Into the Wild

LINKSHOUSE: A NEW HOME FROM HOME FOR ARTISTS ON ORKNEY

A new artists’ residency on Orkney aims to create connections and opportunities for local artists and those from further afield

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When Linkshouse opens this summer as a new artistic hub on Orkney, it will mark the culmination of several different lives the grand house has lived over the last century. Based in the village of Birsay, on the north-west of Orkney’s Mainland, Linkshouse’s most recent incarnation was as the base of the Erlend Williamson Fellowship, a charity set up in honour of the artist who tragically died in 1996 in a climbing accident in Glencoe. Williamson had been a contemporary of artists including Ross Sinclair, Simon Starling and Mike Nelson. When Williamson’s parents, Barbara and Edgar, discovered the importance of Orkney in their son’s life and work, they set up the fellowship at Linkshouse in his honour with some of his peers and friends. One of the clauses in the Williamsons’ wills was that if the charity should close, then the property should pass into the care of the Pier Arts Centre, based 13 miles away in Stromness. For more than 40 years, the centre has run a year-round exhibition and events programme and it holds a significant art collection donated by author, peace activist and philanthropist, Margaret Gardiner. Under the directorship of Neil Firth, the Pier Arts Centre duly picked up the mantle of Linkshouse in 2018. With investment from public bodies and a crowdfunding campaign, the house has been transformed into what is about to open as Linkshouse – Orkney Arts Residency. ‘It’s a big thing,’ says Firth of Linkshouse’s renovation, developed with Edinburgh-based architects, Studio Niro. ‘Philanthropy has always played a huge part in the Pier Arts Centre and now to see this happen, several generations on, allows us to develop a new base with a focus on practitioners. We’re still learning about how the building might work but we hope it becomes a landing strip for practitioners from elsewhere who are attracted here, as well as a bit of a launchpad for artists based on Orkney to connect up with networks [outside the islands].’ Linkshouse already has quite a history of welcoming artists and others to Orkney. The house was built in 1913 by local couple, Robert and Jane Comloquoy, who ran it as a guesthouse, naming it after the sandy links that stretch out to sea. In 1974, under owners Mr and Mrs Selwyn Hughes, Linkshouse was opened as the Orkney Field and Arts Centre, which hosted tours for groups interested in Orkney’s flora and fauna, as well as artists’ residencies from the likes of John Busby, Frances Walker and Allen Lawson. In 1976, Richard Demarco’s Edinburgh Arts programme brought students from Durham University to the centre, where they received a lecture by Orcadian historian Ernest W Marwick. Linkshouse continued as the Orkney Field and Arts Centre when the house was bought in 1980 by naturist and author Robin Noble and his wife Iona, with residencies continuing for several years before it was purchased by the Williamsons in 1999. Over almost two decades of the Erlend Williamson Fellowship, artists including Laura Mansfield and Mike Nelson spent time at Linkshouse. With future partnerships featuring organisations such as the Royal Scottish Academy, Firth sees the redeveloped Linkshouse as a vital part of Orkney’s artistic life. ‘Orkney’s an interesting place,’ he says. ‘It’s got lots of artistic activity going on, and that enables us to think about things, not just as a visual arts organisation, but to be able to utilise culture in a much broader sense. I see Linkshouse playing a big part of that, and a big part of the future of the Pier Arts Centre.’

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5 Frances Walker working on Rock Pool plate Orkney, 1983. Photo by John Cumming All images courtesy of Pier Arts Centre

‘With future partnerships featuring organisations such as the Royal Scottish Academy, Firth sees the redeveloped Linkshouse as a vital part of Orkney’s artistic life’

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Neil Cooper is a writer and critic based in Edinburgh

For more info on Linkshouse – Orkney Arts Residency, check out pierartscentre.com/linkshouse-1

Alan Davie: Beginning of a far-off World

SIOBHAN MCLAUGHLIN

In 2020, Dovecot Studios planned a major exhibition of renowned Scottish artist Alan Davie (1920-2014) to coincide with the centenary of his birth. Two years on, and after multiple pandemic-related delays, audiences this summer are finally able to enjoy a carefully selected celebration of his eight decades of work, drawn from the collections of Davie’s friends and peers. The project was initiated in 2019 by Edinburgh College of Art graduate Siobhan McLaughlin, who studied painting in the very same studios where Davie trained. Here she shares some of her exhibition highlights and the curatorial decisions behind them

Beginning of a far-off World (1949)

Monotype, 29 x 36cm

The show takes its title from this 1949 monotype (pictured opposite). Titles were important to Davie’s practice, although he often said that they should not be taken literally. Instead, the poetic titles are his interpretations of the artworks after they are finished. His titles, like his work, often incorporate the energy of his other interests. As well as a painter, Davie was a jazz musician, accomplished classical celloist and pianist, poet and jewellery designer. Within staccato brush marks, he saw the rhythm of jazz music and within layered line and form he saw ritualistic actions, resulting in titles such as ‘Jazz by Moonlight’ and ‘Pagan Dance’. ‘Beginning of a far-off World’, with its gestural black lines, swirling as if the world is in flux, articulates something about timelessness and spirituality. As if the paintings that Davie made across his life are just the beginning of the shamanistic journey he is on: a fitting way to open the celebration of his centenary.

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Still Life, Flowers on a Table (1946) and Cathedral (2008)

Oil on board, 60 x 43cm and oil on board, 44 x 37cm

Although Davie’s style evolved throughout his career, his work is most well known for its strong sense of abstraction combined with symbolic gesture. In a letter to the Tate Gallery in 1972, he wrote that images appeared to him in surprise moments when he was ‘enraptured beyond knowing’. Although it is true that Davie painted spontaneously while captivated by the painting process, it is also clear that his classic training at Edinburgh College of Art was of importance. This is particularly evident in ‘Still Life, Flowers on a Table’ (1946) which demonstrates that a strong foundation in drawing and composition allowed for greater freedom in abstraction and improvisation in his later works. Sixty years later in ‘Cathedral’ (2008), the same observation skills are present but Davie’s interest in drawing has developed to become looser and more energetic. Similar gestural drawings of buildings are also seen in the backgrounds of Davie’s later works.

‘He wrote that images appeared to him in surprise moments when he was “enraptured beyond knowing”’

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Good Morning my Sweet (1968)

Oil on canvas, 122 x 153cm

Alongside his pursuits of driving fast cars, scuba diving and sailing, in 1960 Davie began gliding with fellow artist Peter Lanyon, declaring ‘I discovered that I could be a bird . . . How much more important than Art, just to be a bird.’ The exhilaration and freedom Davie felt from physically being immersed in nature is echoed in his paintings from this decade. Progressing from the dark and sombre works of the 50s, these paintings become joyous celebrations of colour and form. There is a glowing vitality in his gestures and a liberated sense of space in works like ‘Good Morning my Sweet’. The act of letting go, painting intuitively, was key to Davie’s aim for creating universal images. Expressing the fullness of human experience, this work evokes the romantic/erotic impulses prevalent throughout Davie’s work that give it universal appeal.

‘There is a glowing vitality in his gestures and a liberated sense of space in works like “Good Morning my Sweet”’

Homage to an Earth Goddess 2 (1992)

Oil on canvas, 153 x 122cm

There are six large oil paintings in the Homage to an Earth Goddess series, one of which we have in the exhibition. Central to this series is a motif taken from a book on African mud temples, which Davie regularly referenced. The graphic colour and line from the huts of the South African Ndebele community are clearly echoed in this series, combined with imagery from Mexican muralists and Jain cosmology diagrams. Davie’s fascination with non-Western cultures was not a fetishisation of the exotic ‘other’. Instead, Davie found a shared visual language that spanned across time. Discovering that symbols from 3000BC Venezuela were similarly found in Coptic textiles or Celtic tapestry confirmed to Davie the idea of universal connection. He did not see himself as a Western painter as such, but as an artist intuitively connected to the cosmic energy of the world.

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1 Alan Davie, Beginning of a far-off World, 1949

2 Alan Davie, Still Life, Flowers on a Table, 1946. Fleming Collection

3 Alan Davie, Cathedral, 2008

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Alan Davie, Good Morning my Sweet, 1968

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Alan Davie, Homage to an Earth Goddess 2, 1992

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Alan Davie, Celtic Spirit II, Tufted by Douglas Grierson and David Cochrane ©️ Dovecot Studios All images courtesy of the Alan Davie Estate, managed by Alan Wheatley Fine Art

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Celtic Spirit II (2003)

Tufted by Douglas Grierson and David Cochrane, 230 x 331cm

In 2003, the vivid colour palette Davie developed in the 60s was combined with his long-standing interest in Celtic symbolism to produce a tufted rug design at Dovecot Studios. Collaborating with Dovecot’s weavers, ‘Celtic Spirit II’ was created on an immense scale and in bold, graphic colour and line. The composition evokes interlace, a decorative element found in medieval art, with the rectangular nature of the forms echoing carpet pages from illuminated manuscripts such as the Book of Kells. Another recognisable symbol that appears frequently in Davie’s work is the ancient Egyptian ankh symbol (cross with a looped top). This small ‘key of life’ seen on the right side of the composition symbolises eternal life, perhaps used by Davie to connect his work to ancient traditions. This combination of a diverse range of ancient symbols, from Celtic interlacing to Druid crescent forms, with a highly contemporary colour palette, demonstrates the unique visual language Davie developed across his life.

Siobhan McLaughlin is an artist and freelance curator based in Glasgow

Alan Davie: Beginning of a far-off World

24 June–24 September Dovecot Studios, 10 Infirmary Street, Edinburgh, EH1 1LT T: (0)131 550 3660 | dovecotstudios.com Open: Monday to Saturday 10am–5pm

Patrick Elliott, chief curator of modern and contemporary art at National Galleries of Scotland, discusses the challenge of making new acquisitions with limited funds and takes us on a tour of new arrivals at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art in the last five years

Funds are tight in all museums. And yet the remit enlarges constantly. There’s a big shift, rightly, across art galleries and museums, to collect and show a broader range of artists: more work by women artists, more diversity, more inclusion. And the ‘modern’ period expands with every passing day. When the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art in Edinburgh first opened in 1960 its remit covered a 60-year period, from 1900–1960. Sixty-two years later, that period has more than doubled in length. Also, the definition of ‘art’ has expanded enormously since 1960 to include film, installation, performance, spoken word, all sorts. But new acquisitions are the lifeblood of any museum and change is always needed if we are to remain relevant. How do you square the need for change with limited funds? The answer can be found in the exhibition, New Arrivals: From Salvador Dalí to Jenny Saville, which opened in November last year at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art (Modern One) and remains on show until February 2023. It occupies the whole of the ground floor of the gallery – all 12 rooms – and, with a couple of exceptions, is made up of acquisitions made in the past five years. There are about 100 works and each room forms a kind of mini exhibition. The spread is impressive, ranging from a rare watercolour by the ‘Glasgow Girl’ Frances MacNair to a rare early collage by Pablo Picasso and a film made by the American artist Amie Siegel over the lockdown period and finished just a couple of months ago. There’s Salvador Dalí’s famous ‘Lobster Telephone’, a major recent work by Bridget Riley, a room full of extraordinary works by Elisabeth Frink, rare monotypes by Naum Gabo, a landmark painting by Peter Doig (he regards it as his first major landscape), a Marc Chagall (the first in Scotland), a Toyen (the first in the UK), and a stunning Jenny Saville. How do you do that when there’s very little money? It’s down to friends and supporters and the tax system. More than half the new acquisitions were gifted and most of the ones we bought were acquired with grants. The Henry and Sula Walton Fund has been a game-changer for us. World-famous psychiatrists who lived in Edinburgh, Henry and Sula really believed in the redemptive power of art – that art could change lives for the better. They left us a substantial fund which has helped us buy world-class works by Leonora Carrington, Dorothea Tanning, Gwen John, Picasso and many more. It was their fund that enabled us to buy the Jenny Saville. Their funding has often been matched by the marvellous, inestimable Art Fund, which contributed towards Dali’s ‘Lobster Telephone’, Leonora Carrington’s stunning ‘Portrait of Max Ernst’ and several other important acquisitions in recent years.

Another avenue is tax. When an owner of a major artwork dies, their estate can, in certain circumstances, offer the artwork to a UK public gallery ‘in lieu’ of death duties. It’s called the Acceptance in Lieu scheme and it’s run by the Arts Council of England. This scheme has enabled us to acquire works that would ordinarily be well out of our reach (the Peter Doig and Chagall paintings mentioned above, for example). And there’s a related scheme, the Cultural Gifts Scheme, whereby owners of major works can give them to a museum, during their lifetime, and receive a reduction on their income tax. This has led to works by Damien Hirst, Fred Sandback and Naum Gabo entering the collection. Artists have gifted works (Bridget Riley, Raqib Shaw) and organisations such as the Patrons of the National Galleries of Scotland, the American Friends of the National Galleries of Scotland, the Contemporary Art Society and Outset have helped us acquire other works. The exhibition is not fixed. We are changing some of the rooms every few months, so visitors will need to come back if they are to see the full range of our acquisitions. And we still have quite a few stunning acquisitions to unveil before the show closes next February.

‘There’s a big shift, rightly, across art galleries and museums, to collect and show a broader range of artists: more work by women artists, more diversity, more inclusion. And the “modern” period expands with every passing day’

1 Elisabeth Frink (1930–1993), Desert Quartet III, 1989. Collection: National Galleries of Scotland. Provided to the National Galleries of Scotland inaccordance with the wishes of the artist’s late son, Lin Jammet, 2020 ©️ The Executors of the Frink Estate and Archive. All Rights Reserved, DACS, London 20

2 Pablo Picasso, 1881-1973. Bouteille et Verre sur un Table (bottle and glass on a table), 1912. Collection: National Galleries of Scotland. Purchased (Henry and Sula Walton Fund) 2015.©️ Succession Picasso. DACS, London 2021

3 Alberta Whittle, Secreting Myths (magenta), 2019. Collection: National Galleries of Scotland, ©️ Alberta Whittle. All Rights Reserved. DACS, London 2021. ©️ Alberta Whittle. All Rights Reserved. DACS, London 2021

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Leonora Carrington (1917–2011) Portrait of Max Ernst, c.1939

Purchased with assistance from the Henry and Sula Walton Fund and Art Fund, 2018

We have a world–famous collection of surrealist art, but had few works by the female surrealists, who played such a major part in the movement. This stellar work portrays Carrington’s then partner, the artist Max Ernst. The painting has temporarily left the New Arrivals show and can now be seen in a major show, Surrealism and Magic: Enchanted Modernity, at the Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice.

Image ©️ Estate of Leonora Carrington. All Rights Reserved. ARS, New York and DACS, London 2021. Collection: National Galleries of Scotland.

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Peter Doig (b.1959) At the Edge of Town, 1986–88

Offered by the Kennedy Doig family in loving memory of Bonnie Kennedy. Accepted in lieu of tax by HM Government and allocated to the National Galleries of Scotland in 2021

Doig was born in Edinburgh in 1959. This is a key early painting that grew out of a photograph that Doig took of a friend. It became his first landscape painting, in which nature comes alive, as if in sympathy with the melancholic mood of his friend.

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Dorothea Tanning (1910–2012) Primitive Seating, 1982

Purchased with support from Alison Jacques, London, 2021

The National Galleries of Scotland purchased a major painting by Dorothea Tanning, ‘Tableau vivant’ (1954), from the Alison Jacques Gallery in 2019 (once more with support from the Walton Fund and Art Fund). Alison Jacques then very generously supported the acquisition of this rare and striking three-dimensional work in 2021.

Image: National Galleries of Scotland

Wangechi Mutu (b.1972) Histology of the Different Classes of Uterine Tumors, 2004–05

Purchased with assistance from the Heinz Fund and Art Fund, 2020

This landmark series of 12 collages is one of Mutu’s best-known works. Based on images taken from an old medical folio, overlaid with bits of fashion magazines and pornography, the collages explore themes of power and control.

Image: National Galleries of Scotland ©️ Wangechi Mutu

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Jenny Saville (b.1970) Study for Branded, 1992

Purchased with assistance from the Henry and Sula Walton Fund, 2017

Saville was a star student at the Glasgow School of Art in the early 1990s. She quickly attracted a global following. This is, surprisingly, the first painting by Saville to enter a public collection in the UK.

Image: National Galleries of Scotland ©️ Jenny Saville. All Rights Reserved. DACS, London 2021

Marc Chagall (1887–1985) The Horse Rider, 1949–1953

From the collection of Andrew Stirling and Simonetta Stirling-Zanda, both of whom had a great fondness for the Scottish Gallery of Modern Art. Accepted in lieu of Inheritance Tax by HM Government and allocated to the National Galleries of Scotland in 2020

This is the first work by Chagall to enter a public collection in Scotland. It came through the acceptance-in-lieu scheme; the credit line was specified by the offeror’s family.

Image: National Galleries of Scotland ©️ Estate of Marc Chagall. All Rights Reserved. DACS, London 2021.

Salvador Dalí (1904–1989) Lobster Telephone, 1938

Purchased with assistance from the Henry and Sula Walton Fund and Art Fund, 2018

This is one of 11 telephones made by Dalí for his English patron, Edward James. The Edward James Foundation offered it at auction in London and it was sold to a collector abroad. Major works such as this have to go through an export license process and in this case UK museums were given the chance to match the price. Thanks to the Walton Fund and Art Fund, we were able to do this.

Image: National Galleries of Scotland ©️ Edward James Foundation and Fundació Gala-Salvador Dalí, DACS, London, 2021

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Bridget Riley (b.1931) Intervals 2, 2019

Gift of the artist, 2020

Many of our new acquisitions connect to our exhibition programme. Artists, galleries and lenders will sometimes donate works at the time of the show. We organised a major retrospective of Bridget Riley’s work at the Royal Scottish Academy in 2019 (it travelled to the Hayward Gallery in London), where ‘Intervals 2’ was first shown. The artist generously gave us the painting when the London show closed.

Image: National Galleries of Scotland ©️ Bridget Riley, 2020. All Rights Reserved, Reproduced courtesy Bridget Riley Archive.

New Arrivals: From Salvador Dalí to Jenny Saville

Until 23 February 2023 Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art (Modern One) 73 Belford Road, Edinburgh, EH4 3DS T: (0)131 624 6200 | nationalgalleries.org Open: Daily 10am–5pm