ART & EXHIBITIONS LIST
A Portfolio of Posters, Collins Gallery, Glasgow This exhibition of Edward McKnight Kauffer's posters recalls a sadly eclipsed genre of ‘poster artist’. Photography has revolutionised advertising techniques since McKnight Kautter first began working on poster designs lorthe London Underground in 1915. Magazine advertising has changed out of all recognition, but contemporary poster and billboards, which were McKnight Kauffer's speciality, look way behind what he was doing over fifty years ago. McKnight Kaufferwas an American, trained as a painter and scored a famous success with his first posters for the tube just after the First World War. Commissions forShelI, Eno’s Fruit Salts and American Airways followed. His early work especially uses flat areas of blockprinted colour and it has a freshness and simple clarity that must have won the heart of every advertiser he worked for. He drew freely on contemporary trends in art, using the sharpness and directness of Japanese prints and the new sense of power of the machine age to remarkable effect. The London Museum of Practical Geology can never have looked so exciting as when McKnight Kautter designed a poster for it. He showed a huge, faceted piece of metal soaring up the page with all the impressive and towering importance of a New York skycraper viewed from street level. One of the most striking differences between McKnight Kauffer's posters
Lithography and Screenprinting £25 (£20 cone). lntensive courses in basic skills.
I DUEEN'S HALL Clerk Street Box Office 668 201‘). Mon—Sat 10am—5pm. Cafe. Country Matters I—27 Feb. A whimsical view of courttry life by Carmen Abrosevich.
I RIAS l5 Rutland Square. Mon—Fri 9.30am—5pm.
Environment Show Until 4 Feb. Architectural designs for the environment pavilion at the Glasgow Garden Festival. The design selected was submitted by Assist Architects. Glasgow and will be built for the festival.
I RICHARD DEMARCO GALLERY Blackfriars Church. Blackfriars Street (off High Street). 5570707.
Maggi Hambling lean—ZtiFeb.
I lambling’s erotic hulls move from the Serpentine in London. No energyspared in this show.
Yugoslavia From 1—9 February Richard Demarco is visiting Sarajevo with a number of Scottish artists to take part in the Winter Festival there. An exhibition of Scottish art (including work by Jack Knox. Doug Cocker. Moira lnnes. John Bellany and twenty more) will be mounted at the Collegium Artisicum and installations will be made on site. The trip is being organised in conjunction with the Scottish Sculpture Trust. Contact the gallery for further details.
I ROYAL BOTANIC GARDEN 557 7171. Mon—Fri 10am—l hour before sunset.
Sat .Sun 1 lam—1 hour before sunset. lnverleith Ilouse is open on weekends only.
New Sculpture The pond looked very empty when Reg Butler‘s little female figure left with the Gallery of Modern Art. But the Botanic Garden has filled the gap.
POSTER PAINTERS
CONTRIBUTE TO flllEllIIS 0T GREECE INC, 52 EAST 51m STREET. NEW YORK CITY
and those of today is that he doesn‘t seem to have been weighed down with a lot of excess baggage about ‘concepts’ and slogans. His work is much the stronger for it and to emerge
i of thought in contemporary billboards |
David Annand's full-size heron with wings
spread for flight will permanently reside on the spot. Appropriate too. as real live herons have been known to fish in the ornamental pond.
I ROYAL COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS for info phone Mungo Campbell on 557 5498 or AcanthUs 557 5498.
Artists and Architecture Conference 26,27 Feb. A gathering of artists and architects from around the country and abroad get together in the wake of Iidinburgh District Council's ‘Percentage for A rt' policy which gives out the message that buildings can be designed and built with works of art integrated from the beginning. This conference will provide the focus in a mini-festival of architectural events
throughout the city during the week 22 ~28 '
Feb. Robert Ayres. performance artist. will be coming tip with surprises throughout the city during that week. Acanthus is a nationwide organisation currently compromising 12 independent architectural practices which have joined forces to promote the raising ofstandards of design and craftsmanship throughout the country.
I ROYAL MUSEUM OF SCOTLAND Chambers Street. 225 753-1. Mon —Sat 10am—5pm. Sun 2 -5pm. Cafe.
European Aft IZOD—1800 A new gallery opens.
Design For Savings 3—28 Feb. An exhibition of posters commissioned for advertising National Savings Certificates. From the first world war to the present. they provide fascinating social insights as well as excellent examples ofgraphic design styles through the 20th century. Dovecot Tapestries t'ntit early Feb. Edinburgh's tapestry workshop Dove-cot Studios is 75 years old and to celebrate this
l l I
from this exhibition into the a grey
Glasgow afternoon and see the poverty
is to feel the full impact of what has been lost in this field. (Sally Kinnes)
occasiort. the Royal Scottish Museum have a range of their work on display.
I ROYAL MUSEUM OF SCOTLAND Queen Street. 556 892 1. Mon—Sat 10am—5pm: Sun 2«-5pm.
Scotland's antiquities share premises with the Portrait Gallery.
I ROYAL SCOTTISH ACADEMY The Mound. 225667]. Mon -Sat 10am~6pm. Sun .\'oon 6pm.
The Edinburgh International: Reason and Emotion in Contemporary Art Limit 14 Feb. A major show organised by the Scottish Arts Council w hich brings together the work of 1‘) Iiuropean and American artists. A good idea to bring international
work to lidinburgh on a grand scale.but this project has sadly fallen on several counts. The theme is dodgy (it was meant to link classicism to contemporary art but that idea was dropped at the last minute when the exhibition forthcoming failed to live up to that claim). the roornsare sparse. much of the work itself is not the best these artists could produce and the i cafe has plastic cups. It costs £1 (50p) to get 111 and though it hardly seems agreat amount to pay for what has taken so much ; effort. it seems unlikely that the public's l interest will be sufficiently aroused on a I winter's day to pay even that small price to i see something so lackirtg in spirit. The exhibition is saved by Sol [.eWitt's wall painting. which along with James Lee Byers ‘Figure of Death' give the central room a creepy sense of travelling in space and time.
Edinburgh International: A One-Day Symposium To be held at Talbot Rice Gallery. ()ld College. Universityof Iidinburgh. Fri 2‘)Jan. The symposium intends to set this exhibition in the context
of art and politics ofthe 20th century. Speakers will include Douglas Hall (one of the selectors) Michael Bury on the usesof Classicism in the 19th and 20th centuries. Walter Grasskamp on Classicism in Germany and Tom Norman on the British context of the dualism between reason and emotion. The day is free but reservation is strongly advised. Please send for your ticket to Professor Fernie. Department of Fine Art. University of Edinburgh. 1‘) George Square. Edinburgh [311891.D. I THE SCOTTISH ARTISTS SHOP 8 Howard Street. 556 6337. Mon—Sat 10am-4pm. Sun 2—4pm. I SCOTTISH CRAFT CENTRE 140 Canongate. 5568136. Mort—Sat 10am—5.30pm. Permanent display of crafts made by Scottish craftspeople. I THE SCOTTISH GALLERY 9-1 George Street. 225 5955. Mon—Fri 9am—5.30pm. Sat 9.30am— 1 pm. Denis Peploe Until 3 Feb. A colourist in the tradition of that other Peploe. Denis Peploe explores the landscape ofSpain. Cyprus. the Lake Dsitrict arid the West Ilighlands in 6()paintings. Travels With a Paintbrush: Esme Gordon Until 3 Feb. Esme Gordon‘s style looks back at the grand period of the English watercolour (for the real thing go no further than the National Gallery ofthe Mound where Turner's watercolours have their annual airing). Figurative ceramics Until 3 Feb. I THE SCOTTISH MINING MUSEUM Lady Victoria Colliery. Newtongrange. Midlothian. 663 751‘). Tue—Fri 10am—4.30pm; Sat Sun Noon—5pm; Thurs late opening 6.30—8pm. The history of tnining in Midlothian on a mining site. I STILLS GALLERY 105 High Street. 557 11-10. Tue—Sat Noon-6pm. California: Women in Photography Until 13 Feb. Work by ten women photographers livingand working in California. Talk Tue 2 Feb at 7.30pm. Susan Butler. formerly editor of Creative Camera. will talk about the exhibition of women photographers currently showing at Stills. This talk begins a new series offour running until March 1. Iiach talk costs £1 .50/75p or £5 £2.50 for the season. I TALBOT RICE ART CENTRE ()ld College. University of Edinburgh. 667 101 1 ext 4308. Mon—Sat. 10am—5pm. Sun 2pm—5pm. Stephen Lawson Until 6 Feb. Best known for his photographic collages which piece together a land or city scape from individual shots taken at measured intervals over a whole day. Lawson in this exhibition also shows sculpture made some time ago in America. The work has been shipped back specially for this exhibition. Artists in Residence Glyn Banks and Hannah Vowles who work under the name ‘Art in Ruins' will be working at the university until spring. They can be contacted through the Talbot Rice. Edinburgh International: A One-Day Symposium Fri 2‘)Jan. See Royal Scottish Academy for details. I TORRANCE GALLERY 29b Dundas Street. 556 6366. Mon—Fri 1 lam—6pm; Sat 10.30am—4pm. Aidan Bremner Until 23 Jan. Watercolours and sculpture. I WARE ON EARTH 15 Howe Street. 558 1276. Mon—Fri 10am—6pm; Sat 10am-4pm; Sundays by appointment. I W.A.S.P.S. GALLERY Patriothall. Hamilton Place (near Theatre Workshop) Tue—Sun l2.30—5.30pm. Karen Forbes Until 23 Jan. An installation by this WASPS artist. I 359 GALLERY 209 Cowgate. 225 3013. Mon—Sat Noon—5.30pm. New Talent Until 3(IJan. Work by Gillian Farmer. Margaret Hunter. Alistair Wallace and Callum Innes the Scottish Arts Council's artist-in-residence in Amsterdam.
38 The List 22 Jan — 4 Feb 1988