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VisUal Art
www.1ist.co.uklvisualart
Viva Espafia
‘WE ARE CELEBRATING THE BRITISH LINK WITH SPAIN'
Arthur Melville, ‘A Mediterraneanfiort’
The National Galleries' summer exhibition celebrates Spanish culture as seen through the eyes of British artists. Neil Cooper dons his sombrero
sun, sea and sangria of the 19705 and having it
large in Ibiza in the 908. Yet, the pop cultural memorabilia of both eras remains in the bullfighting posters and maracas many brought home as jet-age international travel trickled down the class scale.
Those who discovered Spain over the previous couple of centuries, however, found far richer pickings, as the National Gallery of Scotland’s summer exhibition attests. Taking as its starting point the ways in which British artists responded to Spain between 1800-1930, it sets examples of their work alongside works by home-grown maestros. The result, book-ended by the two major conflicts of the Peninsular war of 1807-14 and the Spanish Civil War, is a rich and dramatic encapsulation of the Anglo- Spanish experience.
‘We are celebrating the British link with Spain,’ explains deputy director of the National Galleries, Christopher Baker. ‘When you think about Spain today, you think of it as a holiday resort. But that’s a very recent development. If you go back further than a century you think of a country that was in the midst of change. We’re telling the story of that change.’
Much of Britain’s initial experience of Spain arose from the two countries’ common enemy of Napoleon and the Duke of Wellington’s key role in expelling the occupying French from Spanish soil. The very different responses of artists from each nation to this liberation, though, are telling.
‘The British response to Spain was a hugely edited one,’ Baker points out. ‘Most British artists became
Spanish holidays have come a long way from the
entranced by Alhambra and the great cathedrals of Seville. So, while Goya painted the Duke of Wellington exhausted after battle, and doesn’t shy away from any of the ravages of war, 20 years later, Sir David Wilkie (in ‘The Defence of Saragossa’) puts a very positive spin on things.’
It is for this reason, perhaps, that works by El Greco, Velazquez, Murillo and Zurbaren form the centrepiece of a show counterpointed by major British artists such as Wilkie, David Roberts and David Bromberg. Richard Ford’s pioneering travel guide, Handbook for Travellers in Spain, meanwhile, offered up an influential cultural tourist’s view of Spain on its publication in 1845. The most powerful piece in the exhibition, though, is Picasso’s ‘Weeping Woman’, a harrowing depiction of the Spanish Civil War that originally toured Britain in 1938 alongside the more famous ‘Guemica’. A preparatory drawing and associated etching by Picasso will hang alongside British responses to the war by Wyndham Lewis, Henry Moore and Edward Burra.
‘1 think it shows how you shouldn’t rely on cliche’s.’ Baker says of the contrasting worldviews. ‘When one country looks at another, the relationship between the insider and outsider views become very interesting. But to fully understand that relationship, you have to get beyond the clichés.’
The Discovery of Spain - British Artists and Collectors: Goya to Picasso,
National Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh, Sat 18 Jul-Sun 11 Oct.
THE BEST EXHlBlTIONS
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=i< Ian Hamilton Finlay Wonderful retrospective of architecture. sculpture and paintings, which delve into the late Edinburgh artist's considered use of mark making and symbolism. See review, page 88 and Big Picture. page 9. lng/eby Gallery. Edinburgh, until Sat 25 Jul.
=i< Heavy Metal Mouth Large group show examining the relationships between heavy metal culture and fine art. Featuring the likes of Duncan Marquiss. Neil Clements and Rachel Maclean. See picture caption, page 90. 24—26 Torpichen Street, Edinburgh, until Sun 72 Jul.
:i: I Am a Camera A vivid cross-legged. mind-altering, image-induced hallucinogenic trip of an exhibition, featuring film work by Len Lye, John Latham, Steina 8 Woody Vasulka. Craig Mulholland. Katy Dove and Kate Davies. See review, page 88. Sorcha Dallas, Glasgow, until Fri 17 Jul.
=i< Edvard Munch: Prints A fine collection of woodcuts, lithographs and etchings by the tortured Norwegian artist. on loan from the Munch Museum in Oslo. Hunterian Art Gallery, Glasgow, until Sat 5 Sep.
* Paul 8. Nusch Eluard and Surrealism Display of works from the collection of Paul Eluard. which traces the surrealist poet and painter’s relationship with his wife and muse Nush. Dean Gallery, Edinburgh, until Sun 27 Sep.
=i< The Discovery ot Spaln - British Artists and Collectors: Goya to Picasso Major exhibition exploring the relationship between Spanish innovators and the British artists they influenced. See preview, left. National Galleries, Edinburgh, Sat 18 Jul—Sun 17 Oct.
9—23 Jul 2009 THE ”81' 87