FESTIVAL EXHIBITIONS 2012 PRESS RELEASE
Contact: Lizzie Cowan
mail@openeyegallery.co.uk
0131 557 1020/0131 558 9872
Open Eye Gallery
34 Abercromby Place, Edinburgh EH3 6QE
Open: Mon-Fri 10am to 6pm Sat 10am to 4pm
JOHN BELLANY AT 70
Monday 13th August to Tuesday 4th September 2012
Special Private Viewing: Friday 10th August 6-8pm
Private View: Saturday 11th August 12-2pm
ART LATE EVENT:
Alexander Moffat OBE RSA, will discuss John Bellany's life and works.
Thursday 16th August 6.30pm. Booking required.
JOHN BELLANY AT 70
Exhibition of five decades of paintings, watercolours, prints and drawings by John
Bellany preceding a major retrospective of his work at the Scottish National Gallery
to celebrate his 70th birthday.
John Bellany is the most influential Scottish painter since the war, re-establishing a
native, figurative art at a time when Modernism and abstraction seemed invincible.
Born at Port Seton in 1942 into a family of fishermen and boat builders and steeped
in Calvinism as a child, his art is profoundly religious in its intimation of mortality and
recognition of evil; facts reinforced in 1967 by a traumatic visit to the remains of the
Buchenwald concentration camp. But Bellany's life voyage has proved every bit as
perilous as the sea voyage of his ancestors.
Throughout his career he has painted elemental allegories encompassing the
complexities of the human condition and anchored in the rich poetry of the sea; but
after moving to London in 1965 to study at the Royal College of Art, his vision and
iconography became broader. In the 70s, when his personal life was in turmoil, he
embarked on a near-fatal journey of self-destruction, which is reflected in the angst-
ridden images of his paintings of that period. And in the 80s he successfully
underwent a liver transplant which inspired a remarkable series of paintings.
('John Bellany' by John McEwen, 1994)
The last two decades have seen him paint the landscape and people of China,
Mexico and Italy whilst still remaining firmly rooted in his Scottish heritage. This
new sense of optimism in Bellany's painting brings us to the present day and a
celebration of a life's work.
PICASSO, HIS CONTEMPORARIES AND
MODERN BRITISH PRINTMAKING
Monday 13th August to Tuesday 22nd September 2012
Special Private Viewing: Friday 10th August 6-8pm
Private View: Saturday 11th August 12-2pm
PICASSO, HIS CONTEMPORARIES AND MODERN BRITISH PRINTMAKING
An exhibition of printmaking by Picasso, his contemporaries and modern British
artists. Including works by George Braque, Joan Miró, Marc Chagall, Severini, Clavé,
Ben Nicholson, Graham Sutherland, David Hockney and Le Corbusier.
To coinicide with Picasso and Modern British Art at the Scottish Gallery of Modern
Art, this small survey examines the work of a number of Picasso's contemporaries
including Braque, Severini, Le Corbusier, Miró, Chagall, Laurens, Dufy and Clavé. A
group of British artists are also represented - Sutherland, Hockney, Nicholson, Grant,
Gear, Moore, Burra and Colquhoun - who were all influenced by the innovative
works produced throughout Picasso's long career.
Each of the artists included in this exhibition have in some way drawn something
from Picasso and developed it into their own distinctive and individual visual
language, confirming Picasso's place as the towering figure of Modern Art.
Notes to editor:
Open Eye Gallery, based in the New Town, has been running for 30 years and holds
32 exhibitions per year focusing on contemporary and applied art.
Eye Two specialises in modern European and American Printmaking. Previous
exhibitions have included works by Albers, Caulfield, Chagall, Le Corbusier, Leger,
Matisse, Miró, Nicholson, Paolozzi, Pasmore, Picasso, Scott and Stella. Represented
contemporary artists include Aitchison, Blake, Dine, Denny, Hockney, Hodgkin,
Rauschenberg and Riley.
The Open Eye Gallery and Eye Two are participating in the Edinburgh Art Festival.
The festival exhibitions will be installed between Monday 6th and Friday 10th
August 2012. Access for interviews with artists or curators of the exhibition can be
arranged by appointment by phoning the gallery on 0131 557 1020.
Illustrated colour catalogues of both exhibitions are available on request.
Further information and images can be obtained from:
Open Eye Gallery
34 Abercromby Place
Edinburgh EH3 6QE
mail@openeyegallery.co.uk