3 City Art Centre Edinburgh Baby Crawford was a good child. In her
- picture, she sits angel-like with her
golden curls and frothy white frock, clutching a little dolly bag, looking as
though butter wouldn’t melt in her mouth. The Victorian publisher opposite her has golden curls too, but I suspect that his owe more to art than nature. These are but two of the many characters currently occupying the ground floor of the City Art Centre. The exhibition, “The Art of the Portrait’, is a selection of paintings, drawings and sculpture from the City’s permanent collection of portraits and it is good to see old favourites )like Cadell’s ‘The Black Hat’) back on the walls as well as welcoming new acquisitions. William Johnstone's nearly abstract portrait of Hugh McDiarmid was bought in 1985 and it demonstrates the new definitions of ‘portraiture’ which have prevailed in the latter part oi the 20th century.
Portraits, in other ages, have been what photographs are today— representations, records of a person’s physical appearance with no more clues as to the person’s character and beliefs thatthat appearance might reasonably suggest. In such works, we look for a bright eye or a daring outfit for evidence of personality. Was Robert Scott Moncrieff, Esquire, painted by Sir Henry Raeburn RA in the late 18th century, gentle or harsh with the orphan boys? There is ambivalence i in his expression.
A different kind of curiosity is aroused by Victoria Crowe’s portrait of Winifred Rushlorth, the eminentdream and psychotherapist who did pioneering
work in Edinburgh in these fields. Here, the artist’s sense of hersitter’s motivations and personality are expressed in an almost surreal landscape of moody blue sea, strange dinosaur-like creatures (Ms Rushtorth was interested in the work of Jung and
Gonnet became friendly with the surrealists Tanguy. the Prevert Brothers and Andre Breton. He started designing engines for planes but shortly before the end of the war he abandoned everything else and took to painting full-time.
0 FRUITMARKET GALLERY 29 Market Street. 225 2383. Tue—Sat 3
~ 10am—5.30pm. Closed Sun & Mon. Licensed cafe’.
I Bill Woodrow Until Sat 25 Oct. A ‘ giraffe’s head made ofcar bonnets. and an elephant‘s head made ofcar doors are just two of Woodrow‘s sculpture menagerie residing at the Fruitmarket this autumn. Bill Woodrow salvages all sorts of modern machines. tools and furniture and with a twist ofa knife gives them a new life. A brass cymbal ; becomes a little green snake. BMW bonnets make a giraffe. an I: aluminium bath tub lies down as a j ‘ bloated cow‘s belly. Two large maps l i in this exhibitions have given Africa and South America as elephants‘ ears. Woodrow seems to cut metal as smoothly and dexterously as paper. skilful as an origami artist.
30 The List 19NS‘ept .— 2 Oct
ART & EXHIBITIONS LIST
SITTING PRETTY
my 6&3?!“ 5&3er
\‘Qsib\;~\\»p.
in the study of primeval archetypes)
and flourishing houseplants which,
despite being quite usual, take on an
odd intensity and beauty which conveys
Winifred’s particular gifts of perception
and sensitivity to the world around her. Most of the works are Scottish
and a tentative history of Scottish art
can be glimpsed in the progression of works. A painting by SirJohn Lavery is shortly succeeded by ‘Gathering
? Glowers in the Rock Garden’ which was
O GALLERY OF MODERN ART Belford Road. 5568921. Mon—Sat
10am—5pm. Sun 2—5pm. Rest. [D]
3 Winner of last month's 1986 Scottish ‘ Museum ofthe Year Award.
‘ shortlisted for the British Museum of . the Year. and now nominated for the European Museum ofthe Year
award. Guided Tours On the first Wednesday
; ofevery month. at 2.30pm (free) a
member ofthe curatorial staff will lead a tour ofthe gallery (approx
2 three quarters ofan hour).
Questions and discussions will be invited.
John Bellany Retrospective Until Sun 21 Sept. ’In an exhibition which occupies the complete upper floor of the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art. John Bellany comes triumphantly into his own as. arguably at least. the major figure in contemporary Scottish painting.‘ Cordelia Oliver.
0 GATEWAY EXCHANGE 2-4 Abbeymount, 661 0982. Mon—Sat 10am—5pm.
A Bed of Roses Extended until end Sept. A theatrical. nightmarish installation with sculpture. roses and
' purchased 5 yar, the work of
Elizabeth Adamson, a young Edinburgh artist. Scottish craft is also represented in a painting by Stanley Cursiter, ‘The Fair isle Jumper’, depicting a young girls with red lips clad in jumper, hat and scarflrom Fair Isle.
The title of the exhibition is an
accurate description: the work shows , both portraiture as an art-form and the
‘art’ of making successful portraits.
A (Shan Evans)
woman in black. white and red. by
Evelyn Horsley. O GLADSTONE'S LAND GALLERY 483
Lawnmarket. 226 5856. Mon—Sat
10am—4.30pm. Sun 2—4.30pm. Mainly Flowers Until Sun 28 Sept. Paintings. embroideries and collages in an exhibition ofeight artists.
0 GRAEME MURRAY GALLERY 15 Scotland Street. 556 6020.
lain Patterson— Growing Up Until Fri 19 Sept. New work including porcelain sculptures made by the artist in Hungary this year. Original hand-coloured photographs made in Siklos. Hungary.
0 HANOVER FINE ART 104 Hanover Street. 225 2450. Mon—Sat 10am—5.30pm.
6 Mixed Exhibition Until Tue 23 Sept.
James Sutherland and Steven Proudfoot Sat 27 Sept—Sun 14 Oct. Paintings.
0 HM GENERAL REGISTER HOUSE Princes Street. 556 6585. Mon—Fri 10am—4pm.
The Croiters Until end Sept. An exhibition to mark the centenary of the Crofters‘ Act.
The Memory Bank Until end Sept. "I‘he Survival Care and Use of
Archives marking 700 years of record-keeping in Scotland.’
0 HUNTLY HOUSE MUSEUM Canongate. Mon—Sat 1-am—6pm (Sept); Mon—Sat 10am—5pm (Oct). Pypis ofTabaca Until Sat 18 Oct. Pipe-making was an industry which thrived in Edinburgh and Leith at the beginning of the century and yet had died by 1962. The contents of William Christie of Leith‘s factory were donated on closing to Huntly House in the sixties and form a substantial part ofthe exhibition. Much of the information featured was obtained by pipe-makers still living who answered a public appeal earlier in the year. Compare the smoking ads today with ‘the sweetest smoking pipe ever known‘.
0 MALCOLM lNNES GALLERY 67 George Street, 226 4151. Mon—Fri 9.30am—6pm. Sat 10am—1pm. General exhibition until beginning October.
0 MERCURY GALLERY 2/3 North Bank Street, 225 3200. Mon—Fri 10am—5.30pm, Sat 10am—1.00pm. New Generation Show Until Sat 11 Oct. Paintings from graduates of Scottish art colleges as selected by the Mercury Gallery. See panel.
0 MUSEUM OF CHILDHOOD 42 High Street. 557 1265 ext 21 1. Mon—Sat 10am—6pm.
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. Entrance free.
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 19 Oct. Admission £1 (50p). The 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 oflight 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 ofthe 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 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.