ART PREVIEW
Mackintosh lectures. A series of four weekly lunchtime talks begins on Wed 4 Aug at the Hunterian Art Gallery. Topics include his Glasgow architecture. watercolours. the Chelsea years and the cult of Mackintosh.
Art 300! Sale To raise funds for their course. work by Katayoun P. Dowlatshahi and Kenneth le Richie will be on sale from Fri 30 Jul—Sun 1 Aug at The Whole Works Natural Therapy Centre. Jacksons Close. 209 Royal Mile. 667 9802. ltems on sale include prints. paintings. paperworks. photographs and stained glass.
V IN PRINT
The Essential Design and The Essential Art History Just published by Bloomsbury in paperback (£7.99). From Post- Modernistn to Brutalism and from Beaux-Arts to Psychedelia. these books are organised alphabetically. outline all major movements and are bang-up-to-date.
Home and Abroad A
by Magnum associate member Martin Parr has just been published by Jonathan Cape (£15). With an introduction by Ian McEwan. these photographs are sharp social commentary. Parr has captured a range of images in places as diverse as New Brighton and McDonald's in Moscow to explore the culture ofconsumerism.
Alberto Morrocco by Victoria Keller and Clara Young (Mainstream £14.99/£9.99). Born in 1917. of Italian parents. the painter Alberto Morrocco was brought up on the East Coast of Scotland. Published to co- incide with his 75th birthday and a retrospective in Dundee Art Gallery. this book traces Morrocco‘s development as a painter from childhood to the present.
By fusing the vivid intense colour of Matisse and Picasso with
lives based on Italian themes. he created work which shimmers with warmth. As well as 64 full colour plates. this lavishly I illustrated book also
contains intervrew
; material and a concise
overview of all his work.
collection of photographs ‘
figurative studies and still
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Factor
Two designers; one celebrated, one forgotten. Beatrice Colin looks at a the work of Charles Rennie Mackintosh and George Walton.
Now firmly established on the tourist trail. Glasgow has Mackintoshed its inhabitants to death. Pink geometric roses festoon a range of tnugs. bags. cards and earrings from here to Helensburgh.
In an admirable attempt to match the tragic myth of an unrecognised genius with another tale. Glasgow‘s Art Gallery and Museum at Kelvingrove has mounted an exhibition of designer George Walton‘s work. A contemporary of Charles Rennie. Walton has been almost totally eclipsed by the long hatched shadow.
This show aims to place Walton back in the an history books as one of the leading exponents of The Glasgow Boys and as one of the most progressive forces in the Arts and Crafts movement in Britain.
Arranged chronologically. the exhibition begins in the late 19th century when Walton successfully ran his own firtn and employed a range of skilled workers from decorators to
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Charles Rennie MacKlntosh's Textile Design
gilders. Walton moved to London in I897 and broke away from his company in 1903 when he became recognised as a designer in his own right. He sold his designs to larger retailers including Liberty's and. although he had no architectural training. was commissioned to design several buildings and a houseboat. When the First World War broke out. his success stalled and he spent his later life working on textile design.
From furniture to lampshades and
from shop fronts to cutlery. Walton was as versatile as Mackintosh. His most interesting pieces are the Kodak showrooms which he created all over Europe. As ‘Decorator in Chief'. he n: )demised traditional fittings in a quirky and unusual way. A reconstructed Kodak shop interior at Kelvingrove features purple and white drapes gathered up with decorative hangings.
The examples of Walton‘s designs on show are beautifully constructed. His use of materials like wood and glass. fuses their organic nature with a touch of wit.
Yet the emphasis of this exhibition is on the personal. We are led through his life up to l933 — the contents of his wallet on the day of his death are displayed. The organisers have gone for a sentimental approach and this lessens the impact of his work.
Walton and Mackintosh were not friends although Walton designed the interior. and Mackintosh the furniture. for Miss Cranston's Tea Room in Argyle Street. Inevitany the two must be compared.
The Hunterian An Gallery are showing a selection of Mackintosh‘s drawings. watercolours and prints from their collection. Here. his work displays a sensitivity of line and detail which is singularly inspired. Even Glaswegians jaded with Mackintosh should jostle with the tourists to see these pieces for their distinctive simplicity and their sheer undiluted style.
George Walton at Kelvingrove Art Gallery until I 9 Sept. Charles Rennie Maeklnms/t at the Hunterian Art Gallery until 28 Aug.
I- Night Shift
Dreaming The World, the current exhibition of Aboriginal art at the St Mungo Museum, is a small but well formed visual exploration of the religious philosophy of the indigenous Australian population. Central to their philosophy is the Dreamtime which involves richly illustrative stories concerning Ancestral Beings. They came from within the earth in the form of animals and humans and influenced the whole creation process. The works on display are distinctive expressions by Aboriginal artists on the theme of these ancestral stories or Dreamings.
The Night Sky Dreaming, a work specially commissioned for Glasgow Museums, dominates the exhibition quite significantly. This huge canvas which involved eighteen artists of Yuendumu, an Aboriginal community of Warlpiri people, is a colourful, symbolic illustration of the Night Sky Dreaming, a story central to a Warlpiri ritual. The dotted, swirling patterns are reminiscent of ground drawings and body painting, important elements in the ceremonial traditions of Yuendumu and other central desert communities.
Elsewhere in the exhibition Dreamings are depicted on bark and painted hollow logs to striking effect. The tradition of the Hollow log or Bone Coffin Ceremony originates from an Aboriginal belief that the bones of
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logs to ensure a safe journey for the spirit to the land of the dead. The repeated catfish design painted on the logs is a traditional Aboriginal motif symbolising the souls of the dead and unborn.
Overall, Dreaming The World is a welcome exposure to a little known genre of painting. It is only very recently that traditional Aboriginal art has gained any attention in the West at all and now many Aboriginal
their dead should be placed in hollow
painters are being recognised as contemporary artists in their own right. Probably the most interesting elements here are the log and bark paintings which utilise more traditional media and techniques, and in doing so form a strong visual and historical point of identity. They are potent symbols of a rich and largely unexplored culture (Caroline Ednie). Dreaming the World at St Mungo Museum of Religious Life and Art until 17 October.