Reviews & features: Visual art
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Roderick Buchanan: Legacy
29 Jul 2012
Feature-length film installation exploring both sides of the Troubles in Northern Ireland
For a work that brings together the two sides of the same coin that are Irish Republicanism and Northern Irish Loyalism, the black wall that divides the two screens of Roderick Buchanan’s feature-length film installation without comment is a silently…
Philip Guston (1913-1980): Late Paintings
29 Jul 2012
Late work by renowned US artist in Scotland for the first time
Continuing its growing tradition of presenting some of the greats of 20th century art in striking surroundings, this festival Inverleith House plays host to Canadian painter Philip Guston, a contemporary of Pollock and De Kooning in 1950s New York. The…
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…
World Press Photo 2012 exhibition visits Edinburgh
23 Jul 2012
A photo essay of the world, richly deserving of the term ‘definitive’
Once again returning to Edinburgh for its annual summer visit to coincide with the Festival of Politics, the World Press Photo exhibition is a source of marvel and inspiration, even those of us who keep in touch with the news. As well as collating most…
Interview: NVA's Speed of Light at Edinburgh International Festival 2012
11 Jul 2012
Sport and art combine to cover Arthur’s Seat with light and colour
Arthur’s Seat will be a dramatic spectacle of light and colour thanks to NVA. Claire Sawers talks to Angus Farquhar and some of his runners ahead of this ambitious meeting of sport and art
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
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…
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?
Hear A Pin Drop at the 2012 Edinburgh Fringe
11 Jul 2012
Norwich sound artist Holly Rumble on listening to pins and birds
These may be tough times for the public sector, but at least the officials at Edinburgh City Council are blessed with the Fringe to liven up their daily litany of licensing requests. Sound artist Holly Rumble provided one such chink of light in a local…
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…
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…
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…
Norman McBeath & Robert Crawford: Body Bags / Simonides
11 Aug 2011
Mournful collaboration between photographer and poet
Scots translations of epitaphs by the ancient Greek poet Simonides, coupled with black and white photographs, adorn the high-rising walls of two lofty Edinburgh College of Art studios. Joined by tall vases of white lilies, classical casts from the…
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…
Interview: US artist Ingrid Calame
3 Aug 2011
Transferring transfers marks and cracks from ground outside to gallery walls
‘This is it!’ exclaims US artist Ingrid Calame, waving towards a radiant tabletop awash with transparent sacks of bright pigments, a sea of reds, pinks, blues and greens. She’s referring to a new drawing based on tracings plucked from the cement…
Robert Rauschenberg: Botanical Vaudeville
3 Aug 2011
Sparkling post-industrial dance on gleaming surfaces
Inverleith House has long carved a niche for itself as a champion of late 20th century American icons, and for the gallery’s British Art Show contribution has gathered up a grab-bag of 37 works made between 1982 and 1998 by Abstract Expressionism’s…
