Van Gogh's friend coming home for Cowalfest
Tuesday 22.09.09
WHAT: Exhibition - Alexander Reid and the Japanese Influence – Art, ships and plants(Part of Cowalfest Walking & Arts Festival).
WHERE: Cowal Camera Club, Castle Street, Dunoon, Argyll, West Coast Scotland.
WHEN: 9th to 18th October 2009, 12 noon to 4pm, each day.
Not the man himself as he died in 1928, nor the original of the famous portrait of him painted by Vincent Van Gogh, but Cowalfest, the October walking and arts festival in Argyll, Scotland, has been granted permission to use images of the famous portrait for its Dunoon based exhibition Alexander Reid and the Japanese Influence - Art, ships and plants
Known as the Glasgow art dealer who was friendly with and painted by Vincent Van Gogh, what is less well known is that Alex Reid lived in Dunoon on the Cowal Peninsula for twenty years, for eighteen years also serving as an Argyll county councillor.
Keen walker and sportsman, artist, entrepreneur, hard bargaining salesman, plausible politician, nurturer and worldwide promoter of Scottish artistic talent, Burns enthusiast, avid collector of Japanese prints, a Francophile described by one of his friends as a perfervid Scot, Alex Reid’s story mirrors the times he lived in, the exuberant yet challenging fin de siècle mélange of Glasgow, Paris and Cowal. His friendships with avant garde artists, his introduction of their works to Scotland, and his vigorous promotion of Scottish artists made him a significant force in Scotland's cultural standing, giving art in Scotland a close association with that in France and making Scottish art known in Europe and America.
Cowalfest 2009 is both a Homecoming Scotland 2009 event and a Japan-UK 150 event in a year of celebrations marking the signing of a treaty of friendship and trade between Japan and the UK. This marked the end of Japan's 250 years of isolation. In its re-emergence as a growing industrial nation a number of Scots played key roles, with 2009 being the 150th anniversary of Thomas Glover's arrival in Nagasaki just as Japan was beginning to open up to the west. Glover is now known as the Scottish Samurai.
In bringing both celebrations together the exhibition provides an intriguing glimpse into the world of Alexander Reid and the connections and cross influences between Scotland and Japan in the latter half of the nineteenth century and the early years of the twentieth. 2009 is the centenary of Reid’s visit to Japan in 1909, and the exhibition and the accompanying booklet looks at the influence of Japanese art on European and Scottish painters, and at the world of industry and shipbuilding, many of whose firms had close links with Japan, that generated enormous wealth for Scotland’s merchant princes, their passion for art collecting and interest in the plants and trees being introduced at the time.
In the years Reid lived in Dunoon, the Cowal Peninsula and the Clyde Estuary were the playground of the rich and royal with connections across the globe. The Japanese connections are no less fascinating by being previously overlooked.
A booklet specially written by exhibition curator, Dorothy Bruce, Alexander Reid and the Japanese Influence : Art, ships and plants from the Cowalfest Publishing imprint at £4.99 ISBN 978-0-9553312-3-7 will be published in conjunction with the opening of the exhibition on 9th October.Entry to the exhibition is free.
Cowalfest runs from 9th to 18th October. Further information on its 86 walks, cycling, horse riding, talks, house tours, drama, Dunoon shop window gallery and the exhibition Alexander Reid and the Japanese Influence - Art, ships and plants can be found at www.cowalfest.org.
…ENDS…
Further media information from
Russell & Dorothy Bruce
Tel +44(0)131 208 1340
Mobiles: Russell - 07845 984250 Dorothy - 07709 948550
email russell.bruce@bannachra.plus.com
dorothy.bruce@bannachra.plus.com
www.cowalfest.org
Notes to media:
- Interviews with Dorothy Bruce are available. Please contact Dorothy directly on 07709948550 to arrange.
- Cowalfest would like to record its thanks to Culture and Sport Glasgow, SCRAN (The Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland), Nagasaki University Library, The National Library of Scotland, Consulate General of Japan, The Viscount Weir, Forestry Commission Scotland, Ardkinglas Estate, Argyll & Bute Library Service, Mitchell Library Glasgow, Cowal Camera Club.
- Their help and Homecoming Scotland 2009 support from Argyll & Bute Council and Argyll & the Islands Leader has made it possible to bring Alexander Reid home for Cowalfest.
- Other useful websites: www.homecomingscotland2009.com & www.japanuk150.org