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ART PREVIEW l
: IN THE FRAME _ ’
Bill Hare, Assistant Curator oi the
. . 1 Talbot Rice Gallery, discusses the B d I n ‘grand opera’ oi Glasgow Boy Peter
The work of the 19th century French painter i _ i a _ i a ._ , _, Eugene Boudin iS The Beach at T uville—the Empress Euge
‘K «h ‘-’ ‘ i - i \. ...m~ t .W '
nie1863
celebrated In a large and Monet after, Boudin was drawn known as something of a pioneer in ; exhibition of his paintings I to the Normandy coast, where he this area) and in the freedom of his - studied not on] the chan ing light drawin , combined with a luminous, , I at the .Burre“ .Couecuon. ° and moods butilhe movengient of light-togned palette. These were the l 5 (331011116 Ednle Went to 1t- people. Particularly intriguing are distinctive traits he was to bring to ‘ The exhibition of works by Eugene - the scenes of fashionable, bourgeois j the emerging Impressionist 5 Boudin (1824-98) recently opened at holidaymakers promenading on the ‘ movement. i a the Buneii Collection offers a rare : Trouville beach. These figures 5 Most of Boudin‘s large output is i i 7 , , opportunity to see paintings by one s present little anecdotal or narrative now in private hands, and Boudin at ' i ‘ e " ' of France's most important 19th 3 interest, but their closely observed Trouville has drawn on collections ! "ummm “um” ' End century landscape artists, a man who i gestures and detailed dress give them ' on the continent and in America to . was to prove a formative influence a sense ofbelonging in their context. I complement Glasgow Museums’ on the Impressionists. At the same timethere is irony in the i own large selection. The exhibition “to” hm“ on ma arms“ an scene Boudin at Trouville explores the way the figures disturb the natural also features contemporaneous mm“ ""1980: on" Ken came and painter’s fascination with the landscape With their somal rituals photographs and costumes, and Peter Howson aciualiy looked to their Normandy COaSt'me’ ‘" partlcmar ’ and anifife' . . . . - forms part 9f "1.6 European Arts Mu" my Glam” “a um“ source the popular19th century resort of . Boudins originality, however, is in I Festival. It is a fitting tribute to the 0' Implnu’on Baud“ om“: many Trouv111e. .From the 1860s onwards, the way his work reveals the moods painter Monet described as havmg "'0'". "a min“ “nuam'eg'bemeen this town, its ViSttors and inhabitants and effects ofa particular 1 opened his eyes to the beauty of were frequent subjects in Boudin’s ~ atmosphere. He is able to capture , nature and the pOSSibilities of
their work, with some iustlilcatlon.
work, constituting a theme which he and describe the play of weather and ; landscape painting. mfirrfiigr lasagsl’; could explore in all its changing i light on the sea, sky and beaches at " un'lvoma'nt'n Both draw the" aspects. Trouville. This he achieved by j Boudin at Trouville is at the Burrell a p 9' Like Corot and Millet before him 3 painting in the open air (Boudin is Collection, Glasgow, until 28 Feb
subjects mainly irom the alienated and dispossessed in our post-industrial society. But there are also iundamentai _ i dlilerences: Currie, because he works ' from a much more overtly political and
social point oi view, treats the human u p drama in a proioundly tragic iashlon - with ‘rational despair’, as he calls it.
HALF DAY WALK 0N BAFFIN ISLAND The Poet Manqué is at the Netherbow
: master’s operatic melons oi bloody lyrical. “Coats iorthe Wind to Live in', ARCTIC CANADA SUMMER 1988'. The Gallery until 28 Nov. Polesis is at the
l mclll‘lom 8"“ iiflmom metrrdoms. ior example, reiers to the sails oi a
0" ll“! OlllOf hand. allllOIIOll "We l8 Current exhibitions at Edinburgh’s | 3'30 8 W009 lllOllflcal lOOl l0 Netherbow and Frultmarket galleries "MOW! DfllflllflllS. llie dmmallc link word and image, both in very "Will" '8 PMOMM "ill 88 lllllll diiierent ways. In the iirst, A Poet I "will! lllll mo" 88 timid Opera. Wllll Manque, Douglas Robertson’s ll“ “WWI ml” Willi l0 "10 charcoal drawings, paintings and I under-classes. mixed-media constructions draw on i A8 Wllll lllfll 0m" MUSll-‘al all form. the poetry and lore oi Scotland’s East "Bl'yllllflli l" HOWSOII'S Dlflllm l8 Coast. The second, Polesis, takes as lemma? Illte. Flo‘liires an")! and streln its starting point the broad deiinitlon oi \' II on limo Oil. 8 8f oet as ‘an hin su remel singing their own arias, like The Heroic :anhrryihicus iii satisiyiiig', y 0038". 0' falSlflli "'0 mill l" a "1888 Robertson’s are well-crafted works _, r I‘ “mm M 800nm" humanity. lllle whose colours (greys, blues, blacks) ' ‘ I / Tl"! Bllfld loadlflli “'0 Bllllll. all M and themes give them an immediate : ~ um“ llldllllill lll m8l0dmmall¢ local identity. Some bear the lniluence i Ian Hamilton Einlay’s poem on glass ‘Wind/Wind' — but is it art? 7 nosturlno. Fortunately. while such an oi wm hiacLean, which is no bad thing, i - over-the-top approach to at; the majority oi the event has a ; accessible through its local reierences f rewardlnli meanlnll- picture-making might threaten to merited individuality, Each part at 5 then Polesis at the Fruitmarket Gallery ' Thomas Clark’s work conslSls of "18 become ludicrous, Howson’s superb ‘hiaequeraues Triptych’ carries a i is correspondingly obscure, thanks in ; names ill some" lflSll llddle lunes skill in draughtsmanshlp and rhyming coupiet in Scots- aithcugh the : part to its pan-European nature and the } Willie" on {he Whlle walls of all here . compositional control usually prevents poet is not named, ‘Wie daith in the ee 5 uniamlllarlty oi the ideas on which ; room. The loumeY belilflfllnli WIllI 'Tlle i the whole aliairialllng into bathos. ma irinricir tee see (a hint at prey) node ; much oi the work is based. Help is at : Dawnlnli 0' lhe Dav' ends Wllll ‘Tlle I ll Currie tends towards the in the direction at Teri Hughes, 3 hand, however, in a series oi Saturday 1 Blazing Turi Fire’. A lament for a thing 5 Rembrantesoue in his humanitarian A eneii wind hiewe through 'rhe ; aitemoon tours which seek to explain ! culture. perhaps and a Clever % I approach, Howson, with all his careetahit' and "rhe Meumere' heth at 5 the background to the exhibition. These ’ SHOOBSllOII l0! 8 ‘lound' Doem- Bill NOW 3 ‘ swaggering bravura, is pure Rubens. which illustrate the tanning practice at l are illuminating even Ii the work i far can all 00 WWW!" “all. Wall and g All his stock characters, irom the hanging up dead crews to scare live 3 remains unconvincing. 3 leellnli'? lnlellecl. allIISlon and i praying down-and-outs to his ones, Such intense scrutiny Impfles i l-lamish Fulton’s work ‘ROCK FALL | cleverness are poor substitutes ior the i muscle-bound skinheads, would be at enticiem, or hewiidenheht, Even the ; ECHO DUST’ consists only oi these real thlnii. (Glles SUlheflaflll) ; home In any oi the great Flemish name; at the write are eiegaie and I words with a ilith line ‘A TWELVE AND A l
l beautiiully made boat-sculpture in a tour words may be the essential lelmerfiel Geller! uni" 19 Dec. 00'" } See Competitions page ior details oi her heme, distillation at such an experience — an ln Edlflbllflill- ; how to win this Howson etching. , it Douglas Robertson's work ie l intriguing puzzle ultimately revealing a
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56 The List 20 November— 3 December I992