Galleries - May 2016

MAY 2016 GALLERIES 45 co^kh=pq^kqlk ^ obqolpmb`qfsb MQ íç OV j~ó=OMNS qìÉ=J=p~í=NN~ã=íç=Séã= pìå NO íç Réã bñÜáÄáíáåÖ ~ ëÉäÉÅíáçå çÑ ïçêâ ÅêÉ~íÉÇ=çîÉê=TM=óÉ~êë qeb jfiifkbov=tlohp iqa URLUT plrqed^qb=ol^aI=fpifkdqlk ilkalk kN Pgp qbiW MOM TPRV OMNV c^uW=MOM=TPRV=RTVO bã~áäW ~êí]ãáääáåÉêóïçêâëKÅçKìâ ïïïKãáääáåÉêóïçêâëKÅçKìâ Harman, Kenny Hunter, Georgia Horgan and Jonathan Owen, together with specially commissioned new works from the duo Beagles and Ramsey and from Shona Macnaughton. Runningconcurrently with the exhibition is a programme of related films at the Edinburgh Filmhouse. Ralph Hughes At first I thought that the curators of ‘The Scottish Endarkenment – 1945 to the Present’ ( Dovecot Gallery 13 May to 29 August), Bill Hare and Andrew Patrizio, had coined a neologism with ‘Endarkenment’ but apparently, there is an archaic verb ‘endarken’, which makes the exhibition title somehow even more adroit. This thematic show should prompt us to revisit the idea of the Scottish Enlightenment and consider its relevance to post 1945 Scottish art. We might celebrate the Age of Reason and debate its role as a cultural paradigm but it is, surely, the antonym of Enlightenment that is artistically engaging. What would an exhibition concerned with the Scottish Enlightenment from 1945 to the present be like? Dr Jekyll without Mr Hyde? The devil does have the best tunes just as the best art of the 18th century did not illustrate the Enlightenment, but instead thrilled by revealing its opposite. 18th century thinkers regarded reason as the best guide to action because often its absence, as Goya famously etched it, brought forth monsters. The contemporary monsters that are to be faced in ‘The Scottish Endarkenment’ - in approaches ranging from painting to performance - are of many species: conflict, inequality, materialism, sexual identities and prejudices and more. The artists represented include some of the best known in Scottish art - Alan Davie, Joan Eardley, Eduardo Paolozzi, Ian Hamilton Finlay, Boyle family, John Bellany, Joyce Cairns, Steven Campbell, Alison Watt, Douglas Gordon, Christine Borland and David Shrigley, along with younger and contemporary artists like Katie Paterson, Kevin CODA Jock McFadyen ‘Calton Hill’ 2014, oil on canvas