RENOWNED Scottish artist Jock McFadyen is to have his 70th birthday marked by an exhibition this summer in Edinburgh. Dovecot Studios, in partnership with The Scottish Gallery, is to mount an exhibition of McFadyen’s recent paintings which describe the romance and grandeur of the Scottish landscape, alongside the urban dystopia for which the artist is well-known.
The organisers say: “Over 20 large paintings will feature in Lost Boat Party, highlighting McFadyen’s understanding of the sublime landscape tradition. It is no accident that the artist was taught by a generation of abstract painters whose presence is felt in these paintings describing the contemporary world; paintings such as Mallaig and Estuary Music are almost minimalist, and all the paintings – save for one which has a tiny figure, difficult to find at only half an inch tall – are void of human presence, instead inviting the viewer to inhabit the haunting and occasionally hostile panoramas of land and sea before them.”
Over the last seven months, Dovecot has collaborated with McFadyen to make a new artwork inspired by his paintings. The Mallaig Commission will be unveiled at the exhibition.
Christina Jansen, director of The Scottish Gallery, commented: “McFadyen paints the exterior world with a cool detachment that carries an emotional punch, and Lost Boat Party perfectly describes his approach – floating through the landscape to find and show the strange enigmatic portion only seen when looking for something else.
"The painting Lost Boat Party is a monumental work, depicting a seaside funfair which appears to have detached itself from the land and is slowly drifting out to sea. The metaphor for the human condition is unavoidable.”
The exhibition at Dovecot Studios on Infirmary Street will run from June 11 to September 25.
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