Annual Review 2011-12 - National Galleries of Scotland

ARTIST ROOMS Gifts
From its inception, ARTIST ROOMS was
intended to grow, both to develop the
existing holdings, and to introduce the
work of younger generations of artists in
order for the collection to remain dynamic
and contemporary (see page 15). Shared
with audiences nationally through a major
touring programme since 2009, thanks to
the support of the Art Fund, the collection
has a principal aim of inspiring young
people. Many artists and individuals have
responded to this ethos of learning and
engagement and have generously donated
works that are enabling this world-class
national collection to develop in new and
exciting ways, for the benefit of audiences
throughout Scotland and the UK.
M A RT I N C R E E D ( b. 1 968)
Work No. 1102, 2011
Acrylic on canvas, 61 x 45.7cm
Work No. 1103, 2011
Oil on canvas, 61 x 45.7cm
Work No. 1104, 2011
Acrylic on canvas, 61 x 45.7cm
Work No. 1105, 2011
Acrylic on canvas, 61 x 45.7cm
ARTIST ROOMS Presented by the artist
jointly to National Galleries of Scotland
and Tate and acquired with assistance
of the ARTIST ROOMS Endowment,
supported by the Henry Moore
Foundation and Tate Members 2011.
© Martin Creed
Martin Creed’s work emerges from an
ongoing series of investigations into
commonplace objects and actions.
Creed titles his works primarily using
numbers, so that each piece is added
to his catalogue with equal status,
regardless of its size, or medium.
Through subtle interventions or
apparently simple processes, he
reintroduces the viewer to elements
of the everyday and the ordinary that
are otherwise overlooked. Creed has
made numerous works that deal with
notions of subtraction and addition,
stacking and progression. The artist has
generously presented a group of seven
works to NGS and Tate for ARTIST ROOMS,
of which these four recent paintings
represent an important aspect of the
artist’s practice. In such works, Creed
builds up broad lines of paint across the
canvas in decreasing lengths that together
create a stepped pyramid. Each painting
differs in terms of the width and number
of lines, following a set of rules that resist
processes of decision-making. Although
individually titled, together the four
paintings form a series that can be exhibited
together.
R O B E RT M A P P L ETHORPE
( 1 9 4 6 –1989)
David Hockney, 1976
Silver gelatine print, 50.8 x 40.6cm
Feet, 1982
Silver gelatine print, 50.8 x 40.6cm
ARTIST ROOMS National Galleries of
Scotland and Tate. Presented by the
Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation 2010.
© Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation.
Used by permission.
The acclaimed American artist Robert
Mapplethorpe used photography as a
means of exploring the physical and
sculptural potential of objects and the
human form. Originally trained as a
painter and sculptor at Pratt Institute,
Brooklyn, New York, he did not see
himself as a ‘photographer’. Rather, his
practice with the medium initially developed
out of an interest in using photographic
images found in magazines and
books. He went on to take his own photographs
in order to control his compositions
more directly. His distinctive style
possesses a classical quality that revels
in the sensualism of nature and the body.
By the time of his premature death from
AIDS in 1989 he had created a powerful
body of work that spanned portraiture
of artists, writers and actors, floral still
lifes, male and female nudes, figurative
studies, and erotic images which engaged
with sexual politics through frank and
frequently provocative compositions.
The explicit nature of many of his works
caused controversy, testing the very
right to individual freedom of expression.
Mapplethorpe triumphed over
legal campaigns, and his work therefore
holds a significant place in the history of
artistic struggle.
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