‘ART NEED NOT BE LIKE A COMFY CHAIR, AS MATISSE PRESCRIBED'
Alexander Kennedy looks at the alternative trend for INTROSPECTIVE ART that
shuns the bright lights.
he idea of ‘serious art’ always turns people off — isn‘t it already serious enough? Images
generated out of the anal adventures of
bookish artists who have lost their aesthetic sensibility flood one’s mind. An artist’s mother complained at a recent opening that there were ‘too many colours'. and it‘s hard to disagree: eye vomit drips off the sculptures and paintings that furnish the best galleries. In an age of extremes art too is extreme. but a dialectical trend is always present underneath the Technicolor variety that grabs your attention and then says very little.
Within Glasgow and lidinburgh the art world is
moving away from the inane celebration of
superficialin and the YBA‘s IS year-long romance with big budget ego-art. towards something quieter yet essentially more generous. Art need not be like a comfy chair. as Matisse prescribed. but neither does it have it be like a series of expensive adverts hurtling through your deadened head. as Saatchi preferred. High art has to appeal to the viewers it so desperately relies on. although it does not have to give them exactly what they expect or want. This is art's greatest strength — its apparent autonomy.
In the Scottish pavilion at this year's Venice Biennale. the move away from pop-infused ‘high art lite' to a more substantial expression could be felt. Both bases were covered. but this year‘s exhibitors — especially Alex Pollard and (‘athy Wilkes — presented quietly confident work that shunned glitz. and bombast. Their work will be on show with Tatham and ()‘Sullivan from Wednesday 7
December at the Scottish National Gallery of
Modern Art. but you don‘t need to wait that long to
see other examples of this trend for the unashamedly cerebral yet gutsy.
Jane Topping‘s recent show at Glasgow's (loMA. elegantly gestured in the right direction. and the subtly brilliant erased works on paper in the Fruitmarket in lidinburgh by Louise Hopkins buck the fashion for showing off. Karla Black. one of the artists exhibiting at the (‘(‘A's Like it il/Iutters. also lets her work quietly speak for itself. not paying lip service to roaring one-liner art. And Laurence liiggis' recent exhibition of drawings at Transmission and his
current show at Mary Mary are further evidence of
this increasingly introspective and poised art. Jenny Hogarth and Kim (‘oleman‘s performance. Raiding the It'd/NM in the (ieorgian Gallery at the Talbot Rice. also questioned the current rage for shiny and sickly slick ad-man art. with paper. light and bodies overlapping and only temporarily leaving fleeting traces on walls. sheets and each other.
You have to take your time over these works: they don‘t give themselves away quickly or sell themselves short. Delayed gratification has always been the cornerstone of aesthetic experience. reflection rather than instant satisfaction being generally more rewarding. No. art need not be like an armchair or a shot in the arm: the mind can engage even when the eyes are not out on cartoon stalks.
Laurence Figgis and William Homer, Mary Mary, Glasgow, until Fri 4 Nov; Louise Hopkins: Freedom of Information, Fruitmarket Gallery, Edinburgh, until Sun 1 1 Dec; Selective Memory: Venice Biennale, National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh, Wed 7 Dec — Sun 5 March
Visual Art
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THE BESTEXHIBITIONS
* In Between Times New work by Glasgow and Edinburgh based Rob Kennedy (pictured), Lucy Skaer, Rosalind Nashasibi with Kader Attia and Fabien Verschaere (Lyon) fills the hanger-like space at Tramway. Video installations. sculptures, sprawling drawings and notes—to-self temporarily claim Gallery 2. See review page 92. Tramway, Glasgow, until Sun 20 Nov
* New Work Scotland Programme, 14 Recent graduates Neil Clements and Alberta Whittle have won the prestigious annual prize of exhibition space in the Collective. Clement’s work explores images and narratives culled from the Goth sub- culture that burnt down a church in Fantoft. Norway. Whittle examines ‘otherness‘: madness. races and ‘the dark continent' of female sexuality through drawings. films and installation. See review page 92. Collective Gallery, Edinburgh, until Sat 19 Nov
* Louise Hopkins - Freedom of Information Hopkins brings together work from the past ten years, creating elaborate but unprepossessing canvases. Works on paper — repainted and obliterated maps and musical scores — fill the lower gallery. and slowly win over the viewer. Fruitmarket Gallery, Edinburgh, until Sun 17 Dec. * Prisms and Shadows Toby Paterson in the role of artist as curator. brings together 12 international artists whose work calmly explores form, line. colour and space through Modernist means. Traces of Paterson’s aesthetic are fragmented through the work of the artists selected. Glasgow Print Studios, Glasgow, until Sat 21 Nov.
It If Nov 7005) THE LIST 91