THIRTY years ago, an exhibition wholeheartedly devoted to contemporary Scottish art was mounted at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art. The Vigorous Imagination: New Scottish Art, brought a number of Scottish artists into the public eye, not least the New Glasgow Boys, during the Edinburgh International Festival, surveying the breadth of Scottish contemporary art.
The thirty-year anniversary of the Vigorous Imagination will be marked at two of Scotland’s key commercial art galleries, the Fine Art Society in Edinburgh and the Roger Billcliffe Gallery in Glasgow. The idea to revisit the exhibition in a double show came as one of the original curators, art critic Clare Henry, sat down with Roger Billcliffe of the eponymous gallery some months ago.
Billcliffe will show new works from the 15 of the 17 artists – both Steven Campbell and Ian Hughes have passed away – whilst Edinburgh’s Fine Art Society have taken the opportunity to hunt down as many original works from 1987 as possible, displaying them alongside specially commissioned new works, or recent works.
“The academic, the historical, is always what we look for in an exhibition,” says Camilla Riva, junior specialist at the FAS. "The aim is to give context; the interest is in how the different artists have developed and fared over the years. We thread our way around the exhibition, most of the pictures on the walls, but some leaning, ready to be hung, on the floor. It is a diverse group."
The familiar names are here, particularly the New Glasgow Boys – Peter Howson, Adrian Wizniewski, Ken Currie, and Campbell. Other well-known art world names include Sam Ainsley, who headed up the Environmental Art programme at Glasgow School of Art until 2006, and whose work, Reaping the Whirlwind was used in the original banner for the 1987 show.
The Vigorous Imagination: Then and Now
The Fine Art Society, 6 Dundas Street, Edinburgh, 0131 557 4050, www.fasedinburgh.com, Until 18 Nov, Mon–Fri, 10am-6pm; Sat 11am-2pm. Also, Roger Billcliffe Gallery, Glasgow, www.billcliffegallery.com
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