2024 Arts Preview: The Year Ahead in Visual Art

Duncan Macmillan and Susan Mansfield on some of the eye-catching shows coming to Scotland in 2024

MACH2: David and Robert Mach, The Stirling Smith Art Gallery & Museum, Stirling, 24 January until 7 April The first joint exhibition by brothers David and Robert Mach reveals not one but two distinctive Mach practices inspired by pop art. Robert, though less well known than his internationally renowed brother, has been forging ahead with his own practice in recent years, pioneering the creative use of foil sweet wrappers, most notably the iconic Tunnocks teacake. Part of the Stirling Smith’s 150th anniversary celebrations, the show presents a range of work by both artists – David’s sculptures made using coloured dressmakers’ pins will be shown in Scotland for the first time – as well as collaborative works the brothers have made together. SM

Paolozzi at 100, Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh, 27 January until 21 April Eduardo Paolozzi was born on 7 March 1923 so to mark his centenary the National Galleries are staging Paolozzi at 100. As an artist, he was a giant among his generation. He really pioneered a new vision of what art is, how it should encompass not just fine art but all the images that we make. He was the father of Pop Art, but this was really just a by-product of the vision that shaped a lifetime of astonishing creativity. He was also a significant benefactor of the National Galleries and they have a uniquely rich collection of his work to draw on. They also have the complete reconstruction of his extraordinary studio around which it seems this show will be built. Let’s hope they do him justice. DM

Martin Boyce, Fruitmarket Gallery, Edinburgh, 24 February until 2 June Martin Boyce was one of the first artists to show in the Fruitmarket’s Visions for the Future strand in 1999, which presented work by emerging Scottish artists. Now, in the gallery’s 50th anniversary year, he is back, having established an international career which has included representing Scotland at the Venice Biennale and winning the Turner Prize. Boyce’s distinctive style draws on elements of early 20th century design to create sculptures and installations. Ordinary objects such as chainlink fences, park benches and phone boxes are used to create a sense of melancholy or strangeness. This show of new and existing work, using all the Fruitmarket’s spaces, is a rare chance to see a big presentation of his work in Scotland. SM

Detail from Calcium Light Night, 1974-76, by Eduardo Paolozzi PIC: National Galleries of Scotland

The Wyllieum, Ocean Terminal, Greenock, opens 28 March George Wyllie, the man behind iconic works such as Straw Locomotive and Paper Boat, was one of Scotland’s most inventive and original artistic voices. A new museum to celebrate his work and legacy will open in March in Greenock, the town where he worked for 30 years as a customs and excise officer. The Wyllieum, under the directorship of Will Cooper, a former curator of contemporary art at GoMA, will include permanent displays and temporary exhibitions, as well as ephemera and archive material offering insights into the working of the Wyllie mind. The first exhibition, curated by Cooper and the artist Sara Barker, brings together the largest ever collection of Wyllie Spires. SM

James Morrison, Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh, April to May, dates tbc The late James Morrison was one of the most distinguished landscape painters of his generation. His wide panoramic landscapes of the north-east of Scotland around his home in Montrose are classics of their kind. He also painted further afield, notably in the Arctic. He was very popular, and this has perhaps been unfairly held against him in a way that overlooks what a serious and inventive artist he was. In the spring, the Scottish Gallery is presenting a collection of landscape paintings from his studio that date from right across his long career. DM

Adam Bruce Thomson: The Quiet Path, City Art Centre, Edinburgh, 11 May until 6 October Adam Bruce Thomson’s painting of Edinburgh looking across the North Bridge to Salisbury Crags is likely to stop you short when you see it, yet if you pause to reflect on what you know about the artist who painted such a magnificent picture, it is likely to be very little. He is not as well-known as he should be, but that will at last be put right by Adam Bruce Thomson: The Quiet Path, an exhibition at Edinburgh City Art Centre described as “the first ever major retrospective of the work of this distinguished artist but modest man.” The whole range of his work will be on view and it will be a special delight to see the superb drawing that underlay all his work as painter, draughtsman and printmaker. This very welcome exhibition will be accompanied by a book written by the curator of the show, Helen Scott. DM

Women in Revolt! Art and Activism in the UK 1970-1980, Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh, 25 May until 26 January 2025 It says a lot that one of the largest exhibitions ever curated at Tate Britain explores feminist art over just 20 years. More than 100 artists and collectives are brought together in this multi-faceted show which spans two seismic decades: Greenham Common, the miner’s strike, the Equal Pay Act, punk, AIDS, Reclaim the Night, the emergence of Black women’s art in Britain, and much more. Art, life, protest and activism intertwine in this show which promises, as one London critic put it, “shocks and suprises… at every turn”. The exhibition includes work by Susan Hiller, Lubaina Himid and Sonia Boyce, Scotland-based artists Sam Ainsley and Rita McGurn, and many more we might not know but who deserve greater recognition. SM

The Wyllieum, celebrating the life and work of George Wyllie, will open in Glasgow later this year PIC: ©George Wyllie

Glasgow International, various venues, Glasgow, 7-23 June After a three-year hiatus, Scotland’s contemporary art biennale is back with a new director, Richard Birkett, and a remodelled programme. Some 45 exhibitions across the length and breadth of the city will feature work by more than 70 artists. The tenth edition of GI promises to be a “collective endeavour”, rooted in Glasgow’s year-round art scene, with a strong set of headliners from Glasgow and further afield: Cathy Wilkes will make a new body of work on the themes of war, conflict and violence for the Hunterian Art Gallery, Susan Philipsz presents a new collaborative sound project informed by the work of radio pioneer Guglielmo Marconi in an as-yet-undisclosed location, and there’s new work by Richard Wright at Modern Institute and the biggest show so far by Delaine Le Bas at Tramway. SM

An Irish Impressionist: Lavery on Location, Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh, 27 July until 27 October Born in Ireland and brought up in Glasgow, Sir John Lavery became one of the most successful of the Glasgow Boys. His knighthood is testimony to how that success was social as well as artistic. He is best known for some of the lovely realist pictures like the Tennis Match that he painted earlier in his career, or the paintings he did in France at Gréz-sur-Loing, but his real success was as a portrait painter. His glamorous society portraits are really dazzling. He travelled widely, however, and the subtitle of this show, On Location, reflects how he painted wherever he went – some of his landscapes, especially those he painted in Morocco where he had a house and beautiful garden, are really gorgeous. This show, a co-production from the National Galleries of Scotland and the National Gallery of Ireland, will surely be a delight. DM

Bet Low, Compass Gallery, September, dates tbc 2024 is Bet Low’s centenary and it will be marked by an exhibition at Compass later in the year. She is an artist who has been unjustly neglected, but Compass also has a special interest in her. She was married to Tom Macdonald and it was he who inspired Cyril Gerber to start the gallery more than 50 years ago. Macdonald had earlier been at the centre of a left-leaning group of artists in Glasgow. Among them Joan Eardley became more famous, but Low also began her career painting powerful, socially aware pictures. She went on to paint abstract pictures and eventually settled on painting the landscapes of the west in a poetic, pared-down style. DM