Art lovers get the blues as Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art 'snubs' Colourists

Published on Thursday 26 November 2009 21:40

A BOLD new look is officially unveiled at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art today, with 200 works rehung in a facelift reviewers say is long overdue.

• Peploe's The Black Bottle fetched over 500,000 at auction in 2001, a sign of the enduring popularity of the Scottish Colourist school

But debate is rumbling about how the nation's best-known school of artists – the Scottish Colourists – have been treated.

Works by the four artists – Peploe, Cadell, Fergusson and Hunter – command the highest profile and prices at sales of Scottish art and have hung in the Edinburgh building's top corridor for decades. But now only four of 131 works in the collection are on show, in rooms across the building.

"Please bring back the Scottish Colourists", was one of a string of plaintive messages in the gallery's visitors' book this week.

"Travelled from London for a 'no show' on the Scottish Colourists", was another. "Don't understand why they are not on show in our homeland."

The rehang, entitled What you See is Where You're At, is the first overhaul in 25 years and marks the gallery's 50th anniversary.

Paintings by artists from Joan Mir and Ben Nicholson, to Picasso and Edinburgh's own Sir Eduardo Paolozzi, are in rooms themed on white paintings, on the use of colour, or collage. One room is given over entirely to a single work in white tube lighting.

The Sound of Iona

There is a strong selection of contemporary Scottish work, with an installation by Martin Boyce, who represented Scotland at the Venice Biennale, and two rooms with work chosen by painter Callum Innes.

The debate on the Colourists' position in the National Galleries is set to continue. At present, the group does not have a spot with older work in the National Gallery on the Mound because the artists lived and worked after 1900.

The Scotsman's art critic, Duncan Macmillan, shared concerns that people coming to Scotland "don't just expect to see a rather different version of what they see everywhere else. They want to see something distinct".

Artist Jack Vettriano, a frequent critic of the galleries, said they were not showing Scottish painting properly. "The point is not that Samuel Peploe is better than Titian," he said. "The point is that Peploe is a Scot, and people are coming to Scotland – they should see the best of Scottish art."

The galleries yesterday insisted the Colourists would be proudly shown in exhibitions starting in the spring, with long-unseen works by SJ Peploe and others pulled out of storage.

"There will always be Colourists up; they are a really important part of the collection, as well as of the history of Scottish art," said Simon Groom, the NGS director of contemporary and modern art.

"We are thinking of new ways and new displays – Colourist works from the collection that people won't have seen before."

The aim was to encourage return visits, with favourites appearing throughout the year. He said the message was plain in the words of Scottish Turner Prize winner Martin Creed that glow in neon over the front entrance: "Everything is Going to Be Alright."

VIVID MOVEMENT

THE SCOTTISH Colourists – Samuel John Peploe (pictured below), John Duncan Fergusson, Francis Campbell Boileau Cadell and George Leslie Hunter – did most of their work in the 1920s and 30s.

They are credited with bringing the influence of the French Impressionists and other European painters to Scotland, while creating their own styles. Works by Peploe are the best known.

Four Colourist works are currently hanging in the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, in themed rooms. The Toreador by Fergusson features among the Human Form paintings, while SJ Peploe's work, The Black Bottle, is in among the Still Life works. The Colour Theme area includes La Terrasse, Caf d'Harcourt by Fergusson and Veules-les-Roses by Peploe.