The Scottish National Gallery Of Modern Art opens a Retrospective of F C B Cadell

Written by Scott Anderson Sunday, 05 February 2012 21:15

Edinburgh.- The Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art is proud to present the first in aseries of exhibitions on the 'Scottish Colourists". "The Scottish Colourist Series: F C B Cadell" will be on view at the museum from October 22nd through March 18th 2012. Francis Campbell Boileau Cadell (1883-1937) is one of the four artists popularly known as ‘The Scottish Colourists’ (the others being J. D. Fergusson, G. L. Hunter and S. J. Peploe). He was born in Edinburgh, where he lived for most of his life, and studied in Paris and Munich. Cadell is celebrated for his stylish portrayals of Edinburgh interiors, his vibrantly coloured still lives of the 1920s, and for his evocative landscapes of the west of Scotland and the south of France.This retrospective exhibition includes approximately 70 paintings, from public and private collections.

Francis Cadell was born in Edinburgh, the son of a surgeon and was educated at the Edinburgh Academy. His sister was Jean Cadell a well-known actress. From the age of 16 he studied in Paris at the Académie Julian, where he was in contact with the French avant-garde of the day. While in France, his exposure to work by the early Fauvists, and in particular Matisse, proved to be his most lasting influence. After his return to Scotland, he was a regular exhibitor in Edinburgh and Glasgow, as well as in London. Cadell was a left-handed painter. While a student, the President of the Royal Scottish Academy tried to stop him painting with his left hand because 'No artist ever became great who did so.' Cadell swiftly replied 'Sir and did not the great Michelangelo paint with his left hand?' The President did not respond and left the room quickly. A fellow student asked Cadell how he had known that Michelangelo was left-handed. Cadell confessed 'I didn't know but nor did the president.' Cadell spent much of his adult life in Scotland and had little direct contact with many of the new ideas that were being developed abroad. He therefore tended to use subjects and environments that were close at hand – landscapes, fashionable Edinburgh New Town house interiors, still life and figures in both oil and watercolour. He is particularly noted for his portraits of glamorous women whom he painted in a loose, impressionistic manner, depicting his subject with vibrant waves of colour. He enjoyed the landscape of Iona enormously, which he first visited in 1912 and features prominently in his work. During the 1920s he spent several summers with Samuel Peploe, another Scottish Colourist, on painting trips to Iona, and was also friends with the Scot architect Reginald Fairlie. During World War I he served in the 9th Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders and the 9th Royal Scots regiments. He lived at 6 and 22 Ainslie Place, Edinburgh from 1920-1932. He then lived at 30 Regent Terrace from 1932-1935 where he found it more and more difficult to sell his paintings because of the economic climate. He finally moved to Warriston Crescent where he died in poverty in 1937. Caddell's Estate is represented by Portland Gallery inLondon.

The Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art in Edinburgh, holds the national collection of modern art. When opened in 1960, the collection was held in Inverleith House, at the Royal Botanic Gardens. In 1980 it moved to its current home: a Neo Classical building in the west of Edinburgh, near the Water of Leith, built in 1825-1828 by William Burn for John Watson's Hospital, a school now incorporated in George Watson's College. The Sculpture garden to the front of the building contains work by Henry Moore, Rachel Whiteread, Tony Cragg and Barbara Hepworth. In 2002 the front lawn was converted into the giant "Landform" sculpture by Charles Jencks, in collaboration with Terry Farrell and Duncan Whatmore of Terry Farrell and Partners. The sculpture is said to be inspired by chaos theory or Seurat's La Grand Jatte. In 2004 the gallery won the £100,000 Gulbenkian Prize for the Landform. In 2005 with the help of the Art Fund, the gallery added a significant selection of 20 monoprint drawings by leading British artist Tracey Emin to their collection, called the Family Suite (1994) displaying the "archetypal themes in Emin's art: sex, her family, her abortions, and Margate". These works will be displayed from August 2008 at the gallery as part of a major solo show by Emin which has been called the Summer Blockbuster exhibition. The collection includes work by Pablo Picasso, Georges Braque, Piet Mondrian, Ben Nicholson, Henri Matisse, Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, The Scottish Colourists, Peter Howson, Levannah Harris, Francis Bacon, Lucian Freud, Boyle Family and Douglas Gordon. Due to space constraints, the work that is displayed is often rotated. The gallery also holds temporary exhibitions. Surrealist and Dada art, as well as work by Eduardo Paolozzi are kept at the adjacent Dean Gallery. The Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art is one of the museums which comprise the National Galleries of Scotland. Visit the museums' website at ... http://www.nationalgalleries.org

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