Group13 is a combination of highly accomplished and highly rated contemporary Scottish artists reuniting for their third joint exhibition, this time in Broughton Street’s Union Gallery.
The show is loosely a response to the work of 20th-century modernist poet T.S. Eliot. I use the term ‘loosely’ loosely. The exhibition’s theme perhaps owes more to the production skills and literary enthusiasm of the group’s driving force Liz Knox than to any coordinated, consistently considered or explained engagement with Eliot’s work by the exhibitors.
Motivations, titles and reasons for using the Eliot texts accompanying these paintings are mostly unexplained, tangential or utterly obscure. Personally, I found this unsatisfactory. Personally, I also find much of Eliot’s poetry frustrating for similar reasons, so perhaps the fault is mine.
Fortunately, the paintings are of sufficient interest to stand by themselves. I think they work better as such. Described here are five favourites.
I enjoy the clarity of composition, line and colour in Paul Kennedy’s work: ‘The Cocktail Party’ (top-right) and particularly ‘The Dry Salvages’ (below), quirkily Harlequin for all its tramp-steamer drabness. I admire the fact that the hard work and hard thought and hard-earned technique behind these works is worn so lightly.
‘I Do Not Know Much’ (below) by Kennedy’s brother Adam Kennedy comes closer than most to a direct interpretation of Eliot’s work. His ancient, grimy, fog-bound Thames recalls Eliot’s ‘strong brown God’ – neglected, perhaps, blackened, but still energetic and reclaiming its own in the modern city.
Alasdair Wallace’s ‘Second Unreal City’ is a semi-abstract depiction of an urban skyline with 1950s flying saucer above. I liked its tension between careful rendering and hastily snatched photo. I relished the understated, blocked suggestiveness of the roofscape, and the disturbed, heavily stroked textures of sky against which UFO and Moon appear.
My final favourite in the exhibition was John Kingsley’s ‘And the Blind Eye Creates’. I don’t think the painting requires much comment. Its title and content match. Its understated suggestiveness invites the viewer to complete the work. To my eye, it is mysteriously and generously beautiful. AM
Group13. TS Eliot – Personal Perspectives continues at the Union Gallery (45 Broughton Street) until 30 August.
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