The Collector’s Eye and Borrowed Gardens
The Scottish Gallery pairs The Collector’s Eye and Borrowed Gardens this May, two shows that delve into the mind of those who acquire – either art created by others, or subjects for their own art.
About The Collector’s Eye and Borrowed Gardens
The Collector’s Eye brings together two private collections belonging to the late Professor Donald Eccleston and the former director of The Scottish Gallery, David Lockhart.
The show marks the beginning of a new series at Gallery accentuating the vital relationship between gallery, artist and collector.
Borrowed Gardens showcases the work of Christine McArthur, whose extensive travel to gardens of note allows her to pinpoint a particular detail as a starting point for her imagination, whether it be from Le Manoir aux Quat’Saisons or her sister’s garden.
The art collection of Donald Eccleston is a personal insight into a life-long love of Scotland, its landscapes, people, and the artists who captured the country. Over the years, Eccleston built up a collection including an important group of paintings by Lilian Neilson and an exceptional piece by Florence Jamieson. One of Joan Eardley’s grand sunsets over Catterline Bay was his favourite artwork, which hung in his living room to be admired every day. He also collected a selection of works depicting Edinburgh, from artists including Anne Redpath, Anne Oram and David McClure - whose earlier works were some of the first paintings he bought.
David Lockhart was already an avid collector of art when he was approached by Bill Jackson of The Scottish Gallery in 1984. As a collector he loved strong colour and design and was fascinated by the background to a work of art he might acquire. His art collection includes many Scottish artists, some introduced to him through his association with The Scottish Gallery, with many paintings
bought from the Gallery’s Festival exhibitions.
Both collections are celebrations of lives well lived, surrounded by art which gave so much pleasure, each a way-marker in life, of time, place, and people. For the Gallery these returning works are a reminder of how a collector is the benign, temporary custodian, providing another layer of provenance in the journey of a work of art which will be there long into the future.
Christine McArthur responds intuitively to the world around her, subjects revealing themselves to her over time. Working across all media, Borrowed Gardens reveals work made from visits to Le Vieux Logis, The Christian Dior Garden, Storrier Stearns Japanese Garden, Mayfield Farm, Le Bugue,
The Charleston Garden and Le Manoir aux Quat’Saisons.
McArthur comments, 'The Borrowed Gardens in this exhibition are borrowed in every sense. I have used them as starting points for my own imagination. I visit many gardens. I draw if it’s quiet and take photographs if it’s not. Each garden became about something different, and I didn’t know what until I got there until I had left it behind.'
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