Page 55 - Studio International - November 1974

appear in the symbolism of his work. Just like When Gillies went to study there in 1916 he had
Pevsner he treats the wonderful watercolours like never seen a painting by Van Gogh in the flesh,
Cabbages in an Orchard and The Descent of the but those old fashioned three colour block
Night (here for the first time printed in full plates of Gauguin, Matisse and Derain soon
colour) as purely formal sources for some chair began to work their magic. The principal Morley
details. For example, when dealing with the Fletcher sent Gillies to work in André Lhote's
Warndorfer Chair (p. 99) he indeed admits that Paris studio. The experience, as for many others,
the concerned symbol 'evokes, more than left Gillies with only a second-hand idea of what
anything, the secret living energy of the plant Cubism was all about. The Paris experience and
world', but immediately subjoins: 'It matters the exposure to the modern movement as a
little whether or not it is the seed of an apple or whole was mostly at second hand for all three
nothing. It matters only that one perceives artists, and never meant a conversion to
through the play of abstract lines and European modernism in the full sense (Futurism,
proportions the rhythms and cadences and Surrealism, Constructivism, is absent in all their
pauses which cause deepest perturbation in the work) but rather a determination to reappraise
spectator.' Regardless of the strange Scottish art on its own terms. Deprived of the
contradiction between these two succeeding experience of Roger Fry's Grafton Gallery
phrases, Alison doesn't surpass his wonder for exhibitions, Vorticism; with no Burrell
the archetypal form, his senses filled 'with Collection available and only Alexander Reid in
pleasure to the point of oblivion'. Of course Glasgow, Scottish modern art had previously
this confidence once again confirms the meant colour, the giant proto-impressionist
fascination I mentioned, but unfortunately, the painter of the sea William MacTaggart (d. 1910)
author doesn't manage to analyse its structure and the internationalism of the Glasgow Boys
and its reasons. And so his writing makes who by the 1920s had all copped out. Really
hardly more seizable what Mackintosh actually independent artists like Mackintosh and J.D.
did and intended. Fergusson found Chelsea and Paris more
Francis Strauven congenial. Instead there was the home based
`1922 Group' with Gillies and MacTaggart
Non-stickers (grandson b. 1903) as founder members and
Anne Redpath, by George Bruce. 81 pp, 41 MacDiarmid, all attempting a revival of a Scottish
plates, select bibliography. Edinburgh based culture. T. Elder Dickson reproduces only
University Press and the Scottish Arts Council one work by Gillies from the 1920s so his early
1974, f1.75. development is hard to judge, but in the 1930s
W.G. Gillies, by T. Elder Dickson. 109 pp, 44 Vuillard, Bonnard, Matisse and later Braque
plates, select bibliography. Edinburgh influenced his work and by 1932 were authorized
University Press and the Scottish Arts Council by the Academy when Gillies was admitted to
its elite club 'The Group of Eight'. Edinburgh
1974, £1.75.
W. MacTaggart, by H. Harvey Wood. 76 pp, 42 never had a fin-de-siècle secession like other
plates, select bibliography. Edinburgh European cities, and the story of the art of
University Press and the Scottish Arts Council Scotland's capital in the twentieth century is
1974, f1.75. very much a domestic affair presided over by
These three monographs are the first of a new the Royal Scottish Academy and its satellite
series jointly sponsored by the Scottish Arts institutions. All three authors wrestle with the
Council and Edinburgh University Press. In the old (Scotch) chestnut: 'is there a Scottish art?',
1960s the Scottish Arts Council planned a survey about which Fergusson seems to have had the
of Scottish art which included exhibitions of last sensible word (see his 'Modern Scottish
the Glasgow Boys, Mackintosh and the Scottish Painting', 1943, pp.22-32), and which in these
colourists. Although the catalogues still survive, days of cultural austerity, without a Demarco
it was proposed that more extensive critical Gallery or its equivalent in Edinburgh, seems
works were needed on individual artists `to a consideration from another planet. The real
evaluate the achievements of twentieth-century milestones in Scottish art have never been
Scottish painters and to promote a much wider triggered by the works of art produced there,
acquaintance with their work'. The first but the impact of change and exchange brought
monographs have a lot to say not only about about by great exhibitions such as the Munch
individual artists but about the very localized exhibition in 1931, which acted like a blood
state of twentieth-century art in Scotland, and transfusion for Gillies and MacTaggart (who
what it was like to be a young and serious bread even married a Norwegian girl on the strength
and butter student at Edinburgh College of Art in of it); the exhibitions brought to Glasgow by
the 1920s. For the poor author of `MacTaggart', Dr Tom Honeyman; and more recently the
himself a student there, the head of the painting series which MacTaggart himself as President of
school had this to say (c. 1920): 'Ye'll find as ye the Royal Scottish Academy brought to the
grow older, Wood, that an artist has no time for Edinburgh Festival: Monet, Rouault and
books'. The Art College, dominated by the Braque — but regrettably 40 years too late to
stern Athenianism of the Royal Scottish nourish his own eager generation of art students.
Academy and the Degas draughtsmanship of It's no wonder that these Scottish artists are
David Foggie of the painting department, had at their strongest when reacting to first hand
however The Studio magazine and Colour. experiences: Redpath's approximately 1942
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