CONTENTS 6
12
30
36
42
55
FEATURES
REGULARS
6
24
Location in Focus: Catterline Briony Anderson
42
Picture in Focus: James Cowie Hayley Brown
46
News from the Rooms Elena Ratcheva, Christopher Pensa, Laura Lindsay, Jane Oakley, Chris Brickley and May Matthews
50
Friends of The Fleming Collection News: Behind the Scenes – Edinburgh Hayley Brown
Inspired: Celebrating 40 Years of Collecting Scottish Art for The Fleming Collection Lucia Lindsay
12
Joan Eardley Fiona Pearson
18
Sight and Vision in the Art of Joan Eardley Bill Hare
30
Impressionism and Scotland Dr. Frances Fowle
36
Nathan Coley Celia Davis
58
Book Reviews Francesca Baseby & Hayley Brown
55
Bond Bound: Ian Fleming and the Art of Cover Design Selina Skipwith
62
Events
65
Top 8 Exhibitions & Listings
70
Day in the Life of: Dalziel + Scullion
To subscribe to SCOTTISH ART NEWS, published twice a year in January and June, please contact The Fleming Collection. T: 0207 409 5733 E: flemingcollection@ffandp.com, or complete a subscription form online at www.flemingcollection.co.uk Front Cover: Samuel John Peploe, Green Sea, Iona (detail), c.1920s, oil on canvas © FWAF SCOTTISH ART NEWS Issue 10 is published by The Fleming Collection Printed in Scotland by Beith Printing, Glasgow Original design concept by Polly Bielecka Issue 10 designed by Briony Anderson with Flit (London), www.flitlondon.com
SCOTTISH ART NEWS Issue 10 is kindly sponsored by:
FROM THE EDITOR
CONTRIBUTORS
With the major retrospective of Joan Eardley’s work making its London debut at The Fleming Collection in September 2008 (following the Edinburgh exhibition earlier this year), this issue brings Eardley’s life and work into the spotlight. Featuring a look at the artistic vision of Eardley by Bill Hare and a discussion of her work within an international and national context by Fiona Pearson, both articles further contribute to the resurgence of interest in her work generated by these exhibitions. Throughout this issue, landscape takes centre stage – both east and west coast Scotland with the Colourists’ depictions of the Western Isles and Eardley’s work in Catterline. This theme continues through Frances Fowle’s insight into the upcoming Impressionism and Scotland exhibition in Edinburgh with the ‘impressionist’ practice of painting en plein air, and ‘Location in Focus’, which visits Catterline on the northeast coast to discover new and exciting projects taking place. With two very different centenary celebration exhibitions already behind us this year, Lucia Lindsay gives us a flavour of what we can look forward to in the Fleming Collection’s summer exhibition, Inspired, and Selina Skipwith discusses the new publication Bond Bound: Ian Fleming and the Art of Cover Design. Lastly, ‘Day in the Life of…’ features Dalziel + Scullion, artists of international repute and at the forefront of contemporary Scottish art, who give an insight into their collaborative practice and current projects. From our regular news round-up to book reviews, upcoming events to exhibition listings, there is plenty of reading and viewing ahead in 2008/9. In nine issues, SCOTTISH ART NEWS (which began as an eight page newletter in 2003) has helped bring the visual arts in Scotland to increasingly wider audiences. Its founder and editor, Polly Bielecka, as some readers will already be aware, is now Director of Pangolin London. This issue has involved the collective efforts of The Fleming Collection team with additional design input from designers, Flit (London). We would like to know what you think about SCOTTISH ART NEWS and anything you would like us to feature. Email your comments and suggestions to briony.anderson@ffandp.com
BEHIND SCOTTISH ART NEWS AT THE FLEMING COLLECTION Briony Anderson Editor
Lucia Lindsay Assistant Keeper of Art
Francesca Baseby Reviews and Exhibitions Editor
Evelyn Milligan Advertising and Events T: 020 7409 5784 E: evelyn.milligan@ ffandp.com
Hayley Brown Listings Editor
Selina Skipwith Keeper of Art
CONTRIBUTORS Celia Davis is Head of Exhibitions at the De La Warr Pavilion, a centre for contemporary art situated in Bexhill on Sea, East Sussex Dr. Frances Fowle is Lecturer in the History of Art: School of Arts, Culture and Environment (ACE) Department at The University of Edinburgh and Lecturer and Curator of French art at the National Gallery of Scotland Bill Hare is an art historian and Honorary Fellow of the History of Art: School of Arts, Culture and Environment (ACE) Department at The University of Edinburgh and Lecturer at The Centre of Visual and Cultural Studies at Edinburgh College of Art. He also works freelance as a curator and writer Fiona Pearson is Senior Curator at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh Chris Brickley & May Matthews Bonhams Laura Lindsay & Jane Oakley Christie’s Christopher Pensa Sotheby’s Elena Ratcheva Lyon & Turnbull
© Scottish Art News 2008. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted in any form or by any means without the written permission of the publisher. Scottish Art News accepts no responsibility for loss or damage of unsolicited material submitted for publication. Scottish Art News is published by The Fleming Collection but is not the voice of the gallery or The Fleming-Wyfold Art Foundation.
2 Scottish Art News / Autumn 2008
Also: gossepry, -aprie. [e.m.E. gossypry (1550).] GOSSOPRIE, n.Relationship GOSSOPRIE as gossips. ‘Quhat tym ... that thae ... be gossepis and aye and quhil the sayd gossepry be compleyttyt’; 1520, Thanes of Cawdor p.134; ‘[To] fulfill the band of gossaprie’; 1533 Ibid. p.159. ‘I have ... sent that express to your selfe ... to crave two or three lynes under one of your hands ..., or else to give up gossoprie’; 1651 Baillie III. p.138 ‘Until you had first given up gossoprie’; 1691, Leven & Melv. p.647.’ Bonhams has moved its Scottish headquarters from 65 George Street to 21-22 Queen Street, Edinburgh to enable them to expand and provide an improved service to clients. Although they had been in their previous building for 176 years, the new site will take them into a new phase of auctioneering. As part of the Royal Museum Project, many areas of the Royal Museum on Chambers Street, Edinburgh have been closed as part of a £46.4 million transformation of the museum site. When it re-opens in 2011 it will have 16 new exhibition spaces, enlarged public space, new educational facilities and better access throughout the building. Another major building will be closing soon for redevelopment. The Portrait of the Nation project will be closing the Scottish National Portrait Gallery in early 2009. Reopening in 2011, the beautiful Arts and Crafts building will
undergo building works which will see the gallery space increased by fifty percent. The city of Aberdeen is looking forward to the opening of the new Centre for the Contemporary Arts in Terrace gardens in Spring 2011. This will be the only major centre for contemporary art north of Dundee and will include exhibition space, education facilities and social spaces. During August two new arts venues will be opening in Edinburgh: Dovecot, at Infirmary Street and The Ingleby Gallery at 15 Calton Road, which will comprise three floors overlooking Waverley Station. Contemporary art in Scotland was given a boost earlier this year with the announcement of Anthony D’Offay’s donation of ARTIST ROOMS. They will be managed by the National Galleries of Scotland and Tate on behalf of the nation. A series of opening displays will
be launched in the Spring of 2009. Aberdeen University’s King’s College Chapel has recently celebrated the unveiling of a new commission by Scottish artist Callum Innes. Exposed Painting (Dioxin Violet) has been created with the Chapel’s architecture, light and atmosphere in mind. Cove Park has announced its 2008 Residency Programme and two Visual Arts Residencies have been awarded to Glasgow based artists Kate Davis and Duncan Marquiss. The unique programme enables leading practitioners to develop ideas and produce new work. Glasgow based artist Cathy Wilkes has been nominated for the prestigious 2008 Turner Prize Award. Nominated for her solo exhibition at Milton Keynes Gallery, which showed ‘her personal approach to figurative sculpture’, she uses everyday items such as widescreen TVs and pushchairs in her installations. Dumfries House opens to the public on 6 June 2008. His Royal Highness The Prince Charles, Duke of Rothesay, President of The Great Steward of Scotland’s Dumfries House Trust will officially open the magnificent eighteenth-century Palladian mansion.
Callum Innes unveiling his new work Exposed Painting (Dioxin Violet), 2008 at Aberdeen University’s King’s College, 24 April 2008
Scottish Art News / Autumn 2008 3
NEWS FROM
THE FLEMING COLLECTION
T
his summer The Fleming Collection celebrates forty years of collecting Scottish art with an exhibition entitled Inspired. To mark the occasion we have invited individuals with a connection to The Fleming Collection to select a work from the permanent collection that has caught their imagination. One of the huge strengths of The Fleming Collection is that it remains a living collection and the exhibition also includes some recent acquisitions on show for the first time. In the autumn The Fleming Collection is delighted to be staging the first major retrospective of Joan Eardley’s work in London for forty-five years. This exhibition is a collaboration with The National Galleries of Scotland and follows on from their highly successful exhibition that ran until earlier this year. We continue our centenary celebrations for Ian Fleming (grandson of Robert Fleming, founder of Flemings Bank) as our exhibition Bond Bound: Ian Fleming and The Art of Cover Design moves to the City Art Centre, Edinburgh. The exhibition will then tour internationally (for full details see p.57). Whilst the exhibition was on in London, The Fleming Collection staged a number of glamorous events as illustrated here. Further enticing events can be found on pp.62-63. I wish to thank all of those who have worked with and supported us as well as the contributors and advertisers in this edition; I would also like to express my gratitude to Lyon and Turnbull, Scotland’s oldest established auction house, for their continued support and generous sponsorship which has made this magazine possible. SELINA SKIPWITH Keeper of Art
4 Scottish Art News / Autumn 2008
(ABOVE, FROM LEFT) Charlie Higson at the Bond Bound Charity Gala evening at The Fleming Collection, 21 April 2008 © Georgina Viney Sebastian Faulks at the press launch of Devil May Care at The Fleming Collection, 28 May 2008 © The Fleming Collection (FAR LEFT, FROM TOP) From left: Samantha Weinberg, Mr & Mrs Charlie Higson, Kate Weinberg at the Bond Bound Charity Gala evening at The Fleming Collection, 21 April 2008 © Georgina Viney Bidding at the Bond Bound Charity Gala evening at The Fleming Collection, 21 April 2008 © Georgina Viney
INSPIRED Lucia Lindsay gives an insight into The Fleming Collection’s Summer Exhibition, Inspired: Celebrating 40 Years of Collecting Scottish Art for The Fleming Collection
I
NSPIRED celebrates forty years of collecting Scottish art at The Fleming Collection from the view point of its admirers. Individuals who have come into close contact with the collection over the years have selected their favourite painting for our summer exhibition and have put pen to paper to explain what it is about the particular painting that makes their pulse race. The Fleming Collection began in 1968 while Richard Fleming was chairman of Fleming’s bank and is known today as one of the finest collections of Scottish art in private hands. David Donald, a company director, was given the enviable task of selecting paintings for the offices in London and overseas. Donaldson’s interest in collecting was matched by his, and subsequent Keepers of Art’s enthusiasm for sharing their appreciation of the paintings with others. The collection, which numbered approximately one thousand works by the year 2000, enriched the lives of staff and clients of the bank and has brought Scottish art to the forefront of
visitor’s minds, many of whom have become avid art world supporters. The Rt. Hon Lord Forsyth of Drumlean worked at Flemings from 1979 to 1999 and has chosen The Eve of the Battle of the Somme, 1916 [1] by the Glasgow born artist Sir Herbert James Gunn (18931964) for Inspired. Gunn trained at Edinburgh College of Art from 1910 and enlisted in the Artist’s Rifles in 1915. In 1916 he was stationed in northern France where he suffered the loss of his brothers Stanley and Charles and witnessed the horrors of the Battle of the Somme. Twenty thousand Allied soldiers lost their lives on the first day of the Somme, July 1st, 1916. Lord Forsyth finds the painting deeply moving: It is full of symbolism – the young man lying stretched out as if crucified, the disembodied head, the field ambulances in the background are all portents of the catastrophe to come. He captures the horrors of the war and the terrible toll it would take on a generation of young men. We can still feel some of the
6 Scottish Art News / Autumn 2008
consequences of that toll today and this picture for me is a poignant reminder of the debt we owe to our servicemen and women. Equally as emotive is John Watson Nicol’s (1856-1926) iconic painting Lochaber No More, 1883 [2] chosen for the exhibition by Robin Fleming (grandson of Robert Fleming, the founder of Flemings, est. 1900). Lochaber No More was purchased in 1980 and hung at Flemings for two decades until 2000 when it was purchased with the collection in its entirety by The Fleming-Wyfold Art Foundation. Lochaber No More is emblematic of the hardship felt by Scots during the clearances of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries and takes its name from a pibroch lament written by the poet Allan Ramsay, father of the painter of the same name. Museums and galleries often request that it be lent to exhibitions where Scottish national identity is explored. In 2003 Lochaber No More was included in Trailblazers at the National Museum of Scotland, Edinburgh; in 2006 it was
lent to Tate Britain for an exhibition inspired by Jonathan Dimbleby’s television series, A Picture of Britain; and in 2005 it travelled to Melbourne and Canberra for Exiles and Emigrants: Epic Journeys to Australia in the Victorian Era. In 1995 Flemings lent sixty paintings to the National Galleries of Scotland for an exhibition entitled Hidden Assets: Scottish Paintings from the Fleming Collection. This was the first time that a large body of work from the collection was exhibited in a public gallery and a special working relationship was formed with the galleries that continues today. John Leighton, Director-General of the National Galleries of Scotland has selected Reclining Lady in White [3] by Stanley Cursiter (1887-1976) for Inspired. As the Director of the Galleries from 1930 to 1948, Cursiter played a leading role in the campaign to establish a modern art gallery in Edinburgh and in introducing key figures of the modern movement to Scotland, including Van Gogh and Matisse. But Leighton remarks that: This versatile Orcadian was also an extremely talented painter. This small study is in some respects a homage to the French painter Manet. But we can also sense the artist’s pleasure in sketching with vigorous strokes of a brush loaded with paint and his delight in evoking rather than describing the play of light across the draperies. In these days of increasing specialisation, Cursiter’s picture is a useful reminder that it is not a bad thing for an art historian and a museum curator to know
[1] (BELOW, FROM TOP) Sir Herbert James Gunn RA (1893-1964) The Eve of the Battle of the Somme, 1916 Oil on canvas Purchased 1995 © FWAF/Artist’s Estate
[2] John Watson Nicol ROI (1856-1926) Lochaber No More, 1883 Oil on canvas © FWAF Purchased 1980
[3] (ABOVE) Stanley Cursiter CBE RSA RSW LLD (1887-1976) Reclining Lady in White Oil on panel © FWAF/DACS Purchased 1982
one end of a paintbrush from the other. Since The Fleming Collection gallery opened in 2002 there have been many opportunities to show prominent as well as lesser known artists whose works chiefly remain in private hands and are infrequently shown in museums and galleries in London. Many visitors to Rascals & Ruins: The Romantic Vision of James Pryde (curated by Cecilia Powell in 2006) were already familiar with the Beggarstaff Brothers’ influential posters designed by James Pryde (18861941) and his brother-in-law William Nicholson, but knew little of Pryde’s oil paintings. Pryde was born in Edinburgh but lived in the south of England and London from 1890. His work is dominated by a fascination for ruins, devastated buildings and criminals painted in dark theatrical hues. In 1982 Bill Smith, Keeper of Art from 1985 to 1997, purchased Pryde’s The Unknown Corner, 1912, [4]
Scottish Art News / Autumn 2008 7
for Flemings as well as a small oil study of The Green Pool for himself from an exhibition at the Redfern Gallery on Cork Street. Smith says: To this day these paintings and their enigmatic creator never fail to move me. Pryde was a one-off, a romantic with an intense imaginative power, acclaimed by contemporaries for his vision and originality. A bohemian by nature, he had a melancholic personality that became darker as he grew older, and this is reflected in his painting. Some paintings chosen for Inspired are representative of their author’s work, such as Skaters on Duddingston Loch, 1857 [5] by Charles Lees (18001880) chosen by Michael Palin for its ability to sum up in the moonlit skating figures – ‘the theme of man against the elements with a light celebratory flourish’. Other paintings such as Feluccas on the Nile, c.1885 [6] by Joseph Farquharson (1846-1935) illustrate the pleasure found in discovering new subject matter quite removed from the Scottish snow scenes for which he is well known. Jennifer Melville (Keeper of
Fine Art, Aberdeen Art Gallery) relishes the luxury of a warm leisurely trip on the Nile to Luxor and Philae by paddle steamer, enjoyed by Farquharson and John Singer Sargent (18561925) and various members of their families during the cold British winter of 1890. The twentieth century is well represented with some of the most popular paintings from the collection on display. Guy Peploe, director of The Scottish Gallery and grandson of the prominent Scottish Colourist S.J. Peploe (1871[5] (LEFT) Charles Lees (1800-80) Skaters: Duddingston Loch by Moonlight, 1857 Oil on canvas © FWAF Purchased 1980
8 Scottish Art News / Autumn 2008
[4] (ABOVE) James Pryde (1866-1941) The Unknown Corner, 1912 Oil on canvas © FWAF Purchased 1988
[6] (LEFT) Joseph Farquharson RA (1846-1935) Feluccas on the Nile, c.1885 Oil on canvas © FWAF [7] (BELOW) Samuel John Peploe (1871-1935) Lady in a White Dress, 1906 Oil on panel © FWAF
1935) has chosen Lady in a White Dress of 1906 [7] which is representative of his early socalled ‘alla prima’ technique. It is shown alongside Peploe’s Green Sea, Iona, c.1920s, selected by Glasgow based art dealer Ewan Mundy. It was likely to have been painted on Peploe’s first trip with F.C.B. Cadell to Iona in 1920 where he developed a great love of the island returning almost every year thereafter. The paintings achieved commercial success and remain much sought after. The two artists brought their own quite distinct characteristics to the many views they painted of the island and surrounding area. Green Sea, Iona demonstrates Peploe’s enthusiasm for applying bold colours with enegetic brushstrokes which, combined with a strength in composition give the painting a striking confidence. The Director of the Hunterian Art Gallery, University of Glasgow Mungo Cambell’s choice is The Dunara Castle at Iona, c.1929. This charming depiction of the paddle steamer which served the West Highlands for seventy years shows Cadell’s inclination towards a darker range of colours than those employed by Peploe. The stylistic ground broken
by the Scottish Colourists in terms of their experimental use of vivacious colour was built upon by artists of subsequent generations. Typically, Anne Redpath (18951965) would embue the surface of her oil paintings with a chalky effect similar to that of the Colourists by reducing the amount of poppy oil in the paint using blotting paper. Houses on a Hill, c.1958 [8] shows her success in employing the stylistic advancements of the Colourists whilst also responding to the language of Abstract Expressionism
in a way that Patrick Bourne describes as ‘almost culinary’. Redpath visited the Canary Islands in 1959 with her son Lindsay and exhibited over twenty oil paintings from the trip the following year at the Edinburgh Festival. Contemporary art collector Carole Warren, an employee at Flemings, remembers enjoying many paintings at the bank but finding this the most ‘exciting and exquisite [as it] gave you the feeling of the heat of the sun and tranquillity.’ Redpath, Sir William Gillies (1898-1973), Sir William
Scottish Art News / Autumn 2008 9
McTaggart (1903-1980) and John Maxwell (1905-1962) were considered the four major artists of the Edinburgh School. Gillies’ studies at Edinburgh College of Art were interrupted by service in the First World War. He later became Head of Painting and Drawing at the college and Principal from 1960-66. His style was much admired by many young students at the college including Elizabeth Blackadder (b.1931). Blackadder has selected Gillies’s view of Anstruther for Inspired –‘I love the simplicity of the vision and the marvellous quality and handling of paint.’ Painted in 1946, it conveys a sense of the harbour’s physical completeness. Despite making the move from corporate collection to charitable Foundation the acquisition’s policy remains unchanged and the collection is continuously added to by current Keeper of Art, Selina Skipwith. Though historical purchases are made as and when appropriate paintings come on the market (see ‘Picture in Focus’, p.42) the main focus is on collecting works by young and mid-career artists. For example, works by Nathan Coley and Charles Avery were purchased for the collection in recent years and both artists have exhibitions this autumn (see Listings, p.68), which will highlight just how progressive Scottish art is today.
Inspired: Celebrating 40 Years of Collecting Scottish Art for The Fleming Collection 8 July-30 August 2008 The Fleming Collection, 13 Berkeley Street, London, W1J 8DU
[8] (ABOVE, FROM TOP) Anne Redpath OBE RSA ARA ARWS (1895-1965) Houses on a Hill, c.1958 Oil on canvas © FWAF/Bridgeman Art Library Purchased 1979
10 Scottish Art News / Autumn 2008
[9] (ABOVE) Sir William George Gillies RA RSA PRSW (1898-1973) Anstruther, c.1946 Oil on canvas © FWAF/Artist’s Estate
Charles Lees (1800-1880), Skaters: Duddingston Loch by Moonlight, 1857 © FWAF
THE FLEMING COLLECTION SPECIAL SUPPORTERS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS FOUNDER MEMBERS
Fleming Family & Partners CORPORATE MEMBERS
Eton College Hamilton & Inches Ltd Rothschild Private Management Ltd MPC Investors Limited Evercore Partners Limited SPONSORS OF SCOTTISH ART NEWS
Lyon & Turnbull WITH SPECIAL THANKS ALSO TO
Patrons of The Fleming-Wyfold Art Foundation Friends of The Fleming Collection For information on special ways to get involved contact Lucia Lindsay: THE FLEMING COLLECTION 13 Berkeley Street, Mayfair, London W1J 8DU 020 7409 5784 │ flemingcollection@ffandp.com │ www.flemingcollection.co.uk
Audrey Walker: Joan Eardley on the seashore at Catterline, c.1950s. Colour photograph Š The Audrey Walker Estate and Gracefield Arts Centre, Dumfries
Joan Eardley 1921-1963 Fiona Pearson, Senior Curator at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art and responsible for the 2007 Eardley exhibition in Edinburgh, discusses Eardley’s work
T
he exhibition of Joan Eardley’s work at The Fleming Collection reintroduces to an English public a post-war British artist of great stature. Shown in London throughout her lifetime, Eardley’s paintings were avidly acquired by English public collections and private collectors until her untimely death in 1963. She was championed by the English critics, Eric Newton and Terence Mullaly, as well as Sidney Goodsir Smith and Martin Baillie in Scotland. During her lifetime the perception of her was that of a young painter at the cutting edge of British art. So why has Eardley disappeared from view in English art history since her death in 1963, whilst in Scotland her reputation has gone from strength
to strength? It would seem that Eardley, an English woman of Scottish descent who spent all her adult life in Scotland, falls between two camps in the art world. The post-war battle between the abstract painters and those espousing realism saw the emergence of a sort of tribal warfare championed by the leading critics. Eardley’s dilemma is that she painted both realistic figure studies of children and almost abstract land and seascapes. By responding so readily to life forces in humanity and nature using different styles, Eardley falls between two schools. She was not alone in this, as the career of Prunella Clough demonstrates. Whereas Clough has been honoured recently with a retrospective at Tate Britain, the
“During her lifetime the perception of her was that of a young painter at the cutting edge of British art” only major Eardley shows since her death have been in Scotland. The Scottish love for Eardley can be attributed to the fact that her work encapsulates two aspects of the national identity – tenement life and the grandeur of nature. However Eardley worked within the British art community alongside Bacon, Freud and
Scottish Art News / Autumn 2008 13
the ‘Kitchen Sink’ School and in parallel with the St Ives painter, Peter Lanyon, and abroad the Tachistes and the Abstract Expressionists. There was in Eardley’s make-up an intense desire to express the emotion of what she saw, underpinned by an in-depth reading of contemporary and historical literature, philosophy and art. Eardley was a deep thinker. Her earliest years had been spent on a farm in Sussex, before moving to Blackheath in London, where her artistic talents were nurtured. When her family moved to Glasgow to escape the Blitz in 1940, Eardley immediately enrolled at Glasgow School of Art. In Glasgow she met Josef Herman, who had just fled Europe and the Holocaust. She saw her fellow students copy the work of Jankel Adler and Pablo Picasso. Like many of her generation she was greatly influenced by the heavy-limbed figures of Henry Moore. Trained in strong draughtsmanship, Eardley also revealed on her 1948-49 student travelling scholarship a great feeling for colour and form. In Italy she looked at the work of Masaccio; she wrote about his take on everyday reality and the way in which the street life of beggars and cripples was still very evident in post-war Florence. Eardley’s Italian portrayals of beggars was the first intimation that she would spend the
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[1] (ABOVE) Joan Kathleen Harding Eardley Sleeping Nude, 1955 Oil on canvas Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh © With kind permission of the Eardley Estate [3] (BELOW) Joan Kathleen Harding Eardley Summer Fields, c.1961 Oil and grasses on board Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh © With kind permission of the Eardley Estate
rest of her short life documenting the lives of the disenfranchised – the poor, the peasants, the tenement children and the very old. On her return from Italy Eardley set up a studio in the heart of Glasgow, first in Cochrane Street and then in Townhead, just north of the City Chambers in George Square. Close by in Montrose Street lived her friend, Angus Neil, whom she had met on postgraduate studies at Hospitalfield in 1947. He proved to be a patient model in his lodgings, even posing for the formidable monochromatic Sleeping Nude [1], so redolent of De Stael. The brightly-coloured Street Kids, 1949-51 [2] was based on a number of chalk drawings. Eardley also took visual notes using a simple camera, taking snapshots of children in the street. Working alongside her from 1952
was the photographer, Audrey Walker, who captured not only street graffiti, but also documented Eardley in her Glasgow studio and at Catterline, the fishing village on the north-east coast of Scotland which Eardley had first visited in 1950. Painting in the open air facing the sea she executed works such as The Wave [see pp.18-19]. Turning her back to the sea, she painted the fields behind her cottage, depicting the changing seasons, as in Summer Fields [3] and the autumnal Seeded Grasses and Daisies [4], which included real vegetation collaged on to the hardboard. Margot Sandeman, who hailed from Bearsden, where Eardley’s family settled in 1940, was a fellow student at Glasgow School of Art and a firm friend from then on. She and Eardley visited The Tabernacle on the Isle of Arran on frequent painting trips. In researching the 2007 exhibition at The National Gallery of Scotland, Sandeman kindly allowed me access to her correspondence with Eardley, in which they discuss what
“The Scottish love for Eardley can be attributed to the fact that her work encapsulates two aspects of the national identity [2] (ABOVE) Joan Kathleen Harding Eardley Street Kids, c.1949-1951 – tenement life and the Oil on canvas, laid on board Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh grandeur of nature” © With kind permission of the Eardley Estate Scottish Art News / Autumn 2008 15
fascinated them as artists during those early years. Sandeman has said that Eardley’s genius was that she made paint into reality without losing the quality of the paint itself. This painterliness is especially evident in the later seascapes, such as Boats on the Shore [5] in which she moves towards abstraction. Throughout her life Eardley suffered from depression, a condition she inherited from her father, who committed suicide in 1929. She owned a copy of Burton’s Anatomy of Melancholy, a seventeenth-century classic that describes the separation which melancholy brings and its role in the creative process. Although at the time Eardley was also reading Jean Paul Sartre and Alain RobbeGrillet, the actual message of her art – though at times sombre in mood – is one of life forces. It is perhaps this sense of life enhancement that makes her work so moving for viewers. Eardley’s abstracted emotional engagement with the forces of nature and the reality of the kinship expressed by the children holding each other close, such as in Children and Chalked Wall No 3 [see p.21], indicates that Eardley was totally at one with what she depicted.
[4] (ABOVE, FROM TOP) Joan Kathleen Harding Eardley Seeded Grasses and Daisies, September, 1960 Oil, grasses and seedheads on hardboard Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh © With kind permission of the Eardley Estate
[5] Joan Kathleen Harding Eardley Boats on the Shore, c.1963 Oil on hardboard Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh © With kind permission of the Eardley Estate
16 Scottish Art News / Autumn 2008
“Painting in the open air facing the sea she executed works such as The Wave. Turning her back to the sea, she painted the fields behind her cottage”
“Eardley’s genius was that she made paint into reality without losing the quality of the paint itself ” What makes Eardley the leading Scottish woman artist of all time? Surely it is that she painted reality in a universal way. We have all experienced childhood and nature, we have all experienced hardship and humour and the force of the elements. Eardley in her work recognises what she sees as having deep significance for us all, but she does it with integrity and a strength of vision. The exhibition at The Fleming Collection is the first major retrospective of Eardley’s work in London for forty-five years. Eardley’s London dealers, Roland Browse and Delbanco and the Mercury Gallery, mounted shows after her death in 1963, works were included in a survey of the art of the 1970s at the Royal Academy and her works were illustrated in the 2002 Barbican catalogue of Transition: The London Art scene in the Fifties. The critic, Eric Newton, wrote: Only in an occasional Goya do I remember the translation of small children into paint mixed so inseparably with warmhearted self-identification with the inner life of the child. And only in Turner’s sea paintings does one find oneself so involved with the skies and winds that hang over the uneasy tumult of the waves.
Audrey Walker: Joan Eardley painting the sea at Catterline, c.1963 © The Audrey Walker Estate and Gracefield Art Centre, Dumfries
At Eardley’s Memorial Exhibition at Glasgow’s Kelvingrove Art Gallery in 1964 her former teacher, Hugh Adam Crawford, spoke of her as one of the most distinguished painters of the twentieth century. This was echoed a few years later by Douglas Hall, Director of the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, who spoke of her as an artist of
international stature. In the fortyfive years since Eardley’s death much research has been done on the post-war art scene both in Britain and abroad and it seems only right that she should be reassessed and her work seen by a new generation of art lovers.
Scottish Art News / Autumn 2008 17
MORE THAN MEETS THE EYE:
Joan Kathleen Harding Eardley The Wave, 1961 Oil and grit on hardboard Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh © With kind permission of the Eardley Estate
SIGHT AND VISION IN THE ART OF JOAN EARDLEY
Bill Hare, Art Historian, examines the evolving artistic vision of Joan Eardley
“ I suppose that painting is only a visual reaction to things, in a way – but to me it must be more.
“
”
Joan Eardley, 1948
L
et’s start with the obvious – everyone would agree that the most important thing for a visual artist is their optical faculties – the way they use their eyes. Yet, in the act of artistic creativity, this involves both their visual powers of perception, and the imaginative depths of their vision. This may appear to be relatively straightforward. However, it is crucially important that we understand what we mean by this because seeing/looking is a highly complex affair which involves an infinite variety of intuitive and conscious optical actions, and subsequent affected experiences. As the great visionary artist, William Blake famously observed – every eye sees differently and of course, even on a mundane level, this is the case. For example, an artist studying a bowl of fruit in order to paint a still life picture will look upon this ripe sight in a very different manner from someone who is starving – or for that matter, with someone who has a fetish about the succulent
20 Scottish Art News / Autumn 2008
shape of a peach. Another important aspect of this issue that also needs to be taken into consideration, concerning the wide spectrum of differing points of views is that each individual’s perceptions are constantly evolving throughout their life cycle. This phenomenon of continuing change in visual action and reaction is particularly important in our understanding of the way in which the work of an artist develops over their whole career. Fortunately, with this major retrospective exhibition, we have the privileged opportunity to examine the perceptual development and evolving artistic vision of Joan Eardley. Human sight is both a biologically innate, and a culturally conditioned faculty. This duality is best demonstrated by the distinction between the reflex action of seeing anything, and the conscious act of looking for something. Within the work of Eardley, this fundamental visual dialectic is the dynamic tension
which motivated the course of her career as a modern painter. On the one hand, throughout her artistic development, she continued to retain a direct and unmediated view of the world – to see her subject as ‘funny bits of colour’. Yet, on the other hand, as an ambitious artist, she also needed to look and study her subject in a highly informed and visually articulated manner. Thus not surprisingly she was a most conscientious student at Glasgow School of Art – learning by attentively working from the model and closely examining the art of the past. Furthermore, the young Eardley eagerly travelled to the great cultural centres of Europe to be directly in touch with the canonic works of art history. Throughout her hectic and highly prolific career, she also always found time to make regular trips to visit the London galleries in order to be fully aware of what was going on in the contemporary international art scene. All this enabled her to express herself visually through her painting in a richly informed and sophisticated experimental manner. The essential difference between innate seeing and informed looking in the work of Eardley is best exemplified by a comparison between her only Self-portrait [1] – a student piece of 1943, and her most controversial picture, Sleeping Nude (1955) [see p.14]. In the first work, Eardley almost turns the conventional ritual and assumed purpose of the act of self-portraiture on its head by seeming to eliminate, rather than promote, her own distinctive individuality and objective presence. Through an act of elusive self-effacement, she appears to be reverting to a pre-mirror stage of awareness development where the subject and her immediate surroundings have not yet become consciously separated and clearly distinguished from each other. In this painting, it is as if the artist – as her own subject, is trying to convey an almost child-like visual experience of her veiled self enwrapped in the world around her. Interestingly, Eardley’s subsequent choice of children as her preferred human subject matter may be a strong indication of her creative desire to retain, and personally identify with, their non-objective, unselfconscious, spontaneous ‘visual reaction to things.’ By the middle of the next decade however, Eardley, through a dedicated process of historical and contemporary art study, had greatly enriched her painting to a high level of technical and intellectual potential. This is clearly demonstrated in her
“it is as if the artist – as her own subject, is trying to convey an almost child-like visual experience of her veiled self enwrapped in the world around her”
(FROM TOP) [1] Joan Kathleen Harding Eardley Self-portrait, 1943 Oil on canvas Scottish National Portrait Gallery, Edinburgh © With kind permission of the Eardley Estate [2] Joan Kathleen Harding Eardley Children and Chalked Wall No.3, 1963 Oil, newspaper, metal foil on canvas Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh © With kind permission of the Eardley Estate
Scottish Art News / Autumn 2008 21
most ambitious work of that period – Sleeping Nude. With this picture, Eardley turned seeing into looking by producing a carefully considered concentrated image, redolent with informed references and allusions to a range of cultural and historical sources – from Western figure painting, both ancient and modern, to the terrible assault on European humanism in the nightmare form of the Holocaust victim. Unfortunately, at the time, through a deadly combination of philistine ignorance and gender prejudice, this challenging work provoked such a hostile reaction that Eardley must have felt she needed to re-direct the purpose and practice of her future painting. The most conspicuous outcome of Eardley’s shift in attitude and approach to the subsequent development of her art was her treatment of the human presence in her later painting. She began to evolve an elaborate strategy of presence and absence with the human content in her pictures. For instance, from the mid-1950s, the Catterline land/seascapes quickly became a major source of additional inspiration for her work. Yet, what is so striking about Eardley’s portrayal of this small fishing village is the almost total absence of any human community. Furthermore, although Eardley continued to pay equal time and attention to her beloved Glasgow street scenes, her treatment of the children there radically changed. In a manner similar to her early Self-portrait, the figures of these street kids begin to become more and more isolated, losing their former clear delineation and visual articulation as they start to disintegrate into ghostly presences, echoing traces which merge into the crumbling urban decay of the graffiti-scrawled walls of their vanishing childhood. Notably, in her final presentation of the deteriorating condition of childhood, as evocatively depicted in such works as Children and Chalked Wall No.2 and No.3, 1963 [2] Eardley places much focus and great emphasis on the children’s eyes. As the children seem to gradually disappear along with their vanishing world, their haunting gazes become more and more riveting. It is as though the artist wishes to preserve the innocence of their uncontaminated sight from the inevitable process of human corruption and ever-threatening historical change. With the last great triumph of her heroic career, in the form of her epic series of seascapes, such as The Sea, 1959 or The Wave, 1961, Eardley seeks to challenge this entropic state of civic and visual decline and restore to the power of her own sight, a regenerated child-like intuition infused with visionary intensity. Through the long years of sustained out-door painting practice, her highly
22
“Physical reality is miraculously transformed into transcendental metaphysical experience through the intuitive gestural brushstrokes of the transfixed painter” responsive technique enabled Eardley to directly confront her turbulent subject, and both physically and creatively, lose herself in the awesome sublime of the raw forces of the sea. Physical reality is miraculously transformed into transcendental metaphysical experience through the intuitive gestural brushstrokes of the transfixed painter. All opposites between existence and essence are resolved and everything finally merges with each other – land and sea; sky and ground; dark and light; near and far; stillness and movement; the painter and her subject; the objective look of world and the subjective vision of the experience of that world – all are now immediately seen and felt as at one with each other on the all revealing surface of Eardley’s painting. Joan Eardley RSA (1921-1963) 16 September-20 December 2008 The Fleming Collection, 13 Berkeley Street, London, W1J 8DU With Support from The National Galleries of Scotland
Francis Campbell Boileau Cadell, R.S.A., R.S.W. (1883-1937) Iona Cathedral signed oil on canvas 20 x 30 in. (50.8 x 76.2 cm.) £50,000-80,000
SCOTTISH ART
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CATTERLINE
LOCATION IN FOCUS Briony Anderson visits Catterline on the Kincardineshire coast and discovers why so many artists come to the village to work
C
atterline, a small cliff-top fishing village on the north-east coast of Scotland, made widely known through the paintings of Joan Eardley continues to attract artists, drawn to the area, and to the studio – ‘The Watchie’, which Eardley used when she first arrived in the village. Situated twenty-five miles south of Aberdeen, evidence suggests that there may have been a fishing
community established in Catterline as early as the fourteenth century. Around 1835 the pier was built, a coastguard’s station established and locally, the fishing industry thrived until the turn of the century when it reached its peak, before witnessing a steady decline during the course of the twentieth century.
Joan Eardley at Catterline Eardley’s discovery of Catterline came in 1951, and this stretch of coast quickly joined inner city Glasgow as the impetus behind her work. It was during an exhibition of Eardley’s work in Aberdeen that friend and artist, Annette Stephen, had taken Eardley to visit Catterline where they came across the ‘The Watchie’ – the coastguard’s watch house, positioned at the highest point in the village and up for sale. It was subsequently bought by Stephen, made weather-tight for use as a studio and available for Eardley to work in. She painted there until she purchased Number 1 The Row as a studio and
(FROM TOP) The Watchie (The former coastguard’s watch house), Catterline The Watchie Anna King The Watchie, 2006 Oil and pencil on paper and board © The Artist
“rows of small, quaint, white-washed fishermen’s cottages juxtaposed against the endless northern sea and skies, echo the undulating line of the cliff edge” (OPPOSITE PAGE) The Row, Catterline (No 1, which Eardley purchased in 1955 as a studio/living space is the cottage furthest to the left)
Scottish Art News / Autumn 2008 25
living space, often painting directly from her front door, looking out over the sea and down to the bay and harbour below. From this point, the seascape, surrounding landscape and its changing seasons were to feature as prominently in her life and work as the tenements and children of Glasgow – her time now divided between these changing urban and rural communities. Visiting Catterline, it becomes apparent why the place made such an impact on Eardley – the rows of small, quaint, white-washed fishermen’s cottages juxtaposed against the endless northern sea and skies, echo the undulating line of the cliff edge – ‘it’s just a vast waste, vast seas, vast areas of cliff’, Eardley remarked in an interview. She also described the way in which she approached her Catterline paintings, often painting the same scene over and over as if each time, to develop upon the last, believing the more familiarity she had with the subject – the continual changefulness of the landscape – the more she could see in it to translate into her work. In 1959 she purchased Number 18, Catterline, again often painting directly from this spot. For example, Catterline in Winter (c.1963) was painted from this viewpoint. Interestingly, as time progressed, she seemed to move closer to the sea to paint, favouring the direct experience of being near the water to the distant vantage point of the cottages on the cliff, and a photograph taken by Audrey Walker shows Eardley sketching, perched on her shooting stick, in the sea itself. Unlike her Glasgow paintings, the community in Catterline does not feature in a figurative sense, but there is often some form of reference to it – a hint of human presence – whether in the drying salmon nets, fishing boats, washing lines, haystacks, beehives or in the smoke rising from the chimneys – the life of the inhabitants reflected in her paintings. Here, too, as in Glasgow, she was depicting a way of life that was disappearing. By this time, Catterline’s fishing fleet had virtually gone. The artists Angus Neil and Lil Neilson who were close friends of Eardley’s also spent considerable time in Catterline, proving influential in the development of one another’s practice. Neilson actually came to live and work in the village, bequeathing The Watchie (which had been left to her), to friend and neighbour in the village, Ann Steed, with the request that the proceeds from sales of her paintings should be spent renovating it and making it available for artists to use once again.
26 Scottish Art News / Autumn 2008
The Watchie Since the renovation was completed in 2003, it has continued to be used as it was when it first began life as an artist’s studio, providing a work (and living) space for artists. With its large windows looking out over the expanse of the North Sea, it has seen a number of artists make use of its studio space over the last five years. Artists have spent anything from a weekend to several months in The Watchie, having requested the time for self-directed practice rather than having been selected through an open submission process as is the common procedure for residency programmes. Artists Joanne Tatham & Tom O’Sullivan exhibited work in The Watchie in 2003, and as its use is not restricted to the visual arts, writer Judith Findlay has also used the space to work. For the last two years, artist Anna King has spent the winter months working in The Watchie and towards the end of 2007, Norwegian artist Ingeborg Kvame undertook a residency as part of the North Sea project, an exchange programme between Scotland and Norway organised by the Scottish Society of Artists and Stavanger 2008. During her residency, she made drawings directly influenced by the area and by Eardley and Neilson and the time they spent in Catterline together. The work produced during the residency was shown in Edinburgh and there are further plans to exhibit in Catterline in the summer of 2008.
/
Catterline Arts Festival 2003 05 When The Watchie was ready for use, the idea arose to organise a local arts festival and a number of local, national and international artists were invited to exhibit work throughout the village, utilising all of its spaces including ‘The Creel Inn’, the homes of local residents and St Philip’s church where artists Dalziel + Scullion exhibited their three part film Water Falls Down (2001). An exhibition of the work of Lil Neilson was held in The Watchie. The festival was initiated and organised by five members of the community, all working within the arts, including Ann Steed (Assistant Keeper of Fine Art at Aberdeen Art Gallery) and Iain Irving (MA course leader at Gray’s School of Art) who wanted to celebrate contemporary visual art in Scotland while also acknowledging the village’s visual arts heritage. Artists were keen for their work
to be seen in this new context, and artist David Blyth responded to Catterline itself through an exploration of local myth in his work. The festival took place again two years later, this time with more of an emphasis on Catterline, a number of artists making work directly in response to its context. Through the success of the first festival, more spaces were made available by local residents to exhibit in and The Creel Inn has since hosted a regular programme of exhibitions. The artistic significance, connections and undeniable sense of community spirit in Catterline is perhaps summed up in this festival.
Artists in Catterline When I visited Catterline at the end of March, The Watchie was being used by local artist Mike Samson, busy preparing paintings for an exhibition in Aberdeen, and by members of a community arts group. Artist Stuart Buchanan who re-located from Glasgow to Catterline and to Eardley’s house at Number 18 two years ago has just begun a one year residency in The Watchie. Although not directly influenced by Eardley, it seems that a knowledge of her work and her evocation of these surroundings will impact on his painting. Certainly, it is difficult to avoid visualising her paintings while looking at this landscape, demonstrative perhaps, of her direct and experiential approach to her
(FROM TOP) Ingeborg Kvame Sea 2, 2008 Pencil on paper Š The Artist View from The Watchie
Scottish Art News / Autumn 2008 27
“Artists were keen for their work to be seen in this new context” work. This approach – her constant observation and subsequent interpretation of the austerity and drama of the landscape, the muted colours of the north-east in her paintings is documented in photographs of Eardley with her easel set up on the shoreline. For artists who come and work in The Watchie, many will find it is more than a space, a studio – with its outlook and position, it seems to both encompass and be integral to the surrounding landscape. For Eardley, to be part of this landscape and to be directly responding to it was fundamental to her work. This intimate involvement within the landscape produces the intensity and immediacy conveyed through her paintings, as if she was reducing as much as she could, the physical and emotional distance between artist and subject. Immersed in the elements she was recording, the paint itself is indicative of this engagement, both in the energy of the brushstrokes and for example, by the incorporation of sand and grasses in the paint. Her painterly response and involvement in the community at Catterline have left lasting impressions which are not likely to diminish but to continue to feed imaginations and creative minds for many years to follow. Throughout Scotland in 2008, a touring exhibition Impressions of Catterline 08 will take place. Opening at Montrose Museum, it features work by eighteen artists, each responding to Catterline and its surroundings.
Related Sites David Blyth www.deveron-arts.com/dblyth.htm Stuart Buchanan www.lenaboyle.com Catterline www.thecreelinn.co.uk www.catterline.org Catterline Arts Festival www.catterline-arts-festival.co.uk Dalziel + Scullion www.dalzielscullion.com Judith Findlay www.catterline-arts-festival.co.uk/manyrooms.htm Impressions of Catterline ‘08 www.wallprojectsltd.com Anna King www.anna-king.com Joanne Tatham & Tom O’Sullivan www.themoderninstitute.com
(ABOVE FROM LEFT) Looking out from The Watchie Inside The Watchie – view of the main studio space
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IMPRESSIONISM
&
SCOTLAND Dr. Frances Fowle, Curator of Impressionism and Scotland, gives an insight into the upcoming exhibitions at the National Gallery of Scotland and Kelvingrove Art Gallery
I
mpressionist art today fetches high prices at auction and yet in their day the Impressionists were derided by the critics and their pictures ‘hissed’ when they came up for sale. Scottish artists were among the first in Britain to respond to the new movement and Scotland was one of the earliest countries to embrace Impressionist art. The National Gallery of Scotland’s summer exhibition explores this phenomenon, looking at the close links that existed between Scotland and France in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. In the second half of the nineteenth century the term ‘impressionist’ or ‘impressionistic’ was used by critics in a derogatory sense to describe work that was lacking in academic rigour. In Britain the term was applied not only to the French Impressionists, but to a wide range of artists such as Camille Corot, Jules Bastien-Lepage and James McNeill Whistler. In the 1880s and 1890s it was also frequently used to describe a group of artists working in Scotland, including, among others, William McTaggart, Arthur Melville, James Guthrie, John Lavery, George Henry, Joseph Crawhall and E.A. Walton. Like their French contemporaries they wanted to challenge the authority of the Scottish Academy by painting the subjects of everyday life and by basing their art on the direct observation of nature. Tonal painting was crucial to the development of modernism in Scotland and resulted, at least in part,
“Scottish artists were among the first in Britain to respond to the new movement and Scotland was one of the earliest countries to embrace Impressionist art” (OPPOSITE PAGE) [1] John Lavery (1856-1941) Under the Cherry Tree, 1884 Oil on canvas Ulster Museum, Belfast © By courtesy of Felix Rosenstiel’s Widow & Son Ltd. London on behalf of the Estate of Sir John Lavery. Photograph reproduced courtesy the Trustees of National Museums Northern Ireland
from the artists’ knowledge of nineteenth-century Dutch and French art, which was widely collected and exhibited in Scotland. From the mid-1860s onwards, Scottish collectors such as John Forbes White in Aberdeen forged links between Dutch and Scottish artists, arranging for the young George Reid to train in the Netherlands and inviting Dutch artists over to Scotland. It was partly through exposure to Hague School painting that William McTaggart developed his mature ‘impressionist’ style, setting up his easel out of doors and applying the paint with extraordinary freedom in works such as The Storm (National Gallery of Scotland). Although McTaggart’s mature style was largely home grown, France provided opportunities for a number of Scottish artists, including
Melville and Lavery, who both worked at Grez-surLoing, an artists’ colony on the edge of the Forest of Fontainebleau. In choosing to paint here they were following in the footsteps of Corot, Millet, Théodore Rousseau and other artists of the Barbizon School, whose work was popular with Scottish collectors. However, the artist who most inspired them was Jules Bastien-Lepage, who was often described by critics as an ‘Impressionist’, even though he practiced a technique that was quite distinct from that of Monet and his circle. As the exhibition shows, his work was the inspiration behind a number of works by Scottish artists, including George Henry’s Noon (Lord Macfarlane of Bearsden), Guthrie’s To Pastures New (Aberdeen Art Gallery) and Lavery’s Under the Cherry Tree [1].
32 Scottish Art News / Autumn 2008
James McNeill Whistler was another important influence, often referred to by nineteenthcentury art critics as an ‘Impressionist’. His work was admired and collected by several Scottish industrialists. One of his most notorious works, Nocturne in Blue and Silver: Battersea Bridge [2] was acquired by a Scottish mercantile collector, William Graham, of the wine and port dynasty. The picture was exhibited at the Grosvenor Gallery in London in 1877, along with Nocturne in Black and Gold: the Falling Rocket, now in Detroit. Both pictures were famously dismissed by John Ruskin, the champion of Victorian anecdotal painting and academic finish. Ruskin expressed his disapproval in vitriolic
terms: ‘I have seen, and heard, much of Cockney impudence before now,’ he wrote, ‘but never expected to hear a coxcomb ask two hundred guineas for flinging a pot of paint in the public’s face.’ Whistler’s Nocturnes inspired works such as George Henry’s River Landscape by Moonlight of 1887 [3] but, whereas Whistler transforms the industrial Thames under a veil of ‘evening mist’, Henry, the painter of modern life, makes us more aware of the Clyde as an industrial river. Glasgow in the late nineteenth century was the second city of the British Empire, and some of the world’s biggest industrial and manufacturing companies were based there. The city’s ‘merchant
princes’ were well-educated, well-travelled and influential men, who had made their fortunes on the back of Scotland’s expanding economy. They were keen to acquire works of art that reflected their progressive outlook, as well as their rising social status and began to invest not only in contemporary Scottish art, but in modern European art. In 1883 John Duncan, a sugar refiner from the West of Scotland, became the first Scottish collector to buy an Impressionist painting when he bought Renoir’s The Bay of Naples 1881 (Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York). His collection included Eugène Delacroix’s The Death of Sardanapalus, now in the Louvre, Paris, and it could have been
his appreciation of Delacroix’s rich colour which helped him develop a taste for Renoir’s warm palette and loose, feathery brushstroke. Duncan was extremely advanced in his taste for modern art. He acquired the Renoir from the French dealer Paul Durand-Ruel who had organised a display of around fifty Impressionist works at Dowdeswell’s gallery in London in 1883. The exhibition was severely criticised by the press who concluded that ‘impressionism is another name for ignorance and idleness’. During the 1890s, thanks to the efforts of the Glasgow dealer Alexander Reid, works by Degas, Monet, Manet, Sisley and Pissarro were shown in
Scotland on a regular basis. Reid spent over two years in Paris from 1887 to 1889, working for much of that time for the prestigious firm of art dealers, Boussod & Valadon under Theo van Gogh. As a result of this experience he was introduced to Impressionist art, and when he returned to Glasgow in 1889 he began preparations for his first exhibition of modern French painting. The exhibition opened in Glasgow in January 1892 and included works by Degas, Sisley, Pissarro and Monet. Only one picture was sold, Degas’s At the Milliner’s (Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York), which was bought for £800 by Thomas Glen Arthur, director of the Glasgow drapery firm Arthur & Co. The picture was widely discussed in the press, not least because of its unusual composition, and may have inspired Henry to paint another modern life subject, The Milliner’s Window, a year or two later [4].
(OPPOSITE PAGE, FROM LEFT) [2] James McNeill Whistler (1834-1903) Nocturne: Blue and Gold – Old Battersea Bridge c.1872-5 Oil on canvas (Tate Gallery, London) © Tate, London 2007 [3] George Henry (1858-1943) River Landscape by Moonlight, 1887 Oil on canvas Hunterian Art Gallery, University of Glasgow © Estate of George Henry Photography © Hunterian Museum and Art Gallery University of Glasgow
[4] George Henry (1858-1943) The Milliner’s Window c.1894 Oil on canvas Private collection © Estate of George Henry Photography courtesy of Sotheby’s [5] Edgar Degas (1834-1917) L’Absinthe, 1876 Oil on canvas Musée d’Orsay, Paris © Photo RMN/ © Hervé Lewandowski [6] James Guthrie (1859-1930) Midsummer, 1892 Oil on canvas Royal Scottish Academy, Diploma Collection © Royal Scottish Academy
Scottish Art News / Autumn 2008 33
“Many of the early modern life images in French art focused on social issues such as drunkenness and prostitution, but in Scotland these were not regarded as suitable subjects for High Art”
Henry’s painting is included in a section of the exhibition dedicated to the theme of modern life. The centrepiece is Degas’s L’Absinthe [5] which was acquired by Arthur Kay (coincidentally T.G. Arthur’s business partner) in February 1892. The picture was the source of much dissent when it appeared at auction in London: the British public was outraged by the degrading subject of a common prostitute drinking in a Parisian café. Many of the early modern life images in French art focused on social issues such as drunkenness and prostitution, but in Scotland these were not regarded as suitable subjects for High Art. Drunkenness among the working classes was a major problem and in the second half of the nineteenth century tea rooms were set up as places where the middle classes could partake of non-alcoholic refreshments and where the wives and daughters of businessmen could pass the time. Guthrie’s diploma picture, Midsummer [6] depicts three young women taking tea in a shady Helensburgh garden and offers an antidote to Degas’s more dissipated image. From the late 1890s onwards the four Colourists S.J. Peploe, J.D. Fergusson, Leslie Hunter and F.C.B. Cadell all spent some time in France, but were interested only briefly in Impressionism. From 1907 Fergusson, and later Peploe, came under
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the influence of Henri Matisse and the Fauves, who painted with a raw, almost primitive energy. Both artists began experimenting with the use of green in the shadowed areas of their portraits, exemplified by Fergusson’s In the Sunlight (Aberdeen Art Gallery), a portrait of a singer at the café-concert. Cézanne was also an important model for the Colourists and, as the exhibition demonstrates, astonishing parallels can be drawn between Peploe’s landscapes at Cassis and Cézanne’s paintings of the area around Aix-en-Provence [7] and [8]. After the First World War Scottish collectors began to take an interest in the work of Peploe and Hunter, and it was partly as a result of their exposure to the brilliant colour and fluid handling of these artists that they developed a taste for PostImpressionism. Under Hunter’s influence, especially, the Glasgow shipbuilder William McInnes acquired works by Van Gogh, Cézanne and Matisse in the early 1920s. Overall the exhibition focuses on the outstanding Impressionist and Post-Impressionist works that were acquired by Scottish collectors during this period. It draws some revealing parallels and contrasts between French and Scottish art, and demonstrates that, despite these influences from the Continent, Scottish artists developed their own distinct brand of Impressionism, quite unlike that of Monet and his contemporaries. (ABOVE, FROM LEFT) [7] S.J. Peploe (1871-1935) Landscape, Cassis, c.1924 Oil on canvas Aberdeen Art Gallery © Aberdeen Art Gallery and Museums Collections
[8] Paul Cézanne (1839-1906) The Big Trees, c.1890 Oil on canvas National Gallery of Scotland, Edinburgh © Antonia Reeve Photography
Impressionism and Scotland 19 July-12 October 2008 National Gallery of Scotland Complex, Edinburgh Admission: £8 (£6) 31 October 2008-1 Feb 2009 Kelvingrove Art Gallery, Glasgow (reduced version) The exhibition is sponsored by Baillie Gifford and is accompanied by a fully illustrated catalogue and also a smaller catalogue Impressionism in Scotland
Nathan Coley Celia Davis, Head of Exhibitions at the De La Warr Pavilion, reports on Nathan Coley’s new work Palace, 2008
Nathan Coley The Lamp of Sacrifice – 286 Places of Worship, Edinburgh, 2004 Mounted digital colour print © The Artist/FWAF
C
ontemporary Scottish artist Nathan Coley lives and works in Glasgow. Over the past fifteen years he has worked in a diverse range of media including public and gallery sited sculpture, photography, drawing and video. His practice focuses on how political and religious ideologies come to shape and determine our built environment. Notions of faith and religion, state and power, sanctuary and refuge, immunity and frontier, spiritual and the rational are recurrently explored within his work. He investigates how these ideas change over time and how we come to understand these ideologies according to different locations, contexts and personal perspectives. Interested in responding to specific contexts, Coley made The Lamp of Sacrifice, 286 Places of Worship, Edinburgh, 2004, which is an extensive sculptural work currently held in the collection of The Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art. Models were constructed of all two hundred and eighty six places of worship listed in the city’s Yellow Pages. The artist then developed this further as a series of colour prints (now held in The Fleming Collection). Ten of the models were photographed isolated against a white background: an edited visual inventory of the original telephone number list. Again, concerned with how new contexts can give new meaning and insights, Coley made There Will Be No Miracles Here, 2006, which was commissioned for the Mount Stuart Trust on the Isle of Bute, a project for which Coley was shortlisted for the Turner Prize in 2007. This sign-like construction with glowing illuminated text uses fairground light bulbs to spell out a historical public announcement
proclaiming authority over God, by order of the King, but importantly invites different readings today. For his solo exhibition this summer, Coley has made a new work co-commissioned by the De La Warr Pavilion and Haunch of Venison Gallery, London. Palace, 2008, is a large scale sculpture which takes the form of a Western Saloon façade. The work is constructed with minimal details – enough to convey the idea and no more. Constructed from timber it has a rough finish, painted entirely in black emulsion. At 10 x 6 metres it is eighty percent real size – Coley has chosen to use the scale employed by the film set designers and to utilise the language of the film set; a structure to be looked at only through the lens. Only the image has to look ‘correct’. It does not need to be functional or truthful as it is just a façade. Palace is based on the notion of the Western as a mythology. The Western was central to American movie making in the 1950s, used as a way of tackling issues of morality and religion in the postwar era; political paranoia was rife in the McCarthy era with the emergence of the Cold War. Although made in the 1950s, the Westerns recall a historical period some eighty years earlier, a ‘constructed’ US of the 1870s, re-imagined by European and American film directors. It points to a period in history where cowboys were migrating outwards into the American desert, pushing forward new frontiers, creating new towns, causing the North American Indians to relocate to new settlements. The movies however, portray a more romantic notion of the frontier, of the tamed versus the savage, the individual against the state. The Western is used by Coley as a metaphor for now: an age of moral uncertainty where the
Scottish Art News / Autumn 2008 37
relationship of the individual and state, right and wrong, good and evil is an increasingly tense one. Using the language of building signage, five words are partially drilled out of the timber structure of Palace – BELIEF, LAND, LIFE, MIND AND WEALTH. These are the five rights that every human is granted under Islam and yet are also central to the mythology driving the Western film. Palace as a structure is understood to be deliberately false, but brings together two ideologies from different corners of the globe. The materiality of the work as an object is important: its physical presence. The work is not a homage to western films or Islam, instead it transcends this, to make the discussion more universal. For the audience this work is a proposition – you can walk around it, on it and through it. You can be seen by others on it. You can look at it or act on it. The work may be described as a sculpture rather than a relief in the sense that it is made to be seen from all angles, not just from the front as a facade.
38 Scottish Art News / Autumn 2008
The artist has put MIND (the intellect, the thinking) at the ‘rear’ of the sculpture so that you are encouraged to literally read the structure in the round. Titles of works are always carefully considered by Coley. This title imposes a European title on to American Culture. There are no palaces in North America except Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas, the melting pot of pastiche architecture, the city of facades and wealth. Palace as a title recalls an iconic building, a residence of state or sovereign, imposing and opulent, yet this palace is spare, simple, minimal and melancholic, perhaps more a place where a civic consciousness resides. In truth, Palace in origin, is more rooted in democracy; a building for the people. In terms of context, Palace has a very particular resonance when exhibited in Berlin at Haunch of Venison’s project space. The city is a former major frontier between opposing political thought with a physical architectural intervention to separate those beliefs. The work will gain further new meaning when exhibited at the De La Warr Pavilion, often coined the ‘people’s palace’. Context apart, Palace is a conversation piece and a new centre point of the artist’s practice. It is a brave work, which marks an important point where Coley has integrated
the language and materiality of the structural sculptural works with the text works he has been making to date. Other recent works by the artist continue with the Western as a metaphor. Coley has made two new light boxes with text that is provocative in its content and message. ALL ARTISTS ARE COWBOYS AND INDIANS; this is the claim in the new work What Jackson said to Andy, 2008, apparently said in a conversation between artists Jackson Pollock and Andy Warhol. The Cowboys and Indians represent different life philosophies, perhaps the polarities (OPPOSITE PAGE) Nathan Coley Palace, 2008 Installation View: Haunch of Venison, Berlin, 2008 Painted timber and mixed media © The Artist Courtesy Haunch of Venison
(FROM LEFT) Nathan Coley Give Up The Good Book, Pick Up A Good Gun, 2008 Powder coated aluminum with fluorescent lamps © The Artist Courtesy Haunch of Venison Photo: Peter Mallet Nathan Coley What Jackson Said To Andy (All Artists Are Either Cowboys Or Indians), 2008 Powder coated aluminum with fluorescent lamps © The Artist Courtesy Haunch of Venison Photo: Peter Mallet
Scottish Art News / Autumn 2008 39
Nathan Coley Secular Icon in an Age of Moral Uncertainty, 2008 Fairground lights and aluminum Š The Artist Courtesy Haunch of Venison Photo: Peter Mallet
between east and west. The cowboys are trailblazers, not caring about anyone else, getting what they want, no matter what. The Indians are representative of the shamanic guru who wants to get into your soul, who cares about what you feel. The typography of the text is articulated the same way as other light boxes by Coley, drilled out of the raw material of the object. Another work, Give Up the Good Book, Pick up a Good Gun, 2008, is according to Coley, a mantra rooted in the Western tradition and Dime Novels of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuies. The Dime Novel format focused on stories about the Wild West and quickly became popular with the soldiers on both sides during the American Civil War (186165). They were cheap, widely available, Western adventure narratives, written and read at a point when the Wild West was being developed. The text illuminates once again through drilled out holes of gun metal grey sheet, evocative of bullet holes. The words implore you to escape the church and make your own way. This work is acute and alarmingly relevant given the current controversy around gunculture. The dilemma with moral uncertainty is further developed in Secular Icon in an Age of Moral Uncertainty, 2008. This piece uses the language and aesthetic of gaudy public signs, something we might look to for entertainment or contentment. However, there is nothing to be read or gained here. Despite the crass appeal of the Pop Art aesthetic that draws one in, one searches the lights to read a message to find this is a sign which has nothing to say. The meaning here is that it is meaningless.
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Palace is commissioned by the De La Warr Pavilion in collaboration with the Haunch of Venison, London. It has been shown at Haunch of Venison’s Project Space in Berlin to coincide with the Berlin Biennale 2008. Following this, it will be exhibited with other works by the artist at the De La Warr Pavilion in summer 2008 Nathan Coley (b. Glasgow, 1967) graduated from Glasgow School of Art in 1989. He has had solo exhibitions at Mount Stuart, Isle of Bute, 2006; Fruitmarket, 2004; Centro Cultural de Belem, Lisbon, 2001 and Westfalischer Kunstverein, Munster in 2000. Recent group exhibitions include the Turner Prize 07; Breaking Steps, Museum of Contemporary Art Belgrade, 2007; Off the Wall, Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh and British Art Show 6, BALTIC, Gateshead, 2006. In 2008 Nathan Coley is participating in the inaugural Folkestone Triennial, (14 June-14 September) and has a solo exhibition at the De La Warr Pavilion (26 July-21 September) He is represented by Doggerfisher, Edinburgh and Haunch of Venison, London www.delawarrpavilion.com www.haunchofvenison.com
PICTURE IN FOCUS
Hayley Brown takes a closer look at The Fleming Collection’s most recent acquisition, an early self-portrait by James Cowie (1886- 1956), Self-portrait with the Artist’s First Wife of 1923
J
ames Cowie was born the son of a farmer near the small hamlet of Cuminestown in Aberdeenshire. After setting out to study English Literature at Aberdeen University, he turned to painting at the relatively late age of twenty six. Whilst studying, he attended teacher training college, and it was during this time that his interest in the visual arts grew – encouraged by James Hector, an art teacher whom he met there. Against the wishes of his parents, he abandoned his studies at university to pursue a career in painting and after completion of his teacher training course and a short time spent working as art master at Fraserburgh Academy in 1909 to amass funds, Cowie enrolled in a two-year course at The Glasgow School of Art in 1912. There he studied under the direction of Maurice Greiffenhagen, an influential illustrator and portrait painter in the traditional style. Cowie’s career was interrupted by the onset of war, during which he stood as a conscientious objector. For a time he worked for the Pioneer Corps
James Cowie Self-portrait with the Artist’s first wife, 1923 Oil on canvas © FWAF/Artist’s Estate
just outside Edinburgh, but in 1918 he found employment at Bellshill Academy where he remained teaching art until 1935. It was during his time at Bellshill Academy that Cowie’s unique style and outlook really began to develop. He made the most of his time there by honing his artistic skills and using his students as models for some of his most ambitious pieces such as Summer is Icumen In (1925-6) and Falling Leaves (1934). He maintained close contact with other artists of the Glasgow circle, particularly Greiffenhagen and Frederick Cayley Robinson, whose style – a mixture of classical formality and pre-Raphaelite romanticism – had great influence on the younger artist. Cowie’s prior education in literature and poetry also served to enrich his art. For a brief time in 1919, Cowie and fellow Glasgow School of Art students Robert Sivell and Arthur Mcglashan formed The Glasgow Society of Painters and Sculptors, a group of artists who appreciated traditional styles and methods of representational art. It was Cowie’s originality, however, which led him to become the most renowned of the three artists. It was not until 1935 that he achieved his first solo exhibition at The Maclellan Gallery – the same year in which he was appointed Head of Painting at the prestigious Gray’s School of Art in Aberdeen.
Cowie’s adherence to traditional values, combined with the originality of his ideas set him apart from his Scottish contemporaries. While other artists of the inter-war period such as the Colourists were working in a very fresh, painterly style, he maintained a deep reverence for the meticulous draftsmanship and rigorous execution of the Old Masters. In contrast to the vibrant colours of Peploe (1871-1935) and Fergusson (1874-1971), Cowie worked in a strongly linear style using a characteristically muted palette. He was therefore seen by many to be backward-looking, and his paintings ‘over worked’ or ‘tired’, but this assessment of him fails to acknowledge that he went on to become one of the only
“While other artists of the inter-war period such as the Colourists were working in a very fresh, painterly style, Cowie maintained a deep reverence for the meticulous draftsmanship and rigorous execution of the Old Masters”
Scottish Art News / Autumn 2008 43
Scottish painters to seriously embrace the modern style of Surrealism. ‘Cowie believed art was the product of thought [and] that every mark on the canvas was there for a reason’. His work gradually became more linear and severe as his individual style developed and any looser painterly qualities that had been present in the early years soon disappeared. Self-Portrait with the Artist’s First Wife of 1923 is an example of one of his earlier works, which demonstrates that his style was still in the development stages. Cowie depicts himself, in shadow, seated in front of a dream-like vision of his first wife, Nancy Buchanan whom he had met at The Glasgow School of Art and subsequently married in 1918. The softness of this painting with its graduating tones contrasts with the hard edges
“Where one might expect to find a feeling of hope, there is a surprisingly melancholy ambience” of his later works such as Portrait Group, 1932c.1940. However, at the same time, the painting also demonstrates a progression towards his later, more linear style. Compared to an earlier portrait of his wife of 1919, there are a number of marked advances. While there is a gaiety to the earlier portrait – a looser handling and use of a lighter palette – the 1923 portrait has a darker psychological intensity. In the former, painted a year after their marriage, Nancy looks carefree and untroubled, whereas in the latter her eyes are down-cast and her expression serious. This is unexpected given that the painting also reveals that she is pregnant at this time with the couple’s first child. Where one might expect to find a feeling of hope, there is a surprisingly melancholy ambience. Not long after this portrait was painted and just ten months after the birth of their child, Nancy died of tuberculosis. Did Cowie knowingly incorporate a suggestion of his wife’s illness into the painting before he completed it? Another noticeable difference between these two portraits of Cowie’s first wife is their composition. His work becomes more structured
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as his style develops and we can see that he has begun to make use of architectural elements and objects such as easels and canvases to frame his compositions. There is a definite geometric arrangement to the later portrait with the overhang of shadow to the top right adding to the psychological effect of negativity, which was not present in the earlier piece. As with many of Cowie’s later paintings, the composition gives a sense of being made up of different planes, something which abounds in his surrealist works like Composition of 1947, and points at his interest in exploring the complexity of the mind even at this relatively early stage. In his large pieces Cowie assembled his compositions from separate preliminary studies. Perhaps this is why there appears to be so little connection between the two figures in the portrait. It could almost be that a painting of his wife is positioned behind him. Another painting which demonstrates Cowie’s use of sliding planes is a much later self-portrait entitled Self-Portrait (The Blue Shirt), c.1945-50 (The University of Edinburgh), which was painted approximately a quarter of a century later. Comparing these two works affords a telling insight into the direction of his style in his later years. Self-Portrait (The Blue Shirt) is much more complex than the 1923 self-portrait, incorporating a whole host of influences, most noticeably Poussin, whose painting The Inspiration of the Epic Poem, 1629-30, is positioned just behind Cowie’s head. This painting confirms Cowie as an artist who could successfully combine traditional and modern influences in equal measure. For two years after Nancy’s death nothing of much significance seems to have been produced by Cowie who ‘isolated himself in his studio’. But after remarrying in 1926, not only did he begin to paint more prolifically, he also dramatically reformed his style, developing a use of line that was unique in its intensity. His paintings took on a more formal appearance and became deeply introspective. Cowie became the renowned teacher of a whole generation of post-Second World War artists including Robert Coloquhoun, Robert MacBryde and Joan Eardley, whose paintings of Glasgow children demonstrate a reaction against her teacher’s tightly bound style. James Cowie Self-Portrait (The Blue Shirt), c.1945-50 Oil on canvas The University of Edinburgh © The University of Edinburgh/The Artist’s Estate
Scottish Art News / Autumn 2008 45
(FROM LEFT) Samuel John Peploe Mull and Ben More from Martyr’s Bay, Iona c.1920 Oil on canvas Sold for £120,000 George Leslie Hunter Loch Lomond, late 1920s Oil on canvas Estimate £50,000-70,000
BONHAMS Chris Brickley and May Matthews report on 2007 at Bonhams and their new salerooms opening in 2008 2007 was another successful year for the Scottish picture sales at Bonhams. Once again The Scottish Sale had impressive results with 83% of the 199 pictures finding buyers. The twentieth-century market remained strong with excellent prices for two Anne Redpath still lives – £81,600 and £69,600 – and a highly contested example of poppies by Sir Robin Philipson selling for £40,800. 2007 finished on a high note with the December Fine Paintings Sale. The star lot was a stunning landscape by Samuel John Peploe. The oil, Mull and Ben More from Martyr’s Bay was painted when Peploe visited Iona in 1920 – the first of regular visits with Cadell. After a dramatic bidding contest, the market-fresh painting sold for £120,000. This was a record price for a Scottish subject by this artist. Other
highlights included a rare Arthur Melville of a coffee stall in Cairo, a fine George Leslie Hunter still life and a beautiful seaside scene by Robert Gemmell Hutchison. This year’s Spring Sale was held in the prestigious Signet Library. Prices were strong across the board, with a selling rate of over 91%. It contained a range of exciting, fresh pictures including a gem-like McTaggart oil Hope’s Whisper, 1890. Once owned by T.J. Honeyman and linked to Alexander Reid, this was a classic example of its type, realising £25,200. Another fine example from Philipson’s poppy series stole the show, selling for £44,400. The Scottish Sale, to be held on 29 August, 2008, will launch our new salerooms in Queen Street. Major work is underway on the two salerooms and office space to ensure that
46 Scottish Art News / Autumn 2008
we continue to have among the best auction rooms in Scotland. Highlights thus far include an impressive oil of houseboats at Balloch by Hunter, estimated at £50,000-70,000. This picture has been in a private Scottish collection for some decades and has the added bonus of being doublesided. www.bonhams.com
(FROM LEFT) Christie’s Coleridge Room Anne Redpath (1895-1965) Mediterranean Sold, 16 April 2008 for £84,500 Allan Ramsay (1713-1784) Portrait of the artist, bust length Scottish Art sale, Edinburgh, 23 October 2008 Estimate: £200,000-300,000
CHRISTIE’S Laura Lindsay gives an overview of the 2008 Scottish Art Sales and the highlights coming up in 2008 Following the success of the first dedicated sale of Scottish Art in London in May 2007, Christie’s held their second sale in London on 16th April and took advantage of the newly refurbished galleries at their South Kensington premises to display and auction 172 pictures and watercolours of Scotland, by Scottish artists, dated from the seventeenth century through to the present day. A selection from the sale was previewed at the Glasgow Art Club in Glasgow prior to the viewing in London. Both events attracted a busy flow of visitors, not only interested in collecting Scottish art, but enjoying the opportunity of seeing a wide range of material reflecting the distinct personality of the country’s landscape and people. Highlights of the sale included George Leslie Hunter’s Houseboats, Loch Lomond, which
sold for £144,500, and Ann Redpath’s Mediterranean, sold for £84,500. Christie’s will be holding two sales dedicated to Scottish Art in 2008 and following a preview at Christie’s, London King Street, 26-30 September, will be returning to The Assembly Rooms in Edinburgh for their main annual Scottish Art sale on 23rd October. Exceptional prices for pictures by the Colourists and other modern Scottish artists have hit the headlines in recent years and work of that period has dominated the market. Although harder to source, Christie’s are keen to represent more high quality eighteenth and early nineteenth-century pictures, and are currently building up a strong section dedicated to early Scottish art for the autumn sale. At this early stage, we are pleased to announce the sale of an
important and historical self-portrait by Scotland’s finest portrait painter, Allan Ramsay. Born in Edinburgh, the artist continued his training in Italy. Commissioned by his friend and patron, John Ward, after the artist’s first trip to Italy in 1749, the picture reflects the influence of the Neapolitan artist, Francesco Solimena, with whom he had worked. The self-portrait is not only very appealing but a rare image of one of Britain’s most important artists of the time. Ramsay became the leading portraitist of his day and was appointed Principal Painter to George III. This painting will be a highlight of the autumn sale which will include works by other distinguished Scottish artists of the period such as Henry Raeburn, Alexander Nasmyth, David Wilkie and John Knox, as well as works by artists of the nineteenth, twentieth and twenty-first centuries. www.christies.com
Scottish Art News / Autumn 2008 47
(FROM LEFT) Lucy Kemp Welch Breeze over the Cornlands Oil on canvas Sold for £59,000
LYON & TURNBULL
Francis Campbell Boileau Cadell (1883-1937) Figures outside the Belgian Pavilion, 1910 Oil on panel £80,000
Elena Ratcheva reviews the last six months at Lyon & Turnbull and selects highlights from the sales Lyon & Turnbull have had a very successful six months following an excellent Fine Paintings Sale in November 2007, and the sale of the Deloitte Collection at Burlington Gardens in January 2008. The Fine Paintings sale in November demonstrated the continuing growth of the Scottish market with a group of Colourists achieving strong prices above their estimate. In particular, an interesting early Cadell view of the Venice Biennale, painted in 1910 during his brief stay in the Serenissima, doubled its estimate to fetch £80,000 on the day. A striking still life by Hunter from the late 1920s also performed very well, achieving a strong estimate of £76,000, and a pretty Arran view by Milne sold for more than £25,000. English art also continued to sell well north of the border, with Lucy Kemp Welch’s
accomplished Breeze over the Cornlands commanding £59,000. In January, our first auction in London took place at Burlington Gardens, with standing room only and buoyant bidding. The provenance of the sale, the Deloitte Collection, attracted bidders worldwide and ensured impressive prices were paid for a number of lots. Most significant was the bidding battle which ensued over John Hoyland’s monumental canvas 17.7.69, which toppled the previous record for his work, tripling it to £191,000. John Hoyland is one of Britain’s foremost living nonfigurative painters and this twelvefoot acrylic on canvas, dating from 1969, is one of the best works of the period. Two Bridget Riley’s made £21,000 and £14,500 respectively, whilst a Gilbert and George postcard collage made £15,000. A collection of twenty-six
48 Scottish Art News / Autumn 2008
screen prints by Patrick Caulfield made collectively over £30,000. We will continue to build on the strength of the Contemporary market by holding our next Modern and Contemporary paintings sale at One Marylebone Road, near Regent’s Park, London, at the end of September 2008. Sculpture by Harry Vittoia and William Scott is amongst the works already consigned, as well as pieces by Christo, Edward Burra, Terry Frost, Ken Kiff and Banksy. www.lyonandturnbull.com
(FROM LEFT) George Henry, RA, R.S.A, R.S.W (1858-1943) Playmates Oil on canvas Sold for £401,300
SOTHEBY’S
John Duncan Fergusson (1874-1961) Bathers with Mirror Oil on canvas Sold for £228,500
Christopher Pensa reports on highlights from the sales and new auction records achieved in 2008 2008 has already been a very strong year for Scottish Art at Sotheby’s with the first of our two annual sales at the Assembly Rooms in Edinburgh on 1st May setting a number of new world auction records. The sale achieved a total in excess of £4m against a low estimate of £3.3m, illustrating the strength of the current market for high quality Scottish pictures. One of the highlights of the Glasgow Boys section was a rare, early 1880s picture entitled Playmates by George Henry, which after aggressive bidding finally sold for a record £401,300. Another world record of £62,900 was achieved for Pytheas Buys Amber by Olive Carleton Smyth, a work of outstanding quality by one of the female artists integral to the development of the Glasgow Style during the early part of the twentieth century. A rare and important historical painting of Mary Queen of Scots by the symbolist artist John McKirdy Duncan, achieved a price of £120,500 – another world record result and a particular highlight of the early modern
Peter Howson (b.1958) The Three Faces of Eve, A Triptych Acrylic on canvas Sold for £300,500
section. Furthermore, having achieved a new world record in 2007 for a watercolour by Sir William Russell Flint (Belle Poseus, which sold for £96,000 in Gleneagles 2007), the market was keen to push the record even further in May when Sandy Bastion attained £120,500. The Colourist market remains as strong as ever with some excellent results for Samuel John Peploe, George Leslie Hunter, John Maclauchlan Milne, Margaret Morris and Anne Estelle Rice, in addition to the highest price ever paid for a nude by John Duncan Fergusson, Bathers with Mirror, which sold for £228,500. The Edinburgh Group and PostWar section of the sale showed similar strength with an early work Greys by Anne Redpath achieving £132,500, the second highest price ever paid for a work by the artist. A similar highlight from this section was a major triptych Zebra by Sir Robin Philipson, which realised £192,500, setting yet another world record for the artist at auction. The second of two
monumental triptychs in this sale, The Three Faces of Eve by Peter Howson, attained the most outstanding result of £300,500 in the contemporary section of the sale, shattering the existing world record three times over. Both the Howson triptych, previously in a private collection in Germany for over a decade, and the Philipson triptych were purchased by an Indian private collector, illustrating the ever increasing international activity of the global art market. In anticipation of Sotheby’s Scottish and Sporting Pictures Sale in Gleneagles on 27th August, André Zlattinger and his team will be travelling throughout the United Kingdom in June. www.sothebys.com
Scottish Art News / Autumn 2008 49
BEHIND THE SCENES: EDINBURGH Hayley Brown recounts a jam-packed schedule of events on the Friends of The Fleming Collection trip to Edinburgh
I
n March 2008 the Friends of the Fleming Collection made a visit to Scotland’s capital to experience an insider’s look at some of the city’s most exciting visual arts venues. The Friends last visited Edinburgh in 2005 and this year, alongside the usual gallery and studio visits, the trip took on a new theme – a thread of silver ran through the weekend in light of the National Museum of Scotland’s Silver: Made in Scotland exhibition (January-April 2008). To celebrate 550 years of hallmarking in Scotland, the exhibition demonstrated the way in which silver has symbolised wealth and power throughout the ages. Friday morning began with a hands-on session at Edinburgh Printmakers studios with Studio Manager Alastair Clark where Friends had the opportunity to create original prints. Using two different techniques – collograph or dry-point etching, the results were impressive and some artistic flair was revealed. Whilst taking a break for lunch it was possible to view the recent Reveal exhibition upstairs in the gallery and to purchase prints by well-known contemporary artists such as Moyna Flannigan and Graeme Todd, both of whom were represented in The Fleming Collection’s Ten Decades exhibition in early 2008. After having been thrown in at the deep end at the Printmakers, the next visit was a rather less messy one, to the National Library of Scotland. Manuscripts Curators, David McClay and Rachel Thomas introduced
50 Scottish Art News / Autumn 2008
the historic John Murray publishing archive with which some of the world’s greatest authors are associated, such as Jane Austen, Lord Byron, Walter Scott and Isabella Bird Bishop. A handling session of original documents from the collection followed, which included commonplace books of c.1812, pieced together by Lady Caroline Lamb (one time lover of Lord Byron) as well as a viewing of etchings from c.1857 created to illustrate John Livingstone’s latest book, his explorations in Africa. A visit to Stockbridge and to Wasps Patriothall studios to meet contemporary artists Michael Craik, Henry Kondraki and Alan Kilpatrick allowed for an intimate discussion of the artists’ work and the experience of being a contemporary artist working in Scotland today. From small to large, the studios were crammed with artworks demonstrating the diversity of styles between the artists – from miniature porcelain train carriages by Alan Kilpatrick, to stunning geometric distillations of architectural shapes painstakingly painted in layers by Michael Craik. This was an exciting opportunity to learn more about the various processes which the artists use in creating their works. The next morning the Friends divided into two groups for coffee at one of two venues: Hamilton and Inches on George Street and Bourne Fine Art on Dundas Street. Both groups enjoyed a morning of artistic intrigue. A lively talk and workshop tour to see silversmiths at work was given at Hamilton and Inches
“the studios were crammed with artworks demonstrating the diversity of styles between the artists – from miniature porcelain train carriages by Alan Kilpatrick, to stunning geometric distillations of architectural shapes painstakingly painted in layers by Michael Craik”
(OPPOSITE PAGE FROM LEFT) Silversmith Adrian Hope talks to the Friends of The Fleming Collection at The Scottish Gallery Graham Rich standing in front of one of his recent works – Trying to Reach the Sea, 19842006 Nathan Coley’s The Lamp of Sacrifice, 286 Places of Worship, Edinburgh, 2004 in storage at The Granton Centre for Art
(ABOVE FROM TOP) Printmaking at Edinburgh Printmakers The Sculpture Court at Edinburgh College of Art with cast of the Parthenon Frieze by Richard Westmacott The National Library of Scotland
by Director Denzil Skinner, and at Bourne Fine Art, an energetic lecture was given by artist Graham Rich about his recent exhibition there. Mostly painted on pieces of driftwood churned up by the sea near where he works on the River Exe, Rich’s works are exquisite delicacies, often small but possessing a great power to draw you in towards them. At the Scottish National Portrait Gallery a spectacular tour was given by the gallery’s Director James Holloway, which revealed plans for the redevelopment beginning next year. He pointed out his favourite pieces in the gallery, including, of course, the Alexander Nasmyth portrait of Robert Burns (1787) which Holloway described as ‘the one picture I would save if there was a fire’, and Ken Currie’s eerie Goyaesque piece The Oncologists (2002). A peek ‘behind the scenes’ gave everyone an exclusive look at currently outof-sight storage areas which have been marked out for development into new gallery space. There is hope that once the redevelopment is complete the gallery will be able to display twice as many paintings as are on show now. The highlight of this year’s tour was a viewing of Silver: Made in Scotland with co-curator of the exhibition George Dalgleish. There was a dazzling array of pieces on show, some dating back as early as 1520 – The Methuen Cup is the earliest known piece of marked Scottish Silver. Also on show was a brilliant collection of ceremonial maces, including the mace of the University of Edinburgh (1789) displayed next to a Raeburn painting of Principal William Robertson holding it. It was explained that this exhibition would enable the
Scottish Art News / Autumn 2008 51
museum to ‘go out with a sparkle’ before it also closes for renovation next year. In the evening an invitation to James Holloway’s beautiful home for drinks and a viewing of his private art collection, which ranged from traditional Victorian genre subjects and landscapes to 1980s abstract pieces was enjoyed by all. Sunday gave everyone the opportunity to experience breathtaking views over Edinburgh and the castle when everyone met at the roof-top terrace of Evolution House, the impressive new Edinburgh College of Art building. Michael Wood, Secretary of the College, gave an enlightening tour of the new building and its facilities, which seem to be well suited to its new function as a study space, having originally been conceived as an office block. This was followed by a tour of the main building, home to elegant casts of ancient and Renaissance statues such as Donatello’s St. George (c.1415) and Michelangelo’s Jesus of the Pieta (1499). At the back of the atrium there is a section of Ghiberti’s Gates of Paradise (c.1425), but most impressive however, running around the top of the wall, is a cast of the Parthenon Frieze which includes details now lost from the originals. Lunch at the Scottish Gallery over a viewing of new acquisitions was complimented by a visit by one of Scotland’s top silversmiths, Adrian Hope, designer of twenty-six place settings (234 pieces) for the First Minister for Scotland at Bute House in 1999. He talked about how he came to be a silversmith and explained the techniques he used for creating his delicate yet tactile pieces which were on show. Along the same theme, the next visit that afternoon was to the studio of another of Scotland’s top silversmiths Grant McCaig at Coburg House in Leith. McCaig discussed the influence of the sea in his work and how much he enjoyed incorporating wood into his designs for silver pieces. Whilst at Coburg House, Friend of The Fleming Collection, Kari de Koenigswarter invited everyone along to her own studio to view her unique paintings which involve painting on wax, particularly effective for depicting rugged scenes of the highlands.
“Three store rooms, each corresponding to one of the national galleries were filled with racks on which jumbled assortments of artworks hung” 52 Scottish Art News / Autumn 2008
are numerous Alan Ramsay paintings, including the beautiful Agnes Murray-Kynynmond Dalrymple (1759). After the tour had finished the Friends left the grounds via a secret servant’s exit from the kitchens. On the way back to town there was just enough time for a brief visit to the Dean Gallery to see the Ben Nicholson exhibition as well as Paolozzi’s studio which is on permanent display there. The next ‘Behind The Scenes’ trip will take place in October 2008. Friends of The Fleming Collection will have the unique opportunity to experience ‘The French Riviera in the footsteps of the Colourists’. From St-Paul-de-Vence to Chapelle du Rosaire, Cap Ferrat to St. Tropez, this trip promises art lovers a breathtaking experience. Please note that bookings for this trip have now closed.
An excursion out of town to the Granton Centre for Art, Scotland’s first purpose-built art store for paintings, drawings and sculptures from the National Collection was made on the final day of the tour. Philip Long, Senior Curator of the Gallery of Modern Art, gave a guided tour and revealed along the way some of Scotland’s treasured pieces of art usually hidden out of sight. Three store rooms, each corresponding to one of the national galleries were filled with racks on which jumbled assortments of artworks hung. Upstairs, in a large sculpture store room, high above our heads, on top of laden shelves and individually stored in acidfree cardboard boxes was Nathan Coley’s The Lamp of Sacrifice, 286 Places of Worship, Edinburgh (2004) – 286 cardboard models – none of them flat-packed. In contrast to the modernity of Granton, a special out-of-season visit with Education officer, Mark Maclean, to Newhailes National Trust House completed the tour. Newhailes is a superb example of James Smith’s domestic Palladian architecture. It is one of the most interesting National Trust for Scotland properties as it is almost in the same condition today as it was in the 1700s thanks to the National Trust’s aim to conserve what has been left of the house rather than to restore the building to its original glory. Throughout the house
(OPPOSITE PAGE, FROM TOP) Outside Newhailes House Silver pieces by Adrian Hope and Grant McCaig at The Scottish Gallery
CONTEMPORARY ART SINCE 1842
Elizabeth Blackadder, Two Pheasants
Stephanie Dees, Bellvue Crescent
David Michie, Spring Garden
EXHIBITIONS 2008
2 July - 2 August Summer Exhibition 8 August - 6 September EDINBURGH FESTIVAL EXHIBITIONS Elizabeth Blackadder - New Paintings 10 September - 4 October Stephanie Dees - New Paintings External Events 10-15 Sept 20/21 British Art Fair, London
8 October - 1 November James Robertson - New Paintings 5 - 29 November David Michie - Paintings from the Artist’s Studio 3 - 24 December Christmas Exhibition
www.scottish-gallery.co.uk
THESCOTTISHGALLERY
16 Dundas Street Edinburgh EH3 6HZ tel. 0131 558 1200 mail@scottish-gallery.co.uk
The Friends of The Fleming Collection at the Scottish National Portrait Gallery
Text installation at The Fleming Collection, 2008 © The Fleming Collection James Webb Webb & Webb Design Limited
BOND BOUN Selina Skipwith, Keeper of Art, The Fleming Collection and Corinne Turner, Managing Director, Ian Fleming Publications Ltd, discuss Bond Bound: Ian Fleming and the Art of Cover Design
Bond Bound: Ian Fleming & The Art of Cover Design is part of a number of special exhibitions and events to mark the anniversary of the birth of Ian Fleming – author, journalist, sportsman, naval commander, traveller, spy and creator of one the world’s best-loved literary characters, Bond ... James Bond. On 17 February 1952, Ian sat down at his desk in Goldeneye and began to type First attempt: ‘Scent and smoke and sweat hit the taste buds with an acid thwack at three o’clock in the morning’ Second try: ‘Scent and smoke and sweat can suddenly combine together and hit the taste buds with an acid shock at three
o’clock in the morning’ Finally (and brilliantly): ‘The scent and smoke and sweat of a casino are nauseating at three in the morning’ Within the first few pages of Casino Royale, the essential outline of James Bond appears. 007 has cold and ruthless eyes, he drives a 1933 4.5 litre Bentley. He drinks champagne and dry Martinis, shaken, not stirred – ‘three measures of Gordon’s, one of vodka, half a measure of Kina Lillet. Shake it very well until it’s ice cold, then add a large thin slice of lemon peel.’ He smokes Morland cigarettes (a special Balkan and Turkish blend with their triple gold band) kept in a flat gun metal box. He is carrying a concealed weapon – his .25 Beretta automatic. And very soon he meets the enchanting Vesper Lynd who wears a black velvet dress ‘simple and yet with the touch of splendour that only half a dozen couturiers in the world could achieve’. Readers were hooked instantly. As the series progressed, the books enjoyed increasing (RIGHT) For Your Eyes Only Book Cover Courtesy of Penguin/Michael Gillette (BELOW) Ian Fleming’s James Bond stamps reproduced from a miniature sheet designed by A2 with photography by Kevin Summers reproduced courtesy of Royal Mail Group Ltd.
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international success. Fleming said that he had wanted to write ‘the spy story to end all spy stories’, something that his fans agree he has achieved with sales of Bond novels totalling around 100 million copies worldwide. Each of these books carries a visual interpretation of the world created by Ian Fleming on its cover, and this exhibition dips its toe into
that incredibly diverse aspect of the Bond canon. From the very first British hardback covers (some of which were designed by Fleming himself), through the subsequent fifty plus years of international editions and coming right up to date with special Centenary volumes for both Fleming’s own works and the new novel by Sebastian Faulks, Devil May Care, Bond Bound celebrates the artists and art inspired by the words of Ian Fleming.
(ABOVE LEFT TO RIGHT) On Her Majesty’s Secret Service Book Cover Courtesy of Penguin/Richie Fahey and Roseanne Serra Casino Royale Book Cover Courtesy of Penguin/Michael Gillette The Spy Who Loved Me Book Cover Courtesy of Penguin/Richie Fahey and Roseanne Serra
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BOOK REVIEWS With texts by Bill Hare Andrew Lambirth Gareth Wardell
Barbara Rae
Scottish Photography: A History Tom Normand Luath Press, 2008, £29.99 Tom Normand’s book is unusual in that it focuses specifically on photography from Scotland. The Scottish National Photography Collection is currently housed at the Scottish National Portrait Gallery and Normand addresses the current debate on where to house the collection permanently. He even questions whether or not the collection needs a permanent residence all of its own. He emphasises the important part which Scots have played in the development of photography and the use of photography as art, namely, William Henry Fox Talbot and David Octavius Hill. He investigates a trio of categories: memorial, document and object, and which photographs fit into these categories. He also addresses Scottish photography in a more thematic way, discussing landscape, portraiture and documentary photos. With beautiful illustrations of photographs which many readers will not have seen before, highlights include Patrick Byrne as Ossian by Hill and Adamson (1845) and Ian Hamilton Finlay with Bust of Rousseau by Robin Gillanders (2004).
Barbara Rae Bill Hare, Andrew Lambirth and Gareth Wardell Lund Humphries, 2008, £35
Alison Watt: Phantom Colin Wiggins and Don Paterson The National Gallery Company, 2008, £12.95
Barbara Rae’s extensive travels form the basis of this first fully illustrated monograph of her work, which illustrates how much she is influenced by the natural world and the man-made effects we have had upon it. She is a very tactile painter who uses the formations of the landscape as a starting point for her creative process, using both paint and collage in an experimental way, which pushes her work towards abstraction. She reveals that she often throws buckets of water onto her paintings while on the floor, allowing this to create its own patterns. This book is divided into two sections, which allows the reader to view her work from two different viewpoints. Andrew Lambirth’s interview with the artist gets to the heart of her working process, while Bill Hare’s essay places her artworks within the context of twentieth and twenty-first century art. Lund Humphries publications are always notable for their high quality and brilliantly coloured reproductions. This book does not disappoint.
This publication catalogues Alison Watt’s exhibition at The National Gallery, marking the culmination of her two year Associate Artist placement with the gallery. The paintings which form Phantom are deeply influenced by her time spent amongst the historic paintings there. Among the influences which have led to Watt’s sumptuous paintings of fabrics was a visit to the National Gallery at the age of eight where she saw Ingres’ Madame Moitessier (1856), depicting a woman in an elaborately pattered and folded dress. Despite this early encounter with Ingres’ painting, it was actually Zubaran’s Saint Francis in Meditation (1635-9) from the collection which became a major influence on her work during her residency. Celebrated Scottish poet Don Paterson has created a new work for the catalogue and his evocative and atmospheric poem Phantom fits perfectly with the mood of Watt’s works Phantom, Pulse, Echo and Host.
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Impressionism and Scotland Frances Fowle with Essays by Jennifer Melville and Vivien Hamilton National Galleries of Scotland, 2008, £14.95 This exhibition catalogue, which accompanies the exhibition of the same title opening in Edinburgh in July 2008, begins by exploring the link between Scotland and French Impressionism, and the collecting of Impressionism and PostImpressionism in Scotland. These chapters serve to illustrate the complex and fascinating links which can be found between Scottish, Dutch and French artists at this time. Essays have been contributed by Jennifer Melville, Keeper of Fine Art for Aberdeen art Gallery, and Vivien Hamilton, Art Research Manager at Glasgow Museums and Honorary Research Fellow of the University of Glasgow. Melville investigates the role of photographer John Forbes White within the development of Impressionism in Scotland and Hamilton looks at the great Scottish collector, William Burrell and his interest in Impressionism.
Scotland & Venice: 2003 2005 2007 Edited by Fiona Bradley Scottish Arts Council, 2008, £14.99 Since 2003 Scotland has had its own spot at the Venice Biennale and this publication celebrates this achievement. The publication includes essays by the curators of all three exhibitions as well as comprehensive photographs of the works which were displayed. It gives the reader an opportunity to view Scottish Art in an international setting and to see how arts organisations in Britain work together to make such events possible.
Margaret Mellis: A Life in Colour (DVD) Directed by Sue Giovanni, Produced by Jules Hussey forty and a half productions, 2008, £19.99 This new sixty minute film explores Mellis’ life and work using both archives and images of her works. In the 1980s Mellis took part in the National Sound Archive’s ‘Artist’s Lives’ series and these form the basis of the film. It follows a chronological path and includes interviews with Mellis, extracts from Mellis’ diary read by Susannah York, all over archive footage and photographs of the artist. The use of Mellis’ own words enables the viewer to gain fascinating insights into her life and art. Her voiceover also gives the film a uniquely personal feel and it is interesting to hear her discuss the idea of the ‘unconscious’; she felt that all of her artwork was created in an unconscious way, a process of much importance to her. Readers of SCOTTISH ART NEWS can purchase the DVD at a discounted price of £16.99 from www.margaretmellis. com. Simply quote ref FC015 on your order form.
The Glasgow Boys Roger Bilcliffe Frances Lincoln, Nov 2008, £40 The original edition of this book won the Scottish Arts Council Award twenty years ago and has now been revised and reprinted in order to bring the Glasgow Boys to the next generation. Bilcliffe examines the works of artists such as E.A. Walton, Arthur Melville and James Guthrie, all of whom will be in the major Glasgow Boys exhibition to be held in Glasgow in 2010.
Lying Dead Aline Templeton Hodder, 2008, £6.99 This is Templeton’s third novel featuring DI Marjory Fleming. Whilst dealing with her family issues and elderly father, Fleming must hurry to find the murderer of a body found in a remote forest near Drumbreck. Behind the picturesque façade of the marina is a simmering secret. Templeton’s fourth and latest DI Marjory Fleming novel Lamb to the Slaughter, set in the quiet market-town of Kirkluce comes out on 26 June 2008. Bury Her Deep Catriona McPherson Hodder, 2008, £7.99 ‘A stranger you see is roaming the night and pouncing on the ladies of the Rural.’ So Dandy Gilver writes to a friend when she begins investigating the mysterious goings-on in the Perthshire village of Luckenlaw in the 1920s. This novel is both witty and full of suspense as Dandy tries to solve the murders.
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BOND BOOK REVIEWS
Young Bond: Hurricane Gold Charlie Higson Puffin Books, May 2008, Paperback £6.99 When James’ Aunt Charmian leaves him at the home of Jack Stone in Tres Hermanas, he had little to look forward to in the company of Stone’s spoilt children, Precious and JJ. But when a brutal gang of thieves break in, James becomes embroiled in a dangerous chase. Jack Stone’s safe takes on the nature of Mayan hurricane gold, a cursed treasure which will bring ruin to you and your family if you hold onto it. Higson’s latest Young Bond novel has all the elements of Fleming’s original novels: a Caribbean island with a sadistic leader sheltering the world’s finest criminals, a fabulously named heroine, and trials which would make even the adult Bond’s pulse race. Young Bond: By Royal Command by Charlie Higson, Puffin Books comes out in Hardback in September 2008, priced £12.99, followed by Young Bond: Silverfin Graphic Novel by Charlie Higson & Kev Walker, Puffin Books which comes out in Hardback in October 2008 priced £7.99.
Bond Bound: Ian Fleming and the Art of Cover Design Contributors: Kate Grimond, Henry Chancellor, Alan Powers, Bill Smith and Selina Skipwith The Fleming-Wyfold Art Foundation, April 2008, Paperback £20 Looking back at fifty-five years of Bond books, this richly illustrated catalogue of The Fleming Collection’s exhibition charts the development of bookcover design and the role of artists and designers in creating and defining the Bond look. The covers provide a fascinating snapshot of society’s changing attitudes to sex, the rise of feminism and the changing international political climate. The catalogue comes right up to date with the literary legacy of Ian Fleming and the commissioning of Charlie Higson to write the bestselling Young Bond novels and The Moneypenny Diaries by Samantha Weinberg, adding a unique female perspective to the James Bond story. The catalogue includes essays by Henry Chancellor, author of James Bond The Man and His World and the highly acclaimed Colditz: The Definitive History; Kate Grimond, niece of Ian Fleming and author of Celia Johnson (a memoir of her mother, who is chiefly remembered for her starring role in the film Brief Encounter), and Alan Powers who has written two books on the design of book jackets including Front Cover: Great Book Jackets and Cover Design.
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For Your Eyes Only: Ian Fleming and James Bond Ben MacIntyre Bloomsbury, April 2008, Hardback £20
Moneypenny Diaries: Final Fling Kate Westbrook John Murray, May 2008, Hardback £17.99
‘I am going to write the spy story of all spy stories’. So Ian Fleming said – and he was right. MacIntyre’s new book has been published to coincide with the exhibition of the same title at the Imperial War Museum London. Together they form the ultimate guide to the close relationship between Ian Fleming and his fictional character, James Bond. The parallels which MacIntyre finds between Fleming and Bond illustrate the extent to which Fleming wrote about his own personal experiences and based his books on real life (with a bit of extra glamour and danger dropped in!). Fleming went to boarding school, lacked a father figure, had an obsession with plots and gadgets and worked for Naval intelligence in World War II. MacIntyre’s indepth research really brings to life Fleming’s character and the frequency with which he based his fictional characters on his own friends, lovers and enemies. It is difficult to tell where Fleming’s world ends and that of Bond begins. As Fleming wrote himself, ‘You Only Live Twice’ – Fleming was fortunate enough to live again through Bond.
The final book in this trilogy does not disappoint. Sam Weinberg writes as Kate Westbrook, who is continuing her investigation into the diaries of her aunt, the infamous Miss Moneypenny. As both Kate and Moneypenny continue to search for the Secret Service mole in the 1960s, their existences begin to mirror each other as they assess their lives and come to understand the danger they may be facing. With locations ranging from London, to Jamaica, to the remote island of North Uist, Weinberg stays true to the original character of Fleming’s Bond novels, tying in Moneypenny’s diaries with the original characters and events. Despite this, she has also created an exciting and original story which keeps you guessing until the very last page. The first book in the trilogy, Guardian Angel, begins the Moneypenny private diaries, revealing innermost thoughts and state secrets, while Secret Servant, which follows, finds Miss Moneypenny embroiled in a highly charged adventure infused with the glamour of the Cold War espionage game.
Chitty, Chitty, Bang, Bang Centenary Edition Ian Fleming and John Burningham Puffin Books, May 2008, Hardback £14.99 Originally created for Fleming’s son Caspar, the story of the Potts family and their flying car has become synonymous with childhood. It’s popularity has been proved by the hugely successful film and stage versions. Now you can enjoy it in its intended format, with original artwork by popular illustrator John Burningham. This is a beautiful book, a pleasure for both adults and children and imbued with Fleming’s love of humour and danger.
New editions of Penguin Bond Books Ian Fleming Penguin, May 2008, Hardback £17.99 To celebrate the centenary Penguin has published a new series of hardback books with sumptuous and sexy cover designs by Michael Gillette. Each cover features a different woman painted to reference the book which she protects. These fabulous covers make a wonderful collection as well as beautiful stand alone publications.
Devil May Care Sebastian Faulks Penguin, May 2008, Hardback £18.99 Sebastian Faulks’ new Bond novel is a direct continuation of Ian Fleming’s own books, picking up from 1966’s Octopussy and the Living Daylights. Set in the Cold War, Faulks has adhered to the Fleming tradition with a book bursting with glamour, thrills and excitement. He even claims to have followed Fleming’s working method (where possible!): ‘In his house in Jamaica, Ian Fleming used to write a thousand words in the morning, then go snorkelling, have a cocktail, lunch on the terrace, more diving, another thousand words in late afternoon, then more Martinis and glamorous women. In my house in London, I followed this routine exactly, apart from the cocktails, the lunch and the snorkelling.’
Quantum of Solace: The Complete James Bond Short Stories Ian Fleming Penguin, May 2008, Paperback £8.99 If you’ve been wondering what the inspiration behind the next Bond movie is, then this is the book for you. Alongside Quantum of Solace, you will also find the short stories previously published as For Your Eyes Only and Octopussy and the Living Daylights. These snippets of Bond’s life are perfect for a quick injection of Fleming’s unique blend of action, wit and seduction.
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EVENTS To book a place or for further information on any of the events listed, please contact The Fleming Collection T: 020 7409 5733 E: flemingcollection@ffandp.com W: www.flemingcollection.co.uk
Patrons Weekend Thursday 31 July-Sunday 3 August, Edinburgh Patrons only. Main Programme Free, Meals supplementary. For a full programme, accommodation and travel information or to book, contact The Fleming Collection A special weekend programme including visits to two new art venues before they open to the public – Dovecot, a new building housing Dovecot Tapestry Studio and the Ingleby Gallery’s new gallery space in the heart of Edinburgh and Jupiter Artland, where sculpture can be seen in a landscape setting.
Andrew Grassie Exhibition Guided Tour Tuesday 26 August, 11am-12.30pm Talbot Rice Gallery, The University of Edinburgh, Old College, South Bridge, Edinburgh, EH8 Admission free, spaces are limited so book to avoid disappointment Andrew Grassie was born in Edinburgh. His work makes us question art world values and the inherently derivative nature of contemporary art today. As onlookers, we are left to decide which has a higher status – the original artworks represented within his paintings, or the actual picture plane he creates.
20/21 Modern British and Contemporary Art Fair: Pre-opening Tour Wednesday 10 September, 1.30-3pm Meet at Royal College of Art, Kensington Gore, London, SW7 Tickets £20, Friends & Corporate Members £15 A good chance to beat the crowds, with a guided tour of Scottish highlights and tips on what to buy.
Nathan Coley Exhibition Guided Tour Friday 12 September, 11.30am-3pm De La Warr Pavilion, Marina, Bexhill on Sea, East Sussex TN40 1DP Tickets £40, Patrons Free, Friends and Corporate Members £35 Includes coffee, lunch and a tour of the exhibition with the Director Nathan Coley is an artist whose work questions the way in which the values of a society are reflected in its architecture. The exhibition will bring selected works by the artist together with a new work, developed in discussion with the De La Warr Pavilion.
Visit to The Government Art Collection Wednesday 24 September, Drinks and Tour 6-7.30pm Location in central London to be sent on confirmation of place Friends and Corporate Members only. £15 (Proceeds go to The Fleming Collection) Friends will be given an introduction to the history and role of the GAC. The tour will include a chance to see the operational side of the organisation – the workshop and the area where works are stored whilst awaiting selection by ministers and ambassadors.
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Lunchtime Lecture: Glasgow and Childhood Wednesday 1 October, 1.10pm, The Fleming Collection, Admission Free. Andre Zlattinger, Senior Director of British Pictures at Sothebys, talks about the work of Joan Eardley in the context of Glasgow’s social and artistic history.
Joan Eardley Evening Lecture by Bill Hare Tuesday 7 October, 6pm drinks reception and private viewing, 6.30-7.30pm talk, The Fleming Collection. Booking Essential Tickets £12.50, Friends and Corporate Members £10, Patrons Free Famous for her landscapes and images of children, this lecture will focus on a different genre. Bill Hare, art historian, will argue that the failure of Joan Eardley’s Sleeping Nude led to the success of her later landscapes.
Charles Avery, The Islanders: An Introduction Wednesday 8 October, 6pm, Parasol unit, 14 Wharf Road, London N1 7RW Tickets £20, Friends and Corporate Members £15 Avery’s works are beautifully drawn, almost always in pencil, with only the ‘otherwordly’ elements depicted in bright primary colours. His delicate images have a heightened sense of the ‘Other’, yet we are able to relate to the people within them at the same time. This exhibition travels to the National Galleries of Scotland following the London showing at Parasol unit, a foundation for contemporary art.
Desire: A Christmas Fair Monday 17 November, 11.30am-8pm, The Fleming Collection Admission Free, if attending 6-8pm please contact The Fleming Collection to be on the guest list Satisfy your craving for beautiful Christmas gift ideas. Gift prices range between £10 and £40,000. A 10% donation on all items goes to The Fleming-Wyfold Art Foundation. Stalls will be manned by Dovecot Edinburgh Tapestry Studios, The Scottish Gallery and ANTA.
Pangolin London Sculpture Gallery visit Tuesday 2 December, Drinks 6-7.30pm, Talk 6.30pm Kings Place, 90 York Way, London, N1 9AG Tickets £17, Friends and Corporate Members £10, Patrons Free Pangolin Editions is one of Britain’s leading sculpture foundries practising the traditional skills of lost wax block investment casting and sand moulding. Famed for their work with Lynn Chadwick, the gallery also works with Scottish artists David Mach and Kenny Hunter. Polly Bielecka, Gallery Director, will give a tour of their new London gallery space and speak about the artists included in the exhibition Sterling Stuff II as well as giving a guided tour of the sculptures on display around the building .
(OPPOSITE PAGE, FROM TOP) William Crozier, Edinburgh from Castle Street, c.1930 © Artist’s Estate/FWAF Andrew Grassie, Installation – Seb Patane, 2006, Courtesy Maureen Paley, London © The Artist Nathan Coley, Secular Icon in an Age of Moral Uncertainty, 2008, Fairground lights and aluminium © Nathan Coley 2008, Courtesy Haunch of Venison, Photo Credit Peter Mallet Joan Kathleen Harding Eardley, Children and Chalked Wall No.3, 1963, Oil, newspaper, metal foil on canvas, Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh © With kind permission of the Eardley Estate Joan Kathleen Harding Eardley, Sleeping Nude, 1955, Oil on canvas, Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh © With kind permission of the Eardley Estate Charles Avery, Untitled (The Palace of the Gulls) 2007 © The Artist David Mach, It Takes Two, 2002 © The Artist
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EVENTS The Fleming Collection organises regular events to coincide with their exhibitions as well as exploring Scottish art in a wider context. To keep up to date with our events programme please go to the events page on our website www.flemingcollection.co.uk or alternatively sign up for our monthly bulletins by sending us your email address to flemingcollection@ffandp.com FRIENDS MEMBERSHIP, B O OKS, EVENT S & D ONATIONS ORDER FORM I would like to order the following: FRIENDS MEMBERSHIP
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EVENTS BOOKINGS Events Title
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D ONATION TO THE F L E MING-W YFOL D A RT FOUNDATION I wish to donate £ to the Foundation for painting aquisitions and activities in furthering understanding in Scottish art Donations can be made payable to The Fleming-Wyford Art Foundation by cheque or to make a credit card donation please fill in above I am a UK tax payer, please send me a gift aid form to sign
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EXHIBITIONS Charles Avery, The Islanders: An Introduction 10 September-9 November Parasol unit For four years Avery has been focusing on The Islanders: a project examining the nature of an imagined community and island, through the medium of drawings, models, diagrams and text. Every feature of the island embodies a philosophical proposition, problem or solution and the images are at times sparse as anything irrelevant or without meaning is excluded. This exhibition at Parasol unit tells of the latest episode in the life of the Islanders (although episodes are not always exhibited in chronological order). It will be the largest showing of Avery’s works, giving him the space and respect worthy of an artist who was one of six artists chosen to represent Scotland at the 2007 Venice Biennale. Several new commissions as well as older works will be included. Avery’s works are beautifully drawn, almost always in pencil, with only the ‘other-wordly’ elements depicted in bright, primary colours. His delicate images have a heightened sense of the ‘other’ yet we are able to relate to the people within them at the same time. Avery plans to continue the Islanders project for a further six years, at the end of which he will bind his works in large encyclopedic volumes. The exhibition will be touring to the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh and Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam. Image: Charles Avery, The Eternity Chamber, 2007, Pencil and gouache on card, 60 x 85 cm © The Artist
Nathan Coley 26 July-21 September De La Warr Pavilion This exhibition of Turner-nominated artist Nathan Coley will show works selected by the artist and will include the British premiere of his latest large-scale sculptural work. Coley’s work is concerned with the architecture and urban environment which surrounds us. He believes that they are only given meaning by the people who use and invest in them and he therefore works to explore our interaction with, and views of, public space and buildings. His new sculptural work is a 10 x 6m Western film set street façade, which was commissioned by Haunch of Venison Berlin and the De La Warr Pavilion. It does not attempt to mimic a real street; it is made to an eighty percent scale as with real film sets. The signage on the front of the buildings has been obliterated and covered with the words WEALTH BELIEF LAND MIND LIFE – the five rights that every person is granted under Islam. Western films traditionally assess issues of morality, religion and family during a time of unease and mistrust throughout the United States – we could perhaps compare this with the current attitudes towards Islam in light of the growth of terrorism. Coley has commented: ‘This is architecture that is built to be deliberately false, while focusing on two sets of ideas from very different corners of the globe.’ This is a great opportunity to view Coley’s works from a number of years, together, and to examine his beliefs which run throughout them all. Image: Nathan Coley, Palace, 2008, painted timber and mixed media, 560 cm x 955 x 410 cm © Nathan Coley 2008, Courtesy Haunch of Venison, Photo Credit Gunter Lepkowski
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Paul Chiappe 10 July-9 August Madder 139
Andrew Grassie 1 August-27 September Talbot Rice Gallery
Kenny Hunter: A Shout in the Street 13 July-24 August Tramway
For those who have not already seen Chiappe’s hyperrealist graphite drawings this solo exhibition of recent works makes essential viewing. Chiappe is a master at copying old black and white photographs of children on a minuscule scale which almost require a magnifying glass to view. The fact that such close observation is necessary works as a tool to physically draw in the viewer. Up close you realise that these are not straightforward copies. Chiappe aims to draw viewers in by distorting these images, contradicting our assumptions of their subject matter and manipulating the relationship the viewer has with them. They may be hyperrealist, but they are also strongly illusionistic. For example, Untitled 6 looks like an ordinary school photograph, yet on closer inspection one can see Laurel and Hardy embedded amongst the school children. This humour is immediately quashed by the macabre effect of the empty spaces where the teachers’ heads should be. Although these drawings are tiny, they carry great weight not only in their skill but in the disarming effect they have upon their viewers.
Grassie’s work is truly unique and is as much about the creative process as it is about the finished product. While at college, he was frustrated by the pressure to find his own style and his feeling that he was unable to create one. Having reached what felt like a dead end, he began to paint copies of his own older works. He has now extended this practice to create small paintings in tempera which often represent an imagined or superficially constructed space. In 2005 he was commissioned by Tate Britain for a project called New Hang. He ‘created’ an exhibition from a selection of works in the Tate collection, and photographed and painted the resulting exhibition. Grassie’s works are intended to make the viewer question the values of the art world and to recognise the derivative nature of contemporary art – his own art can only be created by utilising older pieces of art. The exhibition at the Talbot Rice Gallery will show work from the last ten years, including some of the New Hang series. Once hanging has ‘finished’, Grassie will paint new paintings of the exhibition – it will not be complete until these have been hung alongside the older works.
This summer Tramway will be bringing together sculptural and text-based works by Glasgow based artist Kenny Hunter. Hunter is perhaps best known for his sculpture, especially those commissioned by public councils such as Man Walks Among Us, Glasgow City Council. The exhibition will include both new and reworked pieces which illustrate Hunter’s unique way of working in this three dimensional medium. His sculptures have a smooth, almost toy like quality to them, but their meanings and Hunter’s influences are far less superficial. He aims to challenge the tradition of classicising monumental sculpture and does so by fusing the classical form with the everyday object. At the same time his sculptures question the relationship which man has with the natural world and the effect of our ever-growing consumption based economy. Hunter began his textual graphic works during his residency at Location 1 in New York. He often quotes writers who had written about, and defined, modernity. This creates an antithesis to the promise of certainty and timeless values in classical inscriptions. Although these two groups of works are superficially very different, the themes running through them are the same: classicism and modernity.
Image: Paul Chiappe, Untitled 6, Pencil on Paper, 44 x 53 cm framed © The Artist, Courtesy Madder 139
Image: Andrew Grassie, New Hang: Tate – New Hang 12, 2004/5, Courtesy Maureen Paley, London © The Artist
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Image: Kenny Hunter, Take A Bath, 2007, silkscreen © The Artist
Impressionism and Scotland 19 July-12 October National Gallery of Scotland Complex This major exhibition, including loans from The Fleming Collection, is a unique opportunity to see works by the Scottish Colourists, Glasgow Boys, French Impressionists and artists of the Hague School hung side by side. The exhibition investigates the Scottish interest in continental Impressionism in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Following the example of Alexander Reid, Scottish collectors began to acquire paintings by the French and Dutch Impressionists (the first being Renoir’s Bay of Naples). It was through both travel and seeing such collections that Scottish artists became influenced by this style. The exhibition will be hanging works from all schools side by side, for example Degas will hang next to Joseph Crawhall and Bastien-Lepage, beside Guthrie. Through this type of display, viewers will be able to see the influences on the Scottish artists as well as the development of Scotland’s own style of Impressionism, quite different to that of their European contemporaries. Image: Sir James Guthrie, A Hind’s Daughter, 1883, Oil on canvas, 91.5 x 76.2cm © National Gallery of Scotland
Margaret Mellis – A Life in Colour 1 July-31 August Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts
Influential Voices 4 August-27 September Dovecot
Although born of Scottish parentage, Mellis is very much associated with the St. Ives School. She studied at both Edinburgh College of Art and the Euston Road School, before moving to St. Ives and marrying Adrian Stokes in 1939. This move was to have a pivotal role in the development of her work. The exhibition brings together items from throughout her working life, which can be viewed in three categories: collages and paintings of 1950s, heavily abstract work from 1960s and her driftwood creations which she begun in the 1980s and has continued to create until recently. Mellis has said that Ben Nicholson had a huge impact on her working life. It was not only his abstraction but also his insistence that she viewed colour in a way which was not ‘natural’ to her. His influence can be seen in both her abstract work and in her driftwood constructions which feature a vibrant array of colours. Since 1948 Mellis has lived and worked near the coast in Suffolk. She collects the materials for her sculpture from the coastline and it is clear in this exhibition just how much the sea has influenced her work.
Dovecot’s inaugural exposition will feature two exhibitions: Weaving Influences and Raising the Bar. Weaving Influences is a celebration of fifty years of tapestry from Dovecot Tapestry Studio since the Second World War. It focuses on the roles which artists and designers have played in the creating of tapestries at the studio and how the designs of the artist and the skill of Dovecot’s weavers have combined to create spectacular tapestries. Not only will such tapestries be on display, but they will be accompanied by works in other mediums by artists who have had close relationships with the Studios. Artists will include Henry Moore, Barbara Rae and Eduardo Paolozzi. Raising the Bar is an exploration of metalwork by twelve internationally renowned designers, teachers and makers, continuing Scotland’s tradition of hosting international arts and crafts, from the Glasgow World Fairs in the early twentieth century to the National Museums of Scotland in the twenty-first century. Contributions will come from makers such as Australia’s Robert Foster and Scotland’s own Malcolm Appleby who will be exhibiting major engraved works. Influential Voices will not only be an interesting and unique exhibition, it will also offer visitors the first chance to explore Dovecot’s stunning new building.
Image: Margaret Mellis, Double Portrait, 1996-97, Driftwood construction 59 x 58 x 6 cm, Private Collection © The Artist 2008
Image: Alan Davie, Celtic Spirit No 1, Dovecot Tapestry. Location: University of Edinburgh Medical School, Little France. Photo Credit Hyjdla Kosaniuk Innes
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LISTINGS ABERDEEN Aberdeen Art Gallery Hand, Heart and Soul: The Arts and Crafts Movement in Scotland 14 June-23 August BP Portrait Award 2008 29 November-24 January 2009 Schoolhill Tel: 01224 523 700 www.aagm.co.uk Provost Skene’s House The Local Word and Image: 500 Years of Printing in Scotland Until 16 November Guestrow Tel: 01224 641086 www.aagm.co.uk Gallery Heinzel Contemporary Art Lil Neilson: The Later Years 30 August-27 September Kim Canale, Rowena Comrie and Dawn Wood 4 October-1 November Gallery Artists – Winter 2008 9 November-February 2009 24 Thistle Street Aberdeen Tel: 01224 625 629 www.galleryheinzel.com Peacock Visual Arts James Furneaux Retrospective January-February 2009 21 Castle Street Aberdeen Tel: 01224 639 539 www.peacockvisualarts.com DUNDEE Dundee Contemporary Arts Pale Carnage: Group Show 6 July-2 September 152 Nethergate Tel: 01382 909 900 www.dca.org.uk EDINBURGH Bourne Fine Art Raeburn to Redpath – 200 years of Scottish painting: Sir Henry Raeburn, William McTaggart, E A Walton and David Gauld Until 5 July Singing Stone, Recent work by Emily Young 1 August-6 September 6 Dundas Street Tel: 0131 557 4050 www.bournefineart.co.uk
DoggerFisher Janice McNab Until 12 July 11 Gayfield Square Tel: 0131 558 7110 www.doggerfisher.com Dovecot Influential Voices 4 August-27 September Infirmary Street www.dovecotstudios.com The Dundas Street Gallery Serenity – Ethereal Vistas of Edinburgh by Jamie Primrose 4-12 July European Cityscapes – An Atmospheric Journey by Jamie Primrose 10-18 October 6a Dundas Street Tel: 0131 558 2868 www.jamieprimrose.com Edinburgh Printmakers Chad McCail 19 July-6 September Peter Pretsell , Helen Snell 13 September-25 October Winter Exhibition 2008 8 November-23 December 23 Union Street Tel: 0131 557 2479 www.edinburgh-printmakers. co.uk The Fruitmarket Gallery Lucy Skaer Until 9 July Edinburgh Art Festival Exhibition 31 July-28 September Close Up 11 October-11 January 2009 45 Market Street Tel: 0131 225 2383 www.fruitmarket.co.uk Ingleby Gallery Richard Wright and Samuel Beckett 28 June-5 July 6 Carlton Terrace Tel: 0131 556 4441 www.inglebygallery.com National Gallery of Scotland Impressionism and Scotland 19 July-12 October Fantasy and Function: Design for Goldsmiths Until 3 August Kaleidoscope: Works on Paper recently acquired for Scotland 17 July-21 September Footlights 9 August-16 November National Gallery of Scotland Complex The Mound Tel: 0131 624 6200 www.nationalgalleries.org
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The Scottish National Portrait Gallery Vanity Fair Portraits 14 June-21 September John Muir Wood and the Origins of Landscape Photography in Scotland 2 August-26 October The Intimate Portrait: Drawings, Miniatures and Pastels from Ramsey to Lawrence 25 October-1 February 2009 1 Queen Street Tel: 0131 624 6200 www.nationalgalleries.org Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art Tracey Emin: 20 Years 2 August-9 Nov Belford Road Tel: 0131 624 6200 www.nationalgalleries.org Open Eye Gallery Leon Morrocco – From Melbourne to Morocco 9 August-3 September Ian Howard, Sandy Moffat, Jake Harvey 27 September-15 October Angus McEwan – New Paintings Willie Rodger – New Work 18 October-5 November Brent Millar – New Paintings Ann Ross – New Work John Kay – Prints 8 November-26 November Paolozzi 29 November-24 December 34 Abercromby Place Tel: 0131 557 1020 www.openeyegallery.co.uk The Royal Scottish Academy RSA Annual Exhibition 2008 Until 25 June Kaleidoscope: Recently Acquired Works on Paper 15 July-21 September Frank Pottinger RSA Friends Room 5 July-29 September Research: RSA Residencies in Focus RSA Finlay Room 12 July-21 September Calum Colvin: Stereoscopes RSA Finlay Room 26 September-26 October The Mound Tel: 0131 225 6671 www.royalscottishacademy.org The Scottish Gallery Elizabeth Blackadder – New Paintings 8 August-6 September Stephanie Dees – New Paintings 10 September-4 October James Robertson – New Paintings
8 October-1 November David Michie – Paintings from the Artist’s Studio 5-29 November Silver Exhibition – curated by Adrian Hope 3-24 December 16 Dundas Street Tel: 0131 558 1200 www.scottish-gallery.co.uk Talbot Rice Gallery Andrew Grassie 1 August-27 September Langlands + Bell 25 October-13 December University of Edinburgh Tel: 0131 650 2210 www.trg.ed.ac.uk GLASGOW Glasgow School of Art Steven Campbell 15 August-11 October 167 Renfrew Street Tel: 0141 353 4531 www.gsa.ac.uk Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum Harry Benson – A Photographer’s Journey Until 14 September Impressionism and Scotland 31 October-1 Feb 2009 Argyle Street Tel: 0141 276 9599 www.glasgowmuseums.com Hunterian Museum and Art Gallery Rubens to Mackintosh: An Exhibition of Drawings from the Hunterian Art Gallery 1 May-6 September 82 Hillhead Street University of Glasgow Tel: 0141 330 5431 www.hunterian.gla.ac.uk Lillie Art Gallery Drawing Construction 5 July-16 August Allander Pottery 5 July-23 September A Personal Journey: Landscapes by Ralph Anderson 23 August-23 September Glasgow Society of Women Artists 4 October-14 November Station Road, Milngavie Tel: 0141 578 8847 www.eastdunbarton.gov.uk Museum of Modern Art Jo Spence: Self-portraits 12 June-24 August Jim Lambie – Forever Changes Until 29 September Contemporary Collection Until 2009 Royal Exchange Square
Tel: 0141 229 1996 www.glasgowmuseums.com People’s Palace and Winter Gardens Glasgow 1955: Through the Lens Until 29 September Glasgow Green Tel: 0141 271 2962 www.glasgowmuseums.com Roger Billcliffe Gallery Summer Exhibition July-August New Generation: 2008 Graduate Exhibition September George Gilbert RSW – New Paintings October Christine McArthur – New Paintings David Martin – New Paintings November Ethel Walker – New Paintings December 134 Blythswood Street Tel: 0141 332 4027 www.billcliffegallery.com Sorcha Dallas Michael Stumpf Until 5 July 5-9 St Margaret’s Place Tel: 0141 553 2662 www.sorchadallas.com Tramway Kenny Hunter: A Shout in the Street 13 July-24 August 25 Albert Drive Tel: 0141 276 0950 www.tramway.org STIRLING Smith Art Gallery and Museum Scottish Potters Until 13 July Dumbarton Road Tel: 01786 471917 www.smithartgallery.demon. co.uk LONDON Art First Dialogues: Cooper, Lewty, Maclean, Milroy, Nel and 5 Guest Artists 8 July-22 August 9 Cork Street Tel: 020 7734 0386 www.artfirst.co.uk Caledoniart The Scottish Charity Art Show 2008 20-25 October La Galleria, Pall Mall Tel: 0208 348 1958 www.caledoniart.co.uk
The Fleming Collection Bond Bound: Ian Fleming and the Art of Cover Design Until 28 June Inspired: Works from the Permanent Collection 8 July-30 August Joan Eardley 16 September-20 December 13 Berkeley Street Tel: 020 7409 5733 www.flemingcollection.co.uk Panter and Hall Lennox Dunbar RSA 25 June-11 July 9 Shepherd Market Tel: 020 7399 9999 www.panterandhall.com Thackeray Gallery Heather Ross 9-26 September Joe Fan 7-24 October 18 Thackeray Street Tel: 020 7937 5883 www.thackeraygallery.com Parasol Unit Charles Avery, The Islanders: An Introduction 10 September-9 November 14 Wharf Road Tel: 020 7490 7373 www.parasol-unit.org West London Projects Karla Black 19 June-26 July 2 Shorrolds Road Tel: 020 3080 0708 www.westlondonprojects.org Madder 139 Paul Chiappe 10 July-9 August 137-139 Whitecross Street Tel: 020 7490 3667 www.madder139.com PERTH The Fergusson Gallery Early Impressions Until 13 September Fergusson’s Studio Until 1 November Rhythm and Dance Until 9 February 2009 2 High Street Tel: 01738 475000 www.pkc.gov.uk Perth Museum and Art Gallery PAA Annual Exhibition 22 Nov-13 Dec 2008 Sea Pictures 11 October -2 May 2009 Paul Reid – Paintings and drawings 10 May-5 July Perth Museum and Art Gallery 78 George Street
Tel: 01738 632488 www.pkc.gov.uk OTHER De La Warr Pavilion Nathan Coley 26 July-21 September Marina Bexhill-on-Sea East Sussex Tel: 01424 229 111 www.dlwp.com Kilmorack Gallery Sculpture by Helen Denerley 20 September-31 October Nael Hanna and Eugenia Vronskaya 8 August-13 September Summer Exhibition Until 26 July By Beauly Inverness-shire Tel: 01463 783 230 www.kilmorackgallery.co.uk Kircudbright Town Hall (from the National Portrait Gallery) The Face of Scotland 5 July-25 August St Mary’s Street Kircudbright Tel: 01557 330291 Montrose Museum Impressions of Catterline ‘08 Touring Exhibition Tel: 01674 673232 www.wallprojectsltd.com Mount Stuart Mark Neville: Film and Slide installation 11 May-30 September Visitor Centre Mount Stuart Isle of Bute Tel: 01700 503 877 www.mountstuart.com
FAIRS AND FESTIVALS Edinburgh Art Festival 31 July-31 August Edinburgh www.edinburghartfestival.org Pittenweem Arts Festival 2-10 August Pittenweem, Fife www.pittenweemartsfestival. co.uk AUCTIONS Bonhams The Scottish Sale 27-29 August 22 Queen St Edinburgh www.bonhams.com Christie’s Scottish Sale 23 October The Assembly Rooms Edinburgh www.christies.com Lyon and Turnbull Jewellery and Silver 9 July Pictures 10 July Scottish Silver 18 August 33 Broughton Place Edinburgh www.lyonandturnbull.com Sotheby’s Gleneagles Sale 27 August The Gleneagles Hotel Auchterarder Perthshire www.sothebys.com
Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts Margaret Mellis – A life in Colour 1 July-31 August University of East Anglia Norwich Tel: 01603 593 199 www.scva.org.uk Tate Liverpool Gustav Klimt. Painting, Design and Modern Life in Vienna 1900 30 May-31 August Albert Dock Liverpool Tel: 0151 702 7400 www.tate.org.uk
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A Day In The The Life O Of...
O
ur eldest son is first up in our household (a very conscientious nine year old, but also a keen CBBC watcher). The next two hours are spent diving in and out of the shower and scuttling around assembling school uniforms, nursery outfits, packed lunches, breakfasts and permission slips in time to get everyone out before the ear piercing bell lets rip at our nearby primary school. Anything would seem calm after this frantic start to the day, when we then make our way to our studio situated within Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art at the University of Dundee. At the studio our project producer, Pòpulo Antolín, is usually there before us (looking cool and collected). Pòpulo turns her hands to many tasks but mostly video editing, publishing, web design and archiving works. Our days vary a lot. We teach students in Fine Art one day a week or they drop into the studio, but most of the time
we are working on projects for exhibitions or commissions. We’ve been based in Dundee now for seven years. Prior to this we worked from a remote rural location in the north-east of Scotland where a lot of our current interests were seeded through observing the landscape and coastline around that area, as well as the traditional and contemporary industries that were based there specifically because of its geography. It was there that we really started to notice connections between things in the landscape, and the more we tuned into these things, the more alive the environment around us became. Everywhere ingenious strategies for survival were being played out all with an economy of means that was inspiring. We learned a lot during that time and it stayed with us, but in 2001 we had an opportunity to take up an interesting research post at the University of Dundee, which has been fruitful in many ways as there is a good infrastructure to work
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within and we have been able to tap into the various expertise of` colleagues who work here, from botanists and geographers, to printers and video technicians – so from relatively modest means we are able to achieve quite a lot. Artists can be an odd bunch of people – they are not often the decision makers in society. More often they are the boundary keepers…people who intermediate between things… allowing fluid thoughts that ensure our collective culture remains porous, that it doesn’t harden into something static, something petrified – as such it can be both an exciting and empowering community to be a part of. As artists we enjoy the act of collaborating. Recently we worked with the organisation Scottish Natural Heritage, making a work based around the elusive slender scotch burnet moth. We made two versions of this work, one for their building and another as a gallery version that was included in the recent Artes Mundi
Prize exhibition that we were short-listed for this year. We also ran a symposium for SNH (see www.MoreThanUs.co.uk) through which we were able to invite some of the people whose work has been a great source of inspiration for us including the American philosopher and ecologist David Abram, writer and environmentalist Jay Griffiths, Mark Lynas, who has written extensively on climate change, and the naturalist and writer John Lister Kaye. It was a very exciting thing to be a part of and hearing these people speak was like breathing pure oxygen, that we’re still running on. It’s an exciting time to be an artist working within environmental themes, as so many of our future political decisions will be tethered to our understanding of the natural support systems of our planet. And to be based in Scotland is truly an asset, for in Scotland’s
extraordinary geology a phenomenal tale of reinvention is told. In its rivers a physical connection is made between the wild and the tame. Its lands are rich with more biodiversity in one handful of soil than a billion dollar space race could dream of. Today we are preparing for a meeting with the musician Aidan O’Rourke, whom we got to know when we made some work for An Tobar on Mull last year. We’re attempting to hatch a plan together to make a collaborative work on the absence of the wolf in Scotland – he’s bringing the cakes and we’ve got the kettle on… MATTHEW DALZIEL + LOUISE SCULLION JUNE 2008
(OPPOSITE) Louise Scullion and Matthew Dalziel Photograph ©Jim Dunn (ABOVE FROM LEFT) Dalziel + Scullion Source, 2006 video still (from a recent film made in Mull) ©Dalziel + Scullion More Than Us, 2007 (detail) Dalziel + Scullion Photographic installation made for the recent shortlisting for the Artes Mundi award) ©Dalziel + Scullion (BELOW) Dalziel + Scullion More Than Us 2007 Photographic installation 11.6m x 1.6m ©Dalziel + Scullion
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