradition of the crucifixion to a visual symbol. Rather than a literal representation of a man and wooden cross, the two Scottish Art News 32

Landscape with Mountain (Holy Island), 1977, oil on canvas, 38x30 cm © The Estate of Craigie Aitchison; Courtesy, Timothy Taylor Gallery, London

become synthesised through the removal of Christ’s arms, the importance of the emotional meaning of the work overtaking any naturalistic depiction of the visual world.

In fact, these paintings have frequently sat problematically within a religious context. While Aitchison has realised several site-specific commissions, notably in both Liverpool and Truro Cathedrals to great success, the attempt to acquire his work for St Paul’s Cathedral in the 1980s was met with dissent. The formal qualities were largely undisputed, but the paintings’ spiritual meaning was too ambiguous and humanistic for the more conservative members of the clergy. Yet regardless of one’s view on how such works sit within the context of a church, their numinous quality cannot be ignored as shown in a recent retrospective at Timothy Taylor Gallery. Here the white cube gallery space was transformed into a secular chapel, the lighting dimmed so each work could be picked out by spotlight to create the effect of a medieval altarpiece. Perhaps in this setting the works could hover between their spiritual and aesthetic role.

In Crucifixion (1993), the Bedlington terrier, another favourite motif of Aitchison’s is featured. The Bedlington had become something of a trademark in his work, their slight frame and distinctive features a recurring image throughout his career. His constant companions throughout his life and 33

Wayney Going to Heaven, silkscreen printed in colours, 1989, 21.3x16 cm. Courtesy, Bloomsbury Auctions

never simply animals, he painted the Bedlington as he would a friend, symbolising this deeply personal relationship.

From the 1980s after the death of his beloved Wayney, these paintings took on a melancholic air that would eventually feed into his crucifixion images. In paintings such as Wayney Going To Heaven (1989) the motif of the dog takes on a particularly human resonance and finds its visual equivalence in his paintings of the death of Christ. Critics have been quick to point out the visual resemblance between the terriers and sheep – a visual pun of the notion of the ‘Lamb of God’. As this series progressed, the combination of these two seemingly disparate symbols began to find a profound connection that further deepened the symbolic meaning in his work.

By painting his Bedlington into the crucifixion, Aitchison found his own way into the Christian narrative. The terrier is simultaneously a witness to the event, supplanting the role of the saints in medieval imagery, and acting as a reminder of the human feeling of loss. Aitchison uses his own experience as a way to understand the crucifixion, both for himself and the viewer, in a manner that transcends the strictly spiritual, giving the work a more universal appeal. The viewer is able to flit between the two motifs, both of which provide two very different sides of the same coin.

symbolic meaning is always inseparable from their decorative richness. Aitchison always asserted the importance of shape in his work, form and colour remaining the key elements that guide the emotional feeling of the work. In this way his work is closely allied to the theories and practices of modernist painting, most notably relating to the influence of Matisse’s simplified arrangements of colour. As with his hero Matisse, Aitchison refused to see ‘decorative’ as a dirty word in art, instead seeing it as an implicit and necessary component in painting. Crucifixion (1993) demonstrates this emphasis perfectly, the shapes of the two motifs finding an exact balance with the deep red, almost Rothko-esque colour field of the painting’s backdrop. Key to this emphasis on design are the related elements of vertical and horizontal in his work, the strong vertical of his figurative motifs playing against the horizontal planes of the colour field. This visual combination was to find its symbolic equivalent in the image of the crucifixion, this aesthetic balance realised in the opposing planes of the cross.

It would be wrong when looking at Aitchison’s work to ignore his painterly technique. Working with a small brush, he worked paint across the canvas in thin, glaze-like layers, gradually building up the painted surface to achieve a depth and luminosity of colour reminiscent of medieval imagery, and in particular stained glass windows. This consistent handling of paint distanced his work from modernist painting in which often the very medium itself is the subject. Aitchison allowed his use of paint to let form and colour speak simply for themselves although never overshadowing the symbolic function of the work.

Looking at The Fleming Collection’s work, it becomes clear that it is this sense of balance that is key to Aitchison’s crucifixions. The work of many modernist painters relies on tension, particularly between the opposing fields of figuration and abstraction. However, in Aitchison’s oeuvre, this tension is removed, as both elements – the figurative motif of the crucifixion and the abstraction – are explicitly present, found in the shapes that make up the composition.

Both are simultaneously bold and austere, each element requiring the other to produce the immense effect of the work. Crucifixion speaks perfectly of this balance, and can be seen as a definitive example of Aitchison’s achievement as a craftsman and a poet.

William Summerfield is a gallery assistant at The Fleming Collection.

Crucifixion June, 2009, oil on canvas, 142.2x111.8 cm Goat Farm, Brittany, 2005, oil on canvas, 142.2x111.8 cm © The Estate of Craigie Aitchison; Courtesy, Timothy Taylor Gallery, London

1. Maeve Kennedy, in the Guardian Tuesday 3 January 2012.

2. Andrew Lambirth, Craigie Aitchison: Out of the Ordinary, Royal Academy of Arts, 2003.

Despite the spiritual power of his work, their Scottish Art News 34

SCOTTISH ART NEWS ROUND-UP

Museum and Art Gallery, Exeter and Watts Gallery, Guildford. www.artfundprize.org.uk

Several significant new museum acquisitions of Scottish art have

The National Galleries of Scotland and The National Gallery

been made recently, including Arthur Melville’s Lawn Tennis Party

in London have managed to jointly secure Titian’s Diana and

at Marcus (1889) acquired by The Barber Institute of Fine Arts in

Callisto for the public. The work and its companion piece Diana

Birmingham following the success of their exhibition Court on

and Actaeon are frequently cited as among the most important

Canvas: Tennis in Art. The National Galleries of Scotland made two

paintings of Titian’s career, and have become synonymous with the

important acquisitions – JMW Turner’s characteristic watercolour

Scottish National Gallery in Edinburgh since they went on display in

Rome from Monte Mario (1820) and an early Self Portrait (1986-7) by

1946 as part of the Bridgewater loan. As a result of this acquisition,

Alison Watt, the latter presented by the Art Fund to celebrate the

made possible by a combination of individual donors and grant-

reopening of the Scottish National Portrait Gallery.

making trusts, both works will stay on display at all times in either

www.barber.org.uk | www.nationalgalleries.org

Edinburgh or London. www.nationalgalleries.org

The Gallery of Modern Art (GoMA ) in Glasgow has received a

Artist Douglas Gordon has produced a new film The End of

generous donation of fifteen works by French artist Niki de Saint

Civilisation (co-commissioned by Great North Run Culture and

Phalle. The donation was made by collectors Eric and Jean Cass,

Locus+ True Spirit) to be premiered on 5–6 July 2012 at Tyne

assisted by the Contemporary Art Society and is reported to be

Theatre and Opera House in Newcastle. Set in Talkin Head, an

worth £2m. The bequest, which includes significant sculptures by

isolated hill farm in a wooded valley in Cumbria, the film features

This autumn, An Lanntair in Stornoway will show new work by

the late artist means that GoMA now holds the most significant

the burning of a grand piano with panoramas of the Scottish borders

Edinburgh-based artist Helen Macalister (‘At the Foot o’ Yon Excellin’

public collection of her work in the UK.

– Gordon’s first film in England but well within sight of his native

Brae’, 18 August – 28 September). Six major canvases and nine

www.artfund.org | www.contemporaryartsociety.org

Scotland. www.artscouncil.org.uk

related drawings will convey Macalister’s poetic exploration of Gaelic and Scots language and landscape, her highland mountains, braes, roads and bays aligning themselves with single words or

The Glasgow International Festival of Visual Arts, which ran from

The Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation has donated $300,000 to

phrases that draw the viewer deeper into a Hebridean history

20 April to 7 May, has continued to grow in public acclaim. Curated

the new Photography Gallery in the recently refurbished Scottish

redolent with memory and honed survival. www.lanntair.com

by Katrina Brown the festival featured new projects by more than

National Portrait Gallery in Edinburgh. Over a three-year period,

30 Glasgow-based and international arts organisations and artist

the money will provide support for research, exhibitions and new

groups, and included a major public commission by 2010 Turner

publications. This donation follows the foundation’s recent support

Following the success of the most recent winner of the Turner prize,

Prize winner Susan Philipsz. Other highlights included Jeremy

of the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art’s retrospective of

Glagow-based Martin Boyce, another Glasgow artist – film-maker

Deller’s enormous, inflatable Stonehenge and LA-based artist Kelly

Mapplethorpe’s work in 2006 and the major holding of his work as

Luke Fowler – has been shortlisted for this year’s prize.

Nipper’s performance at Tramway, which involved a mass of dancers

part of the touring exhibition ARTIST ROOMS. The gallery, which

www. tate.org.uk

in Russian costume. www.glasgowinternational.org

2012-13 and involving artists from all over Europe, events include

will be known as The Robert Mapplethorpe Photography Gallery,

Halls of Fame in Dumfries and Galloway, during which town halls

will over the coming years feature exhibitions focusing on the work

will be transformed into arenas for dance and music (7–9 / 14–16

of Jitka Hanzlova and Edith Tudor-Hart. www.robertmapplethorpe.org

Scottish artist George Wyllie passed away on 15 May, aged

September), and Engine Tuning in Shetland (August) which will see

90 following a short illness. Wyllie was known for his large-

a giant mechanical bird, constructed from Land Rover parts deliver

scale sculptural pieces which combined eccentric wit with bold

‘gifts of music’ to various locations around the islands.

A grant of £122,500 has been awarded by the Arts and Humanities

conceptual statements. In 1987 his Straw Locomotive, a full sized

www.creativescotland.com

Research Council to The Glasgow School of Art (GSA). In

train carriage made out of straw, was hung from a crane over the

partnership with the Centre for Contemporary Art in Glasgow (CCA) the grant will be used to explore ‘The Glasgow Miracle’, the

river Clyde in Glasgow. Wyllie has been credited for bringing contemporary art practice to the forefront of public life in Scotland,

The Scottish National Portrait Gallery has been announced as

proclaimed renaissance in the visual arts in Glasgow from the late

his work celebrated by a generation of younger artists working in

one of the four shortlisted museums for the 10th annual Art Fund

1970s onwards. In recent years GSA has seen several of its alumni

Glasgow. www.georgewyllie.com

Prize. The prize, worth £100,000 will be announced on 19 June

achieve high profile careers, including Douglas Gordon and Martin

at the British Museum. The prize is awarded to celebrate the

Boyce, and the research will explore the conditions that made this

achievement of projects or developments completed in the past

possible, utilising archive material and new interviews to create an

Roofless, Scotland’s largest outdoor arts programme has been

year, here focusing on the 2011 refurbishment of the museum. The

online resource that will be made available to the public alongside a

launched by UZ Arts as part of the year of Creative Scotland.

three other museums and galleries in competition for the prize are

series of public presentations to be made at the CCA.

Featuring a programme of five large-scale events across Scotland for

The Hepworth Wakefield, West Yorkshire, Royal Albert Memorial

www.ahrc.ac.uk

35

OPPOSITE George Wyllie, Holyrood. Courtesy www.whysman.co.uk ABOVE Alison Watt, Self-portrait, 1986-87, oil on canvas Jeremy Deller, Sacrilege, 2012, Installation. Courtesy the artist. Photo: Angela Catlin

Scottish Art News 36

Graeme Todd, Mount Washu, acrylic, ink and varnish on canvas, 2004,196x292 cm. The Bank of Scotland

Charles Avery, Untitled (The Bar of The One Armed Snake), pencil and gouache on card, 2009, 125x165 cm. City Art Centre, Edinburgh

A PARLIAMENT OF LINES aspects of contemporary drawing Max Graham

Following its debut at the City Art Centre in Edinburgh, an exhibition of work by fifteen contemporary artists who use drawing as an important element in their practice, is set to travel to Orkney and then to Melbourne in 2013

A

Parliament of Lines explores the possibilities of drawing in its contemporary context. Once reserved for describing preliminary sketches and regarded as a lower form of art, today drawing applies to a multitude of practices using a variety of materials.

Artist and curator Euan Gray has brought together works by fifteen practising artists, most of whom are Scottish or who have passed through the Scottish education system, a system which has always promoted the importance of drawing. The title of the exhibition is taken

37

from anthropologist Tim Ingold’s book, Lines. In his book Ingold describes a world where everyone and everything consists of interwoven or interconnected lines. He proposes a new discipline: the anthropological archaeology of the line.

By opening the exhibition with such a provocative reference, Gray indirectly challenges the viewer’s preconceptions of a line and opens a discussion about what drawing is.

In the words of Josef Herman, ‘by distancing itself from the physicality of solid matter, drawing comes closest to the actual workings of a mind.’ It is unmediated thought inscribed on a surface, eloquently described by a young child to the author and psychoanalyst, Marion Milner, as ‘a line around a think.’ Drawing thus offers a direct route to the artist’s intentions and thoughts. It relies on the individual’s way of seeing, making it an intimate practice. A drawing can be direct, spontaneous and economic in its use of lines; equally it can be intricate, planned and carefully executed.

In this exhibition all of the artists have developed a way of working that is their own. They follow no programme or style and they have learned to manipulate their materials through Scottish Art News 38

experimentation and their own sensitive touch. Moyna Flannigan uses fresh gestural marks, giving her inky figures a powerful sense of urgency. In contrast Paul Chiappe’s miniature drawings meticulously reproduce the grainy quality of old photographs through layered veils of graphite.

Euan Gray focuses the exhibition around five themes – figuration, abstraction, landscape, film photography and reproduction, and sculptural investigation. This is not an attempt to categorise drawing, but rather offers a loose structure for the viewer to make comparisons between the artists. For example, Layla Curtis, Sam Griffin, Andrew MacKenzie and Graeme Todd are all concerned in a broad sense with landscape; however their drawing approaches are markedly different.

Curtis’s drawings focus on borders and boundaries and she draws maps using place names. The names have a double function, reading as text as well as a visual mark.

Todd’s landscapes are built up through layers of marks. Pen lines feel their way along mountain contours creating a sense of depth, as clouds of dots suggest atmosphere, while sharp lines cross the picture plane, drawing attention back to the flat, decorative surface. MacKenzie similarly adopts a layered approach, superimposing architectural structures against washed-out landscapes. Exteriors fuse with interiors, bringing the outside in. Griffin combines landscapes with geometric shapes and strange emblems in a surreal game of signs.

Attention is drawn to the different processes by which a drawing develops from its source to realisation. Marie Harnett selects her images from YouTube, painstakingly reproducing stills from the new Sherlock Holmes films, while Euan Gray draws inspiration from old holiday brochures, exploring the risks and unpleasant aspects of the tourism industry. Many of the artists draw from the imagination, evident in Charles Avery’s drawing The Bar of the One Armed 39

Snake, a work from his ongoing Islanders project, in which he documents a typical day in his imagined island. Avery allows his drawings to emerge from a specific point, such as a facial feature, enabling his figures and landscapes to grow intuitively. He leaves old lines, mistakes and accidents visible so that the drawings appear to exist in an unpredictable state of flux. Ainslie Yule similarly draws from his imagination, using the process of drawing to unlock images from his subconscious. Drawings become the starting points for his sculptures.

The exhibition clearly celebrates the intimacy of drawing. Gray draws attention to the diversity of drawing approaches, opening dialogues between the artists, highlighting the similarities and differences. However it could perhaps be argued that the exhibition fails to open up any new areas of enquiry, and questions remain as to whether the exhibition could say something more about the position of drawing in contemporary practice.

In his catalogue essay ‘Drawn in’, Charles Esche detects that contemporary drawings often involve narrative and storytelling. He states that ‘ the modernist question of what drawing represents becomes less and less urgent and is supplanted in importance by the issue of what it might be able to tell us about ourselves and our world.’ Narratives are found in many of the works, most explicit in the work of Charles Avery in whose complex narratives space and time merge. His imagined world contains references to the past, present and future as well as blurring the line between fiction and reality, combining text with images bringing to mind film storyboards. Moyna Flannigan’s drawings set the story of Adam and Eve in a seedy modern setting. David Shrigley’s uncompromising drawings are displayed in the form of animations, filled with humorous narratives of daily life. Paul Chiappe reproduces old photographs, which have

a narrative of their own. He gives these stories an added narrative however through his pencil-point drawing process, choosing to hold on to or omit certain elements and of course deciding to reproduce them on a miniature scale. Even in the abstract works of Callum Innes, a certain narrative can be found. His watercolours tell the story of their making as paint is repeatedly applied and removed.

It is also worth considering the way in which the exhibition challenges the parameters of drawing – where does drawing stop and something else begin? David Shrigley presents drawings in the form of animation in a show largely devoted to works on paper. Alan Johnston’s drawings spread from the canvas on to the walls, while Nathalie de Briey’s drawings are used in the form of installation. Luca Frei has included collages as drawings. Graeme Todd and Andrew Mackenzie’s work use painterly devices, and Callum Innes exhibits watercolours.

Euan Gray does not set out to define drawing nor

A Parliament of Lines City Art Centre, Market Street, Edinburgh 5 May – 8 July 2012 Tel: 0131 529 3993 www.edinburghmuseums.org.uk A Parliament of Lines is a partnership project between the City Art Centre and artist/curator Euan Gray. The exhibition will travel to The Pier Arts Centre in Orkney from 30 March to 8 June 2013 and the RMIT University Gallery in Melbourne from 28 June until 17 August 2013. An accompanying catalogue includes essays by Charles Esche, Murdo MacDonald and Gavin Morrison.

attempt to promote a contemporary style or try to assert boundaries. Quite the contrary, so long as a line can be made on a surface the possibilities of drawing seem endless.

Max Graham is an artist based in London.

OPPOSITE Marie Harnett, Irene, pencil drawing on paper, 2012, 4.8x11.5 cm ABOVE LEFT Moyna Flannigan, The First People II, ink and goache on Japanese paper, 2012, 35x25.5 cm RIGHT Paul Chiappe, Untitled 29, pencil on paper, 2008, 5x3.4 cm. Private Collection

Scottish Art News 40

OPPOSITE Jack Blyth with Henry Willies, curator of Kirkcaldy Museum, discussing a Peploe still life in the Harley Bequest of 1950 ABOVE William McTaggart (1835–1910), Sunset, 1905, oil on canvas, 39x68.5 cm

THE TASTE OF JW BLYTH In 1956 a sm al l se l e ct i o n o f p a i n t i n g s fro m th e Bl yth Col l e ct i o n w a s e x h i b i t e d b y t h e Scotti sh Arts Co u n ci l , t h e o n l y e x h i b i t i o n repre sentati ve o f t h e co l l e ct i o n t o h a v e be e n hel d unti l n o w. Th i s su mme r a s t h e fi n a l 38 pai n ti ngs from t h e co l l e ct i o n a re so l d , Re becca Wal l l o o k s a t t h e l e g a cy o f t h i s s i gni fi cant col l e ct o r

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A

tenacious supporter of Scottish art, John Waldegrave Blyth not only amassed a collection which would later form the core of one of the country’s finest regional galleries, the Kirkcaldy Museum and Art Gallery, but also, through his contributions to exhibitions both north and south of the border, he strove to defend and promote Scottish artists such as William McTaggart and the Scottish Colourists. Yet despite his enormous contribution, this key figure in the history of collecting in Scotland has often been eclipsed by contemporaries such as Sir William Burrell, whose purchasing power exceeded that of the Kirkcaldy linen manufacturer.

This July, however, The Scottish Gallery will draw attention to Blyth’s place in Scottish art history with the first exhibition since 1956 devoted to his collection.

Born in 1873, ‘Jack’ Blyth first began collecting in his early thirties, buying his first paintings in 1909. In his formative years he received no official training in art or art history, and throughout his life the motivations behind his purchases seem to have been largely instinctive, combined with a keen eye for a bargain which perhaps stemmed from his entrepreneurial background as a travelling salesman for the family firm. According to W.J. Macauley, a previous director of The Scottish Gallery, in 1910 Blyth actually funded his first major purchase of a work by William McTaggart, Away to the West by selling his car, an act which perhaps

demonstrates a more impulsive facet to Blyth’s personality, and the beginnings of a collector’s obsession.

Indeed, until around 1920 McTaggart dominated Blyth’s collection, which was formed almost exclusively of his works and those of Sir James Lawton Wingate. Often dubbed a ‘Scottish Impressionist’, McTaggart was born into a modest background in the small village of Aros in Kintyre.

Like his French counterparts, he frequently executed his work en plein air in swift, sweeping brushstrokes, and like them he was fascinated by effects of light and atmosphere, as seen in the exhibition’s Sunset of 1905. Although his bold style would garner similar criticism, it seems to have evolved independently of developments on the continent. Blyth would remain a staunch supporter of McTaggart’s work, even as in later years he began to expand his collection to include new artists such as Walter Sickert, who represented Blyth’s third major artistic passion. In 1954 he curated an exhibition dedicated to McTaggart at The Royal Scottish Academy, to which he lent 23 of his own paintings. His introduction to the catalogue hints at the parallels between the two men, each drawn to art from unpromising backgrounds: ‘Whence came that talent is a mystery... this lad from a croft at the extreme corner of the Mull of Kintyre pursued his own course and became the first and foremost Impressionist Painter in Scotland.’

In the 1920s, although his interest in McTaggart’s Scottish Art News 42

There is no doubt that Blyth also saw the gallery as an opportunity to share the great works of his collection with a wider audience, and he took care to frequently rotate pictures between it and his home, in addition to ensuring that its displays were representative of the collection as a whole

work continued, Blyth’s attentions turned towards a new artist, the Colourist Samuel John Peploe, who would eventually represent more than a third of the collection. Although Peploe had been exhibiting with The Scottish Gallery since 1903, his still lifes were perhaps unlikely to interest Blyth in the early years of his collecting when his taste was focused on depictions of landscape and the natural world. Though quite different in idiom and style, Peploe’s paintings were, like McTaggart’s, suffused with a similar sensitivity to colour.

This could only have appealed to Blyth, particularly in his numerous depictions of the light-filled isle of Iona, and indeed the jewel-like Barra Landscape. Despite his predilection for the natural world, Blyth aimed to be comprehensive in his collecting, selecting those works which would best represent each phase of an artist’s development. So while his first purchase of a Peploe dates to 1924, he would also ‘fill in the gaps’ with earlier paintings such as the quiet masterpiece of 1901, The Lobster. In this perfectly balanced composition, the sweeping curve of the lobster’s claws echo the crisp white form of an accompanying china plate on which a bright yellow 43

lemon makes the taste buds water. Its citrus intensity and the rich red hue of the lobster hums against the subdued brown tones of the background, and seeing it one can easily share Blyth’s admiration for Peploe’s pictures, as expressed in the catalogue of The Scottish Gallery’s 1936 memorial exhibition to the artist: ‘To live with them is sheer delight.’

While Blyth certainly did live with and enjoy his collection on a daily basis, by the time of his death it numbered 237 paintings, and even with the grand dimensions of his Kirkcaldy home, Wilby House, hanging so many works would certainly have proved challenging had it not been for his involvement with the Kirkcaldy Museum and Art Gallery. The gallery was gifted to the Fife town in 1925 by linoleum manufacturer John Nairn, to serve as a first world war memorial and commemorate his son who was killed in the conflict. In that year Blyth was appointed its first convenor, a position which he would hold continuously until his death in 1962, demonstrating his unwavering support for the gallery, visiting at least once a week throughout his life.

While it certainly offered a useful solution to the issue of

wall space, there is no doubt that Blyth also saw the gallery as an opportunity to share the great works of his collection with a wider audience, and he took care to frequently rotate pictures between it and his home, in addition to ensuring that its displays were representative of the collection as a whole.

At the time of his death in March 1962 more than half of his paintings were hanging in the gallery, almost all of which would be purchased by Kirkcaldy Town Council for the sum of £9,000, and it is thanks to this purchase that the gallery now boasts one of the finest collections of art in Scotland.

Blyth had enjoyed a long and fruitful relationship with The Scottish Gallery from where many of the works had been purchased. The Scottish Gallery’s exhibition represents those works which have been retained by the family (including Blyth’s grandson Michael Portillo, who writes the foreword to the accompanying catalogue), many of which have not been publically exhibited for two generations, and all of which are offered for sale. In addition to works by Peploe and McTaggart, it embraces a range of Scottish artists, from fellow Colourists George Leslie Hunter and John Duncan Fergusson, to James

Lawton Wingate and the watercolours of Edwin Alexander, as well as works by English artist Walter Sickert and the French marine painter Eugène Boudin, among others.

Rebecca Wall is a writer based in London.

The Taste of JW Blyth 4 – 28 July 2012 The Scottish Gallery 16 Dundas Street, Edinburgh EH3 6HZ Tel 0131 558 1200 www.scottish-gallery.co.uk The exhibition can be viewed online: www.scottish-gallery.co.uk/jwblyth

OPPOSITE S.J. Peploe, The Lobster, c.1901, oil on canvas, 41x51 cm ABOVE S.J. Peploe, Barra Landscape, c.1903, oil on panel, 15.5x23.5 cm

Scottish Art News 44

As Dovecot Studios celebrate its centenary with a major touring exhibition opening in 2012, Francesca Baseby traces the early experiments and beginnings of the studio’s collaborations with prominent contemporary British and international artists

I

n 1912 Dovecot Studios, formerly the Edinburgh Tapestry Company, began weaving tapestries in a new studio in Corstorphine, Edinburgh. Inspired by the Merton Abbey tapestry studio of William Morris & Co, the fourth Marquis of Bute set up the studio with the intention of weaving tapestries of historical scenes to hang in Mount Stuart, his home on the Isle of Bute. By 1946, with the interruption of two world wars and failing health, the studio took a radical turn and this continues to influence the way Dovecot operates today.

In the two years preceding his death in April 1947, the fourth Marquis’ family had already begun planning for the future of the tapestry studio. The management of it was taken on by a number of family members: the Hon. J.W. Bertie, Lord Colum Crichton-Stuart, Lord Robert Crichton-Stuart, Lord David Stuart and Lady Jean Bertie. Incorporated as the Edinburgh Tapestry Company Ltd in April 1946, the intention was ‘to produce tapestries of a manageable size, modern in spirit and superlative in craftsmanship.’1 Following the advice of the Council of Industrial Design, the tapestry studio approached some of the most famous contemporary British artists namely Henry Moore, Graham Sutherland, Edward Wadsworth, Sir Frank Brangwyn and Michael Rothenstein.

The tapestries were to be no more than 4x4 feet in size, in the hope that they would be more affordable, and therefore easier to sell.

A Bold Step

DOVECOT STUDIOS AFTER THE SECOND WORLD WAR: TAPESTRY WEAVING IN EDINBURGH 45

The use of artists as designers in Britain was not without precedent. The decline of the Arts and Crafts Movement early in the twentieth century had not resulted in a declining interest in design. The Omega Workshops, established in 1913 by the artist and art critic Roger Fry, brought together artists to design items for the home, which were made at the

ABOVE Lida Moser: Dovecot Studios, Edinburgh Tapestry Company (Ronnie McVinnie, John Loufit, Fred Marin, Richard Gordon, Alec Jack, Ian Inglis, Archie Brennan, Sydney Ramage), 1949, (Wading Birds on the loom). National Galleries of Scotland OPOPSITE Edward Wadsworth, Marine Still Life, 1949, woven by Richard Gordon. Private Collection. Photo: Antonia Reeve

workshop in Bloomsbury. Fry was concerned about the state of British interiors and wanted to encourage interior design which was artistic, simple and unified. The objects produced at the workshop included rug designs, printed textiles, furniture and ceramics, many of which were designed by Fry’s co-directors Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant. Though the Omega Workshops were short lived (1913-19), the practice of artists as designers continued. Edinburgh Weavers, established in 1928 by James Morton, invited cutting-edge artists such as Barbara Hepworth, Ben Nicolson and Paul Nash to design woven textiles for home interiors. China manufacturer, E. Brain & Co Ltd (Foley), commissioned designs from Graham Sutherland, Duncan Grant, John Armstrong and Paul Nash in 1934.

The intention of these projects was not only to improve the standard of design in Britain and its ability to export goods, but to improve the life of its inhabitants. This message became more explicit after the war, especially in the area of printed textiles. Major textile manufacturers were approaching many of the same artists as Dovecot, both activities occurring concurrently. In 1943 Henry Moore produced four sketchbooks of textile designs for Ascher textile manufacturers. This design approach quickly gained momentum; a 1948 publication, Textiles by Britain, has a chapter dedicated to leading British textile designers, including Edward Bawden, Cecil Beaton, Vanessa Bell, Graham Sutherland, Hans Tisdall and Julian Trevelyan, all of whom were approached by Dovecot’s directors. The widespread attention given to artist-designed textiles was celebrated in a 1953 exhibition at the Institute of Contemporary Art, sponsored by The Ambassador, a textile trade journal. The purpose of the exhibition was twofold.

Firstly, to display artists’ designs for textiles which ‘contain ideas in colour and form which could be used in a textile studio’.2 Secondly, to show that the ‘arts are not luxuries, Scottish Art News 46

leading gentle lives of grace and piety in a vacuum; they are a strong living force. In a world increasingly critical and increasingly alive to design, all of us are conscious of the need to provide new sources of inspiration which will refresh our ability to produce and sell.’3 The exhibition served to highlight the importance of contemporary, artistic design for the survival of the British textile industry.

Another influence on Dovecot’s activities came from further afield. The practice of weaving tapestries designed by modern contemporary artists developed in French workshops in the 1930s, initiated by Marie Cuttoli. The first work, Les Fleurs du Mal designed by Georges Rouault, was woven in 1932 in a workshop in Aubusson. Rouault’s admiration for the finished work encouraged Cuttoli to commission an ongoing series of tapestries designed by artists such as Pablo Picasso, Georges Braques, Fernand Leger and Raoul Dufy.

Cuttoli’s work was taken further by Jean Lurçat and Denise Majoral with the establishment of an official Association des Peintres-Cartonniers de Tapisserie in 1945, of which Lurçat was President. The tapestries produced under his supervision, with designs by artists such as Matisse and Leger, as well as his own, were woven in the tapestry workshops of Aubusson, France.

By 1947, the success of Marie Cuttoli and Jean Lurçat’s commissioning of modern tapestry had gained international status and an exhibition was put on at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, reworked from previous showings in Paris, Amsterdam and Brussels.

Organised by the Arts Council of Great Britain under the auspices of the French Government, the selection was made to showcase the best of French tapestry weaving and included famous historical tapestries such as The Apocalypse of Angers, The Legend of St Stephen, La Dame à la Licorne from the Cluny Museum, and The Life of the Virgin from the Cathedral Treasury at Rheims. In addition to these were forty tapestries woven in the 1940s to designs by contemporary artists. The fourteen contemporary designers whose tapestries were exhibited were almost exclusively painters, not weavers. Lord Robert, Lord Colum and Commander Bertie all visited the exhibition, as did head weaver Ronald Cruickshank. Although Dovecot’s Board of Directors were not all complimentary about the quality and colour palette of the modern tapestries on display, the French model of inviting artist-designers was clearly an influence on how they were operating from 1946.

The Artist’s Designs Almost all of the tapestries woven in the years 1945-1953 were based on designs for tapestry, not on existing paintings which is an important fact. With the decline of tapestry in 47

the preceding centuries, many tapestry workshops were only surviving through repair work or by copying old paintings and designs in order to avoid new design fees. This was still the case in the Royal Tapestry Factory in Madrid in 1946.

Though Jean Lurçat stressed the importance of designing with the woven medium in mind, many of the tapestries woven in France were copies of existing paintings or prints.

The British artists invited by Dovecot approached designing for tapestry in different ways. Sutherland’s designs for Wading Birds (1949) were small sketches, rather than polished cartoons. He was interested in how his brushstrokes would change as the weavers enlarged and interpreted his work. Though this allowed the weavers a great deal of interpretive freedom, it caused some consternation to Lord Colum: ‘... I completely agree with you that it is hard on us all to have to complete a tapestry from a mere sketch... Still, the Dovecote will make the most of this opportunity and perhaps will out-Sutherland Sutherland!’4 Unlike Sutherland, Brangwyn became very involved in the development of his tapestry, The Wine Press (1947). A considerable amount of correspondence between Brangwyn and Cruickshank has survived in which they discussed the composition, and the depiction of a nude in tapestry: ‘Regarding a nude woman never having been woven in tapestry before, I must say I have never seen one myself. It would add a delicate beauty and joy for ever...’5

Neither Sutherland nor Brangwyn were able to visit the studio in Edinburgh and meet the team of weavers, but others did. In 1949 Henry Moore visited and was met by Cruickshank at Waverley train station. Lord Robert asked him to wear a kilt so that Moore would recognise him: ‘I hope... that not too many other people will be doing the same thing!’6 Moore’s tapestry is at present a mystery. A photograph survives in the National Gallery of Scotland, taken by Lida Moser in 1949, which shows the Henry Moore design next to a loom, which is being prepared by apprentice weaver Archie Brennan. The design features five standing figures, but existing black and white photographs of the finished tapestry show only three. No archival evidence has been found to explain this decision, and the tapestry cannot be traced.

The tapestries designed by Sutherland, Brangwyn and Moore express the variety of styles that Dovecot was working in at that time. The key for the weavers was to create a balance between maintaining the distinctive style of the artist-designer, but adapting the design to suit the woven medium. This was sometimes difficult, as Cruickshank discovered with Cecil Collins. Collins’ design, The Garden of Fools, had a scalloped edge all around the image, that Cruickshank suggested was changed to a straight border. The option of weaving the tapestry with a scalloped border was not possible because of the technically challenging nature

of weaving curves – tapestry is woven on vertical wefts, with the warps generally weaving through them on the horizontal plane. This combination of warp and weft perpendicular to each other creates tapestries with right-angled corners and straight sides. Collins, however, refused this alteration and a compromise was reached – The Garden of Fools was woven as a rectangle, with a colourful scalloped pattern in its border.

Legacy In 1954 Dovecot Studios changed hands, with Harry Jefferson Barnes, Principal of Glasgow School of Art and John Noble, Chairman of the Scottish Crafts Centre becoming directors.

The years 1945 to 1954 had been ambitious and productive, with over fifty tapestries woven. Financially, however, it had been unsuccessful. The directors had hoped to sell tapestries for a modest price of approximately £200 each, but the reality was much larger, in the region of £500 to £1000. After the destruction of the war, very few could afford such luxuries and most were unsold. But despite this, the artistic legacy of their experiment was far-reaching and Dovecot continues to collaborate with both British and international artists today.

Francesca Baseby, formerly Gallery Manager at Dovecot, is currently undertaking an Arts and Humanities Research Council Collaborative Doctoral Award between the University of Edinburgh and Dovecot Studios. www.writingwarpandweft.blogspot.com 1. ‘Contemporary British Tapestry’, The Ambassador, no.7, 1949, p.126.

2. ‘Painting into Textiles’, The Ambassador, no.11, 1953, p.72.

3. ‘Painting into Textiles’, The Ambassador, no.11, 1953, p.73.

4. Letter from Lord Colum Crichton-Stuart to Sax Shaw, 2 March 1950, ETC Box 6, Bute Archives, Mount Stuart.

5. Undated letter, thought to be April 1946, ETC/4/8, Bute Archives, Mount Stuart.

6. Letter from S.R. Dowling to Ronald Cruickshank, 24 May 1949, ETC Box 6, Bute Archives, Mount Stuart.

Weaving the Century: Tapestry from Dovecot Studios 1912-2012 13 July – 7 October 2012 Dovecot, 10 Infirmary Street, Edinburgh, EH1 1LT Tel: 0131 550 3660 www.dovecotstudios.com

ABOVE Sir Frank Brangwyn, The Wine Press, 1947, woven tapestry in wool, weavers unknown, location unknown. Photo: Ron Anderson & Bute Archives, Mount Stuart Michael Rothenstein, Butterflies, 1950, woven tapestry in wool, weavers unknown. Private Collection. Photo: Antonia Reeve

The Art of Modern Tapestry: Dovecot Studios since 1912 Edited by Dr Elizabeth Cumming Published by Lund Humphries, July 2012 Available to purchase from the Dovecot bookshop and online at www.lundhumphries.com

20 October – 16 December 2012 Compton Verney, Warwickshire, CV35 9HZ Tel: 01926 645500 www.comptonverney.org.uk Scottish Art News 48

GLASGOW SCULPTURE STUDIOS

The Whisky Bond, Glasgow Sculpture Studio’s new home © Peter Sandground Teresa Margolles, solo exhibition at Glasgow Sculpture Studios 2012 © Ruth Clark & Glasgow Sculpture Studios

49

The Whisky Bond: A Permanent New Home

fter 24 years in temporary premises Glasgow Sculpture Studios (GSS) will move to a permanent home in the Whisky Bond at Speirs Locks on the

Forth & Clyde Canal. Opening in July 2012 the refurbished building, as their director David Watt explains, will enable GSS to increase the studio complex, enhancing facilities for making sculpture as well as offering greater flexibility for the presentation of work created at GSS in the new galleries.

Watt underlines the importance of being part of a wider cultural community – ‘an exciting prospect for the artists that we support, offering many opportunities for artistic collaboration with organisations based both within and outwith The Whisky Bond.’

The Studios will work to encourage use of their facilities by their new local community in north Glasgow. Much of this is to be delivered through ‘Creative Cargo’, a barge and floating sculpture studio that will travel along the canal delivering workshops for communities. Tracey Peedle, Senior Development Manager of The Waterways Trust Scotland, hopes this will encourage new ways of engaging with the canal, ‘focusing on its artistic inspiration to encourage creativity and new ways of learning’.

In its new location GSS will be able to work with new neighbours Scottish Opera, the National Theatre of Scotland and the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland to create collaborative opportunities. As well as establishing local connections, the new premises will also enable the organisation to realise many of its international programming ambitions, which include a new International Artist & Curatorial Exchange programme developed with partner organisations in Australia, Germany, Ireland, Mexico and Norway.

The strength of GSS lies in its ability to host the production, display, dissemination and understanding of contemporary sculptural practice all under one roof. An arts factory and art gallery operating in an interrelated union, it aims to help artists to produce and audiences to participate.

Alongside its facilities to fabricate sculpture there are artist studios and a research resource with the expertise of 120

professional artists based in Glasgow, including Nathan Coley, David Shrigley and Claire Barclay, as well as national and international visiting artists. Importantly, these resources are intended to support a wide-ranging community at varying stages of their careers, from recent graduates to established artists. Through its annual Gordon Foundation Graduate Fellowship it provides a graduate from The Glasgow School of Art’s Master of Fine Art Programme with the infrastructure to develop their professional practice.

Further increasing their international links, GSS’ Production Residency Programme hosts leading international artists such as Mexican artist Teresa Margolles, whose work was shown in the new galleries earlier in the year as part of Glasgow International Festival of Visual Art. Furthermore, this summer, as a key partner in The Clipperton Project, a cross arts and science project, the new galleries will hold a cross-disciplinary programme of talks, micro-residencies and rolling exhibitions about the project. In March 2012, a team of 20 artists and scientists from nine different countries travelled to the remote island of Clipperton off the coast of Mexico with the aim to ‘address public disassociation with environmental issues by presenting scientific and other relevant information through creative processes’. Through this artistic and scientific collaboration the hope is to increase public understanding of environmental issues, using the project as a springboard from which to approach challenging debates relating to the environment. Part of the research team is the Scottish sculptor Charles Engebretsen whose affiliation with GSS will see the first exhibition of work produced by the project, which integrates science as an investigative field in his work.

(Amy Sales, Head of Programme at Glasgow Sculpture Studios)

www.glasgowsculpturestudios.org www.clippertonproject.com

Scottish Art News 50

EDINBURGH SCULPTURE WORKSHOP

In the Harbour Area of Granton

I

Architects’ images of the covered yard and an artist’s studio (Sutherland Hussey Architects)

51

n a quiet corner of an area targeted for renewal near the harbour of Newhaven, north Edinburgh, it is a surprise to find two buildings under construction which do not fit the usual real estate ideal. The new buildings – a sculpture centre and creative laboratories – soon to house Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop (ESW), are not a commercial enterprise but stand instead for the simple self-interest of cooperative ideas and wish to establish a community in which creativity can flourish.

Within the new development, the workshop sheds for welding or technical production will not only be larger in scale, but will function as sophisticated centres, facilitating a complex network of activities. ESW’s working ethos has developed over its 25-year existence through its strong membership scheme. Studio space, specialist equipment, and professional support network is provided for artist-members, while access to facilities, equipment and sculpture courses is available for non-professional artists, resulting in an interactive work space and frequent contact with a broad audience. The approach has always been to provide a meeting place for creativity on a local as well as an international level.

Rather than having to adhere to a more static programme which a gallery might demand, it has been possible for ESW to generate new ideas, fulfilling its role to foster and encourage endeavour from a wide variety of individuals and groups. In this respect ESW has a good record of supporting sculptors at the right moment in their careers as they work towards becoming established.

Astonishingly, the realisation of this project has been achieved by a very limited number of staff, intelligently led by the Director of ESW, Irene Kernan. Over a five-year period they have managed to raise the target of £4.5m for the first sculpture centre. Supported over these long years of effort by a diverse set of individuals, together they have encouraged a wide range of benefaction which includes a very generous gift of land from the City of Edinburgh. Following this, ESW won the Arts Funding Prize for Edinburgh, a £3m funding award set up by an anonymous donor in Edinburgh, enabling the establishment of an innovative cultural centre which will occupy the other half of the site at Hawthornvale.

Designed by Sutherland Hussey Architects, the character of each unit in the complex reflects its distinct function. The sculpture centre is a more enclosed structure with technical spaces on the ground floor and studio and research spaces above, alongside an IT suite and offices. The adjoining building will have open space for installation and projection, as well as sculpture, with two creative laboratory spaces and ten small work bays. Above all there will be opportunities for diverse groups to interact and participate. A cafe will also make it possible to involve a wider public as it is centrally situated within the complex, looking out on to the Leith-Granton walkway. It is hoped the centre will become an important attraction on this well-used walkway, increasing opportunities to exchange information and to engage the public in an informal way with contemporary visual art, as well as becoming a significant addition to both the cultural and architectural heritage of Edinburgh. www.edinburghsculpture.org Professor Bill Scott (1935-2012)

Professor Bill Scott (1935-2012) PPRSA DA FRBS HRA HRHA Bill Scott was Chairman of ESW during its successful awards from the Scottish Arts Council National Lottery and The Arts Funding Prize for Edinburgh, giving his time and expertise generously in the most difficult of times. He was always clear that ESW should aim for a new building which would create new standards in professional facilities for artists and become a world leader in artists’ provision and support.. He was a constant support throughout ESW’s existence, from the earliest times in 1986 when the Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop Group, which included many graduates from ECA, was formed.

The Sculpture Centre is a fitting testament to Bill’s vision and will proudly carry his name as a tribute and expression of gratitude from artists past and future for his commitment and passion in the delivery of this unparalleled facility. (An extract from a text written to accompany one of ESW’s opening exhibitions, which will feature Bill Scott’s recent work.)

Scottish Art News 52

TRIBUTE

BILL SCOTT 1935–2012

Bill Scott, Talbot Rice Gallery, Edinburgh, 1994. Photo: John K McGregor. Photography Department, Edinburgh College of Art

53

This short tribute to Bill Scott concentrates on his practice and reputation as a sculptor. He had however, equally acknowledged leading roles as Professor of Sculpture at Edinburgh College of Art, President of the Royal Scottish Academy and Chair of The Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop. As can be seen from this illustrious list of positions which Bill Scott held, and from the fact that after his passing so many individuals in the arts pointed to his pivotal role in offering advice and opportunity, particularly to those early in their career, he was clearly a major force for good in the Scottish art world. Yet, despite this well merited public acknowledgement, Scott remained an unpretentious man, greatly admired and deeply respected by all those who had the privilege to know and work with him.

A major retrospective exhibition of Scott’s work will hopefully be organised in the not-too-distant future. Any such survey of his long and sustained development as a significant Scottish sculptor will reveal Scott as concerned with crucially important, recurring themes. His work reflects on our past and present place in the ever-changing natural and constructed worlds, and consequently it is this consistent thematic focus that gives his work its overall unity in subject, content and ideological concern. Throughout his career, however, Scott would regularly adapt his central preoccupations in order to engage and examine a variety of socio-historical contexts – from ancient societies (Marker Series), traditional craft communities (Boatyard Series) and industrial complexes (Rig and Platform) to modern domestic environments (Pad Series). His approach to different kinds of social situation throughout human history was always adaptable – a fact that makes the visual character and appearance – as opposed to the central thematic focus of Scott’s art, so various and appealing.

Needless to say, Scott’s sculpture is never blinkered with the desire to create single, self-contained forms or to make simplistic pronouncements on the ‘human condition’ as many of his contemporaries do. On the contrary his work has always been complex, openly receptive in outlook and open-ended in structure as well as in critical interpretation.

His sculptures are not just objects in themselves but arresting and thought-provoking presences that powerfully evoke in an almost metaphysical way, the natural and socially constructed environments from which they originated. All of Scott’s work demonstrates this need to revisit and re-examine the continuous yet ever-changing relationship between what humankind takes and makes from the natural world and how and for what purpose that material is used across various historical moments.

Within the intellectual and artistic tradition created by the Scottish Enlightenment, Scott’s sculpture is a striking example of the creative power of the ‘Democratic Intellect’ as styled by the philosopher George Elder Davie. Scott’s approach to his art was always polymathic in outlook, drawing on a variety of stimulating and challenging issues from philosophy

to engineering. The daunting problem which he continually strove to overcome in his work was how to create sculptural equivalents to ideas which, although extremely potent, were at the same time ‘intangible stuff’. This seemingly impossible quest obliged the sculptor to adopt a very open approach to his studio practice in which he needed to improvise and experiment with a variety of materials and sculptural techniques from carving and modelling to construction and installation.

Furthermore, the objects that Scott did make were rarely conceived of as pieces in their own right but rather as part of a much larger, interrelated ensemble. He was always keen to set up visual dialogues within his works – through shape, size, placement and the colours that he applied to the raw surfaces of his multi-form creations. This desire to orchestrate his work so that each element has its own identity while, at the same time, is also part of the whole group is very much reflected in the titles the sculptor gave to his major pieces, such as Constructs on a Platform, or Timeless Shires to our Shared Connections and Physical Environments or Environments as Measured Units of Social Behaviour.

This does not mean that Scott was a social utopian.

On the contrary he was never inclined to look at life and its problems in the abstract, but rather gave everything and everyone his full personal attention by respecting their individuality and distinctive vision. It was this receptive attitude which made him such a conscientious and inspiring teacher and mentor. Such was the high esteem in which he was held that after his retirement from his academic duties, people still continued to look to him for support and leadership. This he provided unselfishly and amply through his high office at the RSA; and even more so, with the radical improvements he helped to instigate at the Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop. One of the most distressing consequences of Scott’s unexpected death is that he will not be there to see the surely triumphant opening of ESW’s multi-million pound refurbishment this summer. As his essay published in this issue of Scottish Art News clearly shows, this project was a labour of love and one which would help bring about the kind of creative community that inspired Scott’s approach to his own sculpture. For Bill Scott, art and life in the end were always inseparable.

Bill Hare and Andrew Patrizio.

Professor Bill Scott (1935-2012) PPRSA DA FRBS HRA HRHA Born: 16 August, 1935, in Moniaive, Dumfriesshire. Died: 22 March, 2012, in Edinburgh, aged 76

Bill Scott, Measuring Personal Space, 2011. Photo: Chris Park

Scottish Art News 54

2012 Art Market Round-up As financial storms continue to batter the world economy art buyers

way over pre-sale predictions for the other two top lots in the sale. A

history of Scottish art but few images of Leith Races, one of Scotland’s

the four Colourists. Peploe’s A Still Life of Marigolds was bought by a London

like works that are rare or fresh to the market and if they come from

portrait of Betty Van de Geld, a patron of the Royal Academy, almost

most important sporting and social occasions for 150 years and last held

dealer for £85,000, just above its estimate, while George Leslie Hunter’s

an artist’s studio then they are even more attractive. Any sales with

doubled its estimate at £38,000 hammer price. The same collector

in 1816, have survived. Despite being dirty, relined and overpainted, its

Still Life of Mixed Flowers, estimated at £30,000 to £50,000, failed to find a

pictures that tick more than one of these boxes are likely to do well as

competed with the National Portrait Gallery for a previously unseen

rarity and freshness to the market meant that it more than doubled its

buyer. Buyers have very specific ideas about the type of Colourist paintings

two very different auctions of works by Scottish artists have showed.

and rare Aitchison self-portrait winning it with an above estimate

top estimate of £15,000. Eventually a Scottish private collector defeated

they want – some favouring bold still lifes of roses and fruits, others wanting

The chill economic winds blowing up from the Mediterranean could

bid of £28,000. The sale contained all kinds of props from his studio

competition from the leading London dealers The Fine Art Society with a bid

the startling blue and white pictures of Iona for which Cadell is renowned.

have been on a different planet altogether as a record crowd packed

– crucifixes, objects relating to the Bedlington Terriers he painted,

of £36,000. Its sporting subject may also have been a factor. At Bonhams

But the big prices paid for some paintings have led to some very over-

Bloomsbury Auctions in London for the sale of works by Edinburgh-

even a flock of ceramic, wood and woollen sheep. They had a direct

in Edinburgh a Regency period watercolour of two boys on Musselburgh

excited estimates. The trick is to keep the latter low and let the market

born Craigie Aitchison.

connection to the artist and buyers snapped them up.

Links, near Edinburgh, the oldest functioning golf course in existence, more

decide.

than doubled its top estimate. Two boys with golf clubs and a dog on Old

Most of the 123 Aitchison lots came from his private

More than 300 miles to the north in Edinburgh, a very

world, the house and studio in Kennington, South London, where

different sale at Lyon & Turnbull also pulled in the crowds. Some

Musselburgh Links by the Scottish artist William Douglas fetched £70,000

Will Bennett is the former Art Sales Correspondent of The Daily Telegraph who

he had lived and worked for many years, although these had been

1,000 items from Blair Castle, Ayrshire, which had recently been

hammer price.

now works for the arts consultants Cawdell Douglas.

bolstered with paintings and prints from his estate and from private

sold by the Blair family to the Conservative politician Charles

collections. Only six of the lots failed to sell and the sale realised a

Hendry, went under the hammer. The Blairs had lived there for

established big hitters in sales of works from north of the border, continues

total hammer price of £368,000 as dealers were outbid by a large

centuries and so many of the lots had not been seen on the market

to be extremely selective. At Sotheby’s in London in May, Francis Campbell

contingent of private buyers competing for almost every lot. A

in living memory, including 64 paintings of which only four failed

Boileau Cadell’s The Red Fan sold for a respectable lower estimate £250,000

British private collector paid £50,000 on the hammer for Crucifixion

to sell. Quite a few of these were bought by Ayrshire people who

hammer price (£301,250 with buyer’s commission). At Bonhams sale in

October, described in the catalogue as ‘one of the darker and more

had been eagerly awaiting the auction but the star of the two-day

Edinburgh the previous month Samuel John Peploe’s Casino, Royan fetched

powerful Rothko-esque’ examples of his Crucifixion paintings. That

sale was Last of the Leith Races painted in 1804 by the Scottish artist

a lower £217,250 with commission, but this was far ahead of its £70,000 to

was at the lower end of the estimate but the same buyer had to go

James Howe. The latter is hardly one of the great names in the

£100,000 estimate. A Lyon & Turnbull auction recorded mixed fortunes for

Meanwhile the market for Scottish Colourist pictures, now the

James Howe, The Last Day Of The Leith Races, oil on canvas © Lyon & Turnbull OPPOSITE Craigie Aitchison, A selection of Bedlington Terrier objects and photographs (many of these pieces have been used in Craigie’s works). Sold for £700 Courtesy Bloomsbury Auctions William Douglas, Two boys with golf clubs and a dog on Old Musselburgh Links, 1809, watercolour, 33.5x41 cm British Golf Museum, St Andrews

55

Scottish Art News 56

Books

and image’. Finlay’s interest in the relationship between art and reality

Sarah Coulson, curator at Yorkshire Sculpture Park, presents

an outline history of stone image-making, from the pre-historic ‘Venus

in artistic modernity is exemplified in Rapel (1963), his first collection of

of Willendorf’ through to the contribution by those great modernising

concrete poetry, published with the subheading 10 fauve and suprematist

sculptors of the twentieth century, Brancusi, Moore and Hepworth,

poems. Here Moeglin-Delcroix argues that at the core of Finlay’s work

establishing the idea that this traditional material can also serve new

are two concepts of abstraction – ‘one that detaches itself from the

ideas and concerns.

world from whence it comes, and one that is resolutely constructed

against the world’. While ‘Fauve’ brings to mind words which have

Coulson also introduces the concepts behind the Milestone

Carve at Edinburgh College of Art (2009, part of the wider STONE

been crafted as a sensual experience of things, ‘Suprematist’ suggests

project, a three-year eca research initiative), for which ten international

a ‘deliberate desire for rupture’. By uniting these two contrary concepts,

sculptors carved a new sculpture in a 1-2 tonne block of stone inside

Finlay began to stretch limits which became a central idea within his

the college. Further essays by Joel Fisher look at more practical and

poetry, creating a link between ‘the construction of words and the

factual matters such as the tools used in the craft of stone carving.

construction of the world’.

These essays are not intended as a manual guide but rather, introduce

a sense of the philosophy to working in stone.

The Present Order: Writings on the Work of Ian Hamilton Finlay

another key aspect of Finlay’s work – his relationship to paper and

Caitlin Murray, Tim Johnson (eds)

the desire to create an immediate visual impression in the ‘thirst for

Marfa Book Co. Revised ed. 2011 | paperback £10

concreteness’ in his poetry. This goal of immediacy that Finlay strived

It would be useful to know where the research material

accrued for this important project now resides and how to access it

for was ultimately reached not on paper, but with wood, stone and

as the book itself does not attempt to categorise or catalogue. Stone

Stone: A Legacy and Inspiration for Art

Michael Charlesworth’s ‘Concrete to Garden’ highlights

however is much more focused on the wonder of this earthy and

Published to coincide with the exhibition A Selection of Printed Works at

nature in Little Sparta. Finlay wrote in a letter that the two elements of

fundamental activity and that is its value.

Marfa Gallery, Texas, The Present Order demonstrates the formal and

title and poem establish ‘a corner which would then contain a meaning’,

(Bill Scott)

conceptual diversity of Ian Hamilton Finlay’s printed works, seeking to

which Charlesworth sees as suggesting a desire for space – the space

align them in importance to his garden, Little Sparta, in the Pentland

of a garden. The combination of the spatial-geographical and sensory

Jake Harvey, Joel Fisher, Jessica Harrison, Noe Mendelle Andrew Patrizio (ed)

Sculptor Jake Harvey, who oversaw the STONE Project through the

Hills near Edinburgh. The book deals with selected printed works

stimulus in the garden which Finlay and his wife created produced a very

black dog publishing, 2011 | hardback £24.95

Edinburgh College of Art Milestone Carve, resulting in this publication,

including examples of cards, booklets, prints, books, folding cards and

unusual kind of poem – what Finlay described as ‘a one-word poem in a

will exhibit at Art First, London, 28 June – 18 August 2012. Also

the international poetry journal edited by Finlay, Poor. Old. Tired. Horse.

garden’ with the surroundings ‘conceived as part of the poem’.

Stone is the culmination of worldwide research on the part of a team of

showing in Art First Projects is another of Stone’s contributors,

Many of these were printed through Wild Hawthorn Press, which was

sculptors and a film-maker based at Edinburgh College of Art who have

Edinburgh-based Jessica Harrison who will present Touchstones, a

co-founded by Finlay in 1961 and became the vehicle for his own creative

and range of Finlay’s work, ‘Summer Elephants’ takes a decidedly

sought to establish a faithful record of the conditions and methods

series of stone carvings.

and varied output. Each of these works resonate with themes of mobility,

personal approach, ensuring that Finlay’s playful and comedic nature is

materiality and forms of contingency, all encapsulated in his best-known

not forgotten. Beginning with his initial scepticism of concrete poetry,

medium of concrete poetry and the manipulation of words and meanings

Stephen Scobie allows us to explore the works with him, providing a

utilised in the tradition of working stone.

Although stone as a material is freely available across the

Art First, 1 Eastcastle Street, London W1W 8DD

Though most of the essays deal with the academic depth

which it allows.

personal journey of the understanding of the poet and their evolving

sophisticated cultural purposes, in particular, contemporary sculpture.

friendship. While on honeymoon in Scotland with his bride, Scobie

Throughout history man has been assiduous in his efforts to identify

writing plays, poems and short stories from his teens onwards. During

paid a visit to Hamilton Finlay as part of his PhD research project on

where the most usable stone is located, and these special places –

the early 1960s he became interested in concrete poetry, in which

contemporary Scottish poetry, intending to ask ‘brilliant questions…

quarries – have been worked so long that they have become visually

the placing of words is not dictated by syntax, instead forming on the

to reveal the shallowness of his work’. Instead he found himself ‘in the

awe-inspiring sites in their own right. Because of their vast scale they

page an image which discloses its meaning by juxtaposing sounds,

presence of sheer, absolute, and undeniable genius’, the ‘voice of the

can evoke sensations akin to being in a large cathedral, while others,

shapes or references. The confidence in his own ability and a strong

Classical tradition’ and the ‘most advanced, experimental poet we had

through the patterns of working, give the impression of mark-making

sense of direction within his work reveals Finlay’s consistency of

ever encountered’. Scobie’s anecdote that Finlay dated his first letter to

at its most fundamental – drawing in stone. Stone offers a photographic

vision, ultimately leading him to compose poems which would be

him ‘3 Jumy, -67’, and apologised that his slip of the pen ‘must be a sort

journey, the images giving a feel of the passage of time, and the scale

inscribed into stone, becoming a part of the natural landscape which so

of summer elephant’ shows how Finlay’s works are animated through

and grandeur of this material.

influenced his works.

the whimsical nature of the way in which they are constructed. His

work enlivens an interest in the ideas that ‘modern liberal democracy

world, there are special places which provide the resources for more

Tel 020 7734 0386 | www.artfirst.co.uk

The book reflects upon the people and their working

Finlay always had a strong sense of himself as an artist,

While each chapter in The Present Order deals with a

conditions in these spaces and their use of time-demanding processes.

different aspect of Finlay’s poetry, and therefore the complexities of

ignored or suppressed’ by fusing them with an obsession with Classical

It is an activity for those with a long-term view who are able to endure

his creative process, some of the most interesting essays deal with the

‘confessional’ poetry, producing a universal and intelligible work, the

long hours and plan serious results. These people are imbued with the

progression of his work and the connections between poetry, art and

depths of which encompass each of the art forms they employ.

(Sophie Midgley is a gallery assistant at The Fleming Collection.)

characteristics of the stone itself. This is observed in a quote from the

A new book on the work of Abigail McLellan (1969–2009), known

gardening, and the infinite cross-overs between them.

short essay by film-maker Noe Mendelle: ‘We heard her before we saw

for her pared-down images set against richly-worked backgrounds of

her, as the rhythmical pounding of the hammer echoed through this

saturated colour, with a text by Matthew Sturgis will be published by

with the difficult issue of the categorisation of Finlay’s work, and even

vast theatre. As I got closer to her I could feel the vibration through

Lund Humphries in association with The Rebecca Hossack Gallery in

the definition of his position as poet, artist or gardener. Moeglin-

my feet, shaking my entire body, making it impossible to keep a steady

September 2012 – the first monograph published on the artist.

Delcroix discusses how a body of work which will ‘ceaselessly examine

hand while filming. Despite being extremely close to her, she went on

Priced £35, there will also be 100 books available in a specially

its own limits and seek to surpass itself’ can ever be pinned down,

working with only occasional looks straight into the camera.’

designed slipcase with a limited edition print, priced £250.

especially as ‘concrete poetry is meant to exist in a space between text

57

Anne Moeglin-Delcroix in the essay ‘Poet or Artist?’ deals

Scottish Art News 58

2012 Callum Innes, The Regent Bridge, 2012 (artist’s impression)

PREVIEW

Edinburgh Art Festival

overlooking the Royal Botanic Gardens of Edinburgh will display

various venues

works from the Montreal-born artist’s time in the small town of

For the full 2012 Edinburgh Art Festival listings visit:

Woodstock, N.Y., where he reintroduced figuration to his paintings;

www.edinburghartfestival.com

cartoon-like in quality, they began to incorporate images familiar to

Tel: 0131 226 6558

him since childhood – from the hooded figures of the Ku Klux Klan, to everyday objects such as lightbulbs, shoes and cigarettes. When

This year the Edinburgh Art Festival will showcase a series of new

these paintings were shown for the first time in 1970 they proved

public art commissions and over 45 major exhibitions in galleries,

highly controversial but rapidly gained critical recognition. The ‘late’

(2 August – 27 September), exploring the transformation of spaces

museums and artist-run spaces across the city, as well as further

paintings made during the last thirteen years of the largely self-taught

and reality in an installation in which an unsuccessful experiment

‘pop-up’ shows, some of which will be held in outdoor venues.

and politically aware Abstract Expressionist’s life are now widely

starts to live its own life. OWWO will be shown at Summerhall until

regarded as among the most compelling and influential works of the

27 September, exhibiting works by women artists and, in a radical

late twentieth century.

move, only admitting women to the exhibition. Among many more

that the diaries of the artist will have been on public display. For Roth,

exhibitions at Summerhall, conceptual art collaboration Art &

art and life flowed readily into each other and much of the material

Kandinsky: Symbolist Landscape in Europe 1880-1910 (until 14 October),

Language will display two large works from 1973 alongside items

for his artistic output came from his everyday experiences. He kept

while the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art will play host to

relating to the group’s famous Index installations as well as bookworks

a diary throughout his life which became not only a space to record

two of the most discussed artists of this year in Picasso and Modern

and ephemera from this influential period of linguistic conceptualism.

appointments, addresses, lists and deadlines but also ideas, drawings,

British Art (4 August – 4 November) and Edvard Munch: Graphic

John Bellany at 70 at the Open Eye Gallery showcases five decades

photographs and poems. His diaries, therefore, teem with graphic

Works from The Gundersen Collection (2 August – 23 September).

of the artist’s work, consisting of paintings, watercolours, prints and

exuberance and proved a rich source for his work.

The Scottish National Portrait Gallery will show Roderick Buchanan:

drawings (13 August – 4 September). Edinburgh Printmaker’s Cheer

Legacy (14 July – 16 September), an exhibition which explores identity

Up! It’s not the end of the world… (2 August – 8 September) reflects

Drawings 1963-93 (4 August – 20 October) focuses on the

and politics through installations, film and photography. In Legacy,

on our fascination with the ‘end of time’, and will include works by

instructional drawings which were created in order to produce his

commissioned by the Imperial War Museum’s Art Commissions

Damien Hirst, Andy Warhol, Jake & Dinos Chapman and Martin

sculptures. Displayed in three distinct groups, the drawings include

Committee, Buchanan explores the impact of the Troubles in

Barrett, each displaying how themes of apocalypse have always

private studio drawings relating to sculptures made between 1960-4,

Northern Ireland through the stories of two Scottish flute bands.

provided a fertile source of ideas and images for visual artists.

fabricator’s drawings from 1964 and formal ‘portrait’ drawings made

in the 1970s by Judd from his sculptures, often long after the works

and artist Ian Hamilton-Finlay in Fewer Laws, More Examples at

emerge around Edinburgh’s historic monuments and public spaces as

of the gun, creating a domino effect as each speaker sounds in turn

had been made.

Summerhall (2 August – 27 September), which investigates Finlay’s

part of the EAF Promenade Programme. Highlights will include a new

along the timeline from Calton Hill to Edinburgh Castle. Edinburgh-

fascination with the French Revolution through his prints and object

sound installation by 2010 Turner Prize winner Susan Philipsz, who

born Callum Innes will work for the first time with light, and in

Guston’s later paintings from 1969 to 1978, in the first exhibition

multiples. Summerhall, a new art centre established this year on

will respond to Edinburgh’s famous One o’clock Gun with Timeline.

collaboration with Ingleby Gallery and EAF, Edinburgh’s historic

of the American artist’s work to be staged in Scotland (Philip

Edinburgh’s Southside and formerly home to the Royal Dick School

The invisible lines created across the city in 1861 by sailors using

Regent Bridge will be transformed by Innes from a dark tunnel into a

Guston: Late Paintings, 25 July – 7 October). The naturally-lit rooms

of Veterinary Studies will also show Robert Kusmirowski: Pain Thing

electrical cables to ensure the timing of the gun was accurate will be

celebratory arch.

During the 2012 Festival the Fruitmarket Gallery will be

showing Dieter Roth: Diaries (2 August – 14 October), the first time

At Talbot Rice Gallery, Working Papers: Donald Judd

An exhibition at Inverleith House will explore Philip

59

The Scottish National Gallery will show Van Gogh to

Scottish art is represented by the likes of concrete poet

Newly-commissioned work by artists and collectives will

Ian Hamilton Finlay, Carrier Strike!, 1977 Philip Guston, Riding Around, 1969. Courtesy of the Estate of Philip Guston

retraced as Philipsz’s voice calls out each day in response to the firing

Scottish Art News 60

The Festival is supported by a wide-ranging events

Studio 58: Women Artists in Glasgow since World War II

programme throughout August, including artists’ talks, dedicated

7 July 2012 – 29 September 2012

workshops, family days and late night events, including the specially

Mackintosh Museum, The Glasgow School of Art

commissioned Tourist in Residence. For this, Edinburgh-based artist

167 Renfrew Street, Glasgow G3 6RQ

Anthony Schrag will run a series of unique participatory tours

Tel: 0141 353 4500

which invite the viewer to engage with the city in different ways. By

www.gsa.ac.uk/exhibitions

borrowing techniques of Parkour Schrag will facilitate for his audience

Open: Monday–Friday 11am–5pm

a different experience of architecture and of the city that surrounds them.

Saturday 10am–5pm, Sunday closed

(Sophie Midgley) Glasgow’s international reputation for producing successful artists has long been the subject of discussion. A flow of talent from the city over the years has firmly established its centrality within the visual arts. Notable in this has been the strong presence of its female artists, born, educated or working in Glasgow, an impressive list that includes Turner prize nominees Christine Borland, Cathy Wilkes, Lucy Skaer and Karla Black. Yet the work of their female predecessors has often been neglected. While the recent Glasgow Girls exhibition in Kirkcudbright in 2010 highlighted women artists in the period 18901930, less attention has been paid to those following. Studio 58, an exhibition and accompanying publication, aims to redress this with a focus on the work of artists in the years after the second world war, placing contemporary artists within the context of the rich lineage of women’s art in the city.

Set within the framework of The Glasgow School of Art

and taking in the work of fifty artists who have studied or taught there, the exhibition has gathered works from museums and private collections, many of which have been previously unseen or seldom viewed. Glasgow Museums, the Hunterian Collection and Glasgow Women’s Library have all loaned work as well as the school’s own archives and collections. Particular highlights include work by Ivy Proudfoot, a female sculptor who has been somewhat overshadowed by her more famous male contemporaries, and the fashion illustrations and photographs of Garcia Hunter, who was producing work for newspapers like the Glasgow Herald in the 1950s and 60s.

Other artists to be featured include Margaret Morris, Mary Armour and Kathleen Mann, and those following them such as Joan Eardley,

Victoria Morton, Stenographia (detail), 2011, mixed media, 71x34x34 cm Private Collection, London. Photo: Ruth Clark Cathy Wilkes, I Give You All My Money, 2008, Mixed media installation, dimensions variable Installation view The Renaissance Society at the University of Chicago, Chicago, 2012.

Courtesy the artist and The Modern Institute/Toby Webster Ltd, Glasgow Photo: Tom Van Eynd

Margaret Sandeman, Bet Low and Sam Ainsley and younger artists Cathy Wilkes, Claire Barclay, Victoria Morton, Hayley Tompkins and Karla Black. It has been organised around four thematic strands of ABOVE Dieter Roth, Notebook, 1967 (detail) Hardcover leatherbound diary with drawings, coloured sketches, collages © Dieter Roth Estate. Courtesy Hauser & Wirth

landscape/still life, body/self, printed matter and photography/film.

on women artists this summer. The Glasgow Women’s Library has

On being asked why Glasgow has been such fertile ground

Coincidentally there are several other events focusing

for female artists, Dr Sarah Lowndes, the exhibition’s curator, points

commissioned new writing and art work from women artists and

to the historically close relationship between the independent labour

writers as part of their 21st anniversary celebrations, while Paisley

movement and the suffragettes. Lots of the women featured in the

Museum will hold Equals Exhibition, championing a century of

exhibition were not only artists but educators and campaigners

female artistic creativity. There are plans to draw all these events

too, fighting for causes including women’s rights. There is a strong

together with a symposium to accompany Studio 58, to be held on

political and social conscience to the city that runs through the work

25 September. With so many successful women artists currently

of many of the artists who have studied and worked there, evidenced

emerging from Glasgow it seems the time is right for a closer look at

in the left-wing agenda of later organisations in the city such as

the considerable artistic legacy which they have inherited.

Garcia Hunter, illustrations, c.1960s, hand painted on card Courtesy GSA Archives and Collections

Variant and Transmission Gallery, and identifiable today in the work of artists like Cathy Wilkes and Karla Black.

61

Katie Baker is an artist and writer based in London.

Scottish Art News 62

Mark of Beauty

tremendous impetuous to abstraction and had a strong influence on

7 August – 3 September 2012

the subsequent development of Scottish modernist painting.

45 Broughton Street, Edinburgh EH1 3JU

Tel: 0131 556 7707

strongly opposing opinions and attitudes. For some people

www.uniongallery.co.uk

abstraction stands as one of the finest achievements of the modernist

Open: Monday – Saturday, 10.30am–6pm, Sunday 12–6pm

movement; for many others on the other hand, it epitomises all the

From its inception abstraction has always attracted

misunderstandings and assumed failings that have been levelled ‘The artist goes towards maturity through a succession of acts of

against Modernism. Now with the era of Modernism having been

taste, decisions of taste. In the course of these he comes to terms

superseded, the critical pre-eminence which abstraction once

with the art preceding him.’

enjoyed through the powerful promotion of critics like Clement

– Clement Greenberg Four Scottish Painters, The Fruitmarket Gallery, 1977

Greenberg has also passed. Today its importance is relatively unappreciated, and, for the time being at least, abstraction is forced

The history of Scottish abstract painting has still to be written. When

to endure a rather peripheral existence in the contemporary art

this happens it should not only be a prestigious affair – William

scene.

Johnstone to Callum Innes – but also a fascinating and complex

story of shifting changes in taste and influence. During the 1920s

had managed to remain a vibrant presence, with a notable number

17 November 2012 – 27 January 2013

Johnstone was the great pioneer of abstract painting in Britain, and,

of artists from different generations producing exciting work of high

Scottish National Gallery, The Mound, Edinburgh EH2 2EL

like many of his Scottish successors working in abstraction, produced

aesthetic quality. This forthcoming Edinburgh Festival exhibition,

Tel: 0131 624 6200 | www.nationalgalleries.org

much of his art in London. Despite this however, Johnstone always

Mark of Beauty, although relatively modest in scale, has been carefully

Open: daily 10am–5pm

remained a Scottish Borders man at heart, and throughout his career

curated to bring together for the first time a group of artists who

his art continued to be inspired by his love of the rolling landscape of

have dedicated their distinctive talents to expanding the creative

Born into a family of fishermen and boat builders in Port Seton,

his birth place. That interconnection of romantic association between

and challenging possibilities which abstraction continues to offer

a small fishing village on the east coast of Scotland, Bellany’s

abstraction and landscape was a notable feature of Scottish modern

– to both the ambitious painter and the attentive viewer. These

early works depicted this immediate environment. Steeped in

painting well into the years after the second world war as can be

selected artists – all of whom share a gestural approach to abstract

Calvinism as a child, his depictions elevated this life to a symbolic

seen for instance in the work of a later distinguished abstract painter

painting – comprises established figures like John Maclean and Fred

level. In paintings such as Kinlochbervie (1966) the fisherman in

like William Gear. From the 1960s onwards however, there emerged

Pollock, mid-career painters such as Russell Colombo, Iain Robertson,

the background appears as a crucified figure and the fishermen at

a different kind of Scottish abstraction which distanced itself from

Clare Wardman and Alan Shipway and younger talents like Trevor

the gutting table in the foreground resemble The Last Supper. The

Romanticism, preferring to look to High Modernism and the best

Jones and the newly graduated Zara Idelson, the first winner of the

beginnings of this series of works, which drew directly on personal

of American painting for inspiration and guidance. For these later

prestigious Abstract Critical Newcomer national award this year.

experience with a wide knowledge of the Old Masters and the myths

abstract artists – like their transatlantic counterparts – the purely

and symbols that sustained them, can be traced back to his student

visual within the demands of the pictorial, became paramount in

Scotland either by birth, education or residency. Through sustained

days at Edinburgh College of Art. A selection of these large-scale

judging the aesthetic achievement of their painting.

practice and dedication they all have developed their own individual

paintings of Port Seton will be on display in the exhibition, originally

Kinlochbervie, 1966, oil on hardboard, 243.5x320 cm. Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art

Within the Scottish art world however, abstract painting

All those included in Mark of Beauty are connected to

John Bellany: A Passion for Life

way of painting which, it has to be said, probably has little to do with

shown in a bold move by artist, on the railings outside the Royal

with Modernism causing it to develop in it own distinctive manner.

their nationality, their gender or their age. In the end what crucially

Scottish Academy.

For instance, apart from the notable exception of Alan Davie,

matters is their individual skill and vision in creating the artistic

Scottish abstractionists have never been inclined to associate their

quality of their work, which gives to the attentive and appreciative

which include various family members as in the 1966 portrait of the

art with the mystical and spiritual concerns which motivated the

viewer an immediate, yet sustained visual sensation, of exceptional

artist’s father dressed in work clothes, cigarette in mouth, and in The

work of the great abstract innovators like Mondrian, Malevich and

and authentic pictorial beauty.

Bereaved One (1968) showing his recently widowed grandmother

Scottish abstraction has had a particular relationship

Kandinsky. On the whole Scottish abstract painters have preferred

Bellany’s closeness to his family is represented in paintings

lying in bed with the Bible open before her. (Several variations of this

looking to the work of Picasso and Matisse. For although neither

Bill Hare is a curator and writer and Honorary Teaching Fellow in Scottish

image were used by Bellany in a series of paintings in subsequent

of these modern masters totally abandoned traditional subject

art history at The University of Edinburgh.

years.) The exhibition also includes work influenced by a trip to

matter, in their different ways, they both opened up radically new

East Germany in 1967, which brought into his paintings, in a deeply

possibilities for the expressive power of form and the intensification

terrifying way, figures in the striped pyjamas of the concentration

of colour. In fact much of Matisse’s Notes for a Painter reads like a

camps.

manifesto for abstraction with such statements as – ‘painting is the art of arranging in a decorative manner the diverse elements at the painter’s command to express his feelings. The entire arrangement

Alan Shipway, Halcyon River, 2012 Zara Idelson, Boconnoc II, 2012, acrylic and pigment on canvas

During the 1970s his paintings began to include surreal

imagery in which strange sea creatures, often half-human, are shown against the sea. In the late 1970s and early 1980s his paintings

is expressive.’ The American Abstract Expressionists certainly

became more directly expressionistic, and after a liver transplant

responded to this belief that form and colour have expressive force

saved his life in 1988, he executed a series of works directly reflecting

in themselves through their direct visual impact. This commitment

his experience. Following this Bellany produced more richly-coloured

to the independent power and authority of form and colour gave

allegorical paintings which convey a renewed energy and optimism

63

Scottish Art News 64

as he travelled the world and set down roots in Italy, England and

Craig Coulthard – Forest Pitch

Scotland.

Forest Pitch, Buccleuch Estate, near Selkirk, 21 July 2012

Such a survey gives the viewer a fuller understanding

of Bellany’s life and art and the progression of his work, most

www.forestpitch.org Ticket enquiries: tickets@forestpitch.org

immediately evident perhaps in his use of colour – early earthy, darker tones give way later to a much brighter, lighter palette.

When Craig Coulthard was growing up in Germany, he liked a

Yet, initially, at a time when modernism and abstraction were so

kickabout as much as most other small boys. It gave the Edinburgh-

dominant, Bellany bravely re-established a narrative, figurative art

based artist a sense of belonging, he reckons, helped him bond and

from which he has never deviated. (Briony Anderson)

integrate with the German kids. Rather than scrambling about in jumpers-for-goalposts childhood, however, Coulthard’s games took place in a forest, undercover of an all-encompassing blanket of trees that gave the games a more dramatic and mysterious edge.

Coulthard revisited his old playground a couple of years ago

while on a residency in Düsseldorf, only to find a razed and abandoned site. It was a similar story in Cathkin Park, the former home to the now defunct Third Lanark FC in Glasgow, where Coulthard played as a teenager, and where the overgrown trees lent the environment a moody air. Flying over the Borders en route home from Düsseldorf, Coulthard was similarly struck by the dense impenetrability of the treelined landscape below and what might just be at play beneath.

All of which goes some way to explaining the thinking

behind Forest Pitch, Coulthard’s large-scale spectacle that forms Scotland’s contribution to 2012’s Cultural Olympiad, which offers artistic responses to the Olympic Games themselves. Starting with two football matches taking place over one day on private land on the Buccleuch Estate just outside Selkirk in the Scottish Borders, Forest Pitch will field four teams – two male, two female – made up of players Photo: Angie Catlin

of non-UK origin, but who have been granted Leave To Remain here this century.

‘Football has always been a big thing to me,’ says Coulthard,

who is overseeing all aspects of Forest Pitch, from team training

the Old Firm,’ Coulthard observes, ‘but beyond that there are hundreds

sessions to team shirts designed by school-children, ‘and has been as

of thousands of people who go and watch their local teams play at

influential as music and visual art, so I think it’s natural that my work’s

amateur level. I wanted to highlight that football can be a unifying

going to be about things I’m interested in.’

thing rather than a destructive one, and that football doesn’t have to be

about power, money and tribalism.’

Forest Pitch isn’t the first time Coulthard has looked to

football for inspiration. Indeed, popular culture of all forms has

been explicit in Coulthard’s work since his time on the MFA course

apparent for a couple of decades, when trees planted to mark out the

at Edinburgh College of Art prior to co-founding the still active

shape of a football pitch after the games will at last become visible

independent artspace The Embassy in Edinburgh. Football strips, flags

when the existing plantation that envelopes them is cut down. ‘It will

and t-shirts are paramount, while Coulthard’s band vehicle, Randan

grow and change into this really odd site,’ says Coulthard, ‘and I hope it

Discotheque, released a single, Heather the Weather, in homage

becomes something less tangible as well, and that people will try and

to iconic Scots TV weather-girl Heather Reid. As tartan-tinged an

understand their environment a bit more, and that the people who take

anthem as it gets, Heather the Weather’s chucking-out-time sing-along

part in the games will take something away from the experience that

infectiousness is a crossover smash-hit in waiting.

matters.’

With this in mind, Forest Pitch’s long-term effect will not be

While Forest Pitch possesses a similar common touch, the contradictions of such a wilfully inclusive work taking place in a country

Neil Cooper is an arts writer and critic based in Edinburgh who writes on

where the so-called ‘beautiful game’ has been tainted by sectarianism

theatre, music and visual art. He currently writes for The Herald, Map, and The

is plain to see. As is too the sport’s capitalist excesses that have

List, and has also written for The Times, The Independent, and The Scotsman.

recently resulted in Rangers’ financial collapse. As with some of Jeremy The Bereaved One, 1968, oil on hardboard, 91.5x91.4 cm My Father, 1966, oil on hardboard; 122x91.2 cm. Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art

65

Deller’s civic-minded work, Forest Pitch is something of a reclaiming of the original people’s game’s roots. ‘In Scotland football is dominated by Scottish Art News 66

Victoria Crowe

the influence and specificities of place are clearly identifiable in each

painting, further revealed in her depictions of Venice, are among

12 September – 5 October 2012

painting, with interesting differences in the use of symbolism and

the core works of the show. Here her personal experiences of the

Browse & Darby, 19 Cork Street, London W1S 3LP

colour palette between the Venetian and Scottish works. Whereas the

city are recorded alongside the mental processes of reflection and

Tel: 020 7734 7984

Venetian works take on softer, earthier tones with a greater use of her

memory which shape her compositions. There is also an element

www.browseanddarby.co.uk

characteristic combination of interior and still life, works such as Rosa

of heightened realism to the Venice paintings, as elusive titles

Open: Monday – Friday 10am–5.30pm, Saturday 11am–2pm

Proprina visits the Back Garden in Winter and The Shortest Day have an

such as Reflections on the City and Thoughts on the City could be

ethereal quality entirely constructed by a muted colour palette and by

seen to reflect both an impartial viewing of Venice, and the artist’s

the way in which she expertly captures the otherworldly experience of a

deeply personal identification with and connection to the city. In

strength in her eagerly anticipated solo exhibition at Browse & Darby

snow-covered Scottish landscape.

Studio Venice, Mirrored View, the reflection of images in a mirrored

in September. The show begins a series of new reflections on Crowe’s

surface and the displacement of patterns, sketches and the female

work with a solo show opening at The Scottish Gallery later this year,

element in her symbol-strewn Venice paintings, snow unifies the surface

head evoke Crowe’s earlier works where symbols are used to such

and a tapestry of her painting, Large Tree Group, currently being woven

of her Scottish landscapes. Its transformative power is employed in

powerful effect. In this work, however, the intricacies of the symbols

by Dovecot Studios. Crowe’s distinguished career, spanning almost five

these works to create a reflective surface which elevates the natural

take on a more personal meaning as the artist builds a new Venice –

decades, has led to her being recognised as one of Scotland’s leading

world to a state of intensity, and onto which a complex synthesis of

it is her experience that is depicted, rather than the skyline.

artists. Her eclectic and energetic range consists of landscapes, still lifes,

human emotions can be projected. Conversely, in the works depicting

portraits, self-portraits and interiors, though often her works defy this

Venice, fragmented memories of the artist’s journeys through the city

most predominantly the natural landscape, she composes a new

kind of categorisation, instead combining different aspects of each to

are reconstructed by disparate symbols, which are sensitively combined

landscape, rooted in direct observation, yet amplified through its

produce a far more striking depiction of the subject.

within the finished work. Here, the transformation occurs as each of the

rendering in paint. In Crowe’s most recent work the landscape

Victoria Crowe’s instantly recognisable and emotive works take on a new

In a similar way to how Crowe uses colour as the unifying

Through Crowe’s interaction with an environment,

individual elements transcend a purely decorative function to become

resonates with a luminosity of light, and in works such as Blue Thaw

paintings, created and depicting the two places – the Scottish Borders

integral aspects of a wider narrative whole, the delicate interplay

and Blue Snow and Fiery Trees, the trees become almost abstract,

and Venice – between which she lives and works. Though Crowe’s

producing a multi-layered and mysterious effect.

emerging from a textured background of paint and vivid colour,

recognisable core themes and imagery are a constant throughout,

truly articulating the spirituality of landscape.

Browse & Darby will showcase Crowe’s most recent

The influence of Italian light and landscape on Crowe’s

The show coincides with the publication of the first

complete monograph on Crowe’s work by Duncan Macmillan, which considers both Crowe’s early formative work and the most recent, with their intertwined themes of memory, reflection, and of course, the natural world. Macmillan argues that with these new works comes a sense of spaciousness, as the paintings themselves become ‘lighter in tone and more elegiac’; the deftly-treated subject matter, however, remains a constant. The familiar naturalness of Crowe’s imagery is easily assimilated by the viewer. However it is her ability to capture the ‘simple reminders of the other thoughts that we always carry with us’ which produces the startling selfreflection of our own attachment to objects and places. This reworking of the everyday into a memorandum which conjures personal reflection and memories for the artist instinctively holds a mirror to the viewer. (Sophie Midgley)

rough jacket artworks copy_Layout 1 04/05/2012 14:26 Page 1

VICTORIA CROWE

Victoria Crowe studied at Kingston School of Art from 1961-5 and then at the Royal College of Art, London, from 1965-8. She worked as a part-time lecturer in the School of Drawing and Painting at Edinburgh College of Art for thirty years while developing her own artistic practice.

She is a member of the Royal Scottish Academy (RSA) and the Royal Scottish Society of Painters in Watercolours (RSW). She has shown widely throughout the UK and undertaken many important portrait commissions. Her work can be seen in university and government collections, national galleries, and a large number of private collections worldwide. She is represented in Edinburgh by the Scottish Gallery and in London by Browse and Darby.

Victoria was awarded an OBE for Services to Art in 2004, and from 2004-7 was a senior visiting scholar at St Catharine’s College, Cambridge. In 2009 she received an Honorary Degree from the University of Aberdeen and in 2010 was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh.

The artist lives and works in the Scottish Borders and Venice.

For full details of her CV and other information on the artist’s work, please go to: www.victoriacrowe.com

Duncan Macmillan, HRSA, FRSE, is Professor Emeritus at the Department of Fine Art at the University of Edinburgh.

He was Director of the Talbot Rice Gallery (1979–2004), Curator of the University of Edinburgh Galleries and Collections (1988–2002), and has been an art critic for The Scotsman since 1994. He is an award-winning author and his previous publications include: Painting in Scotland – The Golden Age (1986); Scottish Art 1460–1990 (1990); Symbols of Survival – The Art of Will MacLean (1992); The Paintings of Stephen Campbell (1993), Scottish Art in the Twentieth Century (1994); Elizabeth Blackadder (1999); and F.C.B. Cadell: The Life and Works of a Scottish Colourist 1883–1937 (2011).

DUNCAN MACMILLAN

Victoria Crowe by Duncan

VICTORIA CROWE

VICTORIA CROWE DUNCAN MACMILLAN

This is the first complete monograph on Victoria Crowe’s work to date, and is written by the award-winning writer and art critic Duncan Macmillan. With great depth and perception, the author considers the work of one of Scotland’s leading painters from her earliest days at Kingston School of Art, through to her most recent commissions, setting it in the wider context of artistic thought. Her full range of work is covered, including still lifes, portraits, self-portraits, landscapes and interiors.

Macmillan will be published by

The insightful writing, accompanied by lavish illustrations of Victoria Crowe’s work, gives readers access to the paintings as they relate to the different eras of her life. The artist’s studies at the Royal College of Art, her move to Scotland, the Kittleyknowe years and ‘A Shepherd's Life’ exhibition are all discussed, as are ‘Plant Memory’ (a series resulting from her visiting scholarship at St Catharine’s College, Cambridge) and the impact of her travels abroad, particularly her time in Italy.

the Antique Collectors’ Club in

In the latter part of the book, the focus moves to the artist’s most recent work, including a reflective series of Venetian pictures and a significant group of numious winter landscapes. We also learn about a unique commission for a series of paintings specifically designed for a Scottish house, and a current project with Dovecot Studios for a tapestry based on a painting from ‘A Shepherd’s Life’, thus a testament to the enduring quality of her work.

September 2012, priced £35.

OPPOSITE Studio Venice, Mirrored View, 2011/12, oil on linen, 99.7x127.6 cm ABOVE Thoughts on the City, 2011, mixed media on museum board,54x79.4 cm Blue Snow and Fiery Trees, 2011, oil on linen, 101.6x127 cm Rosa Proprina visits the Backgarden in Winter, 2012, oil on linen, 76.2x101.6 cm

Dust jacket illustrations Front: Studio Venice: Mirrored View (detail, see pp. 136-7), Collection of the Artist.

Back: Landscape Sentinels (detail, see p. 143), Private Collection.

If you would like details of other books on art, the decorative arts, antiques, jewellery, fashion, gardens and architecture, please contact: ANTIQUE COLLECTORS’ CLUB Sandy Lane, Old Martlesham Woodbridge, Suffolk IP12 4SD, UK Tel: 01394 389950 Fax: 01394 389999 Email: info@antique-acc.com or ACC Distribution 6 West, 18th Street, Suite 4B New York, NY 10011, USA Tel: (212) 645 1111 Fax: (212) 989 3205 Email: sales@antiquecc.com www.antiquecollectorsclub.com

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ISBN 9781851497140

£35.00 / $59.95

‘Victoria Crowe’s paintings are confrontations with the immortal, flashes of memory, fragments of time, frozen on canvas into breathtaking jewels. Buried within the many layers of their paint are themes of humanity and mortality which have informed painters since the Renaissance’ Iain Gale, The Scottish Gallery Catalogue

ANTIQUE COLLECTORS’ CLUB

Scottish Art News 68

LISTINGS ABERDEEN Aberdeen Art Gallery

2 Market Street EH1 1DE

Scottish National Portrait Gallery

Roger Billcliffe Gallery

Paisley Museum

Portland Gallery

Tel: 0131 529 3993

Roderick Buchanan: Legacy

20:20 Vision

Equals

SJ Peploe

edinburghmuseums.org.uk

14 July – 16 September

Until August

Until 21 October

12 November – 7 December

George Jameson

Summer Design Collection

High Street, Paisley PA1 2BA

8 Bennet Street, St. James’s SW1A 1RP

Handpicked Highlights Until 13 October

Edinburgh Printmakers

Until 31 December 2013

Until August

Tel: 0141 887 1010

Tel: 020 7493 1888

Eric Ravilious –

Cheer Up! It’s Not the End of the World

1 Queen Street EH2 1JD

134 Blythswood Street G2 4EL

museumsgalleriesscotland.org.uk

portlandgallery.com

Artist, Printmaker, Designer

2 August – 8 September

National Galleries of Scotland

Tel: 0141 332 4027

4 August – 24 November

Again, A Time Machine

Tel: 0131 624 6200

billcliffegallery.com

Pier Arts Centre

Sarah Myerscough Gallery

Schoolhill AB10 1FQ

15 September – 3 November

nationalgalleries.org

Christine Borland: Divine Imperfect

Andrew Mackenzie:

Tel: 01224 523700

23 Union Street EH1 3LR

Victoria Street, Stromness KW16 3AA

Silver Between the Falls

aagm.co.uk

Tel: 0131 557 2479

The Scottish Gallery

Tel: 01856 850 209

28 September – 27 October

edinburgh-printmakers.co.uk

The Taste of JW Blyth

Perth Museum and Art Gallery

pierartscentre.com

15-16 Brook’s Mews W1K 4DS

DUNDEE

PERTH

Tel: 020 7495 0069

4 – 28 July

A Discipline of the Mind: The Drawings

The Fruitmarket Gallery

W. Barns-Graham: Collector’s Choice

of Wilhelmina Barns-Graham

The Robert Burns Birthplace Museum

The McManus:

Dieter Roth Diaries

3 August – 5 September

Until 20 October

The Man Who Loved Women:

Dundee’s Art Gallery and Museum

2 August – 14 October

16 Dundas Street EH3 6HZ

George Street PH1 5LB

New Paintings by Adrian Wiszniewski

Ten Drawings by Leonardo da Vinci

45 Market Street EH1 1DF

Tel: 0131 558 1200

Tel: 01738 632488

Until 27 August

31 August – 4 November

Tel: 0131 225 2383

scottish-gallery.co.uk

pkc.gov.uk/museums

Murdoch’s Lone, Alloway Ayr KA7 4PQ

Bonhams

Albert Square DD1 1DA

fruitmarket.co.uk

Tel: 0844 493 2601

The Scottish Sale: Part I: 20 August

AROUND SCOTLAND

burnsmuseum.org.uk

The Scottish Sale: Part II: 29–30 August

LONDON

Tel: 0138 230 7200 mcmanus.co.uk

Talbot Rice Gallery

sarahmyerscough.com AUCTIONS

22 Queen Street, Edinburgh EH2 1JX

Open Eye Gallery

Tim Rollins & K.O.S: The Black Spot

Leon Morrocco RSA RGI

Working Papers: Donald Judd

An Lanntair

Until 10 July

Drawings

Helen Macalister: At the Foot o’ Yon

John Bellany CBE HRSA RA LLD

4 August – 20 October

Excellin’ Brae

Art First

Bourne Fine Art

13 August – 4 September

University of Edinburgh, Old College

18 August – 28 September

Jake Harvey: Stone

Christie’s

Jock McFadyen: The Ability to Cling…

Mark I’Anson

South Bridge EH8 9YL

Kenneth Street, Stornoway HS1 2DS

Jessica Harrison/Atsuo Okamoto

A Celebration: The Studio of Alberto

1 August – 15 September

28 September – 16 October

Tel: 0131 650 2210

Tel: 01851 703 307

Until 18 August

Morrocco & Binrock House, Dundee

Emily Young: New Work

34 Abercromby Place

ed.ac.uk

lanntair.com

21 Eastcastle Street W1W 8DD

11 July

12 October – 3 November

Edinburgh EH3 6QE

Tel: 020 7734 0386

85 Old Brompton Road

Charles Simpson at Sixty

Tel: 0131 557 1020

GLASGOW

East Kilbride Arts Centre

artfirst.co.uk

London SW7 3LD

14 November – 1 December

openeyegallery.co.uk

EDINBURGH

6 Dundas Street EH3 6HZ Tel: 0131 557 4050

National Galleries of Scotland

bournefineart.com

bonhams.com/scottishpictures

Tel: 020 7930 6074

Louise Higgins The Glasgow School of Art

Old Coach Road G74 4DU

Browse and Darby

Studio 58: Women Artists in Glasgow

Tel: 01355 261000

Victoria Crowe

since World War II

slleisureandculture.co.uk

12 September – 5 October

www.christies.com Lyon & Turnbull

19 Cork Street W1S 3LP

The Taffner Collection: 7 September

Gracefield Arts Centre

Tel: 020 7734 7984

33 Broughton Place, Edinburgh EH1 3RR

Tel: 0141 353 4500

Highlights

browseanddarby.co.uk

Tel: 0131 557 8844

gsa.ac.uk

Until 1 September

Scottish National Gallery

Until 29 September

City Art Centre

Masterpieces from Mount Stuart:

167 Renfrew Street G3 6RQ

W. Barns-Graham: A Scottish Artist

The Bute Collection

in St Ives

Until 2 December

24 November 2012 – 17 February 2013

The Mound EH2 2EL

Leslie Hunter: A Life in Colour

Tel: 0131 225 2266

lyonandturnbull.com

A Different Way of Working: The Prints

The Fleming Collection

Kelvingrove Art Gallery & Museum

of W. Barns-Graham

Jock McFadyen: Made in Hackney

EVENTS

21 July – 14 October

Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art

500 Years of Italian Art

8 September – 18 November

17 July – 17 October

The Scottish Colourists:

Edvard Munch: Graphic Works from the

Until 12 August

28 Edinburgh Road

Leslie Hunter: A Life in Colour

Craig Coulthard: Forest Pitch

Inspiration and Influence

Gundersen Collection

Permanent Glasgow Boys Gallery

Dumfries DG1 1JQ

23 October 2012 – 9 February 2013

21 July

21 July – 14 October

ARTIST ROOMS: Sol LeWitt

Argyle Street G3 8AG

Tel: 01387 262 084

13 Berkeley Street W1J 8DU

Selkirk, Scottish Borders

John Clerk of Eldin (1728-1812)

Until 23 September

Tel: 0141 276 9599

dumgal.gov.uk

Tel: 020 7042 5730

tickets@forestpitch.org

3 November 2012 – 3 February 2013

75 Belford Road EH4 3DR

glasgowmuseums.com

flemingcollection.com

www.forestpitch.org

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Scottish Art News 70

NEWS FROM

THE FLEMING COLLECTION

Enjoy Scottish Art with Fleming Collection Membership

ANNUAL MEMBERSHIP

Friends membership enables you to enjoy the gallery

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We are delighted to be mounting a major survey exhibition of four

and our exhibitions to the full. Members receive

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decades of work by Jock McFadyen, Jock McFadyen: Made in Hackney

free access to Gallery Two, home of the permanent

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(17 July – 17 October). McFadyen’s paintings can be found in many

collection and are invited to two private views annually.

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You will receive monthly updates from the gallery and

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home twice yearly. You will also be able to shop for

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Membership also makes a wonderful gift for anyone

February 2013). The majority of the works are drawn from private

with an interest in Scottish art.

collections, many shown for the first time. The exhibition has been

PERSONAL DETAILS (if this is a gift subscription, please give details of the recipient)

co-curated by Bill Smith, former Keeper of The Fleming Collection

The Fleming Collection is the only museum dedicated

and Trustee of The Fleming-Wyfold Art Foundation along with Jill

to showing Scottish art all year round and provides a

Marriner. They have also co-written the first major biography of the artist for 75 years which can be purchased from the gallery.

The Foundation’s most recent acquisition for the

permanent collection is a striking Self-Portrait by William Johnstone (1897-1981), one of the most original artists of his generation. Born in Denholm, near Hawick, Johnstone studied at Edinburgh College of Art from 1919 to 1923; a traveling scholarship enabled him to visit Paris in 1925, studying at the atelier of André Lhote and meeting or seeing some of the great artists of the period. After a number of teaching posts he was appointed Principal of Central School of Arts and Crafts in 1947, retiring in 1960 back to the Borders.

Johnstone was an inspired and influential teacher and

writer on art and would have surely approved of our new Fleming-

platform for Scottish artists and museums to present their work to a London audience. The Fleming

heritage who are attending one of the Scottish Art Schools. The finalists’ works will be on view at The Fleming Collection from midSeptember and the winner of the award will be announced at our first Annual Supporters Dinner on 23 October this year. Tickets to the William Johnstone (1897-1981),Self Portrait, 1978, oil on canvas,76x63 cm Provenance: Collection of the artist’s family Edinburgh College of Art exterior

event can be purchased by contacting the gallery.

The Fleming-Wyfold Art Foundation wishes to thank:

The Fleming-Wyfold Art Foundation Registered charity no.1080197

Fleming Family & Partners Ltd and James Hambro & Partners LLP for

receives no public funding and relies on the generosity of private

supporting our exhibition programme

individuals, companies, trusts and foundations. There are many ways

– Selina Skipwith, Director

that one can support our work from becoming a Friend, Patron or

public funding and relies on the generosity of private individuals, companies, trusts and foundations. The permanent collection comprises over 750 artworks collection that continues to grow. The main thrust is currently directed towards buying the work of young

or telephone Helen Dyson on 020 7042 5784 Friends and Patrons of The Fleming-Wyfold Art Foundation

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CREDIT OR DEBIT CARD NUMBER Upcoming 2012 events: Tour of The Government Art Collection Wednesday 26 September, 6-7.30pm £10 Friends, £15 non-Friends, includes welcome drink Concert and Tour at Wigmore Hall Monday 8 October, 1-3.30pm £15 Friends, £20 non-Friends

For more information on Friends events or membership, please contact Helen Dyson on 020 7042 5784 | helen.dyson@flemingcollection.com

through corporate involvement.

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works dating from 1770 to the present day. It is a living

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Fleming Collection gallery opening its doors we are delighted to announce a new art prize to support emerging artists with Scottish

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ANDREW MACKENZIE SI LVE R B E TWE EN TH E FA LLS 28 Sept - 27 Oct

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“Complex networks of artificially lit trees are covered by geometric slashes in toxic bright colour…. Mackenzie debunks the myth of the perfect unspoiled landscape. Flat white bands and geometric lines create a tension between the surface of the painted object and the depth created by diffused layers of thin paint; this broken up approach recalls the Cubist approach to painting space as it is really perceived - not in single point, linear perspective but as a series of constantly shifting viewpoints.”

- Rosie Lesso, 2012

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