DUNCAN SHANKS TRANSIENCE
THE
SCOTTISH
GALLERY
CONTEMPORARY ART SINCE 1842
Duncan Shanks Transience 1–26 June 2019 16 Dundas Street·Edinburgh EH3 6HZ +44 (0) 131 558 1200 mail@scottish-gallery.co.uk www.scottish-gallery.co.uk
DUNCAN SHANKS TRANSIENCE
TH E S C O T T I S H G A L L E R Y 2019 2
‘P I C T U R E S W H I C H C A P T U R E T H E S P I R I T O F C H A N G E , B U T A R E I M M U TA B L E ’
previous pages
1 Portal acrylic on paper·70 x 100 cm opposite
2 Heat Haze acrylic on paper·56.5 x 70 cm
This exhibition is Shanks’ tenth with The Scottish Gallery since the year 2000 and is in one sense no different from those that have come before. Each has embraced the idea of a journey with no starting point nor ending, the cycle of change, of death and regeneration. Transience may be his subject and his title for this body of work, but it is not what he has made: his work is as permanent as an ancient primitive sculpture or cave painting; his response to transience, in the crucible of creativity, are pictures which capture the spirit of change, but are immutable. In this catalogue Shanks has selected quotations from his sketchbooks. These are revealing and not something he might have been comfortable doing as a younger man. They show how his reading and kinship with artists, writers and musicians has encouraged him to stick to a path of intense study and work. Shanks is ambivalent about finishing or showing his work. In this sense Transience is just a body of work wrenched from the artist’s studio. But in another sense, it is the magical, temporary coming together of waymarks in the artist’s journey, in his deep engagement with nature and his own wild garden. It is his selection to be seen together for a few weeks before the work is dispersed, a paradigm of the greater process of growth and atomisation which is Shanks lifelong obsession. guy peploe 5
3 Still Evening acrylic on paper·81 x 111 cm
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4 Riverside Garden acrylic on paper·56 x 65 cm
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WHERE ARE THE SONGS OF SPRING? Awaken, awaken, all ye flowers, To joy! from Arnold Schoenberg’s Gurreleide
5 Spring acrylic on paper·81 x 111 cm
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6 Crow acrylic on paper·29 x 29 cm
7 Glare acrylic on paper·70 x 56 cm
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8 Broken Symmetry
9 Garden of Delights
acrylic on paper·56 x 62 cm
acrylic on paper·56 x 64 cm
WILD GARDEN I see a rose, that strange thing, and what’s there But a seeming something coloured on the air With transparencies that make up me, Thickened to existence by my notice. from Norman MacCaig’s Ego
10 Enclosed Garden acrylic on paper·76 x 99 cm
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11 Into the Garden – Shall we Follow? acrylic on paper·70 x 100 cm
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12 Sun Dance acrylic on paper·70 x 100 cm
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13 After Rain acrylic on paper·70 x 91 cm
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14 Wild Roses acrylic on paper·122 x 135 cm
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15 Hedge Parsley
16 Bees and Butterflies
17 Butterflies and Buddleias
acrylic on paper·16.5 x 18 cm
acrylic on paper·20 x 20 cm
acrylic on paper·19.5 x 19.5 cm
18 Lush Growth acrylic on paper·19 x 19.5 cm
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19 Delphinium and Poppies
20 Butterflies and Buddleia
acrylic on paper·56 x 65 cm
acrylic on paper·56 x 59 cm
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21 Rowan and Lilies acrylic on paper·56 x 70 cm detail opposite
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22 Angelica and Peacock acrylic on paper·54.5 x 76 cm
23 Daisies acrylic on paper·68 x 93 cm
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24 Mid Summer acrylic on paper·70 x 100 cm
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25 Autumn acrylic on paper·70 x 100 cm
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26 Rainy Day
27 Sun and Showers
acrylic on paper·70 x 69 cm
acrylic on paper·54 x 74 cm
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RIVERBANK O let them be left, wildness and wet; Long live the weeds and the wilderness yet. from Gerard Manley Hopkins’ Inversnaid
28 Riverbank acrylic on paper·122 x 152 cm
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29 Winter Sun acrylic on paper·55 x 75 cm
30 Sunrise acrylic on paper·55 x 75 cm
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31 The Flakes Fall Faster acrylic on paper·51 x 63.5 cm
32 Riverbank Trees acrylic on paper·35 x 100 cm
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33 Trees by the River acrylic on paper·35 x 100 cm
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34 Abundance
35 Floating Past
acrylic on paper·58.5 x 59 cm
acrylic on paper·52 x 63 cm
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36 Goosander acrylic on paper·57 x 70 cm
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37 Autumn Cherry acrylic on paper·49.5 x 94 cm
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38 Dusk acrylic on paper·78 x 70 cm
39 Ice on the River acrylic on paper·75 x 99 cm
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STORM … the rain comes Down like a dropscene Now there comes catharsis, the cleansing downpour Breaking the blossoms of our dated fancies Our old sentimentality and whimsicality Loves of the morning Blackness at half past eight, the night’s precursor Clouds like falling masonary and lightening’s lavish Annunciation, the sword of mad archangel Flashes from the scabbard from Louis Macneice’s June Thunder
40 The White Cloud acrylic on paper·99 x 136 cm
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41 The Black Cloud Carries The Sun Away acrylic on paper·67 x 150 cm
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42 Thunder Storm acrylic on paper·56 x 150 cm
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43 The Storm’s Centre acrylic on paper· 69 x 69 cm
44 A Storm of Birds 54
acrylic on paper·68.5 x 81 cm
45  Blown in the Wind acrylic on paper¡41 x 79 cm detail opposite
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DA R K N E S S & L I G H T — But there’s a tree, of many one, A single field which I have looked upon, Both of them speak of something that is gone. from William Wordsworth’s Ode: Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood
46 Moonlight and Moths acrylic on paper·122 x 152 cm
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47 Sunset Glow
48 Dark River
acrylic on paper·57 x 57 cm
acrylic on paper·57 x 57 cm
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49 Last Berries acrylic on paper·122 x 136 cm detail opposite
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50 Twa Corbies acrylic on paper·56 x 55 cm
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51 Flowers for the Bees acrylic on paper·55 x 64.5 cm
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52 Black Bull acrylic on paper·41 x 41.5 cm
53 Rage Against the Dying of the Light acrylic on paper·76 x 56 cm
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54 Bones of Man and Beast acrylic on paper·153 x 244 cm
In my beginning is my end. In succession House rise and fall, crumble over extended, Are removed, destroyed, restores, or in their place Is an open field, or a factory, or a by-pass. Old stone to new buildings, old timber to new fires. Old fires to ashes, and ashes to the earth Which is already flesh, fur and faeces, Bone of man and beast, cornstalk and leaf. From T.S. Eliot’s East Coker, Four Quartets
DUNCAN SHANKS RSA RSW RGI Born Airdrie, 1937
2007 In a Summer Garden, The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh
Awards
Selected Private Collections
Studied Glasgow School of Art, 1955–60
2009 In Search of Time Past, The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh
Scottish Arts Council Award
Works in many private and corporate collections in
Post Diploma and Travelling Scholarship to Italy, 1960
2012 Across a Painted Sky, The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh
Latimer Award and Macaulay Prize, Royal Scottish Academy
Britain, Germany and North America including:
Part-time lecturer at Glasgow School of Art until 1979
2013 Drawing the Year, The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh
Arthur Andersen & Co, Glasgow
Lives in the Clyde Valley
2015 The Poetry of Place, Hunterian Art Gallery, University of Glasgow
Torrance Award, Cargill Award and Macfarlane Charitable Trust Award, Royal Glasgow Institute of the Fine Arts May Marshall Brown Award, Royal Scottish Society of Painters in Watercolour
Clydesdale Bank plc
Provost’s Prize for Contemporary Art, Goma, 1996,
Halifax Bank
Member of: Royal Scottish Academy Royal Scottish Society of Painters in Watercolour Royal Glasgow Institute of the Fine Arts
Solo Exhibitions
1981 The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh 1984 The Fine Art Society, Glasgow and Edinburgh 1988 Falling Water, Talbot Rice Art Centre, University of Edinburgh; Crawford Centre, University of St Andrews; MacLaurin Art Gallery, Ayr; catalogue introduction by Duncan Macmillan 1990 Glasgow Art Gallery – Contemporary Art Season 1991 The Fine Art Society, Glasgow and Edinburgh 1 991–2 Patterns of Flight, Wrexham Arts Centre Touring Exhibition; catalogue introduction by Roger Billcliffe 1992 Roger Billcliffe Fine Art, Glasgow 1994 The Creative Process, Hunterian Art Gallery, University of Glasgow; catalogue introduction by Chris Allan 1994 Hill of Fire, Roger Billcliffe Fine Art, Glasgow 1997 Of Wet and of Wildness, The Scottish Gallery 2000 New Paintings, The Scottish Gallery 2002 Beyond the Valley, artLondon, with The Scottish Gallery
Works on Paper 1957–2013, The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh
Seasons and Storms, Roger Billcliffe Gallery, Glasgow
2017 Winter Journey, The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh 2018 Wanderer, Roger Billcliffe Gallery, Glasgow
Royal Bank of Scotland Award, RGI, 2001
2019 Transience, The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh
Selected Public Collections
Selected Group Exhibitions
Dundee Art Gallery and Museum
1975 Five Glasgow Painters, Edinburgh Arts Centre
City of Edinburgh Council
1 981–2 Contemporary Art from Scotland, Touring Exhibition arranged by The Scottish Gallery Scottish Painting, Toulouse
Fleming-Wyfold Art Foundation Glasgow Museums Resource Centre
1984 Weather, Scottish Arts Council Travelling Gallery
Government Art Collection
1985 About Landscape, Edinburgh Festival Show, Talbot Rice Art Centre Western Approaches, Touring Exhibition of Contemporary Scottish Art, Rio de Janeiro
High Life Highland Exhibitions Unit, Inverness
1986 Ten Scottish Painters, London 1988 The Scottish Show, Oriel 31 Touring Exhibition, Wales 1991 Landscape to Art, Four Scottish Artists, Dundee Art Gallery 2000 Scottish Landscape, The Scottish Gallery 2003 Six RSA Artists, University of Central Florida 2015 Modern Masters IV, The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh
Arts Council Collection, Southbank Centre
Glynn Vivian Art Gallery, Swansea
Lillie Art Gallery, Milngavie Low Parks Museum, Hamilton Pitlochry Festival Theatre
Bank of Japan Diageo Scotland Prudential Reader’s Digest, New York Rowntree’s Royal Bank of Scotland William Teacher and Sons Ltd Liter atur e 1990 William Hardie, Scottish Painting: 1837 to the Present, London Duncan Macmillan, Scottish Art: 1460–1990, Edinburgh 1993 William Hare, Contemporary Painting in Scotland, Edinburgh 1996 Duncan Macmillan, Scottish Art in the 20th Century, Edinburgh 2015 Anne Dulau Beveridge, The Poetry of Place, Duncan Shanks’s sketchbooks and the Upper Clyde, Glasgow
Royal Scottish Academy of Art and Architecture, Edinburgh The Stewarty Museum, Kirkcudbright University of Edinburgh Hunterian Art Gallery, University of Glasgow University of Stirling University of St Andrews
2004 Along an Overgrown Path, The Scottish Gallery 2006 Air, Fire and Rain, Roger Billcliffe Gallery, Glasgow 70
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55 Lost in the Forest collage and acrylic on paper·34 x 34 cm
Published by The Scottish Gallery for the exhibition Duncan Shanks: Transience held at 16 Dundas Street from 1 to 26 June 2019 ISBN 978 1 912900 01 5 Artworks © Duncan Shanks 2o19 Catalogue © The Scottish Gallery 2019 All rights reserved Photography by John McKenzie Designed and typeset in ATF Garamond by Dalrymple Printed in Scotland by J Thomson Colour Printers Front cover: detail from Spring [cat.5]
THETHE
SCOTTISH SCOTTISH
GALLERY GALLERY
CONTEMPORARY CONTEMPORARY ARTART SINCE SINCE 1842 1842 16 DUNDAS 16 DUNDAS STREET STREET • EDINBURGH • EDINBURGH EH3EH3 6HZ6HZ +44+44 (0) 131 (0) 131 558558 1200 1200 • mail@scottish-gallery.co.uk • mail@scottish-gallery.co.uk • scottish-gallery.co.uk • scottish-gallery.co.uk
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Repro: 6mm spine allowed
THE
SCOTTISH
GALLERY
CONTEMPORARY ART SINCE 1842