Edinburgh's Royal Scottish Academy – 200 up!
THE ROYAL Scottish Academy is celebrating its bicentenary in a big way. This dynamic institution run by artists, for artists, has a brilliant schedule of exhibitions throughout the year at its iconic home on The Mound in Edinburgh, but it also has formed Celebration Together, a vast outreach with over 100 galleries, (some small) and institutions, (some large,) which will be joining the party with special sahows and events to mark 200 years of Scottish art and architecture.
Clare Henry, with the Peacock Calendar Suite
The RSA was founded in 1826 and its academicians have played a big role in shaping the nation's cultural landscape. I was glad to see two women having solo shows as part of the programme: Dame Barbara Rae, (Nov 21-Jan 24) and in August, Joyce Cairns, shockingly the only female woman president in 200 years!
The celebrations opened with several smaller shows. Origin Stories in the lower galleries reflect on art teaching and influencial art teachers like Robert Scott Lauder, McTaggart, EA Walton, Fra Newbery and William Gillies in earlier times, memorable Bill Scott, Frances Walker, Elizabeth Blackadder, then Arthur Watson, Len Dunbar, Stuart Mackenzie, Dalziel&Scullion and Rosalind Lawless who are busy today from Dundee or Glasgow, Aberdeen to Edinbro and not forgetting the University of the Highlands and Islands!
Another impressive show is Generation, curated by Richard Murphy RSA OBE who has looked at the idea of the architectural family tree, bringing together the work of 16 architects who all formerly worked at his Edinburgh practice and have since gone on to establish their own very successful practices.
A show I really enjoyed was Modern Miniatures. Merely restricted by size, – about 25 RSA artists have contributed memorable, intriguing, imaginative, delightful works – paintings and sculptures – all for sale at very reasonable prices from around £250 – 450. I would've liked to buy at least 20 of them!. Doug Cocker has a series Scherzo, at 300 quid each, of gorgeous colourfully painted ash. Elspeth Lamb's watercolours and collage are as usual beautiful, Toby Paterson has two maquettes, Paul Furneaux extraordinary moulded plastic forms, Bronwen Sleigh exquisite pencil and gouache pieces. Helen Flockhart's more expensive surreal 'NightFlower' is sure to sell.
At the Wyllieum in Greenock
Stuart Mackenzie and Jake Harvey also contribute, while among my favourites George Donald's delightful figurative paintings like 'Kate among the Pigeons' at £ 350 are probably already sold. Gareth Fisher, former President of the RSA, shows a series of small plasters, some a snip at 350 quid. So hurry to the RSA to see all these joys.
Needless to say the 200 RSA annual exhibition, May 9 - June 14 filling the upper and lower galleries, will be a special occasion. This they say will be 'a melting part of contemporary art from across Scotland and further afield, with all our work showed side-by-side in the academies grand neoclassical galleries in the heart of the city.” With hundreds of artworks on sale and many affordable, it will be a great opportunity for visitors to actually join with the contemporary art world of today by placing a picture or a sculpture in their own home. An additional link is the £500 150th Paisley Art Institute Award, which denotes the PAI's 150th birthday and will be awarded at the RSA Annual.
Ironically the first of the outreach shows I saw was at Greenock's impressive Wyllieum, a smallish but enterprising gallery sitting right by the Clyde dedicated to the memorable George Wyllie, whose wisecracks, visual jokes, and wise philosophy are remarkable. He lived locally, worked as a Customs officer before taking up art. He described himelf as a "scul?tor”. I was lucky to see both his most famous creations: his fantastic "Straw Locomotive" a full size steam locomotive, created from straw, suspended from the Finnieston Crane by the Clyde for several months during 1987, before being ceremonially burnt - plus his 80-foot Paper Boat. This was exhibited at Glasgow's Tramway and also on the Hudson in New York. Other creations include his Slap and Tickle Machine and a wind-up stainless steel palm tree.
The current show, From the Clyde to Sarajevo & The Venice Lagoon, curated by RSA past president Arthur Watson, includes some of my photographs of Watson's sculpture exhibited at the 1990 Venice Biennale. Other works include sculptures and graphics by Wyllie, Watson, Fred Bushe, Gareth Fisher, Edward Summerton & Jake Harvey, on loan from the RSA collections.
On another personal note, as a former printmaker, I was glad to see that in June/July contemporary Printmaking in Scotland Now will feature at the RSA. Meanwhile, The Peacock Calendar Suite, an ambitious collaborative project of 12 artists themed on the months of the year and orchestrated by Watson and his friend Len Dunbar, makes an appearance, perhaps for the first time since 1976.
Celebration Together, the RSA's wide reaching project, is said to be the largest ever of its type in Scotland with over 100 cultural partners coming together to mark the occasion with their own tailored events, exhibitions, performances, talks and collection rehangs across multiple venues.
What a treasure trove of art to look forward to all over Scotland in the RSA's bicentenary year!!!
