Newsletter No. 21 Autumn/Winter 2005 During that time the SSAH will continue to grow and develop its role as one of the pre-eminent vehicles of art From the Chair historical research in Scotland. Our 2005 Journal is a particularly rich and varied publication and we are now st lthough not exactly a ‘coming of age’, the 21 exploring opportunities for more extensive distribution birthday of the SSAH has offered a marvellous and online publishing. More news of this will follow. We opportunity to review both our past and our are delighted to have contributions from several scholars A st future. Our past was essentially the theme of our 21 and writers working outwith Scotland and hope this is a anniversary colloquium in April - Art & Scotland: the last harbinger of a growing internationalism, both for our 21 years - but this was no exercise in self-indulgent Society, but also for the study and appreciation of Scottish congratulation or navel-gazing. Instead a succession of art and for the study of art in Scotland. stimulating papers and discussions served to emphasise how vibrant and energising the issue of art continues to Robin Nicholson be in a nation now mystifyingly re-branded as the ‘best small country in the world’. Certainly none can deny that Scotland always has punched above its weight and the colloquium was Notices launched with Duncan Macmillan’s challenging thesis that the international influence of Scots artists might be signifi- cantly more extensive than previously thought. Obliquely AGM this set a theme for the following day’s debates which The Annual General Meeting of the Scottish Society for constantly returned to questions of Scottish culture, Art History will take place on Saturday December 3rd in identity and outlook. Although only one discussion the lecture theatre of the Hunterian Art Gallery, specifically addressed the issue of Scotland’s artistic University of Glasgow at 11am. After the AGM Anne identity, there was a sense in which all the speakers felt Dulau will give a ‘behind the scenes’ tour of the bound to consider how Scotland fared in the wider Hunterian Art Gallery. world, be it in terms of built heritage, our museums and collections, or our contemporary artists. Overall there Apology was a conviction that this was a time of transformation. Most unfortunately, many of you had to retrieve your last Scotland now has superb art history teaching and newsletter from the post office and were asked for a scholarship, world-class art galleries and exhibitions, £1.80 surcharge fee. As the envelopes had been weighed award-winning architecture and some of the most excit- at the Post Office, I wrote to the Royal Mail to complain ing international contemporary artists and yet somehow that an error on their behalf had caused our members lacks the necessary self-esteem to break the boundaries both inconvenience and expense. Although their of a self-imposed provincialism. As our second plenary Customer Service Advisor apologised profusely for the speaker, Richard Demarco, so ably demonstrated, mistake, she was unable to comply with my request that a anything is possible with the will to succeed. book of stamps for £1.80 to be sent to SSAH members Our colloquium offered no immediate answers to a as compensation. Her advice is that SSAH members problem that is perhaps inherently Scottish, but certainly should contact their customer service centre directly and showed there is no lack of will and vigour in the culture quote reference number 1-1348804661 to receive a of the visual arts in Scotland. I am sure the next 21 years book of stamps for £1.80. I am very sorry for the will be even more exciting. 1 Notices (continued) Features inconvenience this must have caused, and Close-up on Collections disappointed that the Royal Mail did not offer better Scotland has many fine art collections outwith the major compensation. I do hope, however, that many of you national and regional galleries. In the first of what we hope will be able to receive this book of stamps without will be a regular series highlighting lesser-known collections too much trouble. around the country, Nicola Ireland, Collections Assistant Anne Dulau at the Royal Scottish Academy, tells us more about the RSA’s Collections and Archives. Time to renew ext year the Royal Scottish Academy, one of Membership Subscriptions for 2006 are due on the oldest Scottish art establishments, will 1 January 2006 Ncelebrate its 180th anniversary. Founded in To ensure your subscription is kept up to date, 1826, the Academy has amassed a sizeable collection complete and return the form enclosed in this news- and related archive over the years as part of its letter. Please fill the whole form out, even if you pay primary remit ‘to secure the progress, and advance the by standing order, to keep your address, gift aid, etc., dignity of the Fine Arts in Scotland’.1 The earliest information up to date. The form can also be reference to the concept of collecting can be found in downloaded from our website: www.ssah.org.uk a letter of 1826 penned by John Elder, the Academy’s solicitor, to the Lord Advocate of Scotland on the Student Paper Competition Academy’s behalf where he expresses their desire ‘to The annual student paper competition is open to all form a Library of Books of Painting, Sculpture and undergraduate and postgraduate students in higher Architecture, and all objects relating thereto; also of education institutions in the UK. Submissions are Painting Prints, Casts and Models’.2 Although the initial invited on any topic within the broad area of Scottish impetus for the collection was borne of the desire to Art and Visual Culture. Papers should be of 3,000- create a teaching collection3, this objective soon 4,000 words in length (plus footnotes, bibliography became aligned with the more philanthropic concept etc.). The winning author will receive £50 and a of ‘collecting valuable works of art for public year’s membership of the SSAH. The winning paper gratification’ as well as for ‘the use of artists and may also be considered for publication in the Journal students’.4 By the mid 19th century, aspects of the of the SSAH. Entries should be countersigned by a collection were perceived to be of national tutor confirming that the paper is the student’s own importance, reiterated through the allocation of an original work. Further publication guidelines may be exhibition space within the new National Gallery of obtained by sending an email to: Scotland from 1858 until 1910. A number of jewels in [email protected] the National Gallery’s Scottish collection that were or by sending an S.A.E. to: presented to the nation by the Academy in 1910 Scottish Society for Art History, (including Sir Henry Raeburn’s Mrs Scott Moncrieff) c/o Matthew Jarron, Museum Services, stand as a testimony to the Academy’s sagacious early University of Dundee, Dundee DD1 4HN. collecting policy. Another 19th century collecting objective of the Entries should be submitted to the above postal Academy was to create an ‘Artistic Portrait Gallery’5 address. We do not accept submissions by e-mail. representing important figures of the day for ‘continual 6 THE DEADLINE FOR THE FORTHCOMING preservation in the collection’. This vision, expressed YEAR’S ENTRIES IS 31st MAY, 2006. by the Academy in its 1857 and 1858 Annual Reports, took place almost 25 years before the genesis of the This year’s winning entry was submitted by Clemena Scottish National Portrait Gallery, and has endowed Antonova for her essay entitled ‘El Greco’s Icon of the RSA collection with a fascinating archive of images. Christ in the National Gallery of Scotland’. The The personalities of the various movers and shakers of essay will appear in the next edition of the SSAH the Scottish art scene of the last two centuries are Journal. Clemena Antonova is a PhD student in also present in the form of the written word in the History of Art at Oxford University researching large archive of letters and manuscripts that have aspects of Eastern Orthodox art. She gained her MA grown in symbiosis with the collections. Unlike many at Edinburgh University. public art collections, most of the RSA’s art works 2 SSAH Autumn/Winter 2005 Although the Diploma Collection is intended to contain characteristic samples of members’ work there are some fascinating exceptions. Sir James Guthrie’s Midsummer sees his interest in Impressionism taken to its vibrant conclusion and William McTaggart’s Tennyson-inspired piece, Dora, is an intriguing work that reflects his earlier, more precise style and yet simultaneously acts as a prelude to the looser, emotive brushwork of his later paintings. The absence from the Diploma Collection of artists such as William Dyce and Wilhelmina Barns- Graham, who instead became Honorary Members forging their careers south of the border, is in its own way as interesting and significant as those whose work is included in chronicling the history of Scottish art. In addition to safeguarding this history, the RSA collection also embraces the present and looks to the future. As from this year all those who are elected to membership of the Sir James Guthrie, Midsummer (1891) st Courtesy of the Royal Scottish Academy Academy will automatically become Academicians and 21 century Diploma Works received from contemporary have come directly from their respective creators as a figures on the Scottish art scene including Alison Watt result of the unique nature of the RSA as an organisation and Callum Innes will form exciting additions to the per- created and driven by artists.