Dovecot Studios Scottish Women Artists - 250 Years of Challenging Perception Review 27th July 2023
A Cellist, c. 1925 Beatrice Huntington, The Fleming Collection © The William Syson Foundation.
Scottish Women Artists - 250 Years of Challenging Perception at Dovecot Studios, 10 Infirmary Street, Edinburgh runs from Friday 28 July 2023 to Saturday 6 January 2024 and as well as being an important exhibition in its own right, it is also a tribute to many of the women featured through their art (and many more not here) who all often struggled to have their artistic voices heard in an up until very recently male dominated hierarchy of the art world and art education. The fact that Anne Redpath (featured in this exhibition) was the first female painter to be elected to the rank of RSA in 1952 speaks volumes about the struggle for not only acceptance, but also equality, that all too many of the women represented in this exhibition faced both in their artistic and personal lives.
This exhibition curated by Dovecot studios and The Fleming Collection features many works from the Fleming-Wyfold Art Foundation, and together they give us not only a visual timeline of women in art over the last 250 years but some sense of just how diverse their output has been across so many different artistic media. From formal portraits, to landscapes and cutting edge abstracts, sculptures, tapestry, photography, prints, book illustration, ceramics, fabrics (and much more) women have, given the opportunity, so often been there at the cutting edge of artistic creativity.
Some of the names or collectives in this exhibition will be known to so many people already, as over the years names like Phoebe Anna Traquair, Jessie M King and The Glasgow Girls have become known to millions of people worldwide. How many people though would so quickly recognise the name Catherine Read (1723–78), considered by many people to be the first formally trained Scottish woman artist in the 18th century.
As always with an exhibition like this, the larger works on display are the ones that capture the attention of your eye first, but there are many smaller works of art here equally as important in their own creative right and the art nouveau monochrome drawings of Hannah Frank are always a pleasure to see anywhere that they are exhibited. Stop too and look at what is in the display cases at this exhibition as there are more than a few surprises to be found here.
Many of the most distinguished women artists of the 20th century (and beyond) are also represented in this exhibition (some in tapestry homages to their work by Dovecot Studio artists) and fans of the works of Dame Elizabeth Blackadder, Victoria Crowe, Anne Redpath, Joan Eardley (in a striking Dovecot tapestry) and many more will find something of interest in this exhibition.
Oddly, despite all of this amazing artwork on view in one space, it was for some reason the photographic works of Glasgow-based artist Sekai Machache that kept drawing me back to them and “Light Divine Sky II” is somehow completely tranquil whilst having the ability to say so much about what and who should fit into a Scottish landscape.
Review by Tom King © 2023
www.artsreviewsedinburgh.com
This exhibition curated by Dovecot studios and The Fleming Collection features many works from the Fleming-Wyfold Art Foundation, and together they give us not only a visual timeline of women in art over the last 250 years but some sense of just how diverse their output has been across so many different artistic media. From formal portraits, to landscapes and cutting edge abstracts, sculptures, tapestry, photography, prints, book illustration, ceramics, fabrics (and much more) women have, given the opportunity, so often been there at the cutting edge of artistic creativity.
Some of the names or collectives in this exhibition will be known to so many people already, as over the years names like Phoebe Anna Traquair, Jessie M King and The Glasgow Girls have become known to millions of people worldwide. How many people though would so quickly recognise the name Catherine Read (1723–78), considered by many people to be the first formally trained Scottish woman artist in the 18th century.
As always with an exhibition like this, the larger works on display are the ones that capture the attention of your eye first, but there are many smaller works of art here equally as important in their own creative right and the art nouveau monochrome drawings of Hannah Frank are always a pleasure to see anywhere that they are exhibited. Stop too and look at what is in the display cases at this exhibition as there are more than a few surprises to be found here.
Many of the most distinguished women artists of the 20th century (and beyond) are also represented in this exhibition (some in tapestry homages to their work by Dovecot Studio artists) and fans of the works of Dame Elizabeth Blackadder, Victoria Crowe, Anne Redpath, Joan Eardley (in a striking Dovecot tapestry) and many more will find something of interest in this exhibition.
Oddly, despite all of this amazing artwork on view in one space, it was for some reason the photographic works of Glasgow-based artist Sekai Machache that kept drawing me back to them and “Light Divine Sky II” is somehow completely tranquil whilst having the ability to say so much about what and who should fit into a Scottish landscape.
Review by Tom King © 2023
www.artsreviewsedinburgh.com