In My House (Art in
Scotland)
Dr. Judith Findlay
New Art in Scotland
• Nicola White (ed.),
New Art in
Scotland (Glasgow:
Centre for
Contemporary Arts,
1994), pp.18-23
• ‘…intended to describe what was
emerging at that time in contemporary
art, to hazard a version, a selection of
what was interesting and current.’
• …asked to write about some aspect of
art in Scotland that I was interested in to convey some of the flavour of current
debates around contemporary art and
its place in Scotland.
• ‘art fan’
• Identified ‘Scottishness’?
• ‘Scotia Nostra’ (you know who you
are)… - Douglas Gordon, 1996 Turner
Prize…
• But, what is the cultural identity of art
in Scotland; what makes it distinctive?
• Looking at art from the ‘outside’ - as an
‘outsider’…
• ‘I don’t think anyone who works
internationally perceives a scene.
It’s more likely you would meet up
with people in Berlin or New York
or Paris.’ - Douglas Gordon
• International
• Local
• What are the
boundaries of art
in Scotland?…
• ‘What is it that unites the disparate strains of
Scottish art? Clearly much more than a
predilection for stags and glens. From Ramsay
and Raeburn, though the Glasgow Boys and
the Colourism of Cadell, Fergusson, Peploe
and Hunter, to the present-day conceptualists
what we have is a tendency towards reality, an
obdurate earthiness and a belief in the
essential vitality and hopefulness of mankind.’
- Iain Gale
• Common sense…a position from which
to begin to identify cultural identity(ies)
of art in Scotland…
• …a position of • ‘outside’ and ‘local’
• ‘Outside’ the official contemporary art
world (e.g. in Scotland)
• - images, objects, artefacts not classed
as ‘art’…
• ‘local’ • ‘…characteristic of or associated with a
particular locality or area;…of a
particular place or point in space; of…a
limited area or part’
• Here… (and not in a gallery…)
• Is art combined with life?…
• ‘…disconnection between the “official”
contemporary art world and the wider
public which plays its part in support of
the public institutions of contemporary
art through various forms of taxation.’
Colin Painter
• ‘genuine continuity’ is required…
• Local
• Home
• Images and objects not to visit but to
live with - to own…
• ‘It is inevitable that paintings and art
works are always written about as
things to visit, not to live with.’ - Alan
Woods
• What happens when we choose to write
about art in ‘non-ideal’ spaces?…
• Artistic identity is not defined by
national identity (even if it includes
images of Scotland). Rather it is defined
by those images that collude with
personal values, a way of being in the
world, of making sense of life, of finding
and giving meaning, of performing
identity.
• ‘Tastes in art do not just derive from
our social and cultural identities; they
also help to shape them’. - Simon Frith
• Although art in Scotland may reflect
where I’m from - my taste might be
said to be part of a collective taste and
evidence of my background - it also
suggests that where I’m from is not
unchangeable.
Go and see…
• Ross Sinclair v. Sir Edwin Landseer
• (On now…)
• David Blyth: KNOCKTURNE
• Dalziel + Scullion:
Some Distance From The Sun
• 16 February - April 2007
• Aberdeen Art Gallery
• This week’s reading:
• ‘The Nature and Aim of Fiction’ by
Flannery O’Connor (photocopy)
• ‘In My House: A Short Essay About
Art in Scotland’ by Judith Findlay
on:
• www.csudh.edu/dearhabermas/jcls1703.htm
Tomorrow - Tuesday 20th Feb:
• Seminars, A34m, Gray’s School of Art:
• Group 1 - 9.30 am
• Group 2 - 10.30 am
• Group 3 - 12.00 pm
• Films of Dalziel + Scullion
• Research Seminars with Jim Fiddes, Room 434,
Library:
• Group 1 - 11.00 am
• Group 2 - 12.00 pm
• Group 3 - 10.00 am