DIY Walks
 Enjoy the guided
walks, detailed above, at your own pace with these enhanced maps with
routes and additional information: Print out from the website or pick
up a copy from EAF Information Station.
EAF Guided Walks
A guide to the festival exhibitions with insights in key works and selected artists
By Lucy Gallwey
1. Fame and Fiction
Explore the way in which identities of popular figures and fictious characters are constructed through visual imagery
Robert Mapplethorpe – Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art
The SNGMA first opened in 1960 at Inverleith House in the Royal Botanic Garden. It moved to its present site in 1984
The building was designed by William Burn in the 1820s
Its interior was adapted to include modern exhibition space and its extensive grounds provide the ideal setting for the sculptures of Tony Cragg, Barbara Hepworth, Henry Moore, Rachel Whiteread and many more.
The lawn to the front was relandscaped by Charles Jencks – his ‘landform’ sculpture dramatically changing the original site even further
When the SNGMA opened, it inherited a small number of 20thC works from the National Gallery of Scotland but the majority of the collection has been acquired over the last 40yrs
The collection is huge, ranging from the late 19thC to the present day. A wide variety of media is shown, from painting and drawing to video, installation and kinetic sculpture.
Highlights of the collection include early 20thC French Painting, Cubist Art, Early 20thC Russian Art and Expressionist Art
20thC Scottish Art is especially well represented with work by Mackintosh and the Scottish Colourists
The Gallery holds regular exhibition of contemporary art, consciously incorporating contemporary practice into its history of modern art
EXHIBITION
This is the first ever major retrospective of Mapplethorpe’s work in Scotland and comprises nearly 80 photographs
Unfortunately we haven’t time to look at all the works but I encourage you to come back and look at the images – some of them have never been exhibited before
Robert Mapplethorpe was born in Long Island, New York in 1989.
He studied at the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn and during his time there made work in a variety of media. His interest in cultural imagery and representations of popular figures begins in these early years when he appropriated photographic imagery from magazines and books.
Pop artists were addressing similar subjects at the time. Mapplethorpe particularly admired Warhol’s work and there are a number of photographs of him in the exhibition.
The first photographs he took were made with a simple Polaroid camera but in the mid 1970s he acquired a large format press camera and began taking photographs of his social circle of friends, composers, artists and socialites. Pornographic film stars and underground sex clubs also became his subject
In the1980s his work changed and he became interested in more formal subjects such as statuesque male and female nudes, flower still lives and portraits of celebrities and artists
This photograph is of the singer, artist and poet, Patti Smith. She and Mapplethorpe were very close friends – they lived together in Brooklyn and later at the Chelsea Hotel
I think Mapplethorpe stages a kind of ‘scene’ in this photograph and cleverly suggests Patti’s character through the way he constructs the image
Smith is shown standing against a white wall dressed in white fabric holding two white doves. Despite the neutrality of the scene Smith’s gaze is highly charged. She looks directly out at us displaying the birds. I presume the image was taken in an ordinary interior, perhaps by a window through the way the light is directed and the inclusion of a houseplant in the right foreground.
The fragility of the birds perhaps point to a side of Smith’s character. This differs from other photographs Mapplethorpe took of her where she is represented in less ethereal terms
We can also find links with figures in classical sculpture through the stature of her pose and the position of her arms particularly
I also think its important that the image is black and white, perhaps recalling an ‘idea’ of the person and rather than the reality
Toulouse-Lautrec and the Art Nouveau Poster - City Arts Centre
The CAC Opened in 1980
It has an extensive programme of temporary exhibitions ranging from contemporary art to science fiction and rare antiquities from ancient civilisations
The CAC also houses Edinburgh’s fine art collection which consists of over 400 works. This includes works by the Glasgow Boys, the Edinburgh School and the Scottish Colourists – highly significant movements in Scottish art history
The CAC also includes contemporary artists in its collection such Callum Innes and Chad McCail
The CAC also holds topographical views of Edinburgh and some wonderful portraiture
EXHIBITION
This exhibition is the largest exhibition to date which explores the history of French, Belgian and Spanish posters from the early 19thC Romantic period through to Art Nouveau
It features fifteen of Toulouse Lautrec’s most famous works. We’re going to look at one of his most famous posters – ‘La Goulue’, made in 1891 for the Moulin Rouge
Lautrec chose Bohemian Paris as the subject of many of his paintings, illustrations and lithographic prints. There were big cultural changes in France in the 1980s. The Eiffel tower was completed, there was the Paris world fair and the Moulin Rouge opened in 1889
Lautrec derived the primary themes of his work from Parisian culture. His paintings and particularly his posters portray life in the cabarets, bars, and brothels of the city.
La Goulue means ‘The Glutton’ and was the name of the most outrageous dancer of the day, Louse Weber a provincial French Girl who became a famous for her ‘can can’ dancing at the Moulin Rouge
She was nicknamed La Goulue because apparently she used to have a habit of draining the glasses dry in bars!
Her story is a fascinating one – she worked in a laundry during the day and at night, without her mother’s knowledge, borrowed garments left by customers and worked as a dancer in the local dance halls
Lautrec shows her dancing the ‘can can’ in this brilliant poster. She kicks her legs and displays her skirt, capturing the attention of the audience of silhouetted figures in the background
We not only get a sense of her character but a tremendous sense of the environment of the Moulin Rouge as a smoky, shadowy and crowded place
Lautrec lines are sinuous and simplistic. He describes the figure in the foreground as a kind of shadowy figure intersecting the dance.
Let’s have a quick look at a work by Jules Chéret. Often termed “the master of poster art”, he was the first person to produce posters in mass through lithography and pioneered the use of coloured inks.
Chéret created vivid poster ads for cabarets, music halls and theatres such as Eldorado, The Olympia and the Moulin Rouge. He greatly influenced Lautrec and many other poster artists who followed him
He became a major advertising force in France producing designs for all types of commerce from theatre advertising to cosmetics. He was described as ‘The creator of an art industry’ in turning commercial art into a recognised art form
Chéret changed the nature of poster art. He minimised the amount of space allocated to text and a gives a sense of a place or product rather than an actual representation of it
This poster advertises the oil lamp, Saxoléine through the image of an elegantly dressed woman shown marvelling in the luminosity of the lamp
There’s no text, just the image which evokes a sense of light and movement.
Adventures – Tracey Moffat – Stills
Stills was set up in 1977 as Scotland first gallery dedicated to photography
Since then the gallery has developed to include digital imagery- a medium which has effected art practice across disciplines as we shall see from the current exhibition by Tracey Moffatt
Stills differs from most galleries – it operates as an experimental workshop space as well as an exhibition forum for photographic art
Through its Residency programme, contemporary artists can work on site – an important method supporting contemporary practice. Stills also finds space for local and national artistic interest with its wide range of education facilities and audience development projects. These include workshops, talks and performances.
Its exhibitions are designed to prioritise current photographic and digital practice. In ‘Focus Space’ the work of young artists is shown along side contemporary figures.
Other facilities include Screen lab, a flexible screening/ residency space located within Stills main production facilities, six black and white and colour chemical darkrooms, a digital studio for intermediate and advance users, and an educational suite with digital facilities and equipment.
EXHIBITION
Tracey Moffat is an Australian artist who mainly uses photography and video in her works.
She grew up in Brisbane in the 1960s and gained a degree in visual communications from Queensland College of Art in 1992
It could be said that Moffatt’s understanding of the history of film, video and photography dictates the nature of her work
She reuses pop fiction imagery created by the mass media and constructs new images out of existing imagery. In doing so she not only reinterprets her subject matter but alters our understanding of the way in which fictitious characters are created and read by audiences.
There are two parts to the exhibition – Firstly is Moffatt’s Adventure series of photographs and secondly is a group of her early films.
We haven’t got time to look at the whole of the exhibition so we’re just going to look at the video ‘Artist’, 2000. Moffatt shows clips from films dealing with the image of artist. The film raises questions about the power, value and importance of visual art in society.
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