Reintroducing the art world’s quiet master
One of the things I love most about writing this column is discovering artists whose work I haven’t seen before, but which quietly gets under the skin.
A couple of weeks ago, walking up the back entrance of Edinburgh’s Waverley Station and onto Market Street, my eye zeroed in on huge banners hanging from the City Art Centre. They were advertising its new summer exhibition, Adam Bruce Thomson: The Quiet Path.
The poster image shows a painting of a road surrounded by moorland and trees, snaking towards an unmistakably Highland purple-hued mountain. I was smitten. I’d never heard of Thomson before, but on the basis of the banners alone, wanted to see more of his work.
A few emails later, and exhibition curator Helen Scott had graciously agreed to give me a private view of the work midhang. Walking around with Helen, looking closely at Thomson’s works – many of which have never been seen in public before – was a sight for my sore eyes.
Thomson was an influential artist and teacher at Edinburgh College of Art until his death in 1976, aged 91. A highly skilled draughtsman, there is something gentler and deeper in his paintings, particularly in his tender portraits of his wife Jessie and their three children.
One of the many stars is The Road to Ben Cruachan, which features in the show’s publicity and also on the front cover of a fascinating new book by Helen on Thomson.
Painted around 1932, it is one of over 100 works in the first ever major retrospective display of Thomson’s work to be held in a public gallery. This show looks set reintroduce this quietly unassuming artist to a new generation.
As Helen puts it: “He was such a talented artist, who remains mostly unknown. Despite making a significant impact on Scottish art, he was extremely modest and has become overshadowed by bigger names.”
Time for this quiet man of Scottish art to emerge from the shadows.
Adam Bruce Thomson: The Quiet Path is at The City Art Centre, Market Street, Edinburgh, until October 6. Entry is free.
Recently, I wrote about a brilliant new exhibition by grande dame of Scottish painting, Lys Hansen, at Callendar House, Falkirk. Hansen taught many artists during a long career. Now, one of them, Nicola Carberry, is showing work with partner Alastair Strachan at Studio 44 in Largs, until May 19. The figure lies at the heart of Somebody Somewhere. Nicola first attended a life drawing class with Hansen aged 15, where “Lys taught us to discover the pose from the inside out.”