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17/2/2005

A tale of two cities

Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh

Two fascinating exhibitions, to open at the Scottish National Portrait Gallery in February, will contrast the Edinburgh of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries with the city of today. A Tale of Two Cities will feature the witty caricatures of John Kay (1742 – 1826), which capture the great and the not so good of Regency Edinburgh. His sharply observed portraits of Adam Smith, Deacon Brodie and Admiral Duncan among others, will be contrasted with those of contemporary graphic artist, Iain McIntosh, who was inspired by John Kay’s satirical etchings. The two exhibitions will comprise twenty-three laser prints by McIntosh and approximately twenty-eight etchings by John Kay. A small group of watercolours, an oil painting and a sketchbook will also be on display. The exhibitions are arranged side by side to pay tribute to a city and its characters, real and imaginary, both past and present.

McIntosh’s Edinburgh characters have entertained the readers of Alexander McCall Smith’s recent publication, 44 Scotland Street, which has been serialised in The Scotsman over the course of a year. In the pages of McCall Smith’s novel real-life characters such as Ian Rankin, Gavin Hastings and Tam Dalyell rub shoulders with fictional Edinburgh archetypes. A Tale of Two Cities has been organised to coincide with the publication of the hardback of 44 Scotland Street by Edinburgh publishing house Polygon. It will also mark the end of The Scotsman’s serialisation of this very popular series. In January last year The Scotsman did something no British newspaper had ever done before - offering its readers a "daily novel". Serialised fiction used to be commonplace in the 19th century, but even then most episodes were weekly or monthly. A "daily novel" was new territory, and The Scotsman was keen to explore it.

The idea for 44 Scotland Street came from an article Alexander McCall Smith wrote about touring America in the summer of 2003. In the course of it, he mentioned meeting Armistead Maupin, whose Tales from the City set in San Francisco first appeared in newspaper form before finding worldwide fame. After a meeting in October 2003 between McCall Smith and The Scotsman, 44 Scotland Street was born. From the start, it has been an interactive novel. Every episode encouraged readers to make suggestions about what should happen to Bruce, Pat, Bertie and all the other characters. Some of these suggestions have even made their way into the plot.

With such a diverse set of characters McIntosh had the extraordinary task of having to draw them. He was born in Motherwell in 1954 and studied at Edinburgh College of Art. His first steps in commercial art included designing numerous record sleeves, which led on to a variety of commissions for adverts, websites and product packaging design. He has worked with various UK newspapers such as the Financial Times and the Sunday Telegraph on editorial illustrations and mastheads for The Business and the Edinburgh Evening News. McIntosh uses traditional and digital techniques in his design and illustration work and the illustrations in this exhibition have used both techniques.

In contrast, John Kay’s etchings and portraits have, as one might expect, been created using entirely traditional methods. Kay started out, at the age of thirteen, as an apprentice to George Heriot, a barber in his hometown of Dalkeith. He set up a successful hairdressing business in Edinburgh in 1771, when he became a member of the Society of Surgeon-Barbers. At the same time he developed his skills as an amateur portraitist, and received patronage from William Nisbet of Dirleton, a wealthy landowner in East Lothian. Kay’s etchings and his little portraits met with considerable success, to the extent that he abandoned his trade as a barber. In 1785 he set himself up as a professional artist, working from a small print shop on the south side of Parliament Square. Over the following three decades he portrayed many characters of Edinburgh society from the great social thinkers of the day to street vendors, criminals and prostitutes.

James Holloway, Director of the Scottish National Portrait Gallery, said: “John Kay’s witty portraits define the colourful world of Regency Edinburgh. In the same way Iain McIntosh and Alexander McCall Smith between them have caught something of the essence of contemporary Edinburgh through their visual and verbal brilliance.”

PRESS VIEW 18 February 2005, 11.30am-1pm

Iain McIntosh will be available for interview and photographs on the day of the press view. 44 Scotland Street will be published by Polygon: price £14.99. Further information about Iain McIntosh can be found on his website at http://www.iain-mac.com.

In the image an Iain McIntosh's illustration.

For further information and images please contact the National Galleries of Scotland Press Office on 0131 624 6332/325/314.

In association with The Scotsman

Scottish National Portrait Gallery, 1 Queen Street, Edinburgh
Admission free

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