It seems very strange to reflect that, four weeks ago, we were in a different world of record-breaking rainfall, and, walking along the Water of Leith in Edinburgh, you had to weave round the flooded pathways along the riverbank to make your way up to the Scottish Gallery of Modern Art, past Antony Gormley’s ”Six Times Sky’ standing in the water itself, a counterpoint to his ‘Six Times Horizon’ embedded up at the main road.
You forget what a superb collection of modern art the Gallery has, including works by Germaine Richier, Karel Appel, Francis Bacon, Salvador Dali, Roland Penrose, Henry Moore, Charles Jenks, Albert0 Giacometti, Henri Matisse, Artiste Maillol,and Scottish artists Eduardo Paolozzi and John Duncan Fergusson, as shown in the current exhibition ‘Beyond Realism’ focused on the Gallery’s collection of Dada and Surrealist art which, through the bequest of Gabrielle Keiller’s collection in 1995 and careful acquisitions, is now one of the best in the world.
The Gallery is housed in two impressive early 19th-century neo-classical buildings, one the former John Watson School’s designed by William Burn in 1825 and the other the former Dean Orphan Hospital designed Thomas Hamilton in 1833, on either side of Belford Road while the grounds provide a setting for several pieces of sculpture and are landscaped with Charles Jencks’ ‘Landform Ueda’ Landform Ueda, inspired by chaos theory and shapes found in nature.
Now temporarily closed, along with all other museums and galleries, you have to rely on the SNGMA website to see the collections and something of ‘Beyond Realism’.