ARTIST ROOMS’ Scottish tour of radical American photographer kicks off at Burgh Hall, Dunoon, on 24^th March

The UK’s most unlikely cultural venue, the Burgh Hall in Dunoon, will present ‘Robert Mapplethorpe’, an exhibition of radical photography by one of the most iconic and controversial American artists of the twentieth century. The exhibition runs from 24^th March to 8^th July 2012.

Drawn from the ARTIST ROOMS collection of contemporary art given to the nation by Anthony d’Offay, and presented as part of the ARTIST ROOMS on tour with the Art Fund programme, the exhibition will travel on to venues in Linlithgow and Perth later this year as part of a special project to bring the work of this fascinating provocateur to parts of Scotland which seldom see contemporary art displayed in their galleries.

The Burgh Hall is the smallest and most unorthodox gallery on the Scottish Mapplethorpe tour, and this is the first exhibition by a major international contemporary artist to be presented anywhere in the West of Scotland. Funded and built by the people of Dunoon and once the centre of civic life in the small Argyllshire town, the Burgh Hall, completed in 1873, fell into disrepair in the 1960s and was only saved from demolition in 2009 by a local campaign and the intervention of the John McAslan Family Trust.

The architect John McAslan, born in the area and brought up in Dunoon, has led the redevelopment of King’s Cross Station, which opened to wide acclaim earlier this month. The practice is also renowned for its imaginative renovation of cultural buildings, including London’s Roundhouse and Bexhill’s De La Warr Pavilion. John McAslan and his wife Dava Sagenkahn have spear-headed the project to restore the Burgh Hall and establish it as the heart of the town’s public and cultural life, redeveloping it as both a cross-disciplinary arts venue and a multi-purpose community centre.

“Critical to the success of the project has been the unstinting commitment and energy of the people of Dunoon, in particular the work of the Burgh Hall Project Group under the leadership of Chairman Colin Macpherson”, said John McAslan.

Dava Sagenkahn of the John McAslan Family Trust said: “We could not be more thrilled to welcome the sometimes dark, often dangerous but always beautiful art of Robert Mapplethorpe into the programme at the Burgh Hall. Thanks to ARTIST ROOMS and the support of the Art Fund in touring the collection, we can now bring some of the most famous and challenging photographs of the twentieth century directly to the people of Dunoon and the wider community in Argyll, allowing an audience keen to explore and discover the best contemporary art to encounter this work personally and intimately.”

“Whilst to date the project has raised significant funding from national bodies and private fundraising initiatives, much work is needed”, said McAslan, “with funding applications due later this year to raise funds to complete the project by 2014.”

Stephen Deuchar, Director of the Art Fund, said: “Bringing the challenging yet seductive art of Robert Mapplethorpe to this distinguished Scottish seaside town is precisely the kind of bold exhibition we wanted to make possible when we sponsored the ARTIST ROOMS tour. There is an appetite for art everywhere in this country, not just in the big cities, and we’re really proud to be able to bring such important work directly to galleries that rarely have access to such work.”

EXHIBITION INFORMATION

ADDRESS: Burgh Hall, 195 Argyll Street, Dunoon, PA23 7DD, Scotland 
TELEPHONE:  01369 703302

EMAIL: info@burghhalldunoon.com

OPENING HOURS: Tue – Sat 12 – 5pm, Sunday 12 – 3pm, open Easter weekend

EXHIBITION DATES:  24 March – 8 July 2012

Antony D’Offay will be in conversation with John Leighton, Director of the National Galleries of Scotland, on Saturday 24. March at 1.30pm

Source: The Art Fund