EVERGREEN Inverleith House. Edinburgh, until Sun 3 Jul 0...
Evergreen seeks to illuminate the strange dialectic between science and art. It unites 18 artists who have exhibited in solo shows at the gallery in the past 19 years, and is a fitting moniker for an exhibition highlighting Inverleith House‘s endeavours in this time to bring important international artists to Edinburgh.
The breadth of work here is considerable: the earliest, made in 1772, are observational drawings of Sycamore shoots subjected to all manner of experimentation in the name of science. The most recent is yet to exist: it’s a permanent wall drawing by Richard Wright to begin during the show. Entering, Douglas Gordon's wall text greets you: ‘I believe in miracles', and walking into the first gallery you find Callum lnnes’ ‘Exposed Painting Vine Black’, a canvas of velvet pigment quietly commanding the space as the light transforms it again and again.
The ground floor offers an opportunity to see JH Balfour‘s brilliant botanical diagrams, rescued from a bonfire in the 19605. A pencil wall drawing
Death of a Hart in Glen Tilt
silver Ribbon by Carl Andre (foreground) with Untitled No 5 by Agnes Martin
by Alan Johnston subtly redefines the second gallery space, while with a stunning command of line and form, drawings and sculpture by Ruth Vollmer distil the essence of natural forms.
Upstairs, Douglas Gordon still believes in miracles, but things begin to unbalance with a room of Franz West’s tongue in cheek collages and sculptures. After this, the perfection of Carl Andre’s ‘Silver Ribbon’ placed on the floor a few feet from a large painting by the late, great Agnes Martin (to whom the exhibition is dedicated) is almost too much - the silver spiral echoes exactly the bands of steel grey and white spanning the canvas.
Having been mesmerised by Adam Barker Milll’s extraordinary light projection I stumble down to the basement - passing Gordon’s third instalment, ‘I still believe in still’, rendered white on white - which feels quite different in tone — a slightly unnecessary and disappointing adjunct to the show. But then this exhibition isn’t perfect and that is one of the reasons it is so wonderful. Art and science at first seem two disparate spheres but both are human constructions, often flawed, but aspiring to and occasionally, as with many works within Evergreen, achieving greatness. (Caroline Broadhurst)
PAINTING
Visual Art
PHOTOGRAPHY
NEW ACQUISITIONS OF PHOTOGRAPHY
National Portrait Gallery, Edinburgh, Fri 20 May—Sun 11 Sep
The bounty A selection of anthropological photographs from China and other international locations. recently aegiiired by the Scottish National Photography Collection.
The snapper Sir James Stewart Lockhart (1858-1937). Confucian scholar and high-ranking colonial officer to Hong Kong and China for more than four decades. He was very much anti- colonialism and pro the Chinese way of life. and his extensive collection of art and doCumentation from pre-Cultural Revolution China — including 500 paintings and 4000 photographs — were donated by his daughter to Seerge Watson's College. his alma mater. The college has in turn loaned the pieces out. with the Scottish National Photographic Collection receiving the photographs.
In focus Lockhart took the photographs on his travels. and there's also a selection taken by Chinese photographers of his acquaintance. Also included are shots by Lockhart's protOge Reginald Johnston. who succeeded Lockhart as commissioner of the proVince of Weihaiwei in Northern China. and was also tutor to China's final emperor, Puyi. It was his time in this post that gave him a unique vantage point to document the last days of Imperial China. and also inspired Bernardo Bertolucci's 1987 film The Last Emperor.
Wide angle The show will also feature photographs of Dundee dating to the end of the 10th century, images of Skye by mountaineer GP Abraham. and documentary works from Vienna. London. Scotland and Wales by Edith Tudor-Hart. alongside photographs by David Julian Leonard. Paul Kenny and Robert Terras. (David Pollocki
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MONARCH OF THE GLEN: LANDSEER IN THE HIGHLANDS National Gallery of Scotland, Edinburgh, until Sun 10 Jul 00.
Given that this is the first exhibition .'l‘()tllll(}(l in Scotland devoting itself entirely to the work of Sir Edwin Landseer. and that the most singularly praised aspect of his y'rork was an accurate and characterful depiction of Highland ‘.-.'ildli?'e. it's highly likeiy that the RSA building is playing host to yet another COII‘II‘OFCIZII winner.
Yet for all the evocative. technically marvellous character that Landseer's work undoubtedly displays — take Monarch of the Glen itself; the (llélll‘itIIC regality cf the titular deer caught in near-photorealistic detail - there is an underlying ty-reeness that :s of the tartan brand of Scottish culture.
Landseer was. after all. referred to as ‘the cleverest artist there is' by Queen Victora and (IOII‘II‘ISSIOlleI to catalogue royal eprOits around Baliitoi'al. l>redictable iiiiages of the Highland populace as stoic labourers. yiv'g-rtai n‘adecs aid the worry line-etche(;I SUDJIVOFS of 'Flood in the Highlands' or "Rent Day in the Wilderness should come as no surprise. then. These latter tyne :'i‘ages \.'.'ere a: least created after Landseer's midlife breakdown in 19-10. lend iig then‘ a more fraught edge than many of his more comfortable earlier works.
But the environment Landseer's work was created in really (?()ll‘(?:§ to He and breathes when it's entirely unfettered by human inteiyention. l ike 'Eyening Scene il‘ the Highlands ilit from above to accentuate its golden ll'il'ltltl'lilyl or the rough lochside diptych of "The Sanctuary and Coming Eyents Cast “If?” Sliadov. Before 'lhem', the works prove themselyes by firing native Illlélgll‘tlllOl‘iS every bit as ll‘tltTll as the tourists idyll. iDaVid Pollockt
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'..‘ 1’13 Max L’ililf» THE LIST 105