Brief history of member Societies

Exhibiting Societies of Scottish Artists
formed in 1999 by the Royal Scottish Society of Painters in Watercolours (RSW), the Society of Scottish Artists (SSA), and Visual Arts Scotland (VAS) as a partnership organisation to promote the regular public exhibitions of the member societies work at a national level. To this end ESSA leases the Royal Scottish Academy Building from the National Galleries of Scotland for a period of seven weeks each year and by 2007 will have raised some £92,000 to ensure that the public continue to have the opportunity to appreciate the excellence of artists in Scotland. We are grateful to the National Galleries of Scotland who lease the premises to us at cost and to the Royal Scottish Academy for their continued support. All the member bodies, and ESSA itself, are non-profit making and registered as Scottish charities.

The three societies share a long and very distinguished history in the promotion of the arts in Scotland; the RSW (then the Scottish Society of Painters in Watercolours) since 1878, the SSA since 1891 and VAS (then the Scottish The Exhibiting Societies of Scottish Artists (ESSA) was Society of Women Artists) since 1924.

www.thersw.org.uk >

The Scottish Society of Painters in Watercolours was conceived, in Glasgow, in 1877 and brought into being early in 1878 “to further the development of water-colour painting in Scotland.” The first President, Francis (later Sir Francis) Powell (already a member of the Royal Watercolour Society of London) stated that “the sole aim is to do for Scotland what has been done for England, and to give the watercolour art the position it deserves and which is at present not the case.” It is no surprise that the Society flourished as the inaugural membership included Sam Bough, William McTaggart, Robert Herdman and George Paul Chalmers, all Royal Scottish Academicians and enthusiastic water colourists. By February 1888 Queen Victoria had given permission for the Society to be known as the Royal Scottish Society for Painters in Watercolours, while earlier, her Golden Jubilee had been marked by the presentation of a specially bound album of members’ drawings.

The RSW continues to have an impressive membership, including not only members of the RSA (for example, to mention but a few, William Baillie, Victoria Crowe, John Houston, Jack Knox, Philip Reeves and Ian McKenzie Smith), but also members of the Royal Academy in London (Elizabeth Blackadder and Barbara Rae). Also, the Society is in good heart and the new talent is impressive, with younger artists taking an active interest in the Society, perhaps encouraged by the current open-minded attitudes regarding the scale of exhibits and what constitutes a watercolour. And — as with the other societies — the attraction of generous financial awards and prizes is not to be ignored.

www.s-s-a.org >

The Society of Scottish Artists was founded in 1891 to promote the adventurous spirit in Scottish art and to represent the up-and-coming as well as established talent. The first exhibitions was held in the Royal Institution Galleries (now the Royal Scottish Academy Gallery) with over 500 works on view. Appropriately, the inaugural catalogue stated the SSA would encourage important and original works and also show examples of all schools of modern art, international and native as well as past masters.

True to the aims of its founders, the SSA has over the years shown innovative work from artists working abroad. There is an extraordinary roll call of international figures who have shown with the SSA, including Picasso, Manet, Monet, Rousset, Modigliani, Charles Rennie McIntosh and Nicholas de Steal, and in 1931, the SSA gave Scotland the first opportunity to see the work of Edvard Munch.

In recent years, the SSA has shown artists who have gone on to enjoy international success including Jennie Saville, Douglas Gordon, winner of the 1996 Turner prize, and in 200, Toby Paterson, winner of the 2002 Beck’s Futures Award. The SSA continues the tradition of inviting artists working both in the UK and abroad and regularly tours smaller shows around Scotland and the UK. Since the early 1990s, in continuation of it’s policy of encouraging new developments in art, the Council of the Society has invited two graduating students from each of the Scottish art colleges to exhibit their work in the annual exhibition. The SSA has developed a strong and vibrant education programme, which accompanies its exhibitions, and is currently working with youth projects in Scotland to further expand the programme. New developments of the 21 st century have included a festival of performance art, the first of it’s kind in Edinburgh, and a programme of artist’s short films.

www.visualartsscotland.org >

Although women artists had been associated with the RSW and the SSA from the beginning, and although a Glasgow Society of Lady Artists had been formed in 1882, many talented women artists continued to find it difficult to have the opportunity to exhibit, or to penetrate the male preserves of the arts establishment. After all, male prejudice was such that women artists “were supposed to be no more than gifted amateurs,” and it was 1938 before the RSA elected its first female Associate, and 1944 before a woman became an Academician. It was against such a background that Visual Arts Scotland was founded in 1924 as the Scottish Society of Women Artists (SSWA), striking a blow for the feminist cause — and for the advancement of women in the arts in Scotland — and providing a much–needed platform and forum for applied arts. The SSWA’s exhibition moved to the National Gallery in 1941 where it exhibited annually until 1944; and since 1945, when Ann Redpath was President, it has exhibited at the RSA. There it has continued a tradition of inviting artists of national and international standing (for example, Joan Eardley, Barbara Hepworth, Elizabeth Frink, Dame Laura Knight, Victor Pasmore, and Lucie Rie) to take part.

Although not alone in the breadth of its interests, the Society has a special place in the arts in Scotland as it actively promotes the exhibition of the “applied” as well as the “fine” arts, numbering jewellers, ceramicists, artist blacksmiths, artist wood workers and textile artists amongst its exhibitors, in addition to painters, sculptors and photographers. This has been particularly so since 1990 when Joan Renton, the then President, “advocated a place for high-quality experimental craft”; and at the same time, with the greater equality in exhibiting opportunities for men and women, the name was changed to Scottish Artists and Artist Craftsmen. In 1997, John Bellany’s agreeing to become its Honorary President gave the Society great encouragement in its pursuit of the best in contemporary Scottish visual arts. On approaching the Society’s 75 th anniversary, it was felt that the adoption of the more succinct name — Visual Arts Scotland — would help consolidate its strengths as it developed an educational outreach programme, and furthered the promotion of its members beyond the annual exhibition by its use of electronic media.