Edinburgh Art Festival begins today

A solo exhibition by the late Swiss/German/Icelandic artist Dieter Roth at The Fruitmarket Gallery will present Roth’s private diaries to the public for the first time. The exhibition will trace the importance of diary-keeping as a theme in Roth’s work, culminating in his final masterpiece, the multi-screen video diary Solo Scenes. New Edinburgh arts hub Summerhall will present an extensive programme of exhibitions and events including a major installation by Polish artist Robert Kuśmirowski alongside exhibitions by 1960s conceptual art grouping Art & Language and seminal performance artist Hermann Nitsch. The recently refurbished National Museum of Scotland will present the first UK solo show by Dutch artist Melvin Moti, including installations and new video work displayed alongside the artist’s selection of objects from the Museum’s unique collection.

SUMMER BLOCKBUSTERS

Edinburgh will this summer play host to major international blockbuster exhibitions across the city’s leading visual art venues. Highlights will include Picasso and Modern British Art at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, the first exhibition to explore Picasso’s lifelong connections with Britain and showcasing more than 150 modern art masterpieces from Francis Bacon to David Hockney and Ben Nicholson to Henry Moore. Also on show at SNGMA, an exhibition of work by the Norwegian artist and the preeminent Expressionist artist Edvard Munch will include rarely seen prints of the famous ‘The Scream’, whilst at Scottish National Gallery Van Gogh to Kandinsky: Symbolist Landscapes in Europe 1880-1910 will be a feast for the senses, with imaginative landscape paintings encompassing Impressionism, Expressionism and Abstract Art, developed with the Van Gogh Museum and the Finnish National Gallery.

Further highlights will include ‘Catherine the Great: An Enlightened Empress’ at National Museum of Scotland, telling the story of Catherine’s legacy as one of the greatest art collectors of all time and including works by illustrious European and Russian artists of the 18th century, many of which have never been seen outside of Russia. ‘Treasures from the Queen’s Palaces’ will continue at The Queen’s Gallery as part of the Diamond Jubilee year, showcasing the breadth of the Royal Collection developed over five centuries of royal collecting and including masterpieces by artists from Rembrandt and Van Dyck to Paul Nash, Peter Blake and Lucian Freud. The first exhibition devoted to the landscapes by the 18th century artist Giovanni Battista Luiseri, also opens during the Festival at SNG.

Dovecot Studios will be celebrating its centenary with an exhibition charting the Studio’s remarkable history. The exhibition will present over 60 tapestries, rugs and rarely seen works on loan from major museums and private collections, including work by David Hockney, Paul Gauguin, Elizabeth Blackadder, Sir Peter Blake, Edward Wadsworth, Cecil Beaton, Graham Sutherland, Edward Paolozzi, Jankel Adler and Claire Barclay.

THE BEST UK ARTISTS AND HOMEGROWN TALENT

Solo exhibitions by some of the UK’s best-loved artists feature on EAF’s line-up this summer. An exhibition of sculpture and audio visual installation by one of Scotland’s most important 20th century artists, Ian Hamilton Finlay, will open at Ingleby Gallery, celebrating the artist’s work across diverse media and including his recently re-discovered 1977 film Carrier Strike! Demarco Foundation Gallery at Summerhall will also showcase the artist, exploring his little-known fascination with the French Revolution. Open Eye Gallery will present a major career retrospective of painting by influential Scottish painter John Bellany as he celebrates his 70th birthday this year. Further highlights include an exhibition of work by Scottish Colourist Leslie Hunter at City Art Centre, the first major exhibition of Hunter’s work for over fifty years. Glasgow-based Mick Peter will create a new sculptural installation at Collective in response to the late experimental novelist and film-maker B.S Johnson.

Jupiter Artland’s latest commission will present a new work by British sculptor Tania Kovats entitled Rivers. Opening up a previously neglected plot in Jupiter Artland’s extensive grounds at Bonnington House, Rivers will include a hundred specimens of water from one hundred rivers, collected from all over the British Isles. At Edinburgh Printmakers ‘Cheer Up! It’s not the end of the world…’ will be on show throughout August, showcasing original prints by leading artists including controversial art duo Jake and Dinos Chapman, Gordon Cheung, Damien Hirst and Andy Warhol.

THE BEST EARLY CAREER ARTISTS

Central to EAF is its commitment to supporting the best in contemporary art practice, showcasing the best artists at all stages in their careers. Highlights this August will include Edinburgh-based collective ~ in the fields at New Media Scotland, with new work as part of a six-month residency including a publicly-sited networked telescope, co-commissioned with EAF, which will reveal idealised landscapes as they are composed by visitors in the gallery space. A solo exhibition and shop space by Edinburgh based artist John Brown will merge the experience of shopping with the gallery space at Superclub. A group show at Rhubaba Gallery and Studios will centre on the photographic series U.F.O-naut by Slovakian artist Julius Koller whilst this year’s final degree show from the Edinburgh College of Art MA Art & Design graduates will show at Edinburgh College of Art.