Scottish Craft Centre has organised this exhibition of contemporary artists/craftsmen in a new venue (see anel). 0 OPEN EYE GALLERY 57 Cumberland Street. 557 1020. Mon—Fri l()am—6pm. Sat 10am-4pm. [D] Early 20th Century Etchings and Contemporary British Glass Until Thurs 11 Sept. Carlo Rossi Paintings and Paul Brown Ceramics Sat 13 Sept—Thurs 2 Oct. 0 PORTRAIT GALLERY Queen Street, 556 8921. Mon—Sat 10am—5pm. Sun 2—5pm. The great Scots of the past and present are collected here in a gallery of faces and figures. Printed Light Until Sun 26 Oct. Admission 50p. Edinburgh International Festival. The Portrait Gallery and the Science Museum. London have collaborated to bring
together their collections (the largest
e in the world) ofwork by the David
Octavius/Robert Adamson partnership and William Henry Fox Talbot. 150 ofthe finest photographs will demonstrate that ‘the first 10 years of photography were not years
1 ofinnocence and fumbling ; incompetence‘ says Sara Stevenson
curator ofphotography at the Portrait Gallery. ‘Some ofthe most astonishing and beautiful photographs ever taken belong to these early years.‘ All photography buffs take note!
Tassie Collection Until Tue 30 Sept. James Tassie (1735—1799) modelled portraits ofmany of the major
= figures ofthe Scottish
Enlightenment including Robert Adam. Joseph Black and Adam
TREES AND TRIBULATIONS
lain Patterson (whose exhibition, ‘Growing Up‘ is at Edinburgh's Graeme Murray Gallery until 19 Sept) has a sharp and vivid sense at humour. He reiers aiiectionately to his series at porcelain sculptures, ‘Some Other Munros' as ‘the dentures’ and most oi the works have a lively double-edge to them. Forthe artist, the double-edge is lite itseli. Llle, like drawing, ‘is notthat pleasurable an activity, it's painiul too.‘ It drawings have possibilities oi llie as well as cruelty then hopelully they ‘are more like real lite and nature.’
‘Three Short Stumps', a grey expanse oi paint slashed with red and green lines and dripping lacquer, can look variously like the wounds oi the mutilated trees which it records and a trio oi cartoon matchstick men marching happily lorward. Red and green are alternately blood and sap and streamers and ribbons. Trees which, in the book oi photographs and watercolour designs produced to complementthe exhibition, look older than the oldest man, are used as the stuti irom which to generate a unique vision. They are good matter tor showing both regeneration and disintegration.
When the artist was in Hungary at the beginning oi this year, he spent a lot oi time drawing outside. The painted works and the sculpture have an airy
The advertisements ior tobacco and smoking were not always so slick and cynical. ‘Poro Clay Pipe. Christie's Special. Absorbs the nicotine and imparts to tobacco the toll llavour oi the ‘ leai. The sweetest smoking pipe known'. This is irom a display card lor pipes made in Edinburgh by one oi the best known manuiacturers oi the 20th century, William Christie oi Lelth. And 3 Tobacco Spinners and Pipe Makers banner recorded proudly and romantically, ‘Our work is tried bylire and by it made periect.’ These were part oi an impressive legacy left by the dying industry, touching in its enthusiastic devotion to the miracles ot the pipe—a poor man's comiort in hard ' times — and the pipe clay stones which were a sideline in the manuiacture oi pipes.
The exhibition ‘Pypis oi Tabaca' at the Huntly House Museum, Edinburgh is about Edinburgh tobacco pipemakers and their pipes. It relates the history oi an industry which was thriving in Edinburgh and Leith at the beginning at the century and yet had died by 1962. The contents oi William Christie oi Leith’s iactory, on closing in 1962, were donated to Huntly House and iorm a substantial part oi the exhibition.
The lines at pipes and pipe moulds and the mock workshop installed atthe museum have an empirical interest but
V the lite oi the exhibition comes irom the
impression oi workers and tobacco users which curls up around the objects . like a whiii oi smoke -the lady, Helen
3 Wells, who writes oi pipe clay, ‘This is
tor nice patterns on cottage steps with a
5 little border round and iancy little
ilowers,’ stories oi Miss Christie, one
V oi the iirst Christian Scientists in
Edinburgh and iounder at a Christmas
1 Club ior workers, and a vision at the T huge Pipe at Peace, driven in the 2 Hospital Charities parade along
Princes Street in 1922, a receptacle tor
s... “t a.» ' ' .‘M‘ g
Rye.» ,
A
‘ s.
"l r «.1, the pennies oi generous passers-by.
The exhibition is also a description oi history in the making. Much oi the inlormation ieatured was obtained irom pipe-makers still living who answered a public appeal lor inlormation earlier in the year. I meta iormerworkerirom Christie’s, Mr Joseph Elphinstone McArthur, who told me emphatically, ‘it was hard work.‘ A timely reminder. when the reverent silence of the museum's cases drowns out the ghosts of machinery and labour. (Shari Evans)
. t” e“ T A a" *3 F
Smith. Born and trained in Glasgow, ' Tassie cast these famous faces in his own distinctive porcelain-style paste. which he also used to make
reproduction gems and cameos. So highly regarded was he during his
' time. that Catherine the Great ‘ ordered a complete set of 12,000 of - his gems to be delivered to Russia.
' More on the Enlightenment can be
quality which tells oi the outdoors and the higher places. In some, the : expanses oi uniilled space otter an intensity which makes the black or ialntly coloured drawing a symbol ratherthan a representation. lain Patterson does not do ilgurative art, although he did portraiture in Hungarian pubs and was watched as it he were a circus act. You get the ieeling that he is an entertainer, that the work is lull oi jokes and games, but that it you only laugh, you are missing the point. (Shan Evans)
i - QUEEN’S HALL Clerk Street. 668 3456.
E 229 7205. Fringe Venue 155. ' Mon—Fri 9.30am—5pm.
seen across the road in the ‘Hotbed
; ofGenius‘ exhibition at the Royal ‘ Museum.
0 PRINTMAKERS’ WORKSHOP
i GALLERY 23 Union Street. 557 2479. Mon—Sat loam—6pm. - John Bellany— Etchings and Monoprints1966—1986 Until Sat 6 Sept. Ian Botham‘s portrait plus ~: : monoprints made at the workshop this year. See Gallery of Modern Q Art. Assembly Rooms and Traverse for other Bellany exhibitions. j Five Printmakers Sat 13 Sept—Sat ll Oct. New works made in the ' workshop. In a variety oftechniques
the five use the human figure as subject matter.
Playing Cards Until end Sept. An
exhibition to coincide with the
: international conference on playing g cards being held at the Queen‘s Hall 7 during this period.
0 RIAS GALLERY 15 Rutland Square.
The First Ten Years Until Fri 12 Sept. Lothian Region‘s Department of Architectural Services was formed in 1975. Since then it has been involved in the building of day centres, homes. schools and fire stations (including Tollcross. the most glamorous fire station in Edinburgh). This exhibition, illustrating twenty projects gives a public opportunity to identify and
appraise the work.
0 ROYAL BOTANIC GARDEN Inverleith House. Mon—Sat 1(lam—5pm. Sun 11am—5pm. Three exhibitions have reopened the 18th century mansion house in the middle of the Garden, previously home of the Gallery of Modern Art. The story oiJohn Hope. enlightened gardener, doctor, 1 teacher and creator of the long-gone
five~acre garden in Leith Walk in the
18th century. is told in the central gallery. Next door Margaret Stone‘s exquisite watercolours capture the flowers of the Himalayas with botanical exactitudc and upstairs Heather Angel‘s colour photographs focus on both the beauty of nature as conceived by gardeners past and present. and ofnature under the magnifying-glass. A must for all garden enthusiasts.
O ROYAL MUSEUM OF SCOTLAND Chambers Street. 225 7534. Mon—Sat 10am—5pm. Sun 2—5pm.
' Due to re-roofing work in the main
hall. the museum will be temporarily
closed to thepublic until Mon 6 Oct. .
apart from the tearoom. information desk. lecture theatre and an exhibition of photo—journalism
‘ entitled Enterprising Shots (Until 20
Sept). Access is from the Lothian
Street entrance at the rear ofthe
building. A photo-journalist of
considerable repute, Benson has
captured the portraits of the famous. the elusive. the helpless. He took the last portrait of Princess Grace. a picture of Bobby Fisher being kissed by a horse and a lucky shot of Greta
E Garbo swimming by his boat in
Antigua. A small but sharp
exhibition not to be missed. The Enterprising Scot Until 5 Oct. The
' museum'sspecialsummerexhibition [
is mounted in the Royal Scottish
The List 5 September 29