EDINBURGH FESTIVAL: Highlights

MUST SEE HIGHLIGHTS 

British REALIST Painting in the 1920s & 30s, GMA 2. 
Congratulations to Patrick Elliott who put this show together, with a proper catalogue, well labelled, explained and above all something new to see. The show has not been on since April, is not a re-hash, not misleading. You may not love all the work, indeed you may hate some, but there is plenty to look at, admire, think about. Enough here to recommend a visit. 

Brockhurst 1939 

 Brockhurst epitomised the brushless, hard-edged, tight, polished realist style with its intense detail, scrutiny & accurate, wonderful draughtsmanship. 

 James Cowie, one of 8 Scots here all superb. 4 Glasgow trained. 

Cowie's 2nd wife Alice

Meredith Frampton, detail,  1928 

There are 93 works by 58 artists, many unknowns, only 9 women, (who could not vote.)  Most painters were born at end of Victorian era or on the turn into the 20th century. All endured the First World War. 

The wonderful James McIntosh Patrick 1907-1998 was famously from Dundee where he lived, taught, and painted.

Stobo kirk 1939 by Partick

SNPG  has a good cross section of historical HILL Adamson 1840s photos, a great opportunity to see a range of famous, pioneering work.  

DOUGLAS GORDON's conceptual piece, BLACK BURNS, is problematic for some but worth examining. Here lies their hero: shattered, riven, fallen, almost destroyed. Not just an imperfect man, human, with feet of clay - but a man divided.   

Director Christopher Baker arrived 5 yrs ago, when all the restoration/re-building/mess had been project managed by the former director James Holloway. Baker has got all the fun of commissioning new portraits for the collection ... ... 

MORANDI at Ingleby Gallery. - Only 2 pix to see here  but both stunning. 1 characteristic Morandi still life & a huge Hugonin oil.  For 30 years James Hugonin has made just one painting a year, always following a structure of thousands of small marks of various colour on a grid,  Subtle, understated, elegant. He works from a notebook, almost like a musical score. Here he echoes the tones of grey in the Morandi pix

Tony PATERSON   - and the bag! 

Josef KOUDELKA'S landscape photographs at the SIGNET LIBRARY.   Special. In an elegant Georgian setting. Till 27th August. 

I will address the disappointments later. 

Meanwhile more pix to enjoy from GMA 2