VisualArt
REVIEW WORKS ON PAPER ALASDAIR GRAY: CITY RECORDER Gallery of Modern Art, Glasgow, until Mon 13 Aug ●●●●●
For one year in 1977, at a time when many of Glasgow’s famous old industries were closing, Alasdair Gray was commissioned to capture the life of the city in ink, watercolour, acrylic and oil on paper. Glasgow’s local history museum, the People’s Palace, approached him to become the city’s modern Artist Recorder, and he spent a year drawing the streets and its people – focusing on what was about to be changed or demolished; folk in politics and the arts; private members of the general public; and interiors of work places with the workers. These meticulously drawn cityscapes include Templeton’s Carpet Factory on London Road with local women factory workers’ faces superimposed on the paper – thin and see-through as if disappearing from history. The factory closed soon after. There are portraits of union leader Jimmy Reid; Tom McGrath at the Third Eye Centre (now CCA); poets, the full time unemployed, young folk, old folk, priests, journalists, and hairdressers. These portraits show Gray’s exceptional skill of not only capturing their physical bodies, but also the lines that write history on people’s faces. (Talitha Kotzé)
REVIEW PAINTING ALISON WATT: HIDING IN FULL VIEW Ingleby Gallery, Edinburgh, until Sat 28 Jan ●●●●●
‘All rooms will hide you, if you stand just so – ghosts know this, that’s really all they know,’ declares one of the poems by Don Paterson (a credited collaborator in this show), which are printed in fluid lower case type just below eye level on the walls. Hung discreetly among the poems and the featured works, three small but haunting photographs by a third contributor illustrate these words perfectly. Alison Watt’s stated desire to reflect upon the object-as-portraiture method of Francesca Woodman is compelling, but it’s a brave move to show her own work alongside Woodman’s and invite comparison. In truth, Watt’s paintings and prints are most pleasing if the viewer tries to
disassociate them from this referential context. The majority are large oil works, the smoothly flowing contours of white paint upon their surface echoing the pleasing texture of silk, and their patterns recall close-up views of folded and billowing fabrics. The dark spaces, which appear naturally within these folds, hint at a tantalising feminine sexuality, although set against the visual depths of Woodman’s work they can’t help but come off second best. Perhaps Paterson had it best when he wrote: ‘what we show when we disclose, undress – is both the promise and its emptiness.’ (David Pollock)
106 THE LIST 5 Jan–2 Feb 2012
REVIEW PAINTING ANDREW KERR: SO ENSCONCED Inverleith House, Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh, until Sun 22 Jan ●●●●●
Absence makes the heart grow fonder in Andrew Kerr’s first major solo show in Scotland. Almost 70 new paintings discreetly dominate both floors, only interrupted by the odd smattering of drawings or sculptural intervention. Most of the mainly sketchbook-sized works are urgent Zen abstractions awash with counterpointing colours that swoosh into vivid life as if racing to catch a moment before it disappears. Some look like splodged-in blueprints for flags of imaginary countries. Others
are rich with implied veldts and blurred deltas, a jungle drum soundtrack the only thing missing along with the blank corners where the works were pinned down while being made. Occasionally more tangible shapes squint through the heat- haze; an alligator here; a motor in motion there.
The nails embedded in a small arc of wood give it a sad-eyed cartoonish feel. The bone-like structure dividing the room turns out to be made of paper. A wall of exercise book doodles features pencilled-in dreamers in black-and-white repose. Kerr’s best dreams, however, come in colours only the most haunting of sense memories can conjure up. (Neil Cooper)