VisualArt
■ FRUITMARKET GALLERY 45 Market Street, 225 2383. Mon–Sat 11am–6pm; Sun noon–5pm. FREE Dieter Roth: Diaries ●●●●● Until Sun 14 Oct. Exhibition of diaries by late great German-born, Iceland-based artist.
■ THE GALLERY ON THE CORNER 34 Northumberland Street, 557 8969. Tue–Sat 10.30am–6pm. FREE Journey and Postcards From . . . Fri 28 Sep–Sat 3 Nov. Two exhibitions relating to journeys and mental health. Part of Scottish Mental Health Arts & Film Festival. ■ INGLEBY GALLERY 15 Calton Road, 556 4441. Mon–Sat 10am–6pm ✽ FREE Ian Hamilton Finlay ●●●●● Until Sat 27 Oct. Work by the late great poet, artist and ‘avant- gardener’, including the recently rediscovered ‘Carrier Strike’, a naval battle enacted with irons, cotton wool and an ironing board.
■ INLINGUA EDINBURGH 40 Shandwick Place, 220 5119. FREE Hand Wash Only Until Fri 28 Sep, Mon–Thu 9am–8pm; Fri 9am–6pm. Black and white photographs taken around Europe by Spanish artists Óscar Bärbosa and Junke Cid. ■ THE INSTITUTE 14 Roseneath Street, 229 1338. Mon–Sat 10am–5.30pm; Sun noon–5pm. FREE naked touch Until Sun 14 Oct. Portraits of the naked human form, with photographer Gavin Evans’ hand in the frame, touching them.
■ INVERLEITH HOUSE Royal Botanic Garden, Arboretum Place/ Inverleith Row, 248 2971. Tue–Sun 10am–5.30pm. FREE Philip Guston: Late Paintings ●●●●● Until Sun 7 Oct. Shocking and hilarious cartoonish late work by former abstract expressionist.
■ JOSEPH PEARCE’S 23 Elm Row, 556 4140. Daily 11am– midnight. FREE Festival 2012 Mixed Exhibition Until Sun 30 Sep. Work by David Young, Aremy Stewart, Ronnie Buchan, Jacqui Higgs, Christine Morison and Dagmar Shilling, curated by Delicartessen.
■ KING’S HALL 41A South Clerk Street, 466 8660. FREE Open Glass Doors Sat 29 & Sun 30 Sep, 11am–5pm. Community arts and crafts exhibition. ■ LEITH GALLERY 65 The Shore, Leith, 553 5255. Mon–Fri 11am–5pm; Sat 11am–4pm FREE Robert Saunders Until Sat 29 Sep. Figurative paintings of women by Paisley-born artist.
■ NATIONAL MUSEUM OF SCOTLAND Chambers Street, 0300 123 6789. Daily 10am–5pm. Catherine the Great: An Enlightened Empress Until Wed 31 Oct. £9 (£7.50; under 16s £6; under 12s free). Exhibition showcasing the amazing collections of Catherine the Great. FREE One Thousand Points of Light: Melvin Moti Until Sun 21 Oct. New art inspired by vibrantly coloured items from the museum’s mineralogy department.
■ OLD AMBULANCE DEPOT 77 Brunswick Street, 558 5400. FREE Development Fri 21–Tue 25 Sep, 11am–5pm. Photography by Rob Davies exploring a liminal area between city and sea, full of stalled housing developments and dislocated communities. 116 THE LIST 20 Sep–18 Oct 2012
REVIEW PAINTING EXPANDING HORIZONS: GIOVANNI BATTISTA LUSIERI AND THE PANORAMIC LANDSCAPE Scottish National Gallery, Edinburgh, until Sun 28 Oct ●●●●●
Best remembered as the man who arranged the shipping of the Elgin Marbles in his position as artistic retainer to Thomas Bruce, Lord Elgin, this retrospective of Giovanni Battista Lusieri’s relatively little- remembered 18th and 19th century landscape painting career proves to be something of a revelation. As comprehensively and informatively curated as we might expect from a Scottish National Galleries show, it reflects both his interest in gorgeous sunlit Mediterranean panoramas and the ruined architecture of ancient Greek and Roman civilisation. Divided up by region, highlighting Lusieri’s time in Rome, Naples, Sicily and painting the Acropolis in Greece for Lord Elgin, the fully completed watercolours (his interest in using these instead of oils was a rarity for an Italian painter) shown here are often staggeringly detailed and expansive, displaying an intuitive and very finely-honed feel for the effects of light and shade, and a perfectionist’s eye for every tiny detail of an outdoor landscape. His study of the Bay of Naples is marvellous, the reflections in the water of the bay appearing pin-sharp and the sunlight dissolving into a white haze on the horizon.
In an ambitious triptych panorama of Rome and stunning moonlit evocations of Vesuvius’ eruptions of 1787 and 1794, we can picture a sensibility which would later come to be described as photorealist, a documentarian’s urge to represent all that they see. Ignore the incongruous figures lounging in each foreground, presumably for purposes of scale, and manage expectations as many barely-realised pencil sketches dominate in later rooms – just enjoy the view. (David Pollock)
■ OLD ST PAUL’S CHURCH 39 Jeffrey Street, 556 3332. Black Cube Collective Launch Sat 6 Oct, 7–11pm. £5. See Art’s Complex, Edinburgh. One-night exhibition event with live music. ■ OPEN EYE GALLERY 34 Abercromby Place, 557 1020. Mon– Fri 10am–6pm; Sat 10am–4pm. FREE Colin Black Until Tue 25 Sep. Mixed media collage landscapes and seascapes by the Leith School of Art tutor. FREE Judith Rowe Until Tue 25 Sep. Functional and decorative ceramics. FREE Kym Needle Until Tue 25 Sep. Bold and colourful paintings inspired by the artist’s travels through the Australian landscape. FREE Picasso, his Contemporaries and Modern British Printmaking Until Sat 22 Sep. Prints by Picasso and his contemporaries. FREE David Martin Mon 1–Tue 16 Oct. Paintings, drawings and mixed media documenting the travels of an
artist who has roamed across Europe, the Middle East and Africa. FREE Mark I’Anson Mon 1–Tue 16 Oct. New works by Gray’s School of Art alumnus I’Anson.
■ OUT OF THE BLUE DRILL HALL 30–36 Dalmeny Street, Leith, 555 7101. Mon–Sat 10am–5pm. FREE Walk on the Wild Side Wed 10–Sat 13 Oct. An interactive visual arts exhibition exploring the ups and downs of living with a mental health issue, brought to you by The Alma Project. ■ THE PHOENIX 46–48a Broughton Street, 557 0234. Mon–Sat 9am–1am; Sun 12.30pm–1am FREE Despair vs Hope Until Wed 31 Oct. Figurative and abstract paintings by Tom Neil.
£6 (£5.50; under 17s £3; under 5s free; family £15.50). A special Jubilee exhibition of seldom-seen pieces from the royal collection. ■ ROYAL SCOTTISH ACADEMY The Mound, 225 6671. Mon–Sat 10am–5pm; Sun noon–5pm. FREE Of Natural & Mystical Things Until Sun 4 Nov. Work by RSA Members and winners of RSA awards, including Ian Howard, Ashley Nieuwenhuizen, Rebecca Cusworth and Bridget Steed.
■ SCOTLAND-RUSSIA INSTITUTE 9 South College St, 668 3635. Tue–Fri 11am–4pm; Sat 1.30–4pm. FREE Soviet Grand Designs ●●●●● Until Sat 22 Sep. Drawings and paintings of the post-Stalin USSR.
■ THE QUEEN’S GALLERY Palace of Holyroodhouse, 556 5100. Daily 9.30am–6pm. Treasures from the Queen’s Palaces ●●●●● Until Sun 4 Nov. ■ THE SCOTTISH GALLERY 16 Dundas Street, 558 1200. Mon–Fri 10am–6pm; Sat 10am–4pm FREE Alison McGill: Shifting Seasons Until Wed 3 Oct. Paintings