Visual Art David Hockney, ‘Rocky Mountains and Tired Indians’
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‘WE DO A LOT OF SINGING AND DANCING ABOUT OUR COLLECTIONS’ Hitlist THE BEST EXHIBITIONS *
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✽✽ Modernista: Gaudi and his Contemporaries in Modern Day Barcelona As part of the Glasgow School of Art’s centenary celebrations, Michael Thomas Jones created this photographic essay of Barcelona’s Modernista buildings by Gaudi, and his contemporaries. See feature, page 30. The Lighthouse, Glasgow, until Sun 28 Feb. ✽✽ Torsten Lauschmann: The Darker Ages The Glasgow artist’s body of work conjures up a vivid, magical cinematic experience. Mary Mary, Glasgow, until Sat 21 Nov. ✽✽ Running Time Last chance to catch this exhibition of artist films drawn from the National Galleries of Scotland archives, which rotates between themes every week. Dean Gallery, Edinburgh, until Sun 22 Nov. ✽✽ Anna Sikorska: Exchange & Harbour The London-based artist explores the sculptural values and worth of both large and small objects. See review, page 89. Corn Exchange Gallery, Edinburgh, until Thu 17 Dec. ✽✽ The End of the Line: Attitudes in Drawing This major touring exhibition assesses the importance of line drawing. See review, page 90. Fruitmarket Gallery, Edinburgh, until Sun 10 Jan. ✽✽ Luke Fowler: A Grammar for Listening New work from the Glasgow- based artist. See review, page 89. The Modern Institute, Glasgow, until Sun 30 Jan. ✽✽ What You See is Where You’re At Exhibition launching a complete re-hang of the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art and a year of celebrations to mark its 50th anniversary. See preview, left. Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh, Sat 28 Nov–Sun 28 Feb.
Modern romance A new exhibition launches a year of celebrations to mark the 50th anniversary of the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, as Neil Cooper discovers
It’s fitting that the title of What You See is Where You’re At, the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art’s 50th anniversary reinvention of its spaces, is taken from Glasgow-based artist Luke Fowler’s archive film collage inspired by controversial anti-psychiatrist and counter-cultural guru R.D. Laing. By blasting back to its own iconic past, from shock-of-the-new surrealism to post- sensation-seeking conceptualism, it embraces the here and now while also giving a sagely beatific nod to the future.
‘We were thinking about what would give the best sense of and have the most impact for our 50th anniversary,’ explains Simon Groom, director of modern and contemporary art for the National Galleries of Scotland. ‘One of our greatest assets is our collection, and we do a lot of singing and dancing about our exhibitions, but maybe we don’t shout about our collection enough.’ What You See is Where You’re At will feature a rolling programme that fast-tracks its way through 100 years of historicised contemporaneity. As it compares and contrasts the use of colour in turn-of- the-20th-century painting against that used in 1960s pop and op art or else cuts and pastes collage into a room of its own, the effect resembles a vivid carousel of images seen on a grand scale, with something different on show at every visit. As dots are joined from Picasso to Braque to Bacon, Beuys and beyond, an opaquely mapped lineage gradually emerges.
‘Objects have a natural life,’ says Groom, ‘and they change as they respond to the company they keep. To go through our stores and reveal all of these
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wonderful things has been extraordinary, especially when you look at someone like [minimalist] Dan Flavin’s work. A lot of people think they don’t know it, but by the time you’ve been on a journey through all the other rooms, you realise why it’s there.’
The modern art gallery opened in 1960, and was originally housed in Inverleith House in Edinburgh’s Royal Botanical Gardens. It moved to its new premises in 1980, extending to the neighbouring Dean Gallery some years later.
‘As the collection grows we’ll always need more spaces,’ says Groom, ‘but what we’re focusing on is working more intelligently and more collaboratively, lending out work to other galleries, and flying the flag for the best collection outside the Tate.’ Crucially, What You See is Where You’re At will also include works by major Scottish artists who have emerged over the last decade, including Martin Boyce and Nathan Coley. And squaring the circle of SNGoMA’s significance in the current wave of homegrown activity gone global will be two rooms curated by Douglas Gordon.
‘These are major contemporary artists who were influenced by what they saw here,’ Groom points out, ‘so it’s part of an ongoing process that they’re given space to influence others. That’s part of trying to work out what the next 50 years will bring as much as what the last 50 already have. The important thing with all of that is to make the work live.’
What You See is Where You’re At, Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh, Sat 28 Nov–Sun 28 Feb.