A look at Visual Art at the Perth Festival

May 3 2011 by Alison Anderson, Perthshire Advertiser Tuesday

A REAL coup for the Perth Festival this year is an exhibition of the late works of Henri Matisse in Perth Museum and Art Gallery.

This Hayward Touring exhibition from the Southbank Centre – titled MATISSE: Drawing with Scissors, Late Works 1950-1954 – is brought to the Fair City by the sponsorship of Perth Festival of the Arts.

This French painter, sculptor and designer was one of the 20th century’s most influential artists. His vibrant works are celebrated for their extraordinary richness and luminosity of colour.

MATISSE: Drawing with Scissors, features 35 lithographic prints of the famous cut-outs, produced in the last four years of his life, when the artist was confined to his bed.

It includes many of his iconic images, such as The Snail and the Blue Nudes.

Despite his ailing health, Matisse continued creating highly original works into his 80s. For his cut-outs he used paper hand-painted with gouache, laid down in abstract or figurative patterns.

He thus described his technique: “The paper cut-out allows me to draw in the colour … Instead of drawing the outline and putting the colour inside it…I draw straight into the colour.”

The colours he used were so strong that he was advised by his doctor to wear dark glasses.

The lithographic reproductions in this exhibition are taken from a special double issue of Verve, a review of art and literature, published by Tériade, a major publisher of fine art books in 1958.

Matisse began his working life as a lawyer, before going to Paris to study art in 1890. At first strongly influenced by the Impressionists, he soon created his own style, using brilliant, pure colours, and started making sculptures as well as paintings. In 1905 he and his colleagues were branded the Fauves (wild beasts) because of their unconventional use of colour, and it was during this time that he painted his celebrated Luxe, Calme et Volupté (Luxury, Tranquillity and Delight).

“There is no gap between my earlier pictures and my cut-outs,” Matisse wrote. “I have only reached a form reduced to the essential through greater absoluteness and greater abstraction.”

MATISSE: Drawing with Scissors runs until July 31.

Ronald Forbes De Rerum Natura: The Nature of Things

PERTH Museum and Art Gallery is showing a second exhibition as part of Perth Festival of the Arts: Ronald Forbes’ De Rerum Natura: The Nature of Things, which opens on May 21.

This exhibition has a strong local flavour! Ronald spent three years from 2006-2009 as Leverhulme artist-in-residence at the Scottish Crop Research Institute at Invergowrie in the Carse of Gowrie, where he had the opportunity to observe the work of scientists working in a wide range of activities.

The resultant body of work in the form of large paintings, digital-collage prints and a film is vivid, imaginative – and unexpected!

The artist celebrates the work of the scientist while alluding to some of the great stories and myths which have underpinned our culture, and have offered a different way of understanding our world.

Paintings have titles such as ‘Adam and Eve: Knowledge Transfer’, and subjects such as Hermes, messenger of the Gods, in his white lab coat. Others look at myths such as the story of Demeter and Persephone which gives us one kind of understanding of our seasons and the growth of crops.

The art of Ronald Forbes forms a narrative around the way we see and understand the world. It is about illusion, belief and reality – and the fuzzy edges between these.

Barbara in the Frame

IN celebration of Perth Festival of the Arts, Frames Gallery is delighted to hold a solo exhibition of work by print-maker Barbara Robertson (right).

Over the past 30 years, Barbara has gained the reputation of being one of Scotland’s finest print-makers, becoming a master in her field and creating a stunning body of work which captures both her great artistic skill and jubilant sense of humour.

Based near Forfar, Barbara takes inspiration for her work from the landscape around her, and the animals which fill it, as well as from her travels abroad.

Frames Gallery, which opened in Perth’s Victoria Street in 1979, has often shown Barbara’s work over the years, but this will be her first solo exhibition at the gallery, comprising of over 20 works.

The exhibition opens on Saturday, May 14, and runs until Saturday, June 4.

Art on the River

VISITORS to the Art on the River weekend (May 28 and 29 ) can enjoy a full house of artists’ and craftworkers’ stalls along the picturesque Tay Street.

Demand has never been so high for the stalls, with all 40 quickly booked this year.

Visitors to Art on the River can buy artworks and crafts, or just browse and enjoy the atmosphere between 10am and 5pm on the Saturday and 11am and 4pm on the Sunday.

THERE are plenty of other opportunities to enjoy the visual arts along the Perth Art Trail.

Perthshire Art Association holds its summer exhibition in St Matthew’s Church Hall, where there’s also the chance to enjoy refreshments at the Arts Cafe. Both exhibition and cafe are open Saturday, May 28, 10am-4pm, and Sunday, May 29, 12.30pm to 4pm.