THE TOP 20 OF SCOTTISH ART
1 CLAIRE BARCLAY, 36, lives and works
in Glasgow: Fresh from being selected to represent Scotland
at this year’s Venice Biennale, Barclay is currently
showing in New York. A graduate of Glasgow School of Art,
she describes her work as "hovering in between" sculpture
and installation. She has also had a solo show in Tate Britain.
2 JOHN BELLANY , 62, lives and works
in Edinburgh, Cambridge and Italy: Studied painting at Edinburgh
College of Art under Sir Robin Phillipson from 1960-1965.
Bellany is noted for his intense, highly-coloured works,
filled with symbolism. These include The Obsession (1966)
and Time and the Raven (1982), which inspired a piece by
composer Sir Peter Maxwell Davies. Bellany’s portrait
of actor Sir Sean Connery can be seen in the National Gallery
for Scotland. Bellany produced several disturbing works following
a visit to the former concentration camp at Buchenwald in
1967. His work starts at £6,000-£8,000. Highly
collectable, he has many celebrity fans and from an investment
point of view, is still an artist to watch.
3 ELIZABETH BLACKADDER, 73, lives and
works in Edinburgh: A major figure of the second-generation
Edinburgh School. During her career, she has experimented
with a range of printing media, including lithography, etching,
aquatint, drypoint, woodcut and screenprint. Her first prints
were published in 1958, but in recent years her work has
become widely known for her watercolours of cats and flowers.
Small pieces go for as little as £600 but prices can
go as high as £20,000. However, with a style that is
now proven, speculators say from an investment point of view
she still has further to go.
4 CHRISTINE BORLAND, 39, lives and works
in Kilcreggan, Helensburgh: Borland’s work asks us
to consider the ways in which social systems and institutions
exploit and devalue life. Her installations explore the traditional
theme of mortality; they are both seductive and repellent,
exerting a morbid fascination. In 1997, for example, she
made Phantom Twins, based on leather dolls used in the 18th
century to demonstrate childbirth to medical students. The
tiny skulls clearly visible beneath the stretched leather
have a painful poignancy. She was shortlisted for the Turner
Prize in 1997.
5 RODERICK BUCHANAN, 39, from Glasgow:
Won the prestigious Beck’s Futures prize in 2000 for
his 14-minute film Gobstopper. This video shows a series
of children attempting to hold their breath as a car passes
through the Clyde Tunnel. It remains one of the artist’s
most famous works, and has a special resonance in his home
city. His work was shown at the Venice Bienalle in 1999 and
2001.
6 NATHAN COLEY, 37, Glasgow-born but
based in Dundee: Has built a reputation as one of Scotland’s
most original and engaging talents with his work on the meaning
we attach to buildings. He has re-created the courtroom at
the Lockerbie trial, with an eerily life-sized model of the
witness stand, and famously created scale models of Edinburgh’s
places of worship from plain brown cardboard.
7 GRAHAM FLACK, 42, lives and works in
Edinburgh: Flack’s distinctive paintings of heads have
caught on. Since he graduated from Edinburgh College of Art
in 2002, he has been working steadily and now has a waiting
list for commissions. The actor Robert Carlyle saw his work
in that year’s RSA show and visited the studio with
his wife, Anastasia, to buy a painting for their home. Flack
has also painted David Beckham for a charity auction at Christie’s,
where his work will appear alongside that of Tracey Emin,
Anthony Gormley and Peter Howson.
8 DOUGLAS GORDON, 38, Glasgow-born and
studied at Glasgow School of Art: A Scottish video and installation
artist. In the 1994 sound installation Something Between
My Mouth and Your Ear, he played, in an entirely blue room,
30 popular songs that were current in the six months preceding
his birth. In 24 Hour Psycho, he slowed down Hitchcock’s
film so it lasted an entire day. He was awarded the Turner
Prize in 1996, the Premio 2000 at the Venice Biennale in
1997 and the Hugo Boss Prize in 1998. Only for the wealthy
collector.
9 PETER HOWSON, 46, lives and works in
Glasgow: Howson arrived in Scotland aged four. His powerful
figurative work has made him one of the foremost British
artists of his generation. Famous for his portrayals of Glasgow’s
down-and-outs, he has gained a vast amount of public and
media attention which has resulted in his work being bought
by the world’s leading galleries and collected by a
starry list of private clients, including Madonna (his nude
portrait of the singer sold for £100,000) and David
Bowie. Many say his day has come and gone after great success
in the Eighties, but his work has recently fetched record
prices again and there is a feeling in the market that he
could be due a second wind.
10 JOLOMO, (John Lowrie Morrison), 56,
lives and works in Argyll: He studied drawing and painting
at Glasgow School of Art, graduating post-diploma in 1972.
Painting in oils, he uses high key colour and expressionist
brushwork to capture his unique vision of Scotland. His paintings
range from light, airy beach scenes of Iona to intimate moody
paintings of Knapdale, where he lives. Having taught for
many years, Morrison became a full-time artist in 1996 and
has become one of the most successful painters in the UK
Although some items sell for several thousand pounds, it
is still possible to own one for under £1,000.
11 JIM LAMBIE, 40, lives and works in
Glasgow: Lambie studied at Glasgow School of Art and his
involvement in the Glasgow music scene has had considerable
influence on his work. Like music, visual art can fill a
space and change the way we perceive our surroundings as
well as ourselves. It can produce altered states of mind.
Using vibrantly coloured tapes that follow the contours of
a room, Lambie’s installation transforms and energises
the gallery space.
12 JENNY MATTHEWS, 40, studied at Edinburgh
College of Art: Has established her reputation as an accomplished
Scottish watercolourist. Matthews’s paintings can be
seen in galleries around the UK as well as in the private
collection of author Ian Rankin and companies such as Adam
and Co, Brodies WS and Hewlett Packard. From £350 upwards.
13 PATSY McARTHUR, 28, graduated from
Gray’s School of Art in Aberdeen in 1998: McArthur
spent five months drawing and painting in Italy after art
school. In 2001, she completed a masters degree in European
fine art at Winchester School of Art. Her work is now exhibited
around the country and is a popular choice on www.scotlandart.com,
with prices starting from just £290.
14 GABRIELLE REITH, 28, brought up in
Aberdeenshire, graduated from Gray’s School of Art:
Inspired by landscape in all aspects of her work, including
drawings, paintings and pieces constructed in textiles. She
also finds inspiration in the colours and shapes of much
of the 1950s, 60s and 70s art and design, collecting china
from that period. Very affordable £250-500.
15 STEPHEN SHANKLAND, 33,
lives and works in Aberdeenshire: Shankland, who shares
a studio with his wife, Kelly, near Cruden Bay in Aberdeen,
came to prominence this year when he won the BP Portrait
Award. Judges were impressed by his oil-on-board painting
entitled The Miracle, which shows Kelly and the couple’s
son, Connor, who was born with a life-threatening condition.
Shankland studied at Aberdeen’s Gray’s School
of Art and now works as a full-time painter. He has exhibited
widely, including the 1999 BP Portrait Award show and at
galleries in Aberdeen.
16 LUCY SKAER, 29, lives and works in
Glasgow: Much of Skaer’s work consists of her interacting
with, and changing, public spaces. In Public Project, she
left a diamond and a live scorpion side by side on an Amsterdam
pavement. She has also hidden moth and butterfly pupae in
criminal courts in the hope they will hatch in mid-trial.
In 2003, Skaer was short-listed for the Beck’s Futures.
17 SIMON STARLING, 37, lives and works
in Glasgow: Starling likes a challenge. His work is labour
intensive and forces him to learn new skills, from mechanic
to horticulturist to aviation engineer. In the decade since
completing his studies at Glasgow School of Art, he has driven
a Fiat 126 halfway across Europe and replaced half its body
parts, rebuilt a grand piano to reverse the high and low
notes, and built a radio-controlled aeroplane to carry an
aerial camera. Based in Glasgow, he has shown work all over
the world and is highly respected for his originality and
inventiveness. A recipient of the £30,000 Paul Hamlyn
Award in 1999, he also teaches at Duncan of Jordanstone College
of Art in Dundee, and in Malmo, Sweden.
18 BLAIR THOMSON, 24, works in Glasgow:
Thomson is heavily influenced by Japanese culture and a keen
student of Eastern philosophy. Since graduating from Glasgow
School of Art, Thomson has made the transition from student
to commercially successful artist, selling every piece in
his degree show for a total of £13,000. Unashamedly
ambitious, he now sells four or five canvasses a month through
commercial galleries. His work can be picked for between £180-£2,000.
19 CHARLES MONTEITH WALKER, 47, lives
and works in Dundee: After attending Dundee’s Duncan
of Jordanstone College of Art from 1978-1982, Walker concentrated
mainly on landscape drawings in soft pastels. In the mid-1990s
his style began to change after several visits to Italy,
Spain and Portugal. The warmth of light and colour, the piazzas,
churches and towns provided Charles with a new, rich source
of inspiration.
Since 2000, he has worked on larger scale pieces that are
highly distinctive both in style and subject matter. His
work is in private collections around the world. £300
- £3,000.
20 KIRSTY WHITEN, 27, lives and works
in Edinburgh: Whiten paints portraits, but not in the conventional
sense. Flat surfaces and brightly coloured backgrounds give
way to meticulous detail. A synthesis of caricature and portrait,
she captures a gesture, a moment in thought, and each has
a quirky edge. Since graduating from Edinburgh College of
Art in 1999, she has shown nationally and internationally.
In 2002, she landed her first major solo show at the Collective
Gallery which saw a development from high-gloss portraits
to a series of drawings of the residents in the Dumbiedykes
area of Edinburgh. Her work typically sells for £500-£1,000. |
