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list.co.uk/visualart Reviews | VISUAL ART
PAINTING THE TWO ROBERTS Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh, until Sun 24 May ●●●●●
Reading the literature that accompanies this intriguing retrospective on the work of Ayrshiremen Robert Colquhoun and Robert MacBryde – who were students together at Glasgow School of Art in the early 1930s, lovers from then on, popular contemporaries of Francis Bacon and Lucian Freud during the 1940s, and tempestuous alcoholics who died young, and with their careers having declined, a few years apart in the 1960s – we might be struck by the sense that they’re among the few artists whose personal lives are as deserving of attention as their work. This first major retrospective is, typically for the National Galleries, well-resourced and curated to the point that the narrative of their working life is drawn out alongside numerous vivid examples of the work. The opening room shows us the early days of their nascent career together, with MacBryde’s talent for capturing the human form expressed in pencil male nudes from GSA, while Colquhoun’s work includes oil portraits and landscapes, including a survey of figures in a London air raid shelter and Unmade Bed, a precursor to Emin.
Their 1940s heyday is recounted by a roomful of oils, most of
them of Colquhoun’s distinctive portraiture, a highly stylised echo of cubism and of Picasso in particular, which nevertheless saw his figures develop a sense of their own humanity; MacBryde would also work in a remarkably similar style, yet where he worked in still life the vividness of the colours would also resonate. Their costume design on the 1951 ballet Donald of the Burthens and Colquhoun’s on King Lear for the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre in Stratford would bring their unique worldview to life, while an essential selection of later works finds deserved pride of place, uncelebrated at the time as their lives and careers sadly crumbled. (David Pollock)
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PAINTING VICTORIA MORTON The Modern Institute, Glasgow, until Sat 17 Jan ●●●●●
‘OPTIMUM LIVING MADE EASY’ the quasi-ironic legend just about declaims from the second of five large-scale paintings that make up a new cycle of work by Victoria Morton. Or at least that’s what it appears to say, as the poster-size message which resembles a stencilled-in slogan is all but obscured by swirls of red camouflage as well as the image of a female figure who appears to be squirting paint into her palm. Such wilful discretion is the most tellingly
talismanic image on show, even as it acts as a bridge between the explosions of colour elsewhere. At times improvised but never slapdash, these burst forth with a self-referential life-force which flits between a blood-rush of fevered activity offset by pools of calm which trickle out beyond the oranges and lemons. As a very personal storyboard, it highlights a vivid
life-and-death swirl which points to little moments captured from everyday narratives. These aren’t so much made flesh as have their psychological innards put under the microscope in a way that goes beyond words, in a shadow line that borders the woozy limbo-land between process and product. (Neil Cooper)
CROSS-DISCIPLINARY BEAUTY BY DESIGN: FASHIONING THE RENAISSANCE Scottish National Portrait Gallery, Edinburgh, until Sun 3 May ●●●●●
The Scottish National Portrait Gallery is surely a treasure trove of ideas for cross-disciplinary projects linking art and fashion. This show, devised by fashion designer Mal Burkinshaw and art historian Jill Burke brings together artists and historians to investigate how ideas in contemporary fashion can be illuminated through the prism of history. Burkinshaw’s collection of six lace jackets uses
the semi-transparent quality of the lace to transpose the silhouettes from historic portraits on to a contemporary, androgynous template. Knitwear designer Claire Ferguson’s striking full-length dress uses a similar technique, while Edinburgh milliner Sally-Ann Provan draws on the symbolism of portraiture to create a Perspex headdress. A collaborative series of staged photographs is a contemporary critique of the social mores laid down in Paris Bordon’s painting, Venetian Women at their Toilette.
Seeing Renaissance and Jacobean paintings next to these contemporary investigations-through- making is a powerful reminder that while beauty ideals themselves may have changed, the nature of the tyranny has not. (Susan Mansfield)
11 Dec 2014–5 Feb 2015 THE LIST 121
PAINTING AND SOUND EDGELANDS: IDRIS MURPHY AND PAUL MARTIN Warburton Gallery, Edinburgh, until Sun 25 Jan ●●●●●
With a grand dome and ornate balconies, the Warburton Gallery is a treasure in the centre of Edinburgh. Within the gallery, Edgelands, an exhibition by Scottish-based artist Paul Martin and Australian painter Idris Murphy, is currently on show.
Martin and Murphy first met in London aged 22, they then met again in Perth, Australia, aged 65, where the idea for this exhibition started to take shape. Edgelands is their first joint exhibition and both present paintings that seek ‘an understanding of the nature of nature’.
Murphy’s work injects colour to the gallery with bold, bright abstracted landscapes informed by locations as diverse as Turkey and the Australian bush. Martin’s work on the upper floors is a physical response to the forces of nature. The artist has moved away from past figurative works to explore the use of natural materials and gritty surfaces. From the centre of the gallery, a sound installation
by Paul Martin and his son Ben Martin plays. The sound of field recordings and instruments, made from wood and bone reverberates through the space, complementing Martin and Murphy’s paintings alike. (Kirsty Neale)