ART_& EXHIBITIONS LIST
O NETHERBOW 43 High Street, 556 9579.
Paul Butler Until Sat 4 Oct.
0 NICHOLSON GALLERY 8 St Mary’s Street.
Multiplemedia Until Sat 27 Sept. The Scottish Craft Centre has organised this exhibition of contemporary artists/craftsmen in a new venue. It’s the first time the Centre has exhibited outwith its own premises in Edinburgh and the first occasion non-members have been invited to join the show. Photographers and printmakers will contribute work
0 OPEN EYE GALLERY 57 Cumberland Street, 557 1020. Mon-Fri 10am—6pm, Sat 10am-4pm. [D] Carlo Bossl Paintings and Paul Brown Ceramics Until 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. The Portrait Gallery 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 of the finest photographs will demonstrate that ‘the first 10 years of photography were not years ofinnocence and fumbling incompetence’ says Sara Stevenson curator of photography at the Portrait Gallery. ‘Some ofthe most astonishing and beautiful photographs ever taken belong to these early years.’ Tassie Collection Until Tue 30 Sept. James Tassie (1735—1799) modelled portraits of many of the major figures ofthe Scottish Enlightenment including Robert Adam, Joseph Black and Adam 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.
0 PRESCOTE GALLERY 369 High Street. 225 2625. Mon—Sat 10am—5pm. The old 369 Gallery premises have been taken over by the Prescote which formerly ran from rural premises near Banbury in Oxfordshire, enjoying an international reputation for the promotion of contemporary British applied and decorative arts. Monthly exhibitions will be held in Edinburgh and advice on commissioning is readily available. An exhibition of new designs in furniture and lighting constructions by Linda Green opens the gallery‘s programme, 26 Sept—l8 Oct. 0 PRINTMAKERS' WORKSHOP GALLERY 23 Union Street, 557 2479. Mon—Sat 10am—6pm. Five Printmakers Until Sat 11 Oct. New works made in the workshop. In a variety of techniques the five use the human figure as subject matter.
0 QUEEN’S HALL Clerk Street, 668 3456.
Playing Cards Until end Sept. An exhibition to coincide with the international conference on playing cards being held at the Queen’s Hall during this period.
0 RIAS GALLERY 15 Rutland Square. 229 7205. Mon—Fri 9.30am—5pm.
A Vital Art Until Fri 26 Sept. It is no longer enough that an architect should have a good idea, that idea has to be communicated faithfully and effectively to a wide range of interested parties. Accurate modelmaking. perspective drawing and clarity of presentation now represent a vital art within the design process. Seven Scottish members of the Society of Architectural and Industrial Illustrators exhibit their work.
0 ROYAL BOTANIC GARDEN Inverleith House. Mon—Sat 10am—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. All three exhibitions run until Fri 31 Oct. The story of John Hope, enlightened gardener, doctor, 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 exactitude 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 the public until Mon 6 Oct. , apart from the tearoom, information
FAME AND FORTUNE
Scottish Gallery
Edinburgh
The Wheel oi Fortune often ieatures in John Bellany's work but although, in strictly worldlyterms, it must by now have been seen to turn to luck and lame iorthe artist, it is as capricious as ever in terms of the search tor peace, or enlightenment, or whatever it is that Bellany looks for. For his exhibition, ‘New Paintings and Watercolours, 1985-86’ at The Scottish Gallery, reveals the now characteristic tension between beauty oi tone and colour, the allure ot the table and the barbarism oi the table distorted. In ‘Spes Bona’, the sun is a balloon, a cat plays the flute (not the fiddle) and a parrot plays a game of chance. There are clocks whining and chiming throughout the exhibition and when in ‘Celtic Vision’ a vaguely human (iemale) monster and a
1 badly bleeding bird appear, I am no
more than tainin surprised. The strange goings-on have come to no good and the human race ceases at live past four.
Gordon Mlles’s exhibition, ‘The Landscape Etched’, in The Scottish Gallery‘s back room, has had a hard act to follow. These darkly detailed prints and etchings have a reality which at times seems to go beyond even photography and at other moments dissolves into a moody evocation oi scene and machine. “Wall Forms Tal-Y-Ugn' is like an ordnance survey map with its contours and ‘Bat Fish', a zoological text~book illustration. These are very carefully done but it seemed to me thatthe title had described an activity-‘etching’ - which somehow deprived the landscape of lite and thereiore beauty. (Shan Evans)
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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 of the 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 Garbo swimming by his boat in Antigua. A small but sharp exhibition not to be missed.
The Enterprising Scot Until 5 Oct. The museum‘s special summer exhibition is mounted in the Royal Scottish Academy on Princes Street. See below.
0 ROYAL MUSEUM OF SCOTLAND Queen Street. 556 8921. Mon—Sat 10am—5pm. Sun 2—5pm.
Hotbed ot Genius Until Sat 20 Sept. The Scottish Enlightenment is celebrated in a two-part exhibition at York Buildings. Downstairs, ultra-violet and infra-red add innovation to a series of tableaux and models which fall short of capturing the atmosphere and excitement of the period. Better to visit the New Town and environs of the High Street itself. Upstairs, a fairly academic survey sub-divides the Enlightenment into subject sections. Portraits, caricatures and the tools of
, the intellectual trades ofthe time.
add life to the labels.
0 ROYAL SCOTTISH ACADEMY The Mound, 225 6671.
The Enterprising Scot Until Sun 5 Oct. £1.50 (£1). The collection (or at least a proportion of it) from the Royal Museum ofScotland, Chambers Street, moves down to the centre of town for the summer season. This exhibition looks at the reasons behind the success of Scottish enterprise abroad and at home. Charles Bennie Mackintosh Until 5
Oct. Beautiful and unassuming drawings which, for Mackintosh,
took the place of a photograph album. Each drawing is inscribed with the initials of the people who were with him when it was made. They lack movement and human figures but the artist‘s particular sensibility is evident in each line, in the shaded petals ofevcry gorgeous flower.
0 SCOTTISH CRAFT CENTRE 140 Canongate. 5568136. Mon—Sat 10am—5.30pm. A permanent showcase for the crafts ofScotland. The craftsmen and women of Scotland gather their work together here for sale. Knitwear, ceramics, glass. pottery etc. See Nicholson Gallery.
0 THE SCOTTISH GALLERY 94 George Street. 225 5955. Mon—Fri 9am—5.30pm. Sat 9.30am—lpm. John Bellany Until Wed 1 Oct. New
paintings and watercolours. Surely
the most exhibited artist of the year. See also Gallery of Modern Art. Gordon Miles—The Landscape Etched Until Wed 1 Oct.
0 THE SCOTTISH MINING MUSEUM
Lady Victoria Colliery. Newtongrange. Midlothian, 663
7519. Tue—Fri 10am—4.30pm. I Sat/Sun Noon—5pm. i
U — 2 Oct 31