Art

Festival fare

John McEwen

Not one of the exhibitions at this yeat's, Edinburgh Festival warrants a special visit to the City, but several can be recoil,- mended once a visitor has arrived. The most novel, and therefore entertaining, Is

devoted to a neglected 17th-centurynE glish School portrait painter, John Michael Wright (Scottish National Portrait Gallery till 19 September). Wright (1617-1694) Is not a closely chronicled figure, but as young man he was indubitably apprentice in Edinburgh to George Jameson and this' coupled with hints of Scottish parentage though not birth, gives a Scottish excuse for

the exhibition's date and venue. It is pro' bably Wright's unclassifiable idiosyncrasy of style, as much as his Catholicism, that has told against him till the all-embracing present. He invests faces (though not poses) with a glint and individuality of quite

shocking informality for that still courtlY time in England, and it makes his sitters ae' cessibly mundane in a way that the more famous Lely's royal mistresses never are. Technical gaucheries (the shortness of the

arms is often good for a laugh) abound alio, formality, as in an official glorification 01 Charles II, leaves him cold; but occasion' ally the drawing and colour-sense, most perfectly demonstrated in 'Colonel the Honble John Russell', can be flawless There is also the first known portrait of somebody wearing a kilt. Another hart"; inger of 19th-century things to come, and another good reason for staging Wright 5 comeback north of the border. Literally across the road the National Museum of Antiquities of Scotland has ,43 nicely ordered exhibition, mostly cline" from its own collection, entitled 'Angels, Nobles & Unicorns' — art and patronage in mediaeval Scotland (till 26 September). The point of the exhibition seems to be demonstrate to foreigners how coal' paratively rich and refined the Scots were

between 1100 and 1500. European visitors will surely be disappointed. Most of the treasures on view, such as the very rich Book of Hours made for James IV and Margaret Tudor, were commissioned abroad, and only 'The Savernake Horn' stirs the blood. This too is markedly unScottish in origin, having been carved from an elephant's tusk, but the mounts suggest it may once have belonged to Ran- dolph Moray and may therefore have sounded, who knows, the victory at Ban- nockburn. The Royal Scottish Museum is the only

British host (till 28 November) to an exhibi- tion from the Denver Art Museum, 'Circles of the World' — Traditional Art of the Plains Indians, that will tour Europe and America till half-way through 1984 courtesy American Express and others. Neatly designed, painlessly educational, hygienically apolitical — it proves the equivalent of a pre-packed sandwich and about as stimulating.

'The Macchiaioli' — Masters of Realism in Tuscany (Edinburgh City Art Centre till 25 September) has been resurrected through the efforts of Manchester City Art Gallery, where this exhibition was first shown. Their pictures are small, bright and charming, but so were many others being done throughout Europe in those post- Corot, post-Constable days of the mid- 19th century. It all amounts to a tasty academic morsel. The lower floor of the same building is given over to some etchings by Piranesi and a set of more conventional Presentation drawings (till 11 September). A magnificent £18 catalogue allows you to

walk off with the exhibition under your ann.

A survey of British watercolours and drawings from the 18th century to the pre- sent, organised by the British Council and Paid for by BP, proves a disappointment at the Royal Scottish Academy (till 12 September). Works representing the Masters are mostly secondary examples, an unimaginative choice of works and artists foredooms the moderns and, for conserva- tion_purposes, the galleries are plunged in darkness. The Leonardo notebook now called after Dr Hammer, previously after the Earl of Leicester, can be seen elsewhere In the building and also photographs by Man Ray. Both have been shown in Lon- don (till 12 September).

Most memorable of the modern exhibi- hons is Miro's people at the Scottish Na- tional Gallery of Modern Art (till 3 Oc- tober), This choice sample of 50-odd pain- tings, etchings and drawings celebrates Miro's entry on his 90th year with an ex- animation of some of the many ways in which he has portrayed the human figure from the relative conservatism of his youth nitro .). the childlike simplicity of his old age. nitro has subjected his melting metamor- phoses and starry counterpoints to a sPtclerish weave of derivation and inspira- tion over the years, but for all the ingenuity the ingredients remain identifiable. This does not lend itself to exhaustive coverage,

and the small size of the present exhibition suits the improvisatory nature of his talent very well.

The Scottish Arts Council's Fruitmarket Gallery becomes the Hayward of the north by launching the first in a series of annual exhibitions devoted to the work of selected local contemporary artists (till 18 September). It reveals, not surprisingly, that Scottish artists scavenge the interna- tional art heap as eagerly as their English equivalents and with as little personal benefit. From these unsuccessful style searchers the most promising painter emer- ges as Derek Roberts, the most distinctive draughtsman as Jack Knox. Best of all, and a lesson to the contemporary six, are two paintings by the late William Johnstone, who was already earmarked for an invita- tion when he died last December at the age of 84. The proposed continuation of Scot- tish Annuals is questionable. If they only just work in London how can they hope to prosper on the meagre artistic resources of Scotland? The date, at least, should surely be changed to release this valuable space for less introspective events at Festival time. Upstairs at the New 57 Gallery an exhibi- tion of Expressive Paintings (till 18 September) by some younger Scottish ar- tists seemed to be attracting more favourable attention and sweeter notices. The quotations are more with it, but expec- tations of success remain, if anything, hazier. The best exhibition by a contem- porary Scottish artist is Pat Douthwaite's alphabet of Greek Goddesses, Worshipped Women, at the 369 Gallery in the High Street (till 17 September). Robert Graves contributes a foreword on the general sub- ject of goddesses down the ages, but these disturbing pictures appear to speak only of the disturbances of Pat Douthwaite herself. Like all art of apparent derangement it has a certain lack of personality, but certainly not of power.

Richard Demarco, despite having lost (hopefully only temporarily) the support of a direct grant from the Scottish Arts Coun- cil, nevertheless succeeds once again in stag- ing his own mini-festival of events within the larger programme. Apart from a theatre programme and an exhibition of his own competent topographical drawings (Tor- rance Gallery, 29b Dundas Street), he has seven exhibitions on view in various parts of the city thanks to subsidies from the Scot- tish Arts Council and other bodies. One is the Piranesi exhibition already mentioned; most notable of the others is Crossroads Parnass, an interesting exhibition recently to be seen in London at the Goethe In- stitute. It illustrates the programme of ex- hibitions, German and foreign, at the in- fluential Galet ie Parnass, Wuppertal (1949-1965), and shows the avant-garde to have been more active in Germany in the immediate post-war years than is ignorantly assumed (Edinburgh College of Art, Lauriston Place, till 11 September); and at Bannerman's Bar, Niddry Street (till 11 September) Gerald Laing strengthens his position as one of our few decent public sculptors, with some lively cast-iron reliefs depicting a visit to Hamburg.

The palm of this Festival, however, must go to the National Gallery, where its most recent purchase, the £1.3 million Saenredam from the Bute collection of the interior of the 'Grote Kerk' in Haarlem, is now on view for the first time. It is this great painter's biggest, and many say greatest, picture. Not to be totally outdone, the Gallery of Modern Art have added a large Balthus of a honey-coloured nude, 'Le Lever',.to their collection, as a counter- part to the erotic 'Nude girl on a fur' by Ot- to Dix bought last year. The two are placed on either side of a sensual abstract contor- tion by Arp. This represents as teasing an installation as you are likely to see and one typical of the director Douglas Hall's idiosyncratic eye. The modern collection he has gathered is now of international stan- dard, and all the more pleasing for being a personal choice and not an academic chronology.