Our Pick of the Shows Celebrating the Life of Painter Joan Eardley

52 The Herald Magazine Saturday May 22, 2021 Saturday May 22, 2021 The Herald Magazine 53 Arts VISUAL DON’T MISS It’s the final day of Turner PHOTOGRAPH: NEIL HANNA Prize shortlisted Jim Lambie’s Buttercup exhibition. Our pick of the Jim Lambie: Buttercup, The CRITIC’S CHOICE Modern Institute, Aird’s Lane, Glasgow, G1 5HU, shows celebrating 0141 237 1488 themoderninstitute.com/ the life of painter exhibitions Joan Eardley JAN PATIENCE HERE are some artists whose work makes people fall in love the minute they discover If ever an exhibition was well- them. The painter Joan named, it is Narratives in Eardley, born on a farm Times of Absurdity. This new in Sussex 100 years ago show at the RGI Kelly Gallery this week to a Scottish mother and an in Glasgow comes from TEnglish father, falls into this category. Norman Sutton-Hibbert, who Eardley’s star burned brightly from spent more than 30 years her days at the Glasgow School of Art working as a social worker and in the early years of World War Two, mental health officer before up until her early death aged 42 in attending the Glasgow School 1963. When she died, she had recently of Art from 2010 to 2015. He been elected by her peers as an began exhibiting in the early Academican of the Royal Scottish 1970s and was involved in a Academy; a peer-led honour which at Clockwise from left: Joan Eardley’s niece group show early on in that point few women had been Anne Morrison-Hudson and curatorial Nuremberg, Germany. awarded. assistant Leila Riszko in Joan For many years, Sutton- I am one of a growing army of fans. Eardley & Catterline at the Scottish Hibbert has had an interest in Ever since seeing a huge retrospective National Gallery of Modern Art (Modern using fabric and other found of Eardley’s work mounted by the One); Joan Eardley in Catterline in the items in his work. Much of this National Galleries of Scotland in summer of 1961 grinding paint with fabric is from personal Edinburgh in 2007, I’ve been drawn mortar; Snow, c.1958 and Summer Fields, clothing, or functional to Eardley and her work. c.1961 household items – which he Although she is possibly best believes bring with them the known for her depictions of gallus PHOTOGRAPHS: ESTATE OF JOAN EARDLEY DNA or history of the person squinty-eyed Glasgow street kids who wore or lived with them. holding hands, eating pieces or As a lifelong student of reading comics, the paintings which Borders, at Joan’s Glasgow studio, history, he has always been drew me in at that exhibition were and in Catterline. Audrey, who lived inclined to draw on the Eardley’s big expressive seascapes. in Dumfries, bequeathed a number of experiences of others, as well Created in oils on hardboard using Eardley artworks to the Gracefield as his own, in times during big brushes, grasses and splashes of Joan of art Collection. Her photographic archive which circumstances are rain and seawater scumbled into the was gifted by her son John in beyond our control. surface, these paintings were made in talks and discussions, the artist’s the course of the last year, as online Commission, Canberra, Australia), WHERE TO SEE EARDLEY WORK NOW: last week on Joan Eardley’s birthday, December 2004. Be these circumstances her second home of Catterline; a family commissioned an official gatherings became the norm, BBC Scotland, Birmingham Joan Eardley & Catterline, Edinburgh with a display of her drawings from its Joan Eardley: A Painter’s Life with good, bad or just plain absurd, clifftop village which clings to website and associated social media, SWARN’s star has been in the Museums, the Arts Council This small two-room exhibition at the permanent collection. Eardley’s Photographs by Audrey Walker, Gracefield they impact on our lives in a Scotland’s rugged north east coast. on which all aspects of this hive-like ascendent, with every meeting Collection, the National Galleries of Scottish National Gallery of Modern family lived locally and gifted a raft of Arts Centre, 28 Edinburgh Road, Dumfries, wide variety of ways. It is these I vividly remember the feeling I had centenary celebration can be viewed, welcoming new members. Scotland and Glasgow Museums. The art (Modern One) in Edinburgh is a artworks to the Lillie. The star of the DG1 1JQ. Until July 3. narratives Sutton-Hibbert when I stood in front of paintings like booked or enjoyed in retrospect. On what would have been Eardley’s Tate has one Eardley; purchased after prime example of more being less. show is Eardley’s ever-popular chooses to represent in his The Wave and Seascape (Foam and Again, I must declare an interest. 100th birthday last Tuesday, Glasgow her death from Cyril Gerber in Featuring nine oil paintings, 13 works painting Flood Tide although the Joan Eardley – Works on Paper, artwork. Blue Sky). It was as if they possessed I’ve helped to create this website by University’s Hunterian Gallery Glasgow, also a staunch champion of on paper, and a selection of pastel on glass paper drawing, Girl Aberdeen In soft sculptures such as an energy all of their own; the mark- writing a biography of Eardley’s life, organised a webinar chaired by BBC her work. photographs and archival materials, it with Pink Hat, comes a close second. A small selection of works by Eardley Speech is Not the Only making was so intense, it almost co-curating the content alongside Scotland’s arts correspondent, Joan Eardley was that rarest also includes some of Eardley’s most There is also a small selection of work is now on display in Aberdeen Art Lanuage, which depicts pistols vibrated. Later, when I saw a short artist and website designer, Lynne Pauline Mclean, featuring creatures; an original artist of infinite famous paintings, such as Catterline by associated artists, including Gallery. This is complemented by an covered by recycled textiles film of Eardley at work, what struck Mackenzie. contributions from the artist’s niece, artistic talent who pursued her own in Winter (1963), Summer Fields ceramic sculpture on loan from online exhibition of drawings and rounded off by a keyring, and me most was the physical energy with A key driver in Eardley 100 has Anne Morrison, Glasgow University, agenda; drawing and painted what (1961) and Snow (1958). Maps of Eardley’s artist niece, Anne Morrison. works on paper, which came into the The Makers, which presents which she applied paint. Almost as been the rise and rise of the Scottish Glasgow Museums, Paisley Museum, she observed around her and what Catterline, marked with the locations Joan Eardley: A Centenary Exhibition from collection in Aberdeen as a gift from scissors rendered unusable by though she was attacking the canvas. Women in the Arts Research Network the National Galleries of Scotland interested her. Much of the discussion where the artist stood to draw and the Lillie, Lillie Art Gallery, Station Road, the artist’s sister, Pat Black, in 1987. being bound up by thread, he Eardley’s life was cut short in (SWARN). Established in 2018 and and auctioneers, Lyon & Turnbull. It around her work this year has focused paint her subjects are presented in the Milngavie, G62 8BZ, Until August 21. One of the joys of being in the gallery turns to the language of August 1963 by the aggressive spread spearheaded by Patricia de Montfort will soon be available to view online on what she might have gone on to do galleries, allowing visitors to trace her is pulling out drawers to be greeted by Dadasim to question on of cancer which started in her breast of Glasgow University’s School of on both the Joan Eardley and had she lived into middle age and movements. Joan Eardley: A Painter’s Life with the likes of Eardley’s pastel drawing, absurdity with another. and spread to her brain. In the years Culture and Creative Arts, SWARN SWARN websites. beyond. We can only speculate. She Joan Eardley & Catterline, Scottish National Photographs by Audrey Walker, Dumfries Child with Red Doll. leading up to her death at 42 years has grown to include professionals Eardley was recognised as a huge was something else. Gallery of Modern Art (Modern One), 75 Gracefield Arts Centre in Dumfries is There’s also a beautiful Eardley oil Narratives in Times of Absurdity by old, she was firing on all cylinders, across museums, archives, galleries, talent during her lifetime, with a The centenary of the birth of Joan Belford Road, Edinburgh EH4 3DR, showing a selection of Eardley painting, Setting Sun Over Fields, on Norman Sutton-Hibbert, RGI Kelly almost as though she sensed that time educational institutions, and heritage dealer in Edinburgh, The Scottish Eardley is being marked throughout Admission free, but booking required. Open paintings, pastels and sketches from show next to a pastel drawing by her Gallery, 118 Douglas Street, was running out. organisations across the UK. Gallery, and a high-end London 2021 by physical and digital now (closing date to be confirmed). its collection, alongside black and friend Angus Neil, called Joan Glasgow, G2 4ET, 0141 258 1080, Now, nearly 60 years later, the life Committed to enhancing the gallery in Roland, Browse and exhibitions across Scotland as well as Joan Eardley: A Centenary Exhibition, white photographs by the artist’s Eardley Sketching (Looking North). https://www.theroyalglasgow and the legacy of Joan Eardley is visibility of women makers in the fine Delbanco. As a result, her work was talks and symposiums online.

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