Three modern paintings which caught my eye at the Hunterian Art Gallery (posts passim.)

John Byrne self-portrait:-

A landscape by Margot Sandeman:-

Grasses by Joan Eardley:-

Last week we also visited the City Art Centre in Edinburgh to have a look at an exhibition entitled National Treasure; The Scottish Modern Arts Association. The exhibition started on Sat 21 May and runs to Sun 16 Oct 2022.

The Scottish Modern Arts Association was started in the early 1900s to foster interest in and knowledge of upcoming Scottish artists. The Association mostly comprised artists and their supporters and over the years built up a collection of over 300 art works.

Unfortunately the collection never had a home to house it in despite several possibilities being put forward. Money for a building was the main problem but also a suitable site. The Association hoped to find a benefactor who could provide both. None materialised. It might have happened but the two World Wars scuppered likely suggestions.

When the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art was proposed that could have been ideal but its proponents wanted to present modern art in a wider-world context and the Association’s collection was felt to be focused too much on works by Scots.

In the end the collection was handed over to the city of Edinburgh in the 1960s and the Association wound up.

There are many very good paintings in the City Art Centre exhibition. It’s well worth a look.

One of the artists whose work I recognised instantly was Arthur Melville. This is his A Scene in Tunis:-

Very familar too was John Henry Lorimer whose The Flight of the Swallows (see link) is featured:-

Also unmistakable was the work of Joan Eardley. Field of Barley by the Sea:-

New to me was John Quinton Pringle’s Muslin Street Bridgeton which is very good indeed.

Ian Cheyne’s Loch Duich is an unusual depiction of a Scottish Loch. There is something almost Japanese about the picture. It’s also reminiscent of the art in those 1930s railway posters but not quite so delineated:-