Visual Art
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Shock of the old
As an exhibition celebrating the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art’s 50th anniversary opens, Neil Cooper delves into the institution’s colourful history
As labours of love go, setting up the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art in Edinburgh is one that has borne considerable fruit. On the eve of the ever-expanding complex’s 50th anniversary, the gallery is laying bare its own hidden history to a generation that may take the leafy splendour of its Belford Road home for granted.
The Scottish Modern Art Association was formed in 1907 following the previous year’s National Galleries of Scotland Bill, which was designed to restructure public art provision in the capital. If things had gone according to plan, the modern art gallery the association so craved – but which the bill did not envisage – might have ended up on the site of what’s now an upmarket bathroom emporium in York Place. ‘It was a site opposite the Scottish National Portrait Gallery,’ Anne Simpson, senior curator of the gallery’s archive and library reveals. ‘The plan was to knock down the office buildings occupied by the civil service, and to build a Bauhaus-inspired complex with education-based rooms and somewhere you could show films. It was essentially a blueprint for an arts centre, and the idea was so very much like how the ICA in London turned out in its early days.’
Such anecdotal pearls have been collected by PhD student Anne Galastro, whose research forms the basis of the exhibition, The Gallery of Modern Art: a History, which she co-curates with Simpson, and which sees in the new year at the Dean Gallery. A scale model of the proposed construction takes pride of place timely acknowledgement of the gallery’s ambitious vision. in a self-reflexive but
The plans for the centre had been drawn up by architect Alan Reiach after being commissioned by Stanley Cursiter, director of the National Gallery from 1929–1948. It was Cursiter more than anyone who lobbied for a national modern art institution. Finally, however, civil service bureaucracy got the better of the would-be revolutionary rebuild when its long promised move to St Andrew’s House was filed away for good. Only then did Cursiter’s successors accept the offer of Inverleith House in the Royal Botanic Gardens as a temporary home. This gallery was opened to the public in 1960.
It was another 16 years before the SNGoMA was offered the larger premises of the former John Watson’s House it occupies today. By this time the contemporary art world had been turned upside down several times over, and the walls of Inverleith House were bulging fit to burst. Following a large-scale conversion, the gallery as we now know it finally opened its doors in 1984, expanding into the neighbouring Dean Gallery in 1999. ‘We were the first gallery to think about having a collection of specifically modern art,’ Simpson says. ‘That was before the Tate. We were really forward thinking, but unfortunately, in terms of getting there, we were pushing stones up hills for quite some time. Even today we still attract criticism, because we’re continually pushing boundaries, which is what we should be doing.’
The Gallery of Modern Art: a History, Dean Gallery, Edinburgh, Sat 9 Jan–Wed 14 Apr.
✽✽ The End of the Line: Attitudes in Drawing Last chance to catch this fascinating exhibition of line drawing work by contemporary artists. Fruitmarket Gallery, Edinburgh, until Sun 10 Jan. ✽✽ Votive Must-see group show exploring the notion of the object as event, with a contribution from this year’s Turner Prize winner, Glasgow- based artist Richard Wright. See review, page 96. CCA, Glasgow, until Sat 30 Jan. ✽✽ Colin Gray: In Sickness and in Health The culmination of the artist’s series, The Parents, is a moving chronicle of his mother and father’s final years. Street Level Photo Works, Glasgow, until Sat 23 Jan. ✽✽ Siobhàn Hapaska: The Nose that Lost its Dog Three impressive sculptural works created by the artist during a recent residency. Glasgow Sculpture Studios, until Sat 30 Jan. ✽✽ Karla Black: Sculptures Black’s new work created from everyday materials reveals an artist at the height of her powers. Inverleith House, Edinburgh, until Tue 9 Feb. ✽✽ BP Portrait Award 2009 The return of the popular showcase of contemporary portrait paintings. Reviewed next issue. Dean Gallery, Edinburgh, until Sun 21 Feb. ✽✽ What You See is Where You’re At Works reflecting the range and richness of the Modern Art Gallery’s collection. Reviewed next issue. Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, until Sun 28 Feb. ✽✽ The Modern Art Gallery: a History As the SNGoMA celebrates its half century the Dean hosts this exhibition outlining the gallery’s development. See preview, left. Dean Gallery, Edinburgh, Sat 9 Jan–Wed 14 Apr. 17 Dec 2009–7 Jan 2010 THE LIST 95