New Scottish art exhibit helps visitors learn about American politics, culture (copy)
This region is home to many people with Scottish origins who could gain insights into their ancestors’ home through a new exhibit celebrating Scotland’s art. However, an exhibit curator points out that it can also help introduce everyone to how that country helped influence American politics and culture.
Last week, the William King Museum of Art opened The House, The Highlands and the Great Big Sea, a showcase of Scottish art that will be on display through Aug. 30.
Russell Facemire, Curator of Fine Art & Worrell Collection of Wildlife Art, acknowledged this area’s significant Scottish heritage and said, “…There's quite a bit of interest in learning more about the culture and history of that nation.”
Made up of a selection of works by Scottish artists, the exhibit portrays scenes of life within and without the country of Scotland – men and women, children and grandparents, working, playing, traveling or reposing. Scenes of domestic life are flanked by scenes of the countryside, both of which are contrasted with images portraying the vast ocean and the overseas destinations visited by the artists.
Facemire noted that a private collector provided the exhibition to the museum.
He explained that “the show is made up of works from the mid 1800's all the way up to the very early 1900's, which were very turbulent years for Scotland -- particularly in the highlands -- as well as very exciting ones. That period saw both a newfound interest in Scottish culture and folkways (especially with the influence of poet Robert Burns and writer Sir Walter Scott) and the introduction of rationalized farming methods and industrial economies into what was essentially still a subsistence economy for many of the farmers.”
Those factors, he said, allowed for nostalgic and romantic images of highland life and landscape, but also “contributed to a series of migratory waves that brought Scottish people to Australia, South Africa, England, and, of course, America. We had a variety of works to choose from, but the choices we made were motivated by a desire to shine a light on the people who were slowly removed from their traditional ways of life and even their homeland by greater economic forces. These were the people who were our forebearers.”
With all the political and cultural turmoil, a museum news release said, “The hardship and the romance came together in a sentimental strain of art which emerged from Scottish and non-Scottish artists alike – Scotland became not just a territory, but a cultural entity and a point of pride. It was now a homeland, and a memory.”
Facemire believes the show captures much of that and its appeal “extends far wider... a lot of ideas that influenced American politics and culture were developed during the so-called Scottish enlightenment, and the biographies and the works of the artists on display tend to reflect those developments. What I hope is that people will see what are otherwise pretty familiar Victorian images of Scotland and come away with a new understanding of the connected histories of an energetic nation, and the one that, about 250 years ago, was on the verge of being born.”
“The House, The Highlands and the Great Big Sea” is a William King Museum of Art original exhibition and is part of the museum’s McGlothlin Exhibition Series. It is sponsored by Dunburn Farms.
For more information including related events, visit williamkingmuseum.org.
