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2/10/2004

Demarco Focus 2

Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh

EDINBURGH ARTS 1972–1980

A new display opening at the Dean Gallery this autumn will tell the story of the 'Edinburgh Arts' summer schools: a fascinating experiment in art education and patronage, organised by Richard Demarco, that took place in Edinburgh between 1972 and 1980. This is the second of a three-part series of displays drawn from the substantial body of material in the Demarco archive, housed at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art. The display will comprise letters, posters, print material, scrapbooks and diaries, together with photographs from Demarco's remarkable photographic archive at the Demarco European Art Foundation.

Richard Demarco has long been an influential figure in the arts in Scotland. A gallery director, artist, teacher and champion of European contemporary art, he has meticulously collected a mass of archival material relating to the people, events and institutions that he has worked with. Together, the two parts of the Demarco Archive provide a unique source of information on this exchange between Scottish and international art from the 1960s to the present day.

'Edinburgh Arts' introduced students to the ideas of visionaries from across the creative spectrum such as Ian Hamilton Finlay, Joseph Beuys, Roland Penrose, Buckminster Fuller Paolo Soleri, Tadeusz Kantor and Magdalena Abakanowicz. Muscians, artists, dancers, actors, writers and poets mixed with scientists and politicians, providing a unique experience for the students, themselves from mixed backgrounds, including policemen, firemen and social workers.

Demarco's 'Edinburgh Arts' schools took artists and non-artists on a journey exploring cultural histories, connections and identities. Each year the school reinvented itself and the journey extended throughout Europe, taking the students to locations of inspiration as culturally and geographically diverse as Malta and Orkney.

A section of the display will be devoted to Richard Demarco's discovery of the sculptor Jimmy Boyle, while Boyle was serving a life sentence in the Special Unit of Glasgow's Barlinnie prison. Demarco introduced Boyle to Joseph Beuys and it was through this creative influence that Boyle shortly after held his first exhibition at Demarco's gallery, then situated on the High Street in Edinburgh.

Keiller Library display

Admission free

Further information and images from the NGS Press Office

Contact: 0131 624 6325 / 314 / 332 / 247
Vanessa Booth
Senior Press and Information Officer

DEAN GALLERY, Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, 73 Belford Road, Edinburgh

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