The List: 21 Apr 1989 (83/96)

ART & EXHIBITIONS LIST

I OUEEH'S HALL ( 'lerk Street. Box Office 668 2019. Mon—Sat 10am 5pm. Cafe. Beyond the Green Door L'niil 39 April. Not a performance of the Shakin' Stevens cover. but a selection of new pictures by Midlothian oil painter Andrew Smith. Focusing on the rough edges ofScottish society. Smith draws on both the mining village of his youth and the socialisingof the Edinburgh I‘estival. Smith claims his work is informed by "hatred. rage.anger and a sense of the ludicrous'. Presented by Artis.

People and Places in Paint and Print:

May -3June. (‘laire IIellew ell exhibits coloured linocuts. etchings and portraits. I RIAS l5 Rutland Square. 3297205.

Mon I-'i‘i‘).3tlam 5pm.

RIAS Student Awards L'ntil 4 May. Ihe award winners of a Scottish open exhibition including measured drawing. photographs. computer graphicsand architectural design.

I RICHARD OEMARCO GALLERY Blackfriars ( ‘hurch. Blackfriars Street (off High Sttcctl. 557N707 Mon Sat lU.3(lam (ipttl.

Images of the Western Isles Lintil n May . An interesting exhibition made up ofthree parts Portraits of the Western Edge litts come down from An Ianntaii (iallery (Stornoway ) and consists of work by L'lrike Kanne and link Iloftmann (NB this part of the exhibition closes on 2‘) April). And while (ieoige \Vy llie does interesting things with paper boats for Mayfest. here he presents Seven Spiresfor Lewis and the Dancon Spire. The exhibition is completed by Margot Sandeman's High Corrie. Still Lives and Arran Landscapes.

I ROYAL BOTAHIC GARDEN 552 717]. (iardens Mon Sat 9am sunset;Sun

l lam -sunset. Plant liouses and exhibitions (mounted in lnverleith House) Mon» Sat lllam 5pm; Sun 1 lam 5pm. Due to renovation of Inverleith I Iotise. there will be no exhibitions at the Botanic (iarden until further notice.

I ROYAL SCOTTISH ACADEMY The Mound.

225667]. Mon» Sat Illam (rpm. Sun

2—6pm.

163rd Annual Exhibition 22 April— 15 July. It’s time again for this major display of painting. sculpture and architecture. this year sponsored by the solicitors Maclay. Murray & Spens.

I SCOTTISH CRAFT CENTRE 140 (‘anongato 556 8136. Mon—Sat 9.30am—5.3(lpm.

Always on display and available for

purchase is the broad range of work by the

Centre‘s 300 members.

I THE SCOTTISH GALLERY 94 George

Street. 225 5955. Mon~ Fri “lam—6pm; Sat

ltlam-- lpm. Closed I May.

Thore Heramb Until 3 May. Heramb is arguably the single most successful artist in Norway and has inherited the Scandinavian tradition of using brilliant colour. This is his first exhibition in

Scotland and. given the growth ofinterest

in Scandinavian artists in recent years. it looks set to be a popular one.

Jim Nicholson L'ntil 3 May. Designer and Art Director for the National Trust for

Scotland until turning to painting full-time

three years ago. Nicholson. a specialist in watercolour landscapes. is one of Scotland’s most collected artists. Here he presents a new show called Scottish

Islands.

Rings L'ntil 3 May .Some 21 leading British jewellers both new and established exhibit

rings making use ot a wide range of materials and techniques. New Ceramics Until 3 May. Irene Bell

specialises in decorative tiles. mosaics and

individual plates painted with strong graphic images. In 1987 she was selected for the (ilasgow Style exhibition. Embroidery L'ntil 3 May. Di (iomery has an innovative approach loembroidery

w hich challenges the traditional limits and subject matter of the form. Ileroriginality

was rewarded when she won the (irampian TV Prize for a work in a 1987 exhibition called Three Strands.

Art in Scottish Industry I: mil 3 May.

Aquatints. lithographs and engravings still

on display from the Science Festival.

PHOTO PIONEER

Portrait Gallery, Edinburgh Edinburgh guards its old closes and wynds which peel off the High Street, as valuable assets to the tourist industry. But even at their most dingy and wet, it is almost impossible to imagine the poverty and insanitary conditions which people in previous centuries had lived.

Victorian Glasgow had similar problems in the closes around its own High Street. Their approach was radical. The Glasgow City Improvement Act 1866 was put into action to demolish these areas of ‘distress. disease and social violence‘ bred in their narrow confines by the all too rapid advance of the industrial age.

But before these hellish quarters were pulled down, the council, in a far-sighted move, commissioned the photographer Thomas Annan to record the final years.

Annan took only 35 images in three years, but as the exhibition at the Portrait Gallery shows, 35 was enough to capture the full story in a photographic essay as succinct as it is powerful. It is a surprise perhaps to discover that Annan was well-known for his landscapes at the time, but the seeping light, the wet gleam on cobble and slate and the heavy texture of stone walls, transform these inhospitable dwelling places into tight, crushing ravines.

Even more remarkable than his view of the closes themselves, is Annan’s record of the people who lived there. Child mortality was high and many of his photographs show them only as a shadow. Most are blurred, their position vulnerable and their bare cold leet indistinguishable from the cobbles. Close 118 is dammed by a group of children, some focussed, some blurred, as ifAnnan‘s photograph have mysteriously marked them with their fate.

In the 150 anniversary year of the invention of photography, these photographs by Annan constitute a remarkable achievement and historic record lrom the pioneering days of the medium. (Alice Bain)

Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art

“the most unforgettable of Bellany '5

recent works ” The Times

"striking images of suffering and survival profoundly moving” Glasgow I lerald

“an extraordinary body of work” The Scotsman

[OHN BELLANY

A RENAISSANCE

until 30 April - admission free

' ‘ (.‘ lanai bCOIIISll / cademy'

l()3rd ANNUAL EXHIBITION 0t

PAINTING, SCULPTURE and ARCHITECT

15th ltily -Mon Sat llI .IIII Admission 1 I 3” \tUIltt‘\\It)Il.tI\ IIir .HIIUIMI I'Jir‘i‘xuyli Ill.‘ .‘II lrl "

The List: 21 Apr 1989 (Issue 92)