The City Art Centre in Edinburgh has revealed some of the exhibition highlights for next year, including two exhibitions taking part in the Edinburgh Art Festival. The publicly owned venue is dedicated to championing historic and contemporary Scottish visual arts and crafts.
“These free exhibitions will give visitors the opportunity to revisit enduring favourites as we mark the centenary of Charles Mackie’s death or discover new favourites like E.A Hornel in the first retrospective of his works,” said Councillor Donald Wilson, Edinburgh’s Convener of Culture and Communities.
Charles H. Mackie: Colour and Light
16 May 2020 - 11 October 2020
The Scottish painter and printmaker Charles Hodge Mackie (1862-1920) was one of the most versatile artists of his generation. Drawing inspiration from French Symbolism, the Celtic Revival movement and the landscapes of his European travels, he produced oil paintings, watercolours, murals, woodblock prints, book illustrations and sculpture. The retrospective is timed to coincide with the centenary of Mackie’s death, with over 50 artworks from public and private collections is part of Edinburgh Art Festival 2020 programme.
Marine: Ian Hamilton Finlay
23 May - 4 October 2020
A new exhibition of maritime themed work by renowned concrete poet Ian Hamilton Finlay (1925-2006) which draws on works from the artist’s estate and the City Art Centre’s collection, including loans from the National Galleries of Scotland. The exhibition showcases artworks from across several decades and ranging from stone, wood and neon sculptures to tapestry. The show will also feature prints, postcards and booklets from Finlay’s Wild Hawthorn Press. Marine: Ian Hamilton Finlay is part of Edinburgh Art Festival 2020 programme.
Bright Shadows: Scottish Art in the 1920s
12 September 2020 - 23 May 2021
The 1920s was a period of contrasts: high spirits and sombre reflection, decadent excess and hard realities. Bright Shadows explores the styles, ideas and events that shaped Scottish art during this influential decade. Drawn from the City Art Centre’s fine art collection, the exhibition features a range of paintings, drawings, prints and sculpture by artists including Stanley Cursiter, S.J. Peploe, Dorothy Johnstone, Eric Robertson and William McCance.
E. A. Hornel: From Camera to Canvas
7 November 2020 - 14 March 2021
E. A. Hornel: From Camera to Canvas, a collaboration between the National Trust for Scotland and the City Art Centre, is the first major retrospective of Hornel's art. Featuring photographs and paintings from Broughton House in Kirkcudbright, this exhibition shows how photography was crucial to the development of Hornel's artistic technique. It examines his use of young, female models in Japan, Sri Lanka and Scotland, and demonstrates that he only became the painter he did thanks to the photographs he took and collected.
Jock McFadyen RA (working title)
14 November 2020 - 7 March 2021
A major exhibition by artist Jock McFadyen displays his urban and rural landscapes, as well as figurative paintings. The show will include new and existing works by McFadyen as well as his selections from the City’s collection, ranging from ‘old favourites’ by renowned Scottish artists, to artworks that have rarely been seen by the public. The exhibition pairs together images to help show viewers unexpected and sometimes humourous connections and relationships. The exhibition aims to create unique contrasts and place the collection and McFadyen’s work in a fresh and exciting context.