Coffee-Table Notes

Marchmont House, Greenlaw, Berwickshire, September 21st 2019   “I’m not here to talk about Scottish sculpture,” Richard Demarco declared towards the end of a symposium designed to talk about exactly that, “because it doesn’t exist. I’m a European,” the now 89-year-old cultural whirlwind added as he beetled about the music room of Marchmont House, the eighteenth century country pile set in the heart of the Scottish Borders that hosted the event. It’s a house Demarco knows well from his time spent there in the company of musician, artist and former resident, Rory McEwan, whose work he showcased in several exhibitions at his Edinburgh gallery during the late 1960s and 1970s. The heartfelt address that followed was delivered by Demarco without recourse to any kind of slide-show presentation like most of the day’s other speakers. In essence, this gave him the air of a living sculpture in constant motion. Demarco wasn’t just asking for McEwan’s work to be shown at Marchmont Hous

Charles Jencks – cultural theorist, landscape architect Born June 21st, 1939; died October 13 th 2019 Charles Jencks, who has died aged 80, was a cosmic architectural visionary, who changed the cultural landscape both physically and intellectually in daring and unique ways. This was as much the case for his futuristic-looking landform sculptures as it was for the network of Maggie’s centres for cancer caring, named in honour of his late second wife, Maggie Keswick. Charles Alexander Jencks was born in Baltimore, Maryland, the son of composer Gardner Platt Jencks and Ruth DeWitt Pearl. He attended Brooks School in North Andover, Massachusetts before going to Harvard University, where he received BA in English Literature in 1961 and an MA in architecture from the Harvard Graduate School of Design in 1965. Jencks moved to the UK the same year, and in 1970 received his PhD in architectural history from University College, London, where he studied under radical modernist R

Hunterian Gallery, University of Glasgow until January 12, 2020 If every picture tells a story, this first instalment of a major donation to the Hunterian by New York based curator and collector Phillip A. Bruno has anecdotes immortalised in every frame. For over sixty years, the Paris-born former co-director of the Staempfli and Marlborough galleries in New York has amassed a personal treasure trove of largely American contemporary artists, many of whom he’s curated various shows. With his ninetieth birthday looming, Bruno has now brought some 74 paintings, sculptures, drawings and prints to his second home in Glasgow. While only a quarter of the gifted works feature in this initial showcase, the selection becomes a trailer of sorts for those still in boxes waiting to be unwrapped.   In the meantime, there are stories aplenty by Japanese artist Masayuki Nagare, who made works that sat beside the World Trade Centre, and whose granite sculpture, Bachi (1974), now looks like