Festival Visual Art list.co.uk/festival
REVIEW NASHASHIBI/SKAER: OUR MAGNOLIA Artistic collaborators tackle controversial subject compellingly and powerfully ●●●●●
The artistic careers of Rosalind Nashashibi and Lucy Skaer have followed parallel courses. Born two years apart, the pair studied at Glasgow School of Art, exhibited at the 52nd Venice Biennale in 2007, and have collaborated as Nashashibi/Skaer on five pieces since 2005 (this is the first to be exhibited in Scotland). To date Skaer is the only one with a Turner Prize nomination under her belt. The work on display here is actually a diptych. The first-encountered is
a screenprint bearing a striking juxtaposition: on the left, what appears to be a pretty cream flower opening under a clearing pink and blue sunrise or sunset; on the right, a stately monochrome photographic portrait of Margaret Thatcher. Each segment appears to bear no relation to the other, at least without the knowledge that the painting is a work by early 20th century war artist Paul Nash, entitled ‘Flight of the Magnolia’, and that the ‘flower’ is a burst of parachutes opening as one, from Nash’s ‘Aerial Flowers’ series. At this point, the Falklands War might spring to mind.
The film at the heart of Our Magnolia is only 270 seconds long, yet
loaded with concise, suggestive images. We see Nash’s painting: magnolia flowers blooming in the dew; a dead bird half buried on a sandy beach, its cleaned ribs and hollowed-out eyes pored over in close-up detail; the back of a man’s head, turned away towards a computer screen; the screams and sobs – unmuting the sound right at the film’s end – of what appears to be a grieving Middle Eastern woman. Through it all, there’s Thatcher: pink-lipped, blusher-cheeked, pearl-
adorned and somehow soft-featured and maternal. This film celebrates not her politics, but her classic magnolia-scented femininity. Perhaps the artists’ gaze through a veil of nostalgia for this iconic power figure of their youths and her strangely old-fashioned wars, tempered by a creeping dread of the macho playground world politics became a decade after she left office. Or perhaps they can still see the shadow her work has cast over their lifetime. Either way, a controversial subject for a eulogy. (David Pollock) ■ Doggerfisher, 558 7110, until 26 Sep, free.
REVIEW PETER BLAKE: VENICE POPtabulous exhibition of screenprints inspired by La Dominante ●●●●●
When Art went POP!, Peter Blake defined a very British view of how the 60s swung. Forty-odd years on from Sergeant Pepper, the Scottish premiere of The Venice Suite gives a very Blakeian view of the city that played host to the 2007 Biennale which inspired these 20 screenprints. Each miniature contains a still-life surrealist fantasia, which, in their reconstituted junk-shop whimsy, resemble classicist Victorian pop-up book dioramas as subverted by Terry Gilliam.
More familiar are images of The Beatles and other music legends that make up the Love series. Inspired by Andy Warhol, who himself makes a shock-haired appearance in an exclusive showing of a new Blake print, iconic photographs are sprinkled with diamond dust, adding a glitzily showbiz, 15-minute transcending immortal allure to an associated love-referencing song title. Brian Wilson, Blake’s former pupil Ian Dury, The Clash and others are given the pop idol equivalent of a star on Sunset Boulevard. Most poignantly of all, Joy Division’s Ian Curtis, forever in monochrome, dazzles with an apposite gilt-edged sheen.
Finally, excerpts from Blake’s wonderful ‘An Alphabet’ spell out his name on sepia-tinged playroom wall-charts. Also on show is the recent South Bank Show profile on Blake, which makes one wish for a screening of ‘Masters of the Canvas’, which charted Blake’s fascination with masked wrestler Kendo Nagasaki as he painted his portrait. POPtabulous! (Neil Cooper) ■ Edinburgh Printmakers, 557 2479, until Sat 29 Aug (not Sun/Mon), free.
70 THE LIST FESTIVAL MAGAZINE 6–13 Aug 2009
REVIEW THE DISCOVERY OF SPAIN Exhibition of British and Spanish art demands a good, long look ●●●●●
Besides proffering a coloured selection of chapters from an intriguing art historical narrative, this major exhibition presents some seriously affecting works of art. Didacticism aside, simply gazing at these terrifically moving paintings – Goyas, El Grecos, Morillos, Velázquez’ and Picassos – affords great pleasure. Framed by the Peninsula War of the early 19th century and the Spanish Civil War, the exhibition examines Britain’s burgeoning interest in Spanish art and culture. The selection attends not only to the artistic attitudes of the nations, but wider issues of foreign perception, Eastern exoticism, and political notions of ‘otherness’. A nuanced series of comparisons, thematic groupings, and acknowledgements of British perspectives, rightly provokes such considerations.
Goya’s visceral and graphic reactions against Napoleon, the notorious
‘Disasters of War’ etchings open the exhibition. In contrast, the works of British artist David Wilkie evince his seduction by the heroism of the war. Avoiding contrivance, such comparisons are generally kept to a minimum. The final room, however, presents a lucid examination of both British and Spanish reactions to the Spanish Civil War. While this historical framework supports and strengthens the selection of these works, it does not overshadow their autonomy. Still, I suggest that you start at the exhibition’s end, ignore the words, and take a good, long look at the paintings. (Rosalie Doubal) ■ National Galleries Complex, The Mound, 624 6200, until 11 Oct, £8 (£6).