ART & EXHIBITIONS LIST
9.30am-5pm. Crafts in Architecture Awards 1987 Until 3 Mar. The Saltirc Society Awards for art designed to fit architecture in Scotland. I RICHARD DEMARCO GALLERY Blackfriars Church. Blackfriars Street (off High Street). 557tl7ll7. Daily ll).3t)am—6pm. Tadeusz Brzozowslti L'nitl 27 Feb. work by this Polish artist in conjunction with the Wroclaw Museum and the Poliin Cultural Institute. Ruth MacLean Until 27 Feb. A Canadian artist living on lslay. Stewart Stolworthy ITntil 27 Feb. An American artist who spent three months in Argyll inspired by the Firth of Lorne at Lunga. Vasiie Toch L'ntil 27 l-‘eb. A Romanian artist now living and working in Edinburgh. Mario Merzo- 26 Mar. An installation made for the I)emarco (iallery with particular reference to prehistoric and Celtic culture in Scotland. ()rganiscd in conjunction with the Scottish Sculpture Trust and supported by the Italian Institute. I ROYAL BOTANIC GARDEN 557 7171. Mon—l-‘ri lflam-l hour before sunset. Sat.Sun llarn— 1 hour before sunset. Inverleith l louse is open on weekends only. New Sculpture The pond looked very entpty when Reg Butler‘s little female figtrre left with the (iallery of Modern Art. But the Botanic (iarden has filled the gap. David Annand's full-size heron with wings spread for flight will permanently reside on the spot. Appropriate too. as real live herons have been known to fish in the ornamental pond. I ROYAL COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS for info phone Mungo Campbell on 557 5498 or Acanthus 557 5498. Artists and Architecture Conference 26.27 Feb. A gathering of artists and architects from around the country and abroad get together in the wake of Edinburgh District Council's ‘Percentage for Art" policy which gives out the message that buildings can be designed and built with works ofart integrated from the beginning. This conference will provide the focus in a mini-festival of architectural events throughout the city during the week 22—28 Feb. Robert Ayres. performance artist. is making a piece specially for the conference. Acanthus is a nationwide organisation currently compromising 12 independent architectural practices which have joined forces to promote the raising of standards ofdesign and craftsmanship throughout the country. I ROYAL MUSEUM OF SCOTLAND Chambers Street. 225 7534. Mon—Sat 10am—5pm. Sun 2—5pm. Cafe. European Art1200—1800 A rich display in a refurbished gallery. Eighty goldsnuff boxes lined up in tiny splendourcontrast to the mighty weight ofdark Dutchoak. Imagination is fired with the inclusion of the Meissbn Lion. This pelted. ratherthan fierce majesty was just one of 25‘)other animals and birds ordered by Augustus the Strong for his Japanese Palace. Together in shining white porcelain they would have been a right royal sight. Design For Savings Until 28 Feb. An exhibition of posters commissioned for advertising National Savings Certificates. From the first world war to the present. they provide fascinating social insights as well as excellent examples ofgraphic design styles through the 20th century. I ROYAL MUSEUM OF SCOTLAND Queen Street. 556 8921. Mon—Sat 10am—5pm; Sun 2—5pm. Scotland's antiquities share premises with the Portrait Gallery. I ROYAL SCOTTISH ACADEMY The Mound. 225 6671. Mon—Sat 10am—6pm. Sun Noon—6pm. I SCOTTISH ARTISTS 8 Iloward Street. 556 6337. Mon—Sat Illam—4pm. Sun 2—4pm. Claudia Petretti 5—25 Mar. Drawings and
— ARTIN RUINS
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Edinburgh University‘s artists in residence, ‘Art in Ruins', are installed in the balcony. And in the store room. Installation however seems a word particularly unsuited to theirwork. You could perhaps call it a collection. A collection of things and ideas— canvasses, neatly painted flat with almost invisible marks, laid out togetherwith lamps and ornaments, rusting iron here and there or a university sculpture cast from the Antique. The way collections might be laid out at home. The way museums display for interpretation and examination. This goes with that. Art in Ruins, with a cool, perhaps for some unnerving detachment, lay outtheir art to organise ideas, contriving to make connections clear. Here, South Africa bleeds into a row of academic busts emulating the dignity of Rome.
The title of their ‘collection‘ alone holds an abundance of association. ‘Oversite‘. In the site overthe exhibition (Ian Howard is showing paintings in the gallery below). Opportunity missed, i.e. with specific
reference to the Edinburgh International, which has offered them the chance to debate attitutes to classism the ‘big' exhibition hardly touched on. And ‘Art in Ruins’ themselves as an oversite — last Decemberthe Royal Museum of Scotland was unable to show an ‘AiR’ installation due to lack of time. The pair are used to difficulties.Theirs is an art of resistance of which they have said ‘In our ‘fully administered society' . . . can only become unmanageable and anti-aesthetic.‘
They have climbed most of the barriers. ‘Art in Ruins' (Glyn Banks and Hannah Vowles) have shown in commercial galleries in London and New York. They have shown in artist-run galleries (Glasgow’s Transmission last year) and administrator-run establishments (Stoke-on-Trent Museum and Art Gallery). But with all this they have only sold one work. None at all to any institution. The objects alone are easy — perhaps the ideas are too hot to handle. (Alice Bain)
paintings of Florence and portraits.
I SCOTTISH CRAFT CENTRE Ht) Canongale. 556 8136. Mon—Sat ll)am-5.3()pm.
Permanent display of crafts made by Scottish craftspeople.
I THE SCOTTISH GALLERY 94 (ieorge Street. 225 5955. Mon—Eri 9ain—5.3()prn. Sat 9.30am— 1 pm.
Edward Gage Chill 2 March. (iage has been a well—known figure in the Scottish art world for many years — art critic ofThe Scotsman for over twenty years. authorof Eye in the Wind a book which looksat Scottiin art since 1945. teacherat Edinburgh College of Art. I‘ettesand Napier College. But throughout (iage remained close to the heart of all these
interests. that is painting. This exhibition of 5() works assesses Gage's art from his student days right up to 1986.
I SCOTTISH MINING MUSEUM Lady Victoria Colliery. Newtongrangc. Midlothian. 663 7519. Tue-Fri “lam—4.30pm; Sat/Sun Noon—5pm;Thurs late opening 6.3(l—8pm.
The history of mining in Midlothian on a mining site.
I SEEDS CAFE 53 West Nicolson Street. 667 8673.
Susan Hogan Until end Feb. Recent paintings. Commissions undertaken.
I STILLS GALLERY 105 High Street. 557 1140. Tue—Sat Noon—6pm.
New Scottish Photography 20 Feb— 19 Mar. A Stills exhibition showing the work of
several Scottish photographers.
Talk Feb 23 Feb. 7.30pm. Paul Graham. whose photographs of Ireland in the exhibition ‘Troubled Land' at Stills last year were a powerful reminder ofthe extent of the Irish conflict. talksabout exhibition. sponsorship and self—publishing.
I TALBOT RICE ART CENTRE ()ld College. University of Edinburgh. 667 101 1 ext 4308. Mon—Sat. 10am-5pm. Sun 2pm—5pm.
Art in Ruins— Oversite Until 12 March. Art in Ruins. Glyn Banks and Hannah \'owles were unable to make an installation at the Royal Museum of Scotland last year because of administrative brick walls. This month however. their work will appear next door to the museum. at Talbot Rice. They say. ‘The exploitation of ‘history‘ as a consumer growth area has become one ofthe most significant features ol‘our ‘post-industrial' society. where the illusion is created that all cultural difference cart be contained by the ‘museumisation' of ‘everday life'.‘ With consumerism and tourism hailed as the saviours of Western economies and employment it might be difficult to see all sides of this steady bttt insidious transformation. Art in Ruinsare around to show true colours.
Ian Howard Until 12 March. Recent work which has shifted away from the interest in perspective and moved towards outfitting objects as metaphors for human presence in domestic and architectural settings. ‘Intriguing conundrums' are the words this Aberdeen artist uses to describe his new paintings.
Contemporary and Traditional Silk Embroderies from China Until 20 Feb. Many of these delicate objects will be for sale.
I TORRANCE GALLERY 29b Dundas Street. 5566366. Mon—Eri l lam—6pm; Sat ll).3(lam—4pm.
I 369 GALLERY 2()*) Cowgale. 225 3013. Mon—Sat Noon—5.30pm.
Geoffrey MacEwan Until 27 Feb. MacEwan lived on the Lanarkshire moors for 12 years and has just recently moved to Edinburgh. While at Tarbrax. he was occupied for several years by the subject of Dante's Creation. Anticipating his flit to the city. he has finished with Dante and talksof regenerating his long interest in performance. This exhibition of work over the past two years. shows him still involved with painting. its literary and spiritual translations and transformations. I WARE ON EARTH 15 llowe Street. 558 1276. Mon—Fri 10am—6pm; Sat 10am—4pm; Sundays by appointment. Contemporary ceramics.
t UT IDE THE CITIES
I This section lists exhibitions of special note held outside Glasgow and Edinburgh. Galleries should contact Alice Bain with information at least two weeks priorto pubhcahon.
I ABERDEEN ART GALLERY Schoolhill. Mon—Sat ll)am—5pm;Sun 2—5pm.
Forms in Light Until 5 March. Photographs and sculpture by Stephen Lawson.
As I Walked Out One Summer Morning Until 7 April. The title has been borrowed from Laurie Lee‘s poetic novel about Spain in 1934 and the signs of impending civil war. This exhibition brings together artists inspired by this country during a period in the 1920‘s when printmaking was in its heyday. James McBey. Muirhead Bone and Ernest Lumsden are among the seven included. I MACLAURIN ART GALLERY Ayr. Memory and Imagination Until 12 March. The satellite exhibition to the Edinburgh International which closed at the Royal Scottish Academy on 14 Feb. This exhibition includes work by Stephen McKenna. Cy 'I‘wombly and Carlo Mariani and is documented by a subtly designed. attractive catalogue made asa limited edition.
The List 1‘) I’eb — 3 Mar 1986' 51