Exhibitions
Events/Talks/Lectures
Special Events
Granton Centre for Art - Guided Tours
The tour offers an opportunity to discover how a state-of-the-art picture and sculpture store actually works, and what really goes on at the National Galleries of Scotland. Duration 30 minutes. Transport - Lothian buses 8 or 16.
more- 1st January 2006 to 31st December 2008
- 12 noon & 3.30pm every Tuesday (advance booking essential)
Communities
Tours of Gerhard Richter
Free introductory tours of Gerhard Richter for community groups. Please book at least two weeks in advance.
more- 8th November to 30th December 2008
- By arrangement
Talks & Lectures
Michelangelo and Italian Sources of Dutch Mannerism
Michael Bury, art historian, examines certain works by Michelangelo and also some by Raphael and Titian, in order to understand what they offered the Dutch Mannerists. In particular, he will show how these Italian artists, searching for new means to express powerful emotions, developed exciting new ways of representing the human body.
more- Tuesday, 2nd December 2008
- 12.45-1.30pm
Courses
Creative Writing Course - Week 3
A four-week course led by artist Andrew Mackenzie and expert creative writing tutor, Helen Boden. Each session will begin with an informal discussion-led tour of part of the collection. This will provide the inspiration for the writing session afterwards.
more- Wednesday, 3rd December 2008
- 1.30-4.30pm
Talks & Lectures
Portraying the Ideal, the Precious and the Imaginary: Drawing as the Site of Homage
Deanna Petherbridge, Research Professor of Drawing, University of Lincoln, examines the way in which portrait drawings record and enhance likeness, establishing a complicated formal dance in eighteenth-century portraiture between conveying individual likeness and conforming to conventional ideals. The drawings of fictional beasts and objects of an imagined island by artist Charles Avery, make an interesting contemporary commentary on this traditional dialogue between observational closeness and distanced homage.
more- Wednesday, 3rd December 2008
- 12.45-1.30pm
Courses
Printmaking with Artist Denise Walker - Week 4
A four-week course in colour reduction woodcutting, led by artist Denise Walker, using early European paintings as a starting point. Suitable for both beginner and the more experienced. Please bring photographs of a significant event in your life to the first session.
more- Thursday, 4th December 2008
- 5-7.30pm
Special Events
Film Screening: The South Bank Show - Gerhard Richter (2003)
A profile of the artist Gerhard Richter, in which he talks about his life growing up in East Germany, attending the Dresden Art Academy and his escape to the west just before the Berlin Wall was built. The documentary also considers his work and success.
more- Thursday, 4th December 2008
- 12.45-1.45pm
Talks & Lectures
Arts of Resistance: Poets, Portraits and Landscapes of Modern Scotland
Three conversations between two artists. One a poet and the other a painter. What is the value of art in today's society? What role do artists play in reflecting the world back upon itself? How do they work as active intervention? In this 'contemporary age of distraction' how can poems, paintings and all the arts from the past, present and future be celebrated as an affirming, crucial element in how we live our lives? Published by Luath Press in October this year, Arts of Resistance is a unique exploration of the importance of art and poetry in modern Scotland. Come and hear the authors, Alexander Moffat and Alan Riach engage directly with the contemporary cultural and political scene in Scotland by critically reviewing the last 120 years. A book signing will follow the event.
more- Thursday, 4th December 2008
- 6-7.30pm
Courses
Art for Not Quite Beginners - 5 December 2008
Following in the same format as the extremely popular course for Absolute Beginners but looking a little more in depth at artworks from the collection in the morning session and experimenting with different media and techniques in the afternoon. Maximum 12 places per session.
more- Friday, 5th December 2008
- 10.30am-12.30pm (morning session); 1.30-3.30pm (afternoon session)
Special Events
From Advent to Christmas
The Edinburgh University Singers, directed by John Kitchen, perform a seasonal selection of music in the Main Hall.
more- Friday, 5th December 2008
- 1.15-1.45pm
Children & Families
- Saturday, 6th December 2008
- 10am–12noon (ages 5–7); 1.30–3.30pm (ages 8–11)
Children & Families
Saturday Studio - Gerhard Richter - Week 2
Ages 11-15 years. Inspired by the range of Richter's work, this course will explore the use of photography, mark-making and abstraction.
more- Saturday, 6th December 2008
- 1.30-4.30pm
Special Events
Portrait of the Month for December
Meet one of the many faces in the Portrait Gallery's collection in these monthly talks focusing on a different portrait each month.
more- Saturday, 6th December 2008
- 2-2.45pm & 3-3.45pm
Children & Families
Art Cart in December
Art activities for all the family inspired each month by different works from the collection. Supported by Friends of the National Galleries of Scotland.
more- Sunday, 7th December 2008
- 2-4pm
Talks & Lectures
Painting Photographs
Dr Dietmar Elger from the Gerhard Richter Archive, gives a concise overview of the work by Gerhard Richter from his early photo paintings to the recent window for the Cologne cathedral. During the 1960s Gerhard Richter found himself confronted with a world of mass media images and the omnipresence of photographic images. Richter responded to this challenge by adopting the typical stylistic elements from photography for his paintings. He will also explain how Richter later transferred this artistic concept to his Abstract Paintings.
more- Monday, 8th December 2008
- 12.45-1.30pm
Talks & Lectures
The Fleming Collection
The Fleming Collection is one of the finest collections of Scottish art in private hands. As it celebrates its 40th anniversary, Selina Skipwith, Keeper of Art at Flemings, discusses the history and future of the Collection.
more- Tuesday, 9th December 2008
- 12.45-1.30pm
Communities
Gerhard Richter for the Visually Impaired
Descriptive tour and practical workshop led by Juliana Capes and Jennie Temple.
more- Wednesday, 10th December 2008
- 10am-3.30pm
Courses
Creative Writing Course - Week 4
A four-week course led by artist Andrew Mackenzie and expert creative writing tutor, Helen Boden. Each session will begin with an informal discussion-led tour of part of the collection. This will provide the inspiration for the writing session afterwards.
more- Wednesday, 10th December 2008
- 1.30-4.30pm
Special Events
The Drawing Room in December
Explore different 'mark-making' processes in these monthly, experimental drawing sessions inspired by the modern collection, led by a contemporary artist.
more- Thursday, 11th December 2008
- 5.30-6.45pm
Special Events
Live Music Now: Jennifer Port
Jennifer Port (clarsach and voice) performs a seasonal selection of Scottish songs. In association with Live Music Now Scotland.
more- Thursday, 11th December 2008
- 6-6.30pm
Talks & Lectures
Visible Energies: Wilhelmina Barns-Graham
Mel Gooding, writer, critic and Research Professor at the University of the Arts London, inaugurates the Annual Lecture series named after Wilhelmina Barns-Graham, with a study of the Scottish artist’s work as a dynamic interaction with the natural world. Sponsored by The Barns-Graham Charitable Trust.
more- Thursday, 11th December 2008
- 6-7.15pm
Talks & Lectures
Reconstructing Veronese's Petrobelli Altarpiece
The Petrobelli Altarpiece - one of the largest ever produced in Italy in the sixteenth century - was painted by Paolo Veronese around 1563 for the cousins Antonio and Girolamo Petrobelli, for their family chapel in Lendinara. When the church was closed down and destroyed in 1788, the painting was cut up and sold in pieces (a contemporary source commented 'it was sold in quarters, as one does with butcher's meat'). Since the 1930s, attempts were made at reconstructing the altarpiece, and only recently, the full history of the painting has been established. Dr Xavier Saloman, Curator at Dulwich Picture Gallery, will look at the different reconstructions of the altarpiece and will present the latest one with a newly discovered fragment of the painting.
more- Friday, 12th December 2008
- 12.45-1.30pm
Children & Families
- Saturday, 13th December 2008
- 10am–12noon (ages 5–7); 1.30–3.30pm (ages 8–11)
Children & Families
Saturday Studio - Gerhard Richter - Week 3
Ages 11-15 years. Inspired by the range of Richter's work, this course will explore the use of photography, mark-making and abstraction.
more- Saturday, 13th December 2008
- 1.30-4.30pm
Special Events
Gallery of Modern Art December Highlights Tour
A tour of the Gallery of Modern Art's permanent collection which spans the period from the 1890s to the present day.
more- Saturday, 13th December 2008
- 2-2.45pm & 3-3.45pm
Talks & Lectures
War Cut: An Abstract Painting as Book
Dr Dieter Schwarz, Director of the Kunstmuseum Winterthur, Switzerland, discusses Richter's artist book, War Cut whereby Richter uses painting to create a book which in turn refers to the Iraq war.
more- Tuesday, 16th December 2008
- 12.45-1.30pm
Talks & Lectures
Sir David Wilkie: Where to Draw the Line?
Dr Patricia Campbell, Honorary Fellow at the University of Edinburgh, explores Wilkie's developing draughtsmanship and his skill in perceiving and defining character from the descriptive and intimate studies for The Cut Finger to perceptive and accomplished studies of Scottish Enlightenment figures like Professor Dugald Stewart.
more- Wednesday, 17th December 2008
- 12.45-1.15pm
Special Events
Two Masterpieces, Once Chance: An Evening of Music and Poetry
An evening of music and song to celebrate the Titian paintings whose future at the National Galleries remains uncertain. John Duncan, Director of the English Speaking Union, will give live poetry performances of the stories of Actaeon and Callisto from Ovid's Metamorphoses in front of the Titian paintings, Diana and Actaeon and Diana and Callisto between 5.30-6pm and 6.30-7pm. From 6-6.30pm, the Edinburgh University Renaissance Singers will perform a programme of Italian madrigals and sacred music from the age of Titian, including works by Venetian composers, Adriano Willaert and Claudio Monteverdi.
more- Thursday, 18th December 2008
- 5.30-7pm
Children & Families
It's All in the Packaging
Come and make a beautiful decorative box for that special gift, inspired by art works in the National Gallery.
more- 19th to 20th December 2008
- 2-4.30pm
Children & Families
- Saturday, 20th December 2008
- 10am–12noon (ages 5–7); 1.30–3.30pm (ages 8–11)
Children & Families
Saturday Studio - Gerhard Richter - Week 4
Ages 11-15 years. Inspired by the range of Richter's work, this course will explore the use of photography, mark-making and abstraction.
more- Saturday, 20th December 2008
- 1.30-4.30pm
Special Events
National Gallery Highlights December Tour
National Gallery Highlights tour including the Titian paintings Diana and Actaeon and Diana and Callisto and other parts of The Bridgewater Collection.
more- Saturday, 20th December 2008
- 2-2.45pm & 3-3.45pm
Children & Families
Bags of Art in December
Collect a bag of new activities from the Art Station at the top of the stairs to help your family explore the collection and create your own artwork. Supported by Friends of the National Galleries of Scotland.
more- Sunday, 21st December 2008
- 2-4pm