ART & EXHIBITIONS LIST
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; BOTANY BEAUTIFUL - r ,1 “A 2’ To; ., g .3 i fiafid 4. in .. ‘13? /" " p)” \
What a delight to have the house in the Royal Botanic Garden open again. And looking so good. Since the Gallery at Modern Art moved its people and pictures away three years ago, its lulure has been unclear. Now, under the supervision ot a new education and exhibition team attached to the Garden, it has re-opened with three colourlul exhibitions, as space lor those with a botanical inclination.
This Festival, the visual least of the Garden is continued inside. Extending the Enlightenment theme cultivated by the International Festival, a compact exhibition tellsthe story olJohn Hope, teacher, doctor, botanist and creator ot the live-acre garden at Leitlt Walk, the torerunner to the present one at lnverleith. It closed in 1823 and all that remains of it now is an unimposing building and a 200 year-old palm growing heartin in an lnverleith glasshouse.
Next door, Margaret Stone's exquisite watercolours capture the paper-thin beauty of a blue Himalayan poppy and the creamy satin at a rhododendron llower with detailed, botanical exactitude.
Heather Angel's photographs upstairs have that same precise quality, locusing on both the beauty at nature as conceived by gardeners past and present and at nature under the magnitying glass. Colours overtlow lrom herbaceous borders at Crathes Castle and a spider’s web shimmers with the boar lrost ot a winter’s day.
Duite apart lrom recommending the gardens themselves, the 18th century mansion house and its exhibitions are
_ an added attraction. (Alice Bain)
buildings ofBologna and Ravenna but the population is sorely missed. 0 MARTIN AND FROST 83-85 George Street. Fringe Venue 143. Mon—Sat
- 9am—5.30pm.
Many a Rug Alter Marco Polo Until Sat
g 30Aug. An exhibition illustrating
the silk route of Marco Polo from
Istanbul to China. Lectureson 21
and 28 Aug. 6—7pm. Tickets on door.
i O MERCHANTS' HALL 22 Hanover
} Street. Fringe Venue 137. Mon—Sat I= 10am—8pm.
l 124th International Exhibition at Pictorial Photography Until Sat 30 Aug. Presented by the Edinburgh Photographic Society. Admission 50p. Children under 12 free.
38 The List 22 Aug— 4 Sept
O MERCURY GALLERY 2/3 NOrth Bank Street, 225 3200. Mon-Fri 10am—5.30pm, Sat IOam—1.00pm. David Michie Until Sat 6 Sept. Michie paints ‘Gardens’, a subject well-suited to his vital blue/green palette.
o MUSEUM OF CHILDHOOD 42 High Street, 557 1265 ext 21 1. Mon—Sat 103m—6pm and (until 30 Aug) Suns 2pm-5pm
This much-loved museum re-opened in July in spanking new premises. Thousands of toys and childhood memorabilia. collected by the uncompromising eccentric.Patrick Murray. Worth queuing for! Entrance free.
0 NATIONAL & PROVINCIAL BUILDING SOCIETY George Street. Fringe Venue 49. Mon-Fri 10am—4.30pm. Sat l0am—Ipm.
Five Scottish Artists Until Sat 30 Aug. Q Janie Nugent. Hugh Murdoch. Jane
Fletcher. Alan Herriot. James IIF. Thomson.
0 NATIONAL GALLERY OF SCOTLAND The Mound. 556 8921. Mon—Sat 10am—5pm. Sun 2—5pm.
Lighting Up the Landscape: French Impressionism and its Origins Until Sun 190ct. Admission £1 (50p). TI’K inclusion of the word ‘Impressionist' in the subtitle of the National Gallery‘s Festival Exhibition seems calculated to entice. But don‘t expect too many pink haystacks and blue mountains row on row. It is the run up to Impressionism which is on show. the works of the 19th century Paris Salons and the Barbizon School. Through the early sections of the exhibition. hints ofthe ‘Impressions‘ to follow can be detected in the shafts of light shining through the dark greenery ofCorot and Pissarro‘s painting. As the title suggests. the paintings become progressively brighter and as the light floods in. execution becomes less formal. You are rewarded in the end with a small flourish of Monets. Cezanne and Renoir er al. which will undoubtedly be the favourites of the
show.
0 NATIONAL LIBRARY OF SCOTLAND
' George IV Bridge. 226 4531.
Mon—Fri 9.30am—5pm. Sat 9.30am—lpm.
Scotland and India Until Sun 21 Sept. Edinburgh International Festival. Forging a link between the two
; countries. the exhibition unearths f charming details such as the
recommendation in The Complete
Indian Housekeeper and Cook that
the cook should be discouraged from straining soup through his turban, or stirring the eggs with his fingers.
Also water-colours. diaries. letters home and autobiographies.
O NETHERBOW 43 High Street. 556 9579. Fringe Venue 30.
Treasure Island — Illustrations by Ralph Steadman Until Sat 30 Aug. Part of the RLS Festival. This is only the second showing of Ralph Steadman‘s drawings and colour paintings for Treasure Island. A cartoonist known throughout the country for his sinewy line and sharp characterisation. Steadman contributes weekly to the New Statesman.
0 OLD ASSEMBLY CLOSE High Street
7 (behindFringe Office).Fr_i_nge_
Venue 1. Daily 10am—5pm.
New Photographs by Colin Baxter Until Sat 30 Aug. Colin Baxter was the photographer who managed to capture some of that Scotch mist and put it on thousands ofpostcards. His atmospheric. highly commercial work is displayed here in all shapes and sizes. See also Assembly Rooms.
0 OPEN EYE GALLERY 57 Cumberland Street. 557 1020. Mon—Fri l0am—6pm. Sat l(lam«1pm.[D| Paintings by Marion McIntosh and Ceramics by six contemporary artists. Until Thurs 28 Aug.
Richard Demarco’s Edinburgh Until Thurs 28 Aug. Fifty paintings and drawings which have formed material for two new posters of Edinburgh. available for sale now throughout the city.
0 OPEN UNIVERSITY IN SCOTLAND 58 Melville Street. Fringe Venue 152. Mon—Fri 10am—4.30pm.
Geological Maps ol the World Until Fri 22 Aug. Maps as works of art and science presented by the Edinburgh Geological Society.
0 4O PILRIG STREET 554 1078. Fringe Venue 142. Daily l0am—7pm.
Out at the Nomad’s Tent Until Sat 30 Aug. Kilims. furniture. costume and copper collected by Rufus Reade in
5 Turkey. Items for sale.
: O PLEASANCE GALLERIES 60 The
Q Pleasance. off St Mary's Street.
Fringe Venue 35. Mon—Fri 6-8pm.
' Sat/Sun 2-6pm.
j Images at Energy by Graham Metson ; and Musical Themes by Philip Worth
Until Sat 30 Aug. 0 PORTRAIT GALLERY Queen Street.
3 556 8921. Mon—Sat. lilam-Spm. Sun 2-5pm.
~ presentarecollected hereinagallery :
The great Scots of the past and
of faces and figures.
Printed LighI Until Sun 26 Oct. Admission 50p. Edinburgh International Festival. The Portrait (iallery and the Science Museum. London have collaborated to bring together their collections (the largest
in the world) ofwork by the David
Octavius/Robert Adamson
partnership and William Henry Fox ‘ Talbot. 150 ofthe finest photographs
The survey at the ‘golden age‘ at Scottish painting which Dr Duncan MacMillan has mounted at the Talbot Rice Centre (actually it extends right through the University Library) is as comprehensive as you are ever likely to see. The selection at work ranges lmm the dawn ol Scottish painting, more or less, to the invention (and superb deployment in the case of the Hill-Adamson team) at the camera image. It is a bit like a grand operatic performance with three notable stars in Ramsay, Raeburn, and Wilkie, backed up by a rich and varied assortment ol talent, lrom the strange visionary romanticism ot the Runcimans, John
SCOTTISH PAINTING: THE GOLDEN AGE
. 4 and Alexander, through the calm Claudian landscapes otAlexander Nasmyth to the pawky genre scenes ol David Allan and the rest. Look tor the stunningly expressive sea and rockscapes by the Duddingston clergyman, John Thomson, whose
; work presages that ol Eardley in our
own time. Notice, too, how timeless are the laces ot the people who sat tor Ramsay and Raeburn —laces to be seen any day in Jenners. And look behind the surlace couthiness ol
3 Wilkle's scenes ol Scottish lile to his
painterly energy and masterly draughtsmanship. (Cordelia Oliver)