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Abstract
The Highlands of Scotland have an art history which has not been properly identified as such. This paper contributes to that task of identification. Highland art begins with prehistoric rock art of world importance. It extends into the present with internationally recognised contemporary art, such as that generated by An Leabhar Mòr—The Great Book of Gaelic in 2002. In exploring this history I investigate continuities, gaps and international links. In doing so I draw on work made possible by a project funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council, Window to the West: Towards a redefinition of the visual within Gaelic Scotland, a joint initiative of the Visual Research Centre at the University of Dundee and Sabhal Mòr Ostaig, the Gaelic college in the Isle of Skye.
Acknowledgments
This paper developed from a presentation entitled ‘5000 years of Scottish Art’ given at the Heritage and the Environment Conference 2007, ‘Sin am Fearann Caoin’, at Sabhal Mòr Ostaig in Skye in June 2007.
Notes
[1] Window to the West: Towards a Redefinition of the Visual within Gaelic Scotland, funded over five years (2005–2010) by the Arts and Humanities Research Council.
[2] The research team consists of a Dundee University group of Murdo Macdonald, Will Maclean, Arthur Watson, Norman Shaw, Jane Cumberlidge, and Lesley Lindsay (research fellow), closely supported by Don Addison. At Sabhal Mòr Ostaig the group consists of Norman Gillies, John Purser and Meg Bateman, with key support from Hugh Cheape and Donnie Munro. Based in Lewis is research advisor Finlay Macleod.
[3] Currently the focus of an Arts and Humanities Research Council funded digitisation project at the Visual Research Centre at the University of Dundee.
[4] See, for example, Lippard’s introduction to Demarco’s To Calanish from Hagar Qim.
[5] Cf. Magnus Magnusson, ‘Foreword’, 4.
[6] See, for example, Gaskill, Ossian Revisited; Gaskill, The Reception of Ossian in Europe.
[7] Ossian Then and Now. An international conference at Université Paris 7 and UNESCO, in association with the National Galleries of Scotland and Highland Council. Paris, Saturday 19 November 2005. Papers published in 2008.
[8] For a recent interrogation of Landseer though art, note Ross Sinclair’s work at Aberdeen Art Gallery in 2006.
[9] In both Maclean and Carrell, As an Fhearann and Macleod, Togail Tìr and the accompanying publications, Window to the West project advisor Finlay Macleod had a significant role.
[10] In 2007 Michael Russell was appointed the Scottish Government’s Minister for Environment.
[11] With masonry by James Crawford. See Macmillan Symbols of Survival. For the historical context see Buchanan, The Lewis Land Struggle.
[12] Window to the West research team members involved in An Leabhar Mòr included Will Maclean, Norman Shaw, Arthur Watson, Meg Bateman, Don Addison, and Jane Cumberlidge.
[13] How that contemporary art is curated with reference to the older historical material should, to some degree at least, depend on venue. For example a neo‐classical gallery resonates with Ossian work in a way that a white cube setting does not.
[14] Studio International, 7 June 2007; Scotland on Sunday, 13 May 2007; The Scotsman, 25 May 2007; West Highland Free Press, 11 May 2007.
[15] This led to the book by Macdonald et al., Highland Art, with text in English and Gaelic.
[16] Writing in the West Highland Free Press of 17 August 2007, p.19.
[17] This area has recently been the focus of an NVA/National Theatre of Scotland project, Half Life. Two Window to the West research team members, John Purser and Meg Bateman, contributed to an earlier NVA project The Storr in Skye in 2005.
[18] I recognise the difficulties of defining this notion.
[19] It has often been remarked that the early Gaelic writers are very sensitive to the beauty of nature in their poetry. So much so that Celtic Christianity is sometime claimed as a precursor of modern ecology. Be that as it may, in the context of an exhibition of Highland art it is, nevertheless, interesting to consider the way the Gaelic language deals with colour. Where in English colour words tend towards an experience of specific hue, in Gaelic colour words tend to explore the environmental experience of related colours. ‘Gorm’, for example, refers to an indeterminate—but landscape appropriate—set of blues and greens changing with time of day. As in the mountain Cairngorm, for example. So perhaps this aspect of Gaelic language does indeed tend to an ecological view.
[20] With respect to Arts and Crafts in relation to the Gaidhealtachd, note also Hew Lorimer’s major granite sculpture, Our Lady of the Isles, erected in South Uist in 1956.
[21] For example, over and above Scottish contributions, Bill Brandt’s work from the 1940s, Balthasar Burkhard’s work from 2000, or Alex Hartley’s work from 2007.