Statement pieces

RCSEd has recently commissioned two significant works of art and in this article Ann Shearer speaks to the artists

roles. When he has a good understanding of the background he starts to develop 3D models to share with the client and have further negotiations before coming to an agreed plan for the work.

The RCSEd commissioned Hunter to create a COVID-19 memorial sculpture. As part of its development he interviewed several surgeons at his studio and it was when he looked at the transcripts that four words surfaced: resilience, reflection, empathy and exhaustion. These words helped him focus his ideas and develop the sculpture of four figures in the act of removing PPE kit, losing their anonymity and revealing their humanity. This piece of public sculpture has galvanised collective memory and articulated a social moment in a way that only art can.

The College has been acquiring art for centuries, from portraits of notable individuals to large sculptures. This art could be said to reflect the changing identity and values of the College over time, but it is not only of historical interest: the collecting of art has benefits for both the people who view it and those who create it.

Kenny Hunter

Kenny Hunter’s obsession with sculpture started as a child when an art teacher handed him some clay. The joy of manipulating materials has been part of his life ever since. After art school he completed a residency in Athens, where he undertook an intense period of research and developed new ideas for a gallery show. He began to get small commissions and these led to his first public sculpture for the outside walls of the Tron Theatre in Glasgow: a two-piece sculpture of a cherub and a skull, referring to the time between childhood and growing old.

For commissioned work, Hunter starts the process with a period of research followed by conversations with the client. He believes that this dialogue is essential to get inside the world of the client and to discover more about their history and

Hunter relishes the challenges that making public art present: researching, developing ideas, taking risks, interacting with clients and a being part of the debate around public art, as well as creating the sculptures themselves. His life-size elephant sculpture on the site of the 1938 British Empire Exhibition in Bellahouston Park, Glasgow, was cast at an industrial foundry from 11 tonnes of iron, some of which was from recycled, redundant or scrap parts of Glasgowbuilt locomotives sourced from India and South Africa.

The original model was made in resin and this elephant formed part of Hunter’s recent exhibition, titled Sculpture Court, at Aberdeen Art Gallery. Having a gallery profile is important to Hunter because it allows him to display his own ideas and reflect his personality in the pieces.

The title of his show at Aberdeen was chosen to suggest review or trial. Sculpture does not always have positive connotations: it has a long history of being defaced or toppled, and for Hunter this poses the question of what are monuments, what are they for, who decides where they go and what do they represent? Hunter’s work is part of this civic discourse and shows us that the true value of art is not in the object, it’s in the message.

More of Kenny Hunter’s work can be seen at www.kennyhunter.com

Keith Breeden

Keith Breeden’s work will be familiar to any Fellow or Member who has visited the College, as his portraits of four College presidents hang on the walls of the Playfair building. John Smith, John Temple, Ian Ritchie and Michael Griffin have all selected Breeden to capture their image for posterity.

Becoming a painter took Breeden many years of hard work, but by painting the things around him he gradually improved his technique, established his own language of mark making and started winning prizes, including the BP Portrait Award 1996 Visitors’ Choice for an oil painting of his neighbours.

Breeden begins a portrait commission by having conversations with the sitter and exploring expectations. He makes sketches in pencil and oil paint and takes some photographs. This is followed by a period of thinking about what he wants to achieve in the portrait. For Breeden, portrait painting is a balance between what comes from the sitter and what comes from the artist. He tries to capture a presence of the person in the painting. His conversations with sitters help him to get to know the person he wants to see in the final painting.

For his portrait of Griffin, a small number of sittings took place in the Playfair Hall of the College with the rest at Breeden’s studio in Wales. Being in the College gave Breeden further insight into Griffin’s personality, his job as a surgeon and his role as College President during the pandemic.

Breeden’s decision to include the pandemic memorial came relatively late and he believes it makes a strong patient-centred statement. He visited the sculptor, Kenny Hunter, at his studio in Edinburgh and borrowed the maquettes of the statues.

Portraits can take him up to a year or more depending on the number and timing of sittings, but equally can be done within three months.

Breeden prefers to work from life, but uses photographs in support of this, and has undertaken posthumous work entirely from photographs.

For his poignant portrait of the late Charles Kennedy MP, he had only completed one sitting before Charles’ early death. The portrait reflects Charles’ decency and strong principles, but also the forlorn end of his career. Breeden describes himself as a perfectionist, which drives him on but can also inhibit his painting. He realises the painting is just enough when the sitter starts looking back at him from the canvas. This can feel intrusive as he senses a life, a person in the painting. For Breeden, sitters become a part of his life; he never forgets them and they remain in his head forever.

See more of Keith Breeden’s work at www.keithbreeden.com; email: baldini55555@gmail.com