Reviews & features: Edinburgh Art Festival
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Susan Philipsz, Kevin Harman and Anthony Schrag take art to the streets
28 Jul 2012
The artists are staging outdoor works as part of the Edinburgh Art Festival's Festival Promenade
'I’m checking them out / I’m checking them out / I got it figured out / I got it figured out / There’s good points and bad points / Find a city / Find myself a city to live in.’ (David Byrne / Talking Heads – ‘Cities’) If Edinburgh’s town planners…
Van Gogh to Kandinsky: Symbolist Landscape in Europe 1880-1910
28 Jul 2012
Extraordinary exploration of Symbolism and landscape painting
There is something timely and relevant about a major exhibition of paintings created during a time of economic change and uncertainty in society, and against a backdrop of modern living that engendered feelings of fear, alienation and disillusionment…
Iconic America artist Carolee Schneemann appearing at the Edinburgh Art Festival 2012
28 Jul 2012
Artist known for discourses on the body, gender, sexual expression and liberation
Carolee Schneemann, the iconic American visual artist, known for her discourses on the body, gender, sexual expression and liberation, is exhibiting at Summerhall during the Edinburgh Festival. Her seminal works, ‘Meat Joy’ (1964), ‘Fuses’ (1967) and…
Weaving the Century
28 Jul 2012
One hundred years of tapestry from the Dovecot weavers
It’s 100 years since the Dovecot Studios was established in its first home in Corstorphine, and this exciting tapestry exhibition over three floors of its current premises in Infirmary Street is a fitting celebration of how this very traditional art…
Harry Hill exhibits paintings and sculptures at Edinburgh Art Festival
27 Jul 2012
TV Burp comedian displays other side in My Hobby
The fact that Harry Hill is set to make an appearance at the Edinburgh Festival is not in itself big news. The bald-headed, bespectacled, large-collared comedian has a long association with the world’s largest arts beano, grabbing early raves for his…
Susan Philipsz sounds the One O'Clock Gun at 2012 Edinburgh Art Festival
11 Jul 2012
2010 Turner Prize winner on senses, songs and Sirens
2010 Turner Prize winner is using an Edinburgh institution for a specially commisioned piece of sound art. Here The List talks to the artist on senses, songs and Sirens
Unusual highlights from Edinburgh Festival 2012 programme
11 Jul 2012
Barges, a spoken word section, free shows from big names and more
Dip in for some watery goings-on at the Art Festival as Tania Kovats invites you on a canal boat trip on 3 August. The vessel sets sail from behind Cargo on Fountainbridge at 9am, making the return voyage from Jupiter Artland at 3pm. Call 01506 889 900…
Edinburgh Art Festival 2012: Highlights
11 Jul 2012
Surrealists, symbolists and Scottish colourists at this year's art festival
Leslie Hunter: A Life in Colour. This major study of the Scottish Colourist’s output features over 70 important works throughout his career, with pieces created in venues from Fife to France. If the life and work of Hunter is your bag, then why not also…
Twenty top shows at the 2012 Edinburgh Festivals
11 Jul 2012
Highlights from the Fringe, Book and International Festivals
Having scanned the 23.6m shows, exhibitions and events across the festival in late July, August and early September, we pluck out the ones that simply cannot be missed
Major Picasso show as part of 2012 Edinburgh Art Festival
11 Jul 2012
Enduring appeal of artist considered greatest of the 20th century
A major new exhibition coming to the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art explores Picasso's enduring legacy and the British artists he inspired. But why did the UK take so long to get with Pablo’s programme?
Scotrail announce expanded Edinburgh Festival 2012 train timetable
4 Jul 2012
Additional night services to Glasgow, Dundee, Perth and North Berwick
New late-night train services to and from Edinburgh will make it easier for those outside the city to visit the 2012 festival. In Glasgow, there will be a Fringe box office at Queen Street station from July 27. Tickets bought online in advance can be…
How to visit the Edinburgh Festival
2 Jul 2012
A guide to getting the best from the Edinburgh Festival and Fringe
The phrase 'planned itinerary' might might be at odds with the spirit of chaos and wild abandon you associated with your visit to the Edinburgh Festival. The brutal truth is that shows do sell out, so book tickets to things you definitely want to see.
Edvard Munch: Graphic Works from the Gunderson Collection
23 May 2012
Extended introduction to troubled Norwegian painter
Perhaps the greatest surprise for casual viewers of this high-profile new exhibition from the Scottish National Galleries is the discovery that Norwegian painter Edvard Munch had a whole catalogue of work besides ‘The Scream’. One of the most famous…
Hiroshi Sugimoto: Lightning Fields and Photogenic Drawings
25 Aug 2011
Breathtaking exploration of both photography and science
To say that Sugimoto's contribution to the Edinburgh International Festival is striking would be an understatement. This is the first time these works have been displayed in Europe. The Japanese photography pioneer’s huge analogue 'Lightning Fields…
Interview: John Byrne
24 Aug 2011
Painter and playwright at 2011 Edinburgh Art Festival
What came first – the art or the writing? It must have been the drawing and the art, because my mother used to tell people that I was drawing in my pram. We have to take her word for it – she was a very honest woman. Do you hold writing and art in…
John Byrne: Moonlight and Music
17 Aug 2011
Major exhibition of works by much-loved Scottish artist
So recent are some of the pieces in this show – timed to coincide with the launch of a biography of the artist by Lund Humphries – that self-portrait ‘Chop Suey’ and Byrne’s children’s book Donald & Benoit: A Story of a Cat and a Boy arrived close to…
Richard Demarco and Joseph Beuys
17 Aug 2011
An art world friendship under a Scottish sky
A single rose can make a garden; a single friend can make a world. Writer, artist and philosopher Richard Demarco’s friendship with the humanistic artist Joseph Beuys was something special. These two passionate, occasionally obtuse men were drawn to…
Mystics or Rationalists?
17 Aug 2011
Elegant conceptual works bend associations of the ordinary
Stealing the show, Susan Hiller’s new levitation works are exemplary of the conceit at the heart of this group exhibition. Having infused conceptual and minimalist strategies with the influence of psychoanalysis and pop culture since the late 1960s…
Carmen Sylva
11 Aug 2011
Established artists take on a new and exciting identity
A procession of odd assemblages punctuates the centre of Sierra Metro’s exhibition space. They are Katharina Stoever and Barbara Wolff’s latest artistic response to Peles, a late 18th Century Romanian castle that has inspired their practice for over six…
Interview: Jeremy Millar on exhibition Mystics or Rationalists?
10 Aug 2011
Artist discusses his contribution to Ingleby Edinburgh Art Festival show
How far do you agree with Sol LeWitt’s comment that ‘conceptual artists are mystics rather than rationalists’? I think I’d tend to agree: they’re certainly rather more mystics than rationalists. Art isn’t rational, but it can be mystical. What is…
Tamsyn Challenger: 400 Women
8 Aug 2011
Stunning artistic memorial to victims of gender violence
What unites the collection of heterogeneous portraits in 400 Women is the fate of each subject depicted. All are the victims of rape, abduction and murder, devastating crimes which have taken place on the Mexican border region of Ciudad Juàrez. In…
Katri Walker: North West
8 Aug 2011
Intriguing exploration of Scottish/Wild West links
This triptych of work by Edinburgh-born artist Katri Walker recasts the landscape of Scotland as the wilderness of the American old west, quite literally in the case of the titular central work. Projected over three connected screens, the rocky cliffs…
Ingrid Calame
5 Aug 2011
Water water everywhere with only a doodle to drink
A river runs through Ingrid Calame’s work. But this river has been drained and all that remains are detritus and old stains. Somewhere between Google Earth screen grabs, weighty childhood nature books with their own illustrative key codes and fey…
David Mach: Precious Light
5 Aug 2011
Edinburgh Art Festival exhibition of biblical proportions by Fife-born artist
Without doubt, Methil-born artist David Mach’s work ‘Golgotha’ will stand out as the defining image from the artistic strand of this year’s Edinburgh Festival. Three enormous figures of threaded steel nailed to metallic crosses, which take up the entire…
Anton Henning: Interieur No. 493
5 Aug 2011
Curious and bemusing conceptual art salon at 2011 Edinburgh Art Festival
If, as critic and writer Cyril Connolly once noted, ‘vulgarity is the garlic in the salad of life’ German artist Anton Henning might just have halitosis. Henning’s first solo show in Scotland is just about as curious and bemusing an exhibition as you…
