JD Fergusson: Modern Scottish Painting

by Moffat, Alexander; Riach, Alan

• ISBN13: 9781910021880
• ISBN10: 1910021881
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2017-02-28
• Publisher: Luath Press Ltd

Summary

To earn the name artist it seems clear that one must create something, must make something, be a ‘makar’.

In 1939, Scottish artist and sculptor J.D. Fergusson was commissioned to write a fully illustrated book on modern Scottish painting. The Second World War made this impossible and the first edition of Modern Scottish Paintingwas published in 1943 without illustrations. This new edition – edited, introduced and annotated by Alexander Moffat and Alan Riach – finally brings Fergusson’s project to fruition, illustrating the argument with colour reproductions of Fergusson’s own work.

Moffat and Riach frame Fergusson’s important art manifesto for the 21st-century reader, illuminating his views on modern art as he explores questions of technique, education, form and what it means for a painting to be truly modern. Fergusson relates these aspects of modern painting to Scottishness, showing what they mean for Scottish identity, nationalism, independence and the legacy that puritanical Calvinism has left on Scottish art – a particular concern for Fergusson given his recurring subject matter of the female nude.

Author Biography

ALEXANDER MOFFAT is an artist and teacher. Born in Dunfermline in 1943 he studied painting at Edinburgh College of Art. He was the Director of New 57 Gallery of Edinburgh from 1968-78. A year later he joined the staff of the Glasgow School of Art where he became Head of Painting from 1992 to 2005. He is an elected member of the Royal Scottish Academy and the current Chair of RSA exhibitions committee. His exhibition of paintings entitled '7 Poets' toured throughout the UK from 1981-84. ALAN RIACH was born in Airdrie in 1957. He studied English literature at Cambridge University from 1976-79. He completed his PhD in the Department of Scottish Literature at Glasgow University in 1986. His academic career has included positions as a post-doctoral research fellow, senior lecturer and Associate Professor and Pro-Dean - Faculty of Arts, University of Waikato, Hamilton, New Zealand 1986-2000. He is currently the professor and Chair of Scottish Literature, University of Glasgow.Alan Riach was born in Airdrie, Lanarkshire, in 1957. He studied at Cambridge and Glasgow and worked in New Zealand at the University of Waikato from 1986-2000. He is the author of Hugh MacDiarmid's Epic Poetry and Representing Scotland in Literature, Popular Culture and Iconography. He is currently the Professor of Scottish Literature, University of Glasgow, and President of the Association for Scottish Literary Studies.