The RSA Quiz of the Year - Part 1

Questions Question 1 Which Family?

This year’s Royal Scottish Academy Annual Exhibition of Art and Architecture was swiftly transformed into an engaging online exhibition due to the restrictions of the first UK lockdown.

This striking sculpture titled “Easy Tiger” featured prominently in the exhibition and it was submitted by brothers David and Michael. Its design includes wrappers from a well loved biscuit made in family run Scottish bakery.

Can you name the artists family OR the baker’s family? Easy Tiger by ____ & ____ Exhibited in the RSA Annual Online Exhibition, 2020 Question 2 Where?

The John Kinross Scholarship is a multidisciplinary travel award, open to all final year art and architecture students from Scotland's principal schools.

Katie Schwab won the award in 2015 and was inspired by the architecture, patterns and local markets selling hand stitched samplers for pennies. Her piece, "Work Hands 8", was started on her train journey home from her residency and finished in Scotland.

Managed by The RSA, the Kinross Scholarship was established to fund winning artists and architects to visit a specific European city.

Can you name the city? Katie Schwab - Work Hands 8, sampler, 2015. John Kinross Scholarship collection. RSA Collections Question 3

Jim Pattison RSA, Tartan Setts, archival digital pigment prints, 2016. Elected Academician, 2016

A, B or C ? … AND another piece of personal data. Can you name this data? Jim Pattison RSA (born 1952) has suggested new ways of designing tartan setts, utilising a mix of autographic and A) BMI digital media to manipulate images and information. B) DNA His process involved researching ways in which tartans have been designed and assigned historically… C) MRI Question 4 “Who Said”?

“Willie sees, and what he sees shows face to face. It’s full of grace.”

Dr Willie Rodger RSA (1930 - 2018) was nominated as an Associate RSA member in 1989 and became a full Academician in 2005. He was the first artist elected to The RSA under the category of Printmaker.

Willie Rodger had a close friendship and collaborative creative relationship with the Scot's Makar of 2011, who was born in 1947 in Motherwell, Lanarkshire.

Can you name this engaging, popular and acclaimed Scottish Poet? Willie Rodger RSA, 'Brighton, November', linocut and woodcut and oil based ink frottage, 1972. RSA Collections. Question 5 Time Stamp

Sir Henry Cole (1802 - 1882), Assistant Keeper of the Public Record Office, introduced the “Christmas Congratulations Card” to encourage use of The Post Office and the newly arrived postage stamp.

AROUND 70 YEARS LATER…

James P MacGillivray (1856 - 1938) designs Robes for the Royal Scottish Academicians.

AROUND 70 YEARS LATER…

David P Evans (1942 - 2020) was commissioned to design the Academy’s first official Christmas Card.

In which decades did these three events occur? RSA Official Christmas card by Sir Robin Philipson PRSA David Michie Studio Gift, 2015, featuring Academicians robes as designed by James P MacGillivray Question 6 Who am I ?

I am an Honorary Royal Scottish Academician…

I am a prominent gallerist, curator and artist…

I Co-founded the Traverse Theatre, …

I have established an Edinburgh based archive of art…

I hold many accolades including a CBE and an Honorary Doctorate of Law, University of …

I celebrated my 90th birthday this year… Question 7 Resources

This beautiful new C-type print by Wendy McMurdo RSA (Elect) is part of the RSA Christmas Show.

Bird Populations (ii) is part of Wendy's Dioramas series. Her work explores the ways in which developments in technology directly impact on the ways we both picture and describe ourselves and raises questions about the effect new virtual technologies have on human beings.

What kind of resources does the artist use to collect her photographic inspiration? Wendy McMurdo RSA (Elect), Bird Populations (ii), 2020, C-type print, 42 x 50 cm, edition of 25. Question 8 The fortunes of Steell

Sir John Steell (1804 -1891) put public sculpture on the map in Scotland. He is remembered in particular for his marble statue of Sir made for Edinburgh in the 1840s, which took its place as the central feature of the . In 1872 a version in bronze was installed in Central Park in New York. But the lack of a statue featuring another Scots Literary Figure, was immediately felt by the New Yorkers so they commissioned Steell to design one.

Which literary figure was Steel commissioned to portray for his second New York sculpture?

Except from an RSA blog by Murdo MacDonald. Sir John Steell, RSA (1804-1891) Question 9 What Colour?

Gabrielle Gillott presented her new work in February’s RSA New Contemporaries exhibition.

Drawing on an interest in pre-Newtonian concepts of colour – whereby colour was a performative, associative concept – this artist uses titles given to interior paint colours as a springboard in her practice for rich bodies of research. The products of this research are often altered objects, created sculptures, films or enterable environments, tinted with the chosen hue.

This structure “Reading Room, Hidey Hole and Secret Room” draws on the artist’s previous probe of Brexit prepping stockpiles and was created in a pre-Covid 19 world. Gabrielle Gillott, Reading Room, Hidey Hole and Secret Room, mixed media, 2020. What colour was her previous installation “Safe Photo credit Julie Howden Haven”, mixed media, 2019? The RSA Quiz of the Year - Part 1

Answers On the RSA Blog