Modern One – The NEN – North Edinburgh News

Major new displays at National Galleries Scotland

Modern One to offer a chance to discover works by leading modern and contemporary artists for free

Discover some of the biggest names in modern and contemporary art at Modern One this Summer with a series of free ARTIST ROOMS displays in Edinburgh from 12 July 2025.

The national touring collection, cared for jointly by the National Galleries of Scotland and Tate, offers the opportunity to see compelling works by pioneering artists of our time. Experience impactful new displays by Louise Bourgeois, Helen Chadwick and Robert Mapplethorpe, each offering distinctive and diverse approaches to the ideas of self-expression, identity, and the complexity of our inner life.

Visitors will encounter Louise Bourgeois’s giant Spider (1994), standing at an impressive three metres high, innovative works by Helen Chadwick, and Robert Mapplethorpe’s striking self-portraits.

Themes in these three exciting ARTIST ROOMS presentations have provided the starting point for a series of new displays across Modern One, showcasing further works from the nation’s magnificent collection.

Explore paintings, drawings, prints and photography by artists such as Andy Warhol, Pablo Picasso, Sarah Lucas, Jasleen Kaur, Edvard Munch, Lee Miller and many more! Offering something for everyone, these displays provide a place to think, dream, and reflect.

Explore the works of French-American Louise Bourgeois, one of the most influential artists of her generation whose career spanned eight deades, from the 1930s until 2010. Her endlessly inventive work, inspired by her own experiences, included paintings and drawings, sculptures using fabric and rubber, and monumental installations.

The display will draw out the ways Bourgeois used art as an act of catharsis, with works exploring selfhood, family connections, motherhood and memory. Visitors will discover two important works on paper – 10 am is When You Come to Me (2005) and Spirals (2005) – and a rare early painting, made by Bourgeois in 1946-7.

Discover her late sculpture Untitled (1996) made when Bourgeois was eighty-five, representing a portrait of the artist’s aging body using clothes and undergarments she had worn during her lifetime.

Be inspired by the radical, sensuous, and often playful works of British artist Helen Chadwick. One of the first women artists to be nominated for the Turner Prize in 1987, her innovative and unconventional use of materials was hugely influential on a younger generation of British artists.

Her death in 1996 at 42 curtailed a career marked by inventive transgression, questioning gender representation and the nature of desire. Early photographic works in this display will explore how she used her own body to consider autobiography, self-knowledge, the cycles of life and familial relationships.

Discover how Chadwick developed her practice to incorporate other matter as stand ins for the body, as found in Self Portrait (1991) and Meat Abstract (1989), both held in Scotland’s collection.

The display will feature Chadwick’s major sculptural installation, Piss Flowers (1991-2), lent by Tate having recently been donated as part of the D.Daskalopoulos Collection Gift. Throughout all her work Chadwick addressed deeply philosophical questions about the interconnectedness of physical and emotional states, life and death, beauty and decay, and attraction and repulsion.

ARTIST ROOMS features one of the largest and best collections of photographic works by the American Robert Mapplethorpe in existence.

A pioneer of black-and-white photography, within his relatively short career, Mapplethorpe was recognised as one of the most significant fine art photographers of the late 20^th century, making images that both challenge and engage with classical notions of beauty.

The display will focus on a selection of the artist’s iconic self-portraits, demonstrating how Mapplethorpe examined his own persona. Made over a period of more than 10 years, they show the powerful ways Mapplethorpe captured the many facets of his own evolving identity.

Delve into displays showcasing the breadth of Scotland’s modern and contemporary collection as you wander through the rest of Modern One. Come face to face with compelling self-portraits by some of the most well-known international artists of the 20th and 21st century.

Be moved by striking works exploring connection and care, including two works by Turner Prize winning artist Jasleen Kaur acquired in 2024 for the nation.

Explore how artists such as Bill Viola, Pablo Picasso, Everlyn Nicodemus, Pat Douthwaite and Don McCullin have addressed personal and collective grief.

Find your moment of pause and reflection in a room pairing contemplative paintings by acclaimed American abstract artist, Agnes Martin (from the ARTIST ROOMS collection) with Shirazeh Houshiary’s 1992 Round Dance series, offering a place of calm.

Dive into Summer with captivating experiences at Modern One. Families can pack a picnic and relax in the stunning grounds surrounding the gallery. On arrival you will be in awe of the spiralling Landform in front of the gallery, designed by landscape architect Charles Jencks.

Pick up a free copy of the sculpture trail for kids or download it before you arrive and enjoy it on your device as you set off to discover sculptural works by major artists including Barbara Hepworth, Joan Miró and Tracey Emin.

A Family Art Basket can be collected for free, packed with everything you need to find, chat and make together – be inspired by the fascinating art both inside and outside the gallery and allow your own creativity to flow.

Lucy Askew, Chief Curator, Modern and Contemporary Art said: ‘We’re delighted that from this July, visitors to Modern One can explore new, free displays from the nation’s collection.

“Art can be a source of insight and delight, helping us make sense of our place in the world. At the heart of these displays will be presentations of works by Louise Bourgeois, Helen Chadwick and Robert Mapplethorpe, featured as part of our ARTIST ROOMS collection.

“All three artists considered deeply what it is to be human, expressing this in dynamic, intriguing and often playful ways. Their art not only reflects shared experiences, bringing attention to the things that connect us, but also offers a window onto different perspectives.

“We hope visitors will be inspired by their vision and creativity, and by the work of the many other impressive and engaging artists featured. There is truly something for all to discover.’

Make the most of the bank holidays at the National Galleries of Scotland

family events
extended opening of five-star exhibition, Everlyn Nicodemus

There is something for everyone to discover at the National Galleries of Scotland over the upcoming Easter and May bank holidays.

Visitors will have the chance to enjoy a programme of family events and experience Everlyn Nicodemus on Monday 26 May, with an extra day added to allow bank holiday revellers to enjoy the exhibition.

Spanning the gallery’s entire ground floor of Modern One, Everlyn Nicodemus is open now and free for everyone to visit. Experience Everlyn’s colourful, defiant and searingly honest artworks, with over 80 drawings, collages, paintings and textiles from over 40 years of her career, from 1980 through to the present day.

Families can also get involved with some joyful Easter artmaking inspired by Everlyn Nicodemus. Over the Easter holidays, from Monday 14 to Friday 18 April 2025 between 2–4pm, families can drop into Art Space 1 at Modern One to play with patterns, create shapes, mix colours and more.

Or for those looking for autism-friendly activities this Easter, a drop in event will be held on Tuesday 15 April 2025, 10.30am–12pm. Meet other families, explore the galleries and take part in creative activities with an experienced team of artists.

Autism-friendly sessions at the National Galleries of Scotland are for children and young people on the autism spectrum – with their families – who may benefit from smaller group sizes and tailored activities to suit individual needs.

For those looking to dive deeper into the world of Everlyn Nicodemus, join the panel discussion on Friday 23 May, 3-4pm for free at the National or via the YouTube livestream.

To mark the end of her first ever retrospective, Everlyn Nicodemus will be in conversation with writer JJ Fadaka and artist and curator Khadea Santi. Together they will chat about the lasting legacy of Everlyn’s amazing exhibition. Plus, livestream ticketholders can watch back anytime.

There is even more to discover when visiting the Moderns, with a completely free offering across two galleries and two sculpture parks. Weave your way through two exciting buildings featuring leading artists’ works which define the Modern era.

At Modern One, delve into displays, shows and installations from the leading artists of today, both inside and outdoors. As well as Everlyn Nicodemus, discover a celebratory display to mark Bruce McLean’s 80^th birthday. Bruce McLean: I Want My Crown traces the Glasgow-born artist’s humorous, provocative and engaging six-decade long inquiry into sculpture.

Through works made across a range of media including photography, performance, painting, printmaking, film, and ceramics, this one-room display invites you to challenge your thinking about sculpture and expand your ideas of what art can be.

Get ready for captivating, light-hearted and all-encompassing experiences at Modern One. On arrival you will be in awe of the striking land feature Landform in front of the gallery, designed by landscape architect Charles Jencks. Explore the grounds and discover further sculptural works by other major artists including Pablo Picasso, Barbara Hepworth, Jackson Pollock and Tracey Emin.

Once you’ve explored Modern One why not head across the road to Modern Two to further explore the grounds. Plus, you can celebrate the centenary of the remarkable Scottish artist Ian Hamilton Finlay (1925-2006) taking over the ground floor of Modern Two.

Or why not head to one of the National Galleries of Scotland’s other sites. At the National, drop into the Family Art Hub, open until 20 April. Designed to help you and your family explore the Scottish galleries together.

The space offers a place to create and share your art, read the books on offer and play. You can watch short films about different art techniques or listen to what children and artists think about art and what it is for. Spark your senses and make shadows and shapes in the play area.

At the Portrait visit Connections,a relaxed space for visitors to draw, read and chat about some of the ways in which we make connections through art. Bringing together communities, partner organisations, and artists, the displays highlight how we use art to find shared interests, discover social histories, explore issues and identities, and create new objects to tell new stories.

Current displays include portraits of Govanhill, a project exploring different issues that impact young people across Scotland today. Using photography as a creative tool, the voices and views of young people from Big Noise Govanhill are represented.

Also featured are images from Dementia Friendly Gallery Socials, artwork made by young people in Edinburgh Children’s Hospital, the ITAC Relay and Rowan Alba homeless prevention charity.

A sensational year of art for everyone at National Galleries of Scotland

National Galleries of Scotland has announced an unmissable programme of free and ticketed exhibitions set to take over the National, Portrait and Modern galleries in Edinburgh throughout 2025.

From striking installations in Andy Goldsworthy: Fifty Years to time travelling into The World of King James VI and I, taking to the skies with Alfred Buckham: Daredevil Photographer, a celebration of 250 years of JMW Turner with Turner in January: Ireland’s Vaughan Bequest and more.

There will be a sensational array of art to enjoy in the Scottish capital next year. Ticketed exhibitions can be booked online now What’s on | National Galleries of Scotland

From 26 July until 2 November 2025, immerse yourself in a major large-scale exhibition by Andy Goldsworthy. Andy Goldsworthy: Fifty Years will take over the upper and lower galleries in the Royal Scottish Academy building for the summer. Based in Scotland, Goldsworthy (born 1956) is internationally famous for his extraordinary work with natural materials.

The exhibition will span five decades of creation with over 200 works including photographs, sculptures, and expansive new installations. Goldsworthy will also create several major new works onsite at the Royal Scottish Academy building especially for Andy Goldsworthy: Fifty Years. This spectacular summer exhibition is sure to be one of the most talked-about of the year – and it is showing only in Edinburgh.

Next spring at the Portrait, travel back in time and be immersed in The World of King James VI and I. Son of Mary, Queen of Scots, successor to Elizabeth I and the first monarch to rule over Scotland, England and Ireland, get to know King James (1566 – 1625) and step into the world in which he lived, ruled and changed forever.

Marking the 400-year anniversary of King James’s death, this exhibition will chart his remarkable reign through stories of friendship, family, feuds and ambition. Drawing on themes with contemporary relevance, including national identity, queer history, belief and spirituality, The World of King James VI and I will be an enriching journey through the complex life of a King who changed the shape of the United Kingdom.

Over 100 objects will be on display, including ornate paintings, dazzling jewels, lavish designs and important loans from galleries across the UK, celebrating craft and visual art from the 16^th and 17^th centuries. From 26 April – 14 September 2025 come and be fully immersed in the sights, sounds (and even smells) of the period, connecting the people of the past with the people of today. Tickets are on sale now.

In 2025 the National Galleries of Scotland will commemorate the 250^th birthday of beloved British artist JMW Turner (1775 – 1851) with a once in a lifetime, free exhibition. For the first time, visitors will be able to marvel at over 30 Turner watercolours from Dublin.

Turner in January: Ireland’s Vaughan Bequest at the Royal Scottish Academy building will be one-off special take on the keenly awaited and much-loved annual tradition. Spanning the breadth of Turner’s career, visitors can roam through sweeping seascapes, dramatic landscapes and spectacular cities, many displayed in their original frames.

As part of this special partnership, the Turner works from the Scottish national collection will go on display at the National Gallery of Ireland allowing visitors in both Scotland and Ireland to connect with works from the Henry Vaughan Bequest they don’t often get to see.

There will be another two new and exciting projects making their way to the Moderns in 2025. From next summer you can explore your collection at Modern One with a series of new free displays showcasing magnificent and diverse works of 20th and 21st century art belonging to the people of Scotland.

This includes an opportunity to see compelling works from ARTIST ROOMS, the national touring collection cared for jointly by the National Galleries of Scotland and Tate. Discover the bold and varied self-portraits of Robert Mapplethorpe, immerse yourself in Louise Bourgeois’s evocative practice, and be captivated by the works of Helen Chadwick in a new ARTIST ROOMS display.

Chadwick’s Self Portrait (1991) from Scotland’s national collection will feature alongside the major sculptural installation, Piss Flowers (1991-2), which will be lent by Tate having recently been donated as part of the D.Daskalopoulos Collection Gift.

Explore this powerful new presentation of the nation’s superb contemporary and modern collection from 12 July 2025. A further exhibition taking place at Modern Two will be announced in early 2025.

The centenary of revered Scottish artist Ian Hamilton Finlay (1925 – 2006) will also be marked in a new free display of his work at Modern Two from 8 March to 26 May 2025. A visionary in his craft, Ian Hamilton Finlay harnessed the power of collaboration throughout his career, drawing on the expertise of fellow makers and creators to bring his artistic visions to life.

Hailed as a poet, sculptor, printmaker, gardener and provocateur, his practice covered a wide range of media, reflected in this display through over 30 sculptures, installations and prints as well as extensive archival materials, all from Scotland’s national collection.

Moving into the autumn at the Portrait, take to the skies and see the world from above the clouds through the remarkable work of Alfred Buckham: Daredevil Photographer.

A trailblazer in his field, Buckham (1879 – 1956) soared above the realms of what was thought to be possible in 20^th century photography and aviation.

From 18 October 2025 – 19 April 2026, meet the man behind some of the most iconic aerial photographs, marvel at the death-defying lengths he took to capture the perfect image and explore how his innovative techniques paved the way for modern technologies such as Photoshop and AI.

Explore the imaginative Your Art World exhibition at the National, showcasing the inspirational works of young artists from all over Scotland aged 3 – 18-year-olds. The exhibition is a celebration of what happens when young people are encouraged to be wildly creative.

Discover installations from school and community groups who have worked alongside the National Galleries of Scotland. Or even view the creations of the young people in your own life.

With the opportunity to upload artwork online via the website, anyone aged 3-18 can see their own digital submissions on screen in the gallery. Immerse yourself in the imagination of these young artists from 10 May to 2 November 2025.

Anne Lyden, Director-General at the National Galleries of Scotland said: “We’re really excited to announce our 2025 public programme, which is packed full of fantastic exhibitions.

“Breathtaking installations at the Royal Scottish Academy, soaring above the clouds at the Portrait gallery, and modern and contemporary highlights from your national collection at the Moderns.

“Whether you want to be inspired, find a moment of calm or share a joyful experience with friends – there’s so much to discover at the National Galleries of Scotland.”

Exhibition dates:

Turner in January: Ireland’s Vaughan Bequest:1- 31 January 2025 | FREE | National Galleries Scotland exhibition at the Royal Scottish Academy building

Ian Hamilton Finlay: 8 March – 26 May 2025 | FREE | National Galleries Scotland: Modern Two

The World of King James VI & I: 26 April – 14 September 2025 | Tickets £4-£9 | National Galleries Scotland: Portrait

Your Art World: 10 May – 2 November 2025 | FREE | National Galleries Scotland: National

ARTIST ROOMS: Opening 12 July 2025 | FREE | National Galleries Scotland: Modern One

Andy Goldsworthy: Fifty Years: 26 July – 2 November 2025 |Tickets £5-£19 | National Galleries Scotland exhibition at the Royal Scottish Academy building

Alfred Buckham: Daredevil Photographer: 18 October 2025 – 19 April 2026 | FREE | National Galleries Scotland: Portrait

National Galleries of Scotland acquire two paintings by trailblazing artist Everlyn Nicodemus

Prepare to be inspired at National Galleries Scotland: Modern One, as Everlyn Nicodemus opens her first retrospective this Saturday

Spanning the gallery’s entire ground floor, Everlyn Nicodemus opens on 19 October 2024 until 25 May 2025, and is free for everyone to enjoy.

Experience Everlyn’s joyful, defiant and searingly honest artworks, with over 80 drawings, collages, paintings and textiles from over 40 years of her career, from 1980 through to the present day.

Following a 25-year break from the medium of painting, Everlyn Nicodemus will unveil a series of new artworks created especially for the exhibition.

To mark the opening of the exhibition, the National Galleries of Scotland has announced the acquisition of two powerful works by Everlyn Nicodemus. The Wedding 45 (1991) is from Everlyn’s largest body of work – an intricate and symbolic group of over 80 paintings produced in the 1990s.

The series was created during her recovery from a mental health breakdown, which the artist now understands to be linked to post-traumatic stress disorder, diagnosed some years later. The Wedding 45represents a resilient return to life, in all its beauty, difficulty and complexity. The faceless female body has returned to a position of strength and empowerment, with an equal relationship to the world around her.

A second work, Eva(1981) has also been gifted to Scotland’s national collection by Everlyn Nicodemus and Richard Saltoun Gallery, ensuring the artist’s legacy will continue long after the exhibition has finished.

Painted when Everlyn was living in Stockholm, Evadepicts the Old Testament figure of Eve (Eva in Swedish), pregnant and standing on a large red apple, with a bite taken out of it.

Her pregnancy and the apple both indicate that this work depicts her after Adam and Eve’s expulsion from the Garden of Eden for consuming the forbidden fruit of the tree of knowledge.

The painting’s themes of pregnancy and birth, the Biblical focus on sin, and Eve’s victimisation are linked to the artist’s memories, from growing up in Tanzania, of the stigma that surrounded pregnancy outside of marriage.

As in many cultures, she recalls that young women were blamed for their unwanted early pregnancies, even when the result of rape. Eva is a painting that proudly declares the artist’s unwavering support for global reproductive rights.

Championing a belief that creativity is a form of healing, Everlyn’s work engages with themes including the global oppression of women, the enduring impact of racism and the artist’s own personal trauma and recovery.

Visitors to Everlyn Nicodemus will marvel at her bold and courageous use of colour, form, light and shade, inviting them to explore and question their understanding of identity, belonging and faith.

This stirring exhibition was made possible because Everlyn was the recipient of the prestigious Freelands Award in 2022. Presented by Freelands Foundation, the annual prize is gifted in support of women artists underrepresented in their field.

An artist, writer and curator, Everlyn Nicodemus was born in Marangu, Kilimanjaro, Tanzania in 1954. Living and working across Europe since the mid-1970s, Everlyn has made Edinburgh her home for the last fifteen years.

Throughout her career, she has taken an active involvement in community life, using her gift of expression to highlight the shared oppression of women. Her pioneering scholarship on African modern art and trauma studies has also informed her practice.

Since the 1980s, Everlyn has made paintings, collages and works on paper that explore violence against women, personal trauma and the isolation and dehumanisation of living within structural racism.

Everlyn Nicodemus will chart her career from those early days, with works including her very first painting, After the Birth (1980). At over two metres in length, this oil on bark cloth painting shows a large-scale image of a mother and child, brought to life through swirling black and white lines against a rich terracotta background.

The mother figure is seen protectively placed over the child; however, her face is covered by her hands, her body hunched in a state of recovery. This scene evokes deep emotions such as uncertainty and isolation; the often-unspoken elements of motherhood. Even in her earliest work, Everlyn’s skill as a visual storyteller is clear, compassionately highlighting women’s shared experiences and struggles.

From her earliest work to the newest, the exciting debut of Everlyn’s new series Lazarus Jacaranda (2022–24) will form a key element of this exhibition, signifying an end to the artist’s 25-year hiatus from painting.

While not directly referencing the biblical character in the series’ title, the paintings consider themes of cyclical life and Everlyn’s belief that ‘art is resurrection’. Female figures, both archetypes and named individuals, are shown in relaxed and restful poses, their feet supported by flowers and petals that spring powerfully to life.

These paintings have much in common with Everlyn’s earlier artworks, from the colour palette and confident celebration of the female body seen in Silent Strength (1989–90), to the botanical elements present in The Wedding (1990–94). This marks a resurrection of Everlyn’s own work from the past, influencing her present practice.

This long overdue retrospective focussing on the life and work of Everlyn Nicodemus is a celebration of the compassion, creativity and care which she has led with throughout her 40 years as an artist. Everlyn Nicodemus is waiting to be discovered by new audiences at Modern One this winter.

Everlyn Nicodemus said: “This exhibition feels like the most important moment in my career, spanning over 40 years of my work. It’s especially meaningful to me that it’s happening here in Edinburgh, a place that truly feels like my home. Having lived as a nomad all my life, this is the first place where I’ve been able to live and create in one space that is both my home and my studio.

“It’s a rare and unique experience for any artist, and especially for a Black African woman artist, to witness a retrospective of their own, and of this scale, so I feel incredibly lucky. This exhibition is a journey through my whole artistic life, and I hope it resonates deeply with those who experience it.”

Anne Lyden, Director-General of the National Galleries of Scotland said: “It is a great privilege to host the first ever retrospective of visionary artist Everlyn Nicodemus at Modern One this year.

“Everlyn’s exceptional artwork harnesses her incredible ability to communicate the most complex subjects with unwavering compassion. Her work serves to empower and inspire, but also sensitively demonstrates the therapeutic and healing powers of creativity.

“This exhibition also marks Everlyn’s return to painting after a 25-year break with the unveiling of a new series of work which we are excited to share with our audiences for the first time. We are thrilled to bring this exhibition to the people of Scotland and celebrate Everlyn’s remarkable career in the city she calls home.”

Stephanie Straine, Senior Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art at the National Galleries of Scotland said:“We’re so excited that Everlyn’s exhibition has opened here in Edinburgh, allowing visitors to encounter Everlyn’s astonishing creative practice of many decades.

“I feel truly honoured to have had the opportunity to work closely with the artist over the past three years to develop her exhibition and its accompanying publication.

“It’s been a privilege to be a part of this incredibly rewarding collaborative process that has time and again emphasised Everlyn’s rigorous scholarship, commitment to and celebration of art making, and deeply empathetic perspective on the complexities of our shared humanity.”

Visitors to Everlyn Nicodemus can enjoy a free audio tour as part of their experience. Led by Everlyn herself, listeners will be guided around the exhibition as she highlights selected works and delves deeper into her inspirations, experiences and creative process.

Everlyn Nicodemus is accompanied by a generously illustrated catalogue, featuring a new interview with the artist by Perrin Lathrop (Assistant Curator of African Art at Princeton University Art Museum).

The book also includes essays from Professor Eddie Chambers (David Bruton, Jr. Centennial Professorship in Art History at the University of Texas at Austin), Catherine de Zegher (curator, modern and contemporary art historian), and Stephanie Straine (curator of the exhibition at the National Galleries of Scotland).

Everlyn Nicodemus is yours to discover for free at National Galleries Scotland: Modern One from Saturday 19 October 2024. Find out more Everlyn Nicodemus | National Galleries of Scotland. An adaptation of the exhibition will be presented at WIELS, Brussels in autumn 2025.

Scottish artist Bruce McLean gets a crowning display for his 80th birthday at Modern One in Edinburgh

A celebratory display to mark Bruce McLean’s 80th birthday opens tomorrow (Saturday 29 June) at Modern One in Edinburgh.

Taking over room 20, Bruce McLean: I Want My Crown traces the Glasgow-born artist’s humorous, provocative and engaging six-decade long inquiry into sculpture. Through works made across a range of media including photography, performance, painting, printmaking, film, and ceramics, the one room display invites you to challenge your thinking about sculpture and expand your ideas of what art can be.

Sparked by childhood curiosity and challenging what he had been taught about sculpture as a student at St Martin’s School of Art in the 1960s, McLean’s artistic career has been characterised by his desire to break the rules. Encompassing both wry satire and an earnest inquiry into the nature of art, his work is known for its intelligence, as much as its humorous and rebellious spirit.

The works in the display question many of our traditional assumptions about what sculpture should be, who it is for, how it is made, and how it is shown. In so doing, McLean is also asking broader questions about the role of art in our everyday lives, and in particular the role of the artist.

An early target of his was the leading British sculptor Henry Moore, who gained international celebrity status in the post-war period of British sculpture.

McLean’s photographic work Fallen Warrior (1969/2011) is an image of the artist ‘falling’ onto a ‘pedestal’, an idea he picks up again in Pose Work for Plinths (1971) in which McLean, as a living sculpture, tries out a number of poses across three plinths, the traditional means of showing sculptural works.

The piece references Moore’s own sculpture Falling Warrior (1956–7), in which a male figure clutching a shield is shown falling, heroically, on the battlefield.

Challenges to hierarchy and status are constant themes of his work. When, aged 27, he was offered a solo exhibition at Tate Gallery, London, he seized on it as an opportunity to make a radically subversive statement about art world systems, conventions, and power structures.

Wryly titling the exhibition King for a Day, it comprised a list of ideas for 1000 prospective artworks, which McLean presented as a one-day ‘retrospective’ in the form of a catalogue.

Multiple copies of this catalogue will be displayed, allowing visitors to pore over McLean’s ‘homages’, ‘studies’, and ‘serial’ works – his parodic take on the contemporary art world’s continual need to define and categorise artworks.

Decades after King for a Day, McLean revisited the theme with I Want My Crown (2013). This video installation, projected large-scale in the gallery, brings the artist into the space and shows him dancing to a 1973 song of the same title by British musician Kevin Coyne as he gestures to a crown sculpture on a shelf above his head.

Another recurrent theme in McLean’s art is that behaviour – both private and public – is a function of the environment around us.

This notion takes centre stage in the architectural projects he has worked on over the years. In 1994, initiated by Glasgow City Council, a brief was set for a redevelopment of Glasgow’s Argyle Street.

McLean’s hyper-real proposal to turn the street into a bustling interactive ‘theatre’ won the competition in 1996, though the project was never realised. Visitors to I Want My Crown can enjoy the paper collages that lay out McLean’s playful vision.

The proposal included an Irn Bru bar, a Tunnocks Tower offering periscope views of the city, and a helium-filled fabric cloud sculpture to shelter those below from the Scottish rain.

Also featured is Constructed Painting (2024), comprised of six paintings made between 1990 and 2014, each stacked and propped against the gallery wall like the components of a large-scale collage.

The paintings reference sculptures by well-known artists of the past and present. Enlarging photocopied images of their sculptures, McLean made cardboard cutouts, their huge scale signalling their overbearing influence on his early work and art school training.

Staging different groupings in his studio, McLean photographed the cutouts, then made paintings after the photographs. The result is a hybrid between sculpture, performance, photography and painting. Testament to McLean’s dynamic creative energy, the configuration of these paintings will change multiple times during the display’s run.

Ever the innovator, McLean continues at 80 to question and expand the meaning and resonance of sculpture, allowing it to remain as vital and relevant for another generation.

Bruce McLean said: “I’d like to thank Leila Riszko, Simon Groom, and all the staff at the National Galleries of Scotland for putting together this show with great care, sensitivity and patience. Good work!

“My next project will be Passing a Law Sculpture. The law will be that every 17 year old person in Britain goes to art school for a one year foundation course focusing on drawing in all its many aspects. Everything in the world is drawn before it is created.”

Leila Riszko, Assistant Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art at the National Galleries of Scotland, said: “We’re really excited about this fantastic opportunity to bring the creative energy of Bruce’s work to the attention and admiration of a new generation.

“It has been an absolute pleasure to collaborate with him on such a dynamic presentation of his work – as befits a celebratory exhibition in honour of the artist’s 80th birthday!”

Bruce McLean: I Want My Crown is yours to discover at National Galleries Scotland: Modern One from Saturday 29 June 2024. Find out more online Bruce McLean | I Want My Crown | National Galleries of Scotland

National Galleries of Scotland acquires first ever Varo painting to enter a European collection

FREE

Modern One, Edinburgh

The National Galleries of Scotland is delighted to announce the acquisition of Encounter (1959), by world-renowned Surrealist artist Remedios Varo (1908-1963). Extremely rare and sought-after, this is the first painting by Varo to enter a public collection in Europe. Encounter is on display and free to view at Modern One.

The work was acquired in time to mark the centenary of the publication in Paris of André Breton’s Manifesto of Surrealism in 1924, which effectively launched the movement. A significant and exciting acquisition for the people of Scotland, Varo only completed about 100 paintings in her lifetime, with most in public collections in Mexico. Only able to dedicate herself fully to creating art in the last decade of her life,Encounter was produced in 1959, at the height of Varo’s career.

The concept of the encounter – especially the chance encounter – was a subject favoured by the Surrealists for its mysterious potential.

In this striking composition, a seated figure carefully lifts the lid on a tiny casket to find her own eyes staring back at her. Several similar boxes sit on the shelves in the background, suggesting that there are more “selves” to be discovered.

Many of the figures that Varo painted resemble the artist herself, and this work is believed to be a self-portrait.

Varo said of the work: “This poor woman, full of curiosity and expectation as she opened the little coffer, encounters her own self; in the background, on the shelves, there are more little coffers, and who knows whether on opening them she will find something new.”

Born in Girona, Catalonia, in north-east Spain, Remedios Varo was a Surrealist painter and poet. Her father, an engineer, recognised her artistic talent from a young age and encouraged her to copy his technical drawings, which would influence her compositions for the rest of her life.

She was one of the first female students to attend the Academia de San Fernando in Madrid, where she enrolled at the age of 15, and later received her diploma as an art teacher. In 1935, after moving to Paris, Varo encountered artists engaging with Surrealist concepts, and was later introduced to the poet and founder of the Surrealist movement, André Breton.

After fleeing Nazi-occupied France in 1941, Varo settled in Mexico, where she was one of a small but important group of Surrealist poets, painters and photographers. These artists include Kati Horna and Leonora Carrington, with whom she forged a creative alliance but also an enduring, life-long friendship.

Using a combination of chance and planned techniques, Varo produced work that was influenced by science and the occult in equal measure. The resulting images are as mysterious as they are technically brilliant, often depicting enchanted domestic scenes and strange encounters with otherworldly beings.

Playing with the magical and spiritual potential of interior spaces, Varo sought power in ordinary rooms — in dusty corridors, and creaking doorways — transforming them into fantasy realms that overflow with possibility.

In the last ten years, the National Galleries of Scotland has made efforts to acquire major works of art by female artists.

This latest unique acquisition will help to expand the collection and give a more comprehensive view of Surrealism as a diverse, international movement, rather than one simply centred in Paris.

Other recent acquisitions include major artworks by Leonora Carrington, Dorothea Tanning and more recently, archival material related to Edith Rimmington.

Simon Groom, Director of Modern and Contemporary Art at the National Galleries of Scotland, said: “We’re thrilled to have acquired this incredibly rare and important painting by Remedios Varo. Her career as a full-time artist lasted little more than a decade.

“She worked slowly and meticulously, completing only about a hundred paintings, many of which are now in museum collections in Mexico and the USA. They are breathtaking gems which one seldom sees outside books.

“There’s not a single painting by her in a public collection outside the Americas. Or rather that was the case until now. Moreover, Encounter is a key work in her oeuvre, a self-portrait which deals with self-discovery and identity.

“It cements the National Galleries of Scotland’s collection of Surrealist art as one of the very finest in the world.”

Jenny Waldman, Director, Art Fund, said: “Artist Remedios Varo’s haunting painting, ‘Encounter’ into the Scottish National Galleries’ collection will captivate visitors from Scotland and across the UK.

“This painting is a key addition to Scottish National Galleries’ growing collection of major works by women artists. I’m delighted that Art Fund has been able to support this important Surrealist work to enter the permanent collection, thanks to our generous donors and National Art Pass members.”

The acquisition was made possible thanks to the Walton Fund, along with support from Art Fund and the Wendi Norris Gallery, San Francisco.

Extraordinary new artworks by Alberta Whittle debut at the Modern

Alberta Whittle: create dangerously  

1 April 2023 – 7 January 2024 

Free  

National Galleries Scotland: Modern One 

Alberta Whittle | create dangerously | National Galleries of Scotland

New multi-media works by the celebrated Barbadian-Scottish artist, Alberta Whittle, will be revealed today [Saturday 1 April] in a free exhibition at the Modern (Modern One) in Edinburgh. Alberta Whittle: create dangerously will run until 7 January 2024.

Experience the ambition and breadth of Alberta’s career to date and come away feeling her call to ‘invest in love’. At the heart of Alberta Whittle: create dangerously is the artist’s generous spirit and her powerful and poetic storytelling. Alberta pulls apart the belief that ’racism and police brutality is [just] an English problem or an American problem’.

Instead, she underlines Scotland’s complicity in the structures of white supremacy. Often deeply personal, weaving stories of family and belonging, Alberta offers a message of hope, asking us to imagine a world outside of these damaging systems and ways of thinking. 

Step inside a sound installation and listen to the voice of poet Kamau Brathwaite (1930-2020), a much-loved and hugely influential figure in Caribbean literature. Dealing with the themes of grief and loss, Alberta made this in personal tribute to Brathwaite, who was a close friend of her family as well as a collaborator.

Titled A portal for breathing love into the Elders or an Adoration for kith-folk who we long for (2021), this installation is comprised of objects of significance to the artist.

There will be a room dedicated to addressing the themes of rest and care, and connection and belonging in Alberta’s practice, where you can slow down and pause. Inside this room, visitors will find a beautiful bespoke quilt hanging on the wall, crafted by a group of women from North Edinburgh. 

Inspired by Alberta’s practice and use of textiles and fabrics in her work, the quilt is being caringly made by a sewing group run by Project Esperanza, a charity dedicated to supporting women of African heritage, as well as women from other culturally diverse backgrounds. Facilitated by textile artist Francia Boakye, this quilt draws upon the makers’ lived experiences, weaving together their stories and their journeys as migrants to Scotland.   

To coincide with Alberta Whittle: create dangerously, Edinburgh Art Festival and the National Galleries of Scotland will also support a new performance by the artist due to take place during the festival this summer (11-27 August).

The National Galleries of Scotland recently announced the acquisition of two major works by the celebrated Barbadian-Scottish artist, Alberta Whittle. The artist’s extraordinary installation with tapestry, Entanglement is more than blood (2022), and thought-provoking film, Lagareh – The Last Born (2022), will form an integral part of Alberta Whittle: create dangerously.

The two works were at the heart of the artist’s critically acclaimed exhibition at the 59th Venice Biennale, 2022, where she represented Scotland. Their entry into the national collection forms a significant legacy of this landmark project.

Indicative of Alberta’s art practice, Entanglement is more than blood and Lagareh – The Last Born promote compassion and collective care as a means of resisting racism and anti-Blackness. The sculpture and film installation confront the violence of colonialism, the legacies of transatlantic chattel slavery, and the impact of the climate crisis.

Co-commissioned and created in collaboration with Dovecot Studios, Edinburgh, Entanglement is more than blood is a large-scale tapestry on a gate-like structure. It is imbued with the artist’s rich symbolism, including water, snakes, diamonds, hands, and shells. Acting as a portal, the tapestry explores the meaning of family, kinship and ancestral histories, themes that will echo throughout the exhibition.

The imagery in the tapestry is also seen in Lagareh – The Last Born, which was co-commissioned and produced by Forma Arts, London. Centring the collective strength of contemporary Black women, this 43-minute film is anchored in ideas of abolition, rebellion, grief, and love. 6

Shot on location in Scotland, London, and Barbados, and featuring footage from Sierra Leone and Venice, Alberta has woven together contrasting stories of individual acts of resistance against racist violence with gentle moments of intimacy. 

Lagareh – The Last Born will play continuously throughout the day, and for visitors who wish to see it from the beginning, screening start times will be made available in the gallery and on the National Galleries of Scotland website.

Alberta Whittle said: ‘This is an exhibition about hope. It is about the hope we can nurture within ourselves, but also the hope that we can have difficult conversations about the harm caused by colonialism, the Transatlantic trade in enslaved people, and the climate crisis.

“The exhibition presents an opportunity for self-reflection, and to think about the types of power we hold in the world and how we can use it compassionately.’

Lucy Askew, Chief Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art at the National Galleries of Scotland, said: ‘We are incredibly happy to reveal more details about Alberta Whittle: create dangerously.

“This hugely important exhibition, devoted to the work of one of the leading artists working in Scotland today, is underpinned by Alberta’s deep generosity and warmth. Alberta speaks of fundamental truths about the violence and injustices of our past – ‘the burden of proof’ – and the legacy of systemic racism which permeates through our society today, asking us to confront this with her.

“With compassion and care, she holds and guides us, encouraging us to pause, to breathe, and to think differently.”