Visual art and Exhibition

Golden years - Tracey Emin

Edinburgh International Art Festival

22 Jul 2008

As the leading female light of Britart, Tracey Emin has been revered and rejected in equal measure. Writer and broadcaster Bidisha has a few words of scorn for the detractors and reflects on the already profound legacy she will leave behind It’s been…

Naked Portrait

1 Aug 2007

In contrast with the ‘nude’ figure in western art history, the naked portrait still manages to present a sometimes shocking and raw view of the sitter’s personality that reaches beyond their public façade.

Gerhard Richter

Man for all seasons

30 Oct 2008

When Sonic Youth toured their 1988 Daydream Nation album in 2007 on the back of the same year's two-CD deluxe edition of what had originally been the New York art rock pioneers' final independent release, the original LP cover art was probably the last…

Turning point - Richard Wilson

Edinburgh International Art Festival

22 Jul 2008

Installation artist Richard Wilson is a true pioneer whether he’s experimenting with drawing, film or sculpture. Rosie Lesso hears from the man about how he loves to defy preconceptions British artist Richard Wilson has an uncanny ability to distort…

Edvard Munch: Prints

25 Jun 2009

Death, existential angst and the impossibility of love are recurring themes in this exhibition of Norwegian artist Edvard Munch’s prints. Devised as a cunning strategy to publicise his paintings, the appeal of the prints is more timeless, and the…

Mr Lautner Builds His Dream House

5 Mar 2009

With a new film and major exhibition celebrating his life and work, maverick architect John Lautner’s time may finally have come. Paul Dale looks back at the life of the man who shaped the look of US moviemaking’s hometown.

Joan Eardley

4 Jan 2008

PAINTING Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh, until Sun 13 Jan The peculiar psychology which leads many notable artists’ works to only truly be appreciated after they have died is hard to explain, with the premature passing of an artist lending an…

World Press Photo 2011 in Edinburgh - Jodi Bieber interview

Photo of mutilated young Afghan woman a symbol of tormented times

8 Jul 2011

Bibi Aisha was 18 when the Taliban came calling for her just before midnight. Forced into a mountain clearing in the southern Afghan province of Uruzgan, she was put on trial and convicted by a local commander. Her crime: fleeing from a violent husband…

Andrew Grassie

Edinburgh International Art Festival

22 Jul 2008

There promises to be a lot of visitors doing a double-take in front of Andrew Grassie’s paintings at Edinburgh University’s Talbot Rice Gallery this summer. While a fleeting glance might suggest that the images are photographs, Grassie actually…

Hayashi Takeshi: Haku-u (White Rain)

Impressive hand-carved sculptures

3 Aug 2011

Once upon a time, Japanese artist Hayashi Takeshi looked out over a paddy field in the rain, the texture of the water’s surface as each inverted wet plop rose and fell clearly ingraining itself on his memory. With the primary and titular work on display…

Bob Dylan’s Art

22 Jan 2009

‘My father, who was plain speaking and straight talking had said, “Isn’t an artist a fellow who paints?” when told by one of my teachers that his son had the nature of an artist. It seemed I’d always been chasing after something, anything that moved – a…

Picture perfect

1 Aug 2007

From international stars like Andy Warhol and Picasso to Turner Prize winners and home grown talent, Alexander Kennedy finds rich pickings in the Edinburgh Art Festival

Design and Democracy exhibition - Free Family Weekend to mark St Andrew's Day

Free events include building your own rocket and radio-controlled car

16 Nov 2011

Design affects the lives of all of us. Whether it’s an intuitive new phone, a car that tells us we’ve left the lights on, or the Kindle doing something nobody expected and actually improving on the design of a book, who of us have not had our lives…

Gina Glover – Playgrounds of War

Evocative photography exhibition concerning militarized landscapes

3 Aug 2011

A small child kitted out in wellies and a windbreaker stands with her hands covering her ears between large truck tracks in a desolate, barren, concrete landscape. This black and white photograph forms part of a 1980s series that shows the artist’s…

Tony Cragg

Stunning showcase of sculptor’s poetic, monolithic output

3 Aug 2011

From Scouse lab technician to director of Kunstakademie, Düsseldorf, Cragg’s prolific artistic journey has been one of inspiration and rejection, absorption and a will to move beyond. While the works of Max Ernst, Richard Long, Joseph Beuys and Henry…

Scottish artists Alberto Morrocco, William Littlejohn and David McClure feature in Kinblethmont Gallery exhibition

14 Apr 2011

The artists Alberto Morrocco, William Littlejohn and David McClure were all contemporaries who painted in distinct modern styles influenced both by European painting and the Scottish tradition epitomised by the Scottish colourists. Much acclaimed in…

Impressionist Gardens

A remarkable exhibition of iconic, influential works at The National Galleries

5 Aug 2010

The National Galleries of Scotland’s ambitious exhibition brings together around 100 paintings focusing on the garden as subject for impressionist painters: remarkably the first show of its kind to have been held anywhere in the world. It’s hard to…

Tom Phillips: A Humument

29 Nov 2007

An exhibition depicting how Phillips transformed an obscure Victorian novel (A Human Document by WH Mallock) into a postmodern masterpiece. A Humument is widely regarded as one of the most successful and influential artist’s books of the last 50…

Chris Drury - Land, Water and Language

A man, his boat and some nice scenery

11 Aug 2011

Life’s a journey not a destination and other such homilies. God preserve us from the travelogue artists. Chris Drury is one such artist. This exhibition, which was initially created for Taigh Chearsabhagh Museum and Arts Centre in North Uist, takes its…

Dürer’s Fame

Tribute to the German woodcut and engravings master Albrecht Durer

21 Jul 2011

German handball star Pascal Hens gazes out from a black-and-white poster, his torso naked, gaze serious, his pose one of self-deification. This is enhanced further by a tattoo on his stomach of two disembodied hands clasped together as if in prayer.

Robert Barry's Words and Music

19 Aug 2010

Robert Barry, who wilfully abandoned painting in 1967 to become one of the central figures of conceptual art, is having his first solo showcase Words and Music in Glasgow. Dematerialising the art object, Barry developed a practice producing ephemeral…

Artist Anthony Fry on why he’s happy to be back in Scotland.

As well as why he loves coming home to paint

5 Aug 2010

As he prepares to showcase work inspired by exotic foreign locations renowned painter Anthony Fry tells Talitha Kotzé why he’s delighted to be back in Scotland. Well-known for needing the heat to paint, Anthony Fry has spent a great deal of time in…

The phenomenon of DIY art environments

6 Aug 2009

Ever since conceptualism broke through in the 1960s, regular gallery interiors, be they extravagantly antique pieces of architecture or ice-cool white cubes, have lost their power to imprison work within their over-bearing walls. In the last couple of…

Whistler: The Gentle Art of Making Etchings

2 Apr 2009

ETCHINGS ‘That in Art, it is criminal to go beyond the means used in its exercise,’ wrote James McNeill Whistler in his book The Gentle Art of Making Enemies. Referring to the size of the copper plate used in relation to the fine pointed needle to…

Art School Degree Shows

22 May 2008

GLASGOW SCHOOL OF ART Ragnar Jonasson Painter Originally from Iceland, Ragnar Jonasson paints, but not using brushes or canvas. ‘I’m pouring paint,’ he explains, ‘from saucepans. I pour it onto plastic, then peel it off, so there’s nothing…