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CHRISTINE BORLAND ON JASON E BOWMAN ON
IAN HAMILTON FINLAY’S CLAY THE LIFE (1987) ‘Clay the Life’ (1987) by Ian Hamilton Finlay is the perfect artwork, perfectly placed. The hulking chunk of white marble is hung l ush to the red sandstone wall above one of Kelvingrove’s grand stairwells. At the time of the museum’s opening in 1901 (as part of the Glasgow International Exhibition), this would have led up from a central hall, i lled with i gurative plaster and marble sculptures. Engraved with the text in the artist’s characteristic typeface, the sculpture elegantly conveys a complex truth about the history of materials in art and the art of materials in history. Christine Borland: I Say Nothing will be unveiled at Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum, Glasgow, Thu 11 Oct. This is a new commission from 14–18 NOW and Glasgow Museums, supported by the Art Fund. KEITH HENDERSON’S WOMEN SINGING AT A TABLE (WAULKING THE CLOTH) Keith Henderson was a Scottish artist, illustrator and writer, and a war artist in both world wars. ‘Women Singing at a Table (Waulking the Cloth)’ is in the collection of the University of Edinburgh, its title alluding to the depicted complexities of the interface between sociality and work. Sat at a long table in two rows opposite each other, a total of 12 women are labouring. Eyes closed, mouths open in near-smile, they are uniform in age, dress, character and task. In the distance, four men, apparently younger, look on. Jason E Bowman is an artist and works at the Valand Academy, University of Gothenburg. He is developing a new commission with GoMA, Glasgow, for December 2018.
SAM AINSLEY ON JD FERGUSSON’S LES EUS (C 1913) In the 1980s I began teaching at GSA and was entranced by the new and astonishing works of the young artists who were my students. Nevertheless, I still remember the impact of the Scottish Colourists on my own work, in particular JD Fergusson. I i rst saw ‘Les Eus’ (the healthy ones) at The Hunterian Art Gallery when I moved to Scotland in the 70s and loved its exuberance and colour. Later I discovered his relationship to Margaret Morris whose dancers clearly inl uenced his work. This painting was certainly an inl uence on the ‘Warrior Women’ in my exhibition Why I Choose Red at the Third Eye Centre (now CCA) and the banner I produced for the exterior of The Vigorous Imagination exhibition at the Scottish National Gallery in 1986. Sam Ainsley will be showing works in Academicians V at Glasgow Print Studio, between Sat 17 Nov–Jan 2019.
ALEXANDER MOFFAT ON JD FERGUSSON’S LES EUS (C 1913) JD Fergusson’s largest painting ‘Les Eus’ is a long-time favourite. Painted in Paris in 1913 after Fergusson and Peploe had witnessed a Ballets Russes performance of Stravinsky’s Le Sacre du Printemps, ‘Les Eus’ presents a vision of a Celtic arcadia where women are the agents of creative energy and surely echo’s Matisse’s statement that ‘dance is an extraordinary thing: life and rhythm’. Unseen in Scotland until Fergusson’s death in 1961, it can now be properly regarded as the i rst great modernist masterwork of Scottish art. Bill Hare’s Facing the Nation: The Portraiture of Alexander Moffat was published earlier this year by Luath Press.
122 THE LIST 1 Apr–31 May 2018
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