VisualArt OUTSIDE THE FESTIVALS
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HITLIST THE BEST EXHIBITIONS
REVIEW GROUP SHOW LIVE YOUR QUESTIONS NOW Mackintosh Museum, Glasgow School of Art, until Sat 1 Oct ●●●●●
As a triumphant call to the graces of old age and experience Live Your Questions Now is a survey show reacting to the art world’s obsessive youth fads. The show’s title is derived from a letter seeking guidance from poet Rainer Maria Rilke: ‘live your questions now, and maybe they will lead to answers in later life.’ It’s an apt quote for a show based on older age, setting up the premise of life as a test or question that we can only answer through our own individual actions and creations. Bringing together eight internationally recognised
artists, each working in different styles and contexts, the show is impressively varied. The fact that three out of the eight have all died within the past decade accentuates the age/experience theme. Ana Jotta’s work stands out as discarded slide
projector screens mimicking theatrical displays with varying styles, jumping from cartoon hands and
abstract landscape backgrounds to Escher-like eternal ladders mimicking some kind of retirement purgatory. Jotta’s use of line and form complements Alasdair Gray's draftsmanship, his working and reworking of drawings from the 60s and use of monochrome space. A piece that stands out for its raw emotion is Sam Ainsley’s painting ‘Where there are hopes, there will be fears’. In it are images of human cells and on closer inspection within two cells are the words ‘I am scared’ handwritten over and over again against the printed canvas. Ainsley’s work for this exhibition was inspired in part by her deeply personal reaction to a piece by the celebrated New Zealand artist Colin McCahon. Her unflinching work raises the issue of old age and the path we take after the age of 60: retirement, society’s at times cruel rejection and eventual death. Ainsley comments openly on a theme of ageing and life’s sorrow and beauty.
The exhibition is a celebration of experience and reeks not of an old folk’s home but of tenacity and lives well lived. (Alistair Quietsch)
REVIEW PAINTING, DRAWINGS & SCULPTURE FIRST OF THE SUMMER WINE Cyril Gerber Fine Art, Glasgow, until Wed 31 Aug ●●●●●
Cyril Gerber’s annual summer show is full of variety, placing artists from different generations alongside one another. A mix of modern British and Scottish masters includes Joan Eardley, Vanessa Bell, George Leslie Hunter, Donald Clark, Philip Reeves and many others. The salon style show makes for a pleasant visiting experience if you
are more used to overly didactic interpreted exhibitions. Director Jill Gerber is at hand to point out highlights and keenly discussing lesser- known hidden gems. Charcoal drawings by Scott McMurdo, who graduated from the GSA in 2007, trace the contours of a face or a hand, over and over, searching and tapping into the memories etched on elderly skin, so that the form becomes solid and monumental.
Ann Christopher’s bronze sculptures merge ancient lithic forms with
modern day abstraction to create futuristic totem objects. An arresting work by Heather Nevay, ‘Alchemists in an industrial
landscape’, plays with symbols and newfound mythology. Meticulously painted in the style of the illustrated manuscript, two children dressed in Elizabethan apparel confront the onlooker whilst engaged in a strange game or ritual that imitates the alchemical distilling process. The complexity of their childhood innocence mixes gothic sinisterism with Hieronymus Bosch’s eschatological playfulness. (Talitha Kotzé)
British Art Show 7 Time is running out to catch this touring exhibition of works by some of the finest contemporary artists at work today. Expect provocative pieces by the likes of Sarah Lucas, Juliette Blightman, Christian Marclay and Charles Avery. CCA, Gallery of Modern Art and Tramway, until Sun 21 Aug.
First of the Summer Wine Mouth-watering collection of works by renowned artists. See review, left. Cyril Gerber Fine Art, Glasgow, Until Wed 31 Aug.
Ciara Phillips: In Residence New work, the result of a residence with one of Glasgow’s newest contemporary galleries, by Canadian/Irish artist Phillips, who uses screenprinting, textile techniques and wall painting to create context-specific installations. Kendall Koppe Gallery, Glasgow, until Mon 5 Sep.
Live Your Questions Now Fascinating collection of works by established artists over the age of 60 in reaction to the enduring focus on youth in the art world. See review, left. Mackintosh Museum, Glasgow, until Sat 1 Oct.
Breaking the Renaissance Code Examples of work by Dürer, Rembrandt and Holbein are placed alongside contemporary artists in this small but interesting exhibition looking at emblematics and symbolic referencing. Hunterian Gallery, Glasgow until Tue 4 Oct.
Peace at Last! Glasgow- based artist Kate Davis, who has attracted attention for her sculptures, videos, drawings and installations, unveils work responding to the Glasgow Museums collection. Gallery of Modern Art, until Sun 16 Oct.
Ruth Ewan: Brank & Heckle Images and sounds that explore the active nature of history. See picture caption, page 132. Dundee Contemporary Arts, Fri 12 Aug–Sun 9 Oct.
11–18 Aug 2011 THE LIST 131