ART & EXHIBITIONS LIST
Five Artists Retrospective
369 Gallery and Talbot Rice Art Centre Edinburgh
Alasdair Gray, who organised and partly paid tor this exhibition, is putting the case tor contemporary art trom Glasgow. He acknowledges that it will be a financial loss but itwill, he hopes, be an imaginative victory. He puts Iorward here the substance oI modern Glaswegian art while at the same time a number oi contemporary paradoxes do not escape him: the tact that Burrell, the Glaswegian millionaire who gave Glasgow the biggest private art collection in Europe, had ‘very little interest in modern art and none in contemporary Scottish art’ (so the ‘thousands at visiting tourists lrom France, Italy and Germany are able to enjoy their own art in a south Glasgow setting’) or the tact that by the late Seventies the Scottish Arts Council ‘had many more salaried modern art administrators than sell-supporting modern artists.‘
But these works speaklor themselves. At the 369 are Carole Gibbons and Alan Fletcher (according to Gray ‘the tree-est soul I ever met, who impressed me so mightily that a diminished version at him has been a main character in all the novels I ever wrote. He had to be diminished or he would have stolen attention irom my main characters, who were versions at me’). Fletcher died tragically at 28 by stepping oil a parapet at night in Milan unaware that it tell away in a sheer trom the other side. He had, apparently, a deep Iearoi accidents and his uneasy and tearing ’Man On Wheel’ seems to Iuse his style and temperament. His diploma was in sculpture and the cross-over into painting is apparent, using lew colours to state his theme, so nothing is extraneous nor is anything lost. There
' :2 I I]; g; ‘l.:_> I“ lily-4' ‘Comtlower,8tonmead and hell.’Carole Gibbons.
is a large selection oi work by Carole Gibbons and her subjects are still lites, portraits or allegorics. Her ‘Elegy’ is thought out purely in terms oi the two-dimensional picture: it exists as a concept, but notas a lorm in depth. ‘Goddess’ explores the woman in the idea at goddess. It’s a portrait M a woman’s head moving out towards us irom one ot a crowd coming out at an unspecilied background. She is brought so close to us in the picture lrame that she goes out at locus and passes us in a blur ot pink hair, purple lips and smudged paint, to merge again soon with the crowd. It is a well-caught moment.
Atthe Talbot Rice there is an interesting sweep at work by Gray, together with sculpture by John Connolly and painting by Alasdair
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Taylor. Taylor’s paintings move on lrom subjects like ‘Child (Jeannie) In A Field’ and ‘A Walk In The Park With A’ to his painterly response to themes like ’Ghosts’ and ‘Secrets’. His work is virtually non-representational and his interest is in paint and colour as a vehicle tor description. He experimented tor a while with a soft-edged spray-can technique but tor his most recent work has returned to brushwork. His application of paint has become Increasingly expressive and his colours set up a vibrancy and excitement which he will not always allow to come into equilibrium.
(Sally Kinnes)
A series at excellent Ieatlets, one tor each artist (£1), designed amd edited by Gray accompanies the exhibition.
scale canvases by this seldom-seen 78 year-old Norwegian artist. See panel. Record CoverArt Until Sat 24 Jan. An artform which may he on its way out with the rise of the compact disc. LP design has come a long way since Beatlemania. This exhibition features pop covers from the early 1970s to the present day. from the fantasies of Roger Dean to 23 Envelope‘s images for The Cocteau Twins. ()ur rock correspondent judges it ‘essential‘ viewing.
0 COLLECTIVE GALLERY 52—54 High Street 556 2600. Tue—Fri l2.30—5.30pm;Sat 10am—5pm. Closed Sun and Mon.
Elements and Energies Until Tue 27 Jan. Woven constructions and works in wood. paper and glass by
artist, designer Valerie Pragnell. Twigs bound together in narrow teepees painted blue of bound in coloured cloth attempt to bring the wind and forest into the gallery. Pragnell’s constructions however. fall just short of this with a stiffness absent in nature.
Peter Hill: Talk Thurs 29 Jan 7—9pm. A general talk on getting by in the art world — photography. preparing a
CV and advice for those who have left or are soon to leave college.
M. Donlevy, R. Wright, A. Walker ’Three Artists Find Death’ Sat 31 Jan—Tue 17 Feb. Paintings. drawings and sculpture by three young artists who have exchanged ideas since they first met in Edinburgh in the late Seventies.
0 RICHARD DEMARCO GALLERY Blackfriars Church. Blackfriars Street (off High Street). 557 0707. Details ofexhibitions in Demarco‘s new gallery are to be confirmed. Demarco will be holding fund-raising auctions throughout the country in Feb/Mar. Contact gallery for details. The life-size statue of Christ by Hugh Collins has just gone on display in the gallery. Collins is serving a sentence in Saughton Prison and was once a member of the Special Unit.
0 EDINBURGH COLLEGE OF ART Lauriston Place. 229 931 l. Mon—Thurs 10am—8pm: Fri 10am—5pm; Sat 10am——noon.
Annual Exhibition at Student Work Until 6 Feb. Work from the school of drawing and painting. In Sculpture Court.
Open Days Thurs 5 and Fri 6 Feb. The
Faculty of Art and Design will be open for inspection by secondary school pupils and foundation course students.
0 FINE ART SOCIETY 12 Great King Street. 5560305. Mon—Fri 9.30am—5.30pm. Sat 10am—1pm. David Donaldson Until Tue 10 Feb. To celebrate Philipson‘s 70th birthday which coincides with that of David Donaldson. the Fine Art Societies east and west are joining in a double bill.
O FLYING COLOURS 35 William Street. 225 6776. Tue—Fri 11am—6pm, Sat l0am—1pm. Contemporary Scottish paintings.
O FORREST McltAY 38 Howe Street. 226 2589. Mon—Fri 10am—6pm. Sat 10am—1pm.
Christmas Exhibition Until end Jan. Includes works by George Houston. Robert Noble. George Lesley Hunter, Sir W.G. Gillies and Elizabeth Blackadder.
Also special display of metal work and maquettes designed by Sir Robert Lorimer.
O FRENCH INSTITUTE 13 Randolph Crescent. 225 5366. Mon—Fri 9.30am—lpm. 2—5.30pm.
Paris, Les Grands Projects Until 31 Jan. Photographs and drawings of the architectural projects which are shaping Paris in the 1980s. Communication Tomorrow Until Sat 4 April. Poster exhibition about the French telecommunications industry. Philippe Lelievre - Engravings Mon 26 Jan—Fri 27 Feb. 0 FRUITMARKET GALLERY 29 Market Street. 225 2383. Tue—Sat 10am—5.30pm. Closed Sun & Mon. Licensed cafe. Luciano Fabro: Landscapes Until Sat 28 Feb. A major retrospective by the Italian sculptor (born Turin 1936). Fabro’s work makes many references to other historical art fomts and philosophy and uses a wide range of materials from carved marble to industrial metal. See PaneL Germano Celant: Talk Fri :30 Jan. 6.30pm. Free. The Italian art critic and lecturer. Germano (‘elant. will give a talk on Fabro‘s work and recent Italian art. Introductory Guided Tours to the Exhibition Sat 24 Jan 2.30pm and Wed 18 Feb 2.30pm. Free. State at the Art: Related Events To tie in with the six-part C4 series on contemporary art. the State ofthe Art (Suns 8.15pm.(‘4). the Fruitmarket Gallery and the Art Angel Trust have arranged the exhibition of a Barbara Kruger billboard poster in the (‘owgate duflngJan. Sandy Nairne: Talk Sat 21 Feb. 4pm. Free. Sandy Nairne. writer and producer of the State oft/2e A r! will give an illustrated talk about the series. 0 GALLERY OF MODERN ART Belford Road. 556 S92]. Mon—Sat 10am—5pm. Sun 2--5pm. Rest. [D] Guided Tours 011 the first Wednesday ofevery month. at 2.30pm (free) a member of the curatorial staff will lead a tour of the gallery (approx three quartersof an hour). Questions and discussions will be invited. 0 GATEWAY EXCHANGE 2-4 Abbeymount. 661 0982. Mon—Sat 10am—5pm. Glenochil Exhibition Until30Jan. Sculpture. painting and multi-media work from Glenochil Young Offenders Institute. 0 HANOVER FINE ARTS 104 Hanover Street. 225 2450. Mon—Sat 10am—6pm. ()pen Sun 14 Dec 2—5an Mainly Flowers Until Tue 3 Feb. Mixed exhibition by contemporary artists new to the gallery. plus ceramics by (‘arol Buchan and Peter Lochhead. 0 HM GENERAL REGISTER HOUSE Princes Street. 556 6585. Mon—Fri l0am—4pm. Scotland and the Netherlands Until end Feb. 0 MALCOLM INNES GALLERY 67 George Street. 226 4151. Mon—Fri 9.30am—6pm: Sat 10am— 1 pm. General exhibition of 19th century oils and watercolours by Scottish artists. 0 MERCURY GALLERY 23 North Bank Street. 225 3200. Mon—Fri 10am—5.30pm. Sat 10am—l.00pm. Small Picture Show Until mid Jan.
20 The List 23 Jan — 5 Feb