Lime Tree Gallery, Fort William, until 9 September 2006

Men in Sacks by Goya

SEEING THE opening show at artist David Wilson’s new Lime Tree Gallery you could be forgiven for thinking that you had wandered into a city gallery anywhere in the world.

It is a sign of maturity in the West Highland area that such a venture should be a reality. This custom built gallery is an individual response to a ground zero situation in access to public gallery space.

With accommodation, a restaurant/café and inner enclosed courtyard featuring stained glass by artist/owner David Wilson, this is both an international space and a uniquely local one. The large stained glass design incorporates elements from the natural environment outside, one which draws visitors from all over the world.

The main gallery space is open with natural slate floors, articulated with timber pillars that create a promenade effect to frame and focus upon each piece. It is a modern, state of the art space designed for showing local, national and international art with scope for projection and musical performance. Visual art, however, remains its main function.

Local “Friends of the Lime Tree Gallery” are instrumental in programming shows such as the forthcoming David Hockney exhibition, and there is an emphasis on outreach education and involvement with local schools. This is a public space for the community but the brainchild of an artist with the determination and commitment to bring such a private enterprise to fruition.

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Great art encourages us to be conscious and to face certain universal truths

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As an introduction to the function of the building and to the work of a great European master this inaugural exhibition could not be better curated. The show combines eighteen prints from Goya’s third edition of “The Disparates” on loan from the Hayward Gallery London with the inspired work of local artists.

Goya’s brilliance was (and still is) his ability to bring us face to face with human behaviour, folly and morality. These works in etching, aquatint and drypoint are as potent and relevant today as the day they were created. Given current world events it is extremely apt that we re-examine these images of human cruelty, folly and absurdity.

Drawing links between the state of invasion witnessed by Goya during his lifetime and current theatres of war such as Israel’s invasion of Lebanon, this exhibition demonstrates the value of art as social commentary and the universal, timeless nature of human behaviour.

‘Old Man Confronting Demons’ seems to sum up the act of viewing a Goya etching. This dark print where the face emerges from a body either asleep or dead invites the viewer to come closer, peering into layers of etched darkness and your own inevitable end.

Works such as ‘Woman Carried off by a Horse’ , ‘Way of Flying’ and ‘Carnival Folly’ exhibit the grotesque and fantastical qualities of the artist’s Black Paintings. Seen together this collection of etchings read as a parade of human frailty and monstrous capability. ‘Indecision’ is positively nightmarish while ‘Fearful Folly’ with its hooded spectre looms above a pile of humanity underneath, the consequence of inaction.

Goya’s biting satire of the clergy and Spanish aristocracy find expression in ‘Ridiculous Folly’ and ‘Men in Sacks’.

Scottish artists have responded to Goya’s vision and current affairs with a range of work that could easily be viewed on an international stage. Mohammed Sardo’s ‘How do we Mourn the Death of a Child?’ is a poignant and contemplative work in ink and charcoal reminiscent of the work of Kathe Kollwitz.

Below a high horizon of distant explosions a mass of figures encircle the central image of a faceless child. The artist encourages the viewer to “put any face you love” onto the lifeless body and suggests that amongst all people “the ability to die” is universal.

A direct response to the war in Lebanon, seen daily on our televisions, this drawing humanises events which seem to be desensitized by media coverage. It makes us see this and all conflicts anew because it makes us feel them. Regardless of ethnicity or background it is an image that we must respond to as human beings.

James McCallum’s figurative works in oil on canvas and prints such as ‘Dinnae spik a word Davie!’ or ‘See no Evil’ are also potent reminders of human nature. Graphically stark with the directness of woodcut a print such as ‘Bang Yer Dead!’ reads colour wise like a modern fashion design logo.

The graphic image of youth orientated design coupled in casualness with the image of a standing figure shooting the faceless, masked kneeling figure before him is not without irony. A grotesque game of soldiers, the title reads no emotion into the image.

Peter Brown from Westray has contributed an oil on paper to the exhibition which too reveals elements of the grotesque. His bloated and distorted representation of a human body, attended by dogs recalls in its garish colour and form the work of Australian artist Albert Tucker.

A response to wartime Melbourne during the blackouts, Tucker’s nightmarish ‘Images of Modern Evil’ series are uniquely of their time, but like Goya’s etchings, are also a statement of human consciousness for all time. Great art encourages us to be conscious and to face certain universal truths.

Is Fort William ready for this space? Time will tell. But as I have seen many times in my current research, growth in visual arts in the Highlands and Islands exceeds local provision or infrastructure that should exist to support it.

There is a distinct energy and autonomy in creating something out of adversity and in this spirit are the seeds of the Lime Tree Gallery’s success.

With the capacity to exhibit touring exhibitions from anywhere in the world it is a remarkable resource for Lochaber and for the whole Highland region.

© Georgina Coburn, 2006