Wings of a Butterfly

By Greg Thomas, 28.03.2025

Pierre Bonnard 'Garden at Le Canet', c. 1943. Photograph by John McKenzie

“I should like to present myself to the young painters of the year 2000 with the wings of a butterfly” wrote Pierre Bonnard in 1947. The statement is the starting point for Ingleby’s current exhibition, which brings together 12 artists that explore Bonnard’s inheritances in contemporary painting and sculpture. Greg Thomas reviews.

CONTINUE READING

Petra Bauer: Sisters!

By Greg Thomas, 19.03.2025

Petra Bauer, Sisters!, 2011, digital film, 123mins, still. © Petra Bauer. Courtesy the artist.

Petra Bauer's 2011 film Sisters! is an assemblage of fly-on-the-wall footage that drops viewers into the interior spaces and working lives of the West London charity Southall Black Sisters. Now showing at The Fruitmarket, it offers a sometimes harrowing but ultimately uplifting glimpse of feminist activism in the UK, writes Greg Thomas.

CONTINUE READING

Jack Vettriano (1951–2025)

By Neil Cooper, 05.03.2025

Jack Vettriano, At The Party (c1990). The Fleming Collection

Jack Vettriano, who as died aged 73, was one of the most successful contemporary Scottish artists ever. His success may have been self-made, but he remained a people’s painter to the end writes Neil Cooper.

CONTINUE READING

Robin Philipson is the 'Modern Master' in focus at The Scottish Gallery

By Susan Mansfield, 24.02.2025

Robin Philipson, A Talk in the Afternoon, c.1970. Courtesy of The Scottish Gallery

The Scottish Gallery’s Modern Masters series of exhibitions, now in its eighteenth iteration, is a welcome chance to see groups of works by important Scottish artists in the context of a vibrant mixed show. Each show has a focus on one artist around whom the other works orbit, in this show it is Robin Philipson; a painter whose work defies easy definition, but whose influence on Scottish painting extends well beyond his lifetime.

CONTINUE READING

Margot Sandeman, No More Sheep

By Greg Thomas, 17.02.2025

Margot Sandeman, 'Yellow Irises, Arran Shore' (1976). Given to Glasgow Life Museums by Joan Hughson, 2017. © Sandeman Estate.

A tiny, exquisite selection of artworks by Margot Sandeman in the Kelvingrove’s Fragile Gallery shows that small can be quite beautiful. Greg Thomas reviews.

CONTINUE READING

The Creation of a New Language of Colour in European Art

By James Knox, 06.02.2025

Samuel J Peploe, Luxembourg Gardens, (c1910). The Fleming Collection

The array of Colourist paintings on view at Dovecot offers an unparalleled opportunity to challenge conventions around who, among the avant-garde pack of UK artists inspired by French innovation, should be considered the leading radical painters from 1905 to the outbreak of war in 1914. The Fleming Collections' Curator Emeritus James Knox introduces the exhibition...

CONTINUE READING