Recent ACQUISITIONS Scottish Art News highlights the latest acquisitions to enter other Scottish collections 1
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Edinburgh’s City Art Centre has acquired three digital prints by Rachel Maclean. ‘As an ex-Edinburgh College of Art graduate, we were keen to acquire something substantial for the City’s collection,’ says curator David Patterson, who first approached Maclean about an acquisition in 2019. ‘She had just opened her first exhibition in New York under the title Native Animals. The exhibition focused on the ongoing Brexit debate through a series of highly coloured, emotive images. At the time, none of the works had been sold to a public collection. It seemed the right moment, therefore, to consider a purchase.’ The three digital prints, ‘Green and Pleasant Land’, ‘Apparition’ and ‘Disunion’ (2019) were chosen in consultation with the artist. Two are currently exhibited in the City Art Centre’s exhibition Incoming: Recent Acquisitions at the City Art Centre, open until 28 May 2023. The Royal Scottish Academy’s diverse collecting policy is reflected in two recent acquisitions: Mungo Burton's 19th-century painting, ‘The Children of the Late George Waddell Esq of Balquhatstone and a Favourite Greyhound’ (c.1851) and a collection of Florentine drawings and paintings by 2018 Fleming-Wyfold Bursary winner Hannah Mooney. ‘Mungo Burton, an early Associate, was unrepresented in the 40 | ART
collections, which led us to purchase this fine portrait group using our designated acquisition fund,’ explains curator Sandy Wood. ‘In addition to actively purchasing for our collections, the RSA also receives deposits from emerging artists through the various scholarship and awards we administer. The John Kinross Scholarship has sent nearly 500 emerging artists and architects to Florence since 1981, and on their return they deposit work into the RSA collections. In 2021, Hannah Mooney deposited a group of eight beautifully composed Florentine drawings and paintings.’ 3
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museum. The sculpture, ‘L’Implorante’, was created around the same time Claudel’s relationship with Rodin was coming to an end and he returned to his long-term partner, Rose Beuret. It shows a naked, young woman kneeling on rocky ground. The work will be shown in the inaugural exhibition of the museum’s newly designed Special Exhibition and Event space, opening late summer 2022. (Read more about the work on page 42). 5
West Dunbartonshire Council has purchased Joan Eardley’s oil painting ‘Tenements in the Snow’ (1953) for Clydebank Museum and Art Gallery. ‘It is a pivotal acquisition providing a key narrative which enables us to tell our visitors a more coherent story of the artist`s background and development,’ explains curator Trish Robins. ‘The urban setting of “Tenements in the Snow” is familiar to West Dunbartonshire audiences, as are the narratives of urban change and regeneration that underpin Eardley’s street scenes.’
Dundee Heritage Trust, which has responsibility for Discovery Point, home of RRS Discovery and Verdant Works, has purchased ‘Gaia’ by the environmental artist Luke Jerram. The seven-metre diameter globe installation is created from 120 dpi detailed NASA imagery of the Earth’s surface. ‘We purchased the piece because of the respect and feel of awe for the planet which the viewer experiences when 6 looking at ‘Gaia’ . . . [which] will give Stirling University’s acquisition our visitors an understanding of the of three untitled works on paper by David importance of the scientific work which Shrigley fulfils a long-held ambition for the crew of the Discovery undertook, the the institution. ‘David Shrigley is an artist way it links to present-day climate change that we have wanted to acquire works research,’ says curator Mel Ruth Oakley. for the collection for many years,’ says ‘Gaia’ will be the feature object at the curator Sarah Bromage. ‘We considered Dome Gallery at Discovery Point, which 2021 an appropriate moment to acquire opens this this year following a major works by a contemporary artist whose £12m renovation project. distinctive drawing style and satirical commentary on everyday situations and The Burrell Collection has become the first public UK collection to acquire a work by sculptor Camille Claudel (1864–1943), the lover and close collaborator of Auguste Rodin (1840–1917), whose work is synonymous with the
1a Rachel Maclean, Green and Pleasant Land, 2019 1b Rachel Maclean, Apparition, 2019 1c Rachel Maclean, Disunion, 2019. Images courtesy of City Art Centre. Purchased with support from the National Fund for Acquisitions
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2a Mungo Burton ARSA (1799–1882), The Children of the Late George Waddell Esq of Balquhatstone and a Favourite Greyhound, c.1851. Purchased 2021 with a 100% grant from the National Fund for Acquisitions. Image courtesy of the RSA 2b Hannah Mooney, Image from Florentine. Deposited by the artist in 2021. Image courtesy of the RSA 1c
3 Luke Jerram, Gaia, 2019 © W5, Belfast. Image courtesy of Dundee Heritage Trust. Purchased with support from the National Fund for Acquisitions
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4 Camille Claudel, L’Implorante,1898 (France) © CSG CIC Glasgow Museums Collections Purchased with support from the Burrell Trustees, National Fund for Acquisitions, Art Fund and Henry Moore Foundation 5 Joan Eardley, Tenements in the Snow, 1958 © Estate of Joan Eardley. All Rights Reserved. DACS 2022. Purchased with support from the National Fund for Acquisitions
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6 David Shrigley, Untitled, 2019-20. Image courtesy of The University of Stirling. Purchased with support from the National Fund for Acquisitions
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human interactions reflects contemporary experiences of the pandemic in a quickwitted way’. The works will be on display in 2022–23 as part of the University’s Space & Place exhibition programme. 5
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