Our lecture season is well underway, with wonderful memories of travels in Iran and Afghanistan, searching for splendid weavings and rugs, examining and comparing the skills of sculptors, visits to Danish castles and then gasping at the stunning work of Faberge, when we had a wonderful turn out of members and friends. In March our programme secretary, Nicky Torbet, along with Fiona Royce, will be in London for the national programming day, seeking out lecturers for the 2016 -17 season. Do please offer them any suggestions for topics which would interest you.
Various committee members are working away in the background planning other events and activities for you to enjoy.
Several members are already working as Heritage Volunteers in the library at Brodie castle; a Special Interest Day, with lecturer Charles Wemyss, author of a new book Noble Houses of Scotland, is being planned for early November; a 21 st
Birthday party for MBBDFAS will take place in September; a summer garden visit in July is planned and a very special short visit to Pluscarden Abbey will take place in the spring. In addition we expect to have a Young Arts project underway before long to support senior art students in Moray Schools. There will also be a new Church Recording project, to be led by your previous chairman, Sarah Fennings - Mills. Do please contact the committee members leading these projects if you would like more information, or indeed would like to contribute in any way.
Glasgow’s Tramway is to host work by the 2015’s four Turner Prize nominees at the end of the year. Several Scottish artists have been nominated for or have won the Turner Prize, including the 2014 winner, Duncan Campbell, so it seems fitting that Glasgow should be chosen to host this prestigious and controversial competition.
Before Christmas we announced a new feature for our Newsletter - ‘My Favourite Gallery’ and invited our members to submit a short article about their own gallery favourites. I am delighted to say that members have responded to this suggestion and you can read the contributions from two of our members in this edition of the Newsletter.
We hope to continue with this feature and and would invite members to share their favourite gallery, whether local or further afield. Articles should be sent to: margaret.mcneil42@yahoo.co.uk
OR Margaret McNeil, 6 Mackenzie Drive, Forres IV36 2JP
OR hand it in to a committee member
On Page 3 you can read and enjoy the articles from Marian Evans and Chris Lane.
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We were delighted to welcome NADFAS members, including our area chairman, from all over
Scotland to our Scotland and Northern Ireland Area Special Interest Day at St Giles Church in Elgin. This was an excellent opportunity to celebrate the 450 th Anniversary of Michelangelo’s death and to have Shirley Smith lecturing to us on the very wide range of his talents and works.
The morning lecture focussed on his early life and work in Florence and Rome, such as his early reliefs, the Pietà, David and the Bruges Madonna, his commissions for Pope Julius 11, the tomb, and the Sistine Chapel ceiling.
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The afternoon lecture focussed on his work in Florence for the Medici Popes, the Sacristy and the Laurentian Library. From the work of his later years, we learned about the Last Judgement, the building of St. Peter’s, the Campidoglia, the Pauline Chapel and his agonizing final sculptures of the Deposition.
Throughout the lectures
read extracts from his poems, which added a very different dimension to the whole day. Here are some extracts of poems from the book The Poetry of
Michelangelo, an Introduction. By Christopher Ryan.
From the Preface –
To simplify Michelangelo’s poetry would be to play it false, since, like its creator, it is of its nature complex
From the Florentine period –
If it happens that she smiles at me, even a little,
Or greets me in the middle of the street,
I explode into the air like gunpowder, touched by fire in a cannon or some other piece of artillery
From his later years -
Certain of death, but not yet of its hour,
I know that life is short and little of it left tp me; though to remain here is delightful for the senses, it is not for the soul, which indeed begs me to die
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One of our members and author of various books about Elgin and St Giles Church, John Sutherland, kindly produced a most interesting description of aspects and items related to St Giles, which was much appreciated by our visitors. I still have copies of that if any member would like to have one.
T he most exciting new building in Paris, designed by the Canadian architect Frank Ghery (aged 83 - and you think you are over the hill?) is really worth a visit. You just stand and wonder how it all hangs together …. while also wondering if it is like a boat, a fish, a cockroach or a collection of umbrellas. Actually it is a
Contemporary Art Museum, housing galleries, an auditorium and all the usual facilities, set in a beautiful park - the Jardin
D’Acclimitation - full of autumn colour at the time of my visit. I particularly liked the waterfall leading down to the building over a flight of steps. I can't begin to describe how amazing this building is with the roof made of glass, wood and steel. I can't wait to go back again to see more of the exhibitions, visit the cafe and the Jardin - all in the Bois de Boulogne and easy by Metro from Les Sablons. Look it up on line and you’ll be amazed too.
This lovely museum of Art and Industry is in Roubaix, near Lille. I was lucky enough to visit last month, only two hours drive by motorway from Paris. The museum is housed in a refurbished
1930s swimming pool which was once "dedicated to the body, to hygiene and to sport, the most beautiful swimming pool in France”.
Having bought our museum ticket we were suddenly in the swimming pool environment with it's tiled walls. It felt strange to be wearing shoes and winter clothes as we passed through the shower stalls and changing rooms fully clothed. On reaching the stunning pool area it was time to stand back and just take in the scene.
At each end of the 50 metre pool were magnificent fan shaped glass walls in yellow, orange and red, symbolising the rising and setting sun - the colours reflecting on the surface of the water gave a very special light effect. Above there were two more floors with arches and balconies reached by bronze and lava stone staircases.
The pool fell into disrepair and in 1985 closed it's doors only to open again in 2001 renovated and converted into a museum. There are so many beautiful details in the rich decoration of the building that I can't begin to describe them
…. and I haven't even mentioned the collection it now houses - fabrics, ceramics ,paintings and sculptures. The current exhibition is on the work of Camille Claudel and is on until 8th Feb.
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Tony Davidson, the director of Kilmorack, tells me his gallery is fuelled by his love of work by Scottish Artists. This is immediately obvious when you enter the exciting setting, an old church, which dramatically sets off the rich abundance of contemporary paintings and a truly sensational collection of beautiful sculptures.
This gallery never fails to inspire and delight me. Tony is always happy to engage with visitors whether you are a buyer or not! I always learn something new and come away with a renewed love of art. I guarantee you will be surprised and delighted by the unexpected quality of this Gallery which would be quite at home in Glasgow or
Edinburgh.
The Kilmorack Gallery is 13 miles west of
Inverness and 3 miles from Beauly. Follow the A862 [to Beauly] until you go through the traffic lights before the Lovat
Bridge. Shortly afterwards watch out for and take the junction on your left signposted Cannich [A831] The Gallery is the 2nd church on the right. Look out
for large lizard! The Gallery is open all year but winter opening times are limited to Fridays and Saturdays or by appointment, until the 14th of March.
I visited this exhibition late last year and was astonished by the range of the works on display at Kelvingrove Art Gallery in the major 'life's work' retrospective celebrating Alasdair Gray's 80th birthday in December. It features more than 100 works dating from his days as a student at
Glasgow College of Art, including several on loan from private and other collections, many on loan from private collections.
This is a great opportunity to examine works rarely seen together, many of which have never been on public display. You can also pick up a walking tour map to see some of Gray’s Glasgow murals.
A major exhibition exploring the work the Scottish artists Robert MacBryde and
Robert Colquhoun or ‘The Two Roberts’, as they were known. Friends of Francis
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Bacon and Lucian Freud, they took the London art-world by storm in the 1940s, with sell-out exhibitions of their paintings. However, by the 1960s their position as two of the country’s most celebrated artists had been eclipsed. This will be the first major retrospective devoted to their work.
A brief reminder that January is the month when Turner’s watercolours, bequeathed to the Gallery by the distinguished collector Henry Vaughan, are exhibited to the public all at one time, free of charge, during the month of
January, in accordance with his wishes which have been faithfully adhered to for over 100 years. This limited exposure has resulted in the watercolours retaining their luminous colours and pristine condition. The works span
Turner’s career, from his early topographical wash drawings to his atmospheric sketches of continental Europe from the 1830s and ‘40s.
Aberdeen Art Gallery is featuring an installation with an army of glass figure arranged in regimented rows, each uniquely engraved throughout January. This is the work of Alison Kinnaird, one of the few artists keeping alive the ancient art of wheel-engraving. She combines this with modern technology such as water-jet cutting and LEDs which trap light within the glass. This is the artist's response to the conflict in the world today and glass provides the perfect medium in which to represent the fragility of life in wartime.
Exhibitions later in the year at the Scottish National Gallery feature photography: Bailey’s Stardust at the Scottish
National Gallery July to October and Lee Miller and Picasso at the Scottish National Portrait Gallery May to September.
Bailey’s Stardust will feature David Bailey’s images of models and Hollywood stars, reflecting the glamour of his career, but also more personal work shot in the East End of London or abroad in Papua New Guinea.
The Lee Miller and Picasso will feature around 100 photographs, formal and informal, which Lee Miller took of Picasso, who returned the favour by painting her.
I know many members are interested in photography as an art form, so these will be two exhibitions they won’t want to miss.
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