First World War at the Gallery of Modern Art Edinburgh
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Edinburgh’s modern art collection is housed in two adjacent buildings, the Dean Gallery and the National Gallery of Modern Art, to the west of the city centre in Dean.
The Dean Gallery
I paid a brief visit to the Gallery of Modern Art this week. I know it’s not always possible but I much prefer short visits to galleries and museums where you focus on a specific topic or artist. If I try to spend hours during a visit, I just feel that I can’t take it all in. I looked at the black and white works depicting the Fist World War. The were two pieces which made the biggest impression on me. The Card Players by Otto Dix which portrays 3 war veterans injured during action, one is playing with his mouth, another with his foot. The other was “Death Marches” by Percy Smith, one of seven in the Dance of Death series of etchings from 1919. It shows the eager new infantry recruits marching four abreast with the ghostly figure of Death surveying its fresh batch of victims. Another etching in the series Death Awed, portraying Death hovering over a fallen soldier has been quoted as being “one of the unsung masterpieces of British etching”. When I tried find out more about Percy Smith I drew a blank which surprised me, as I found his work very moving.
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December 18th, 2007 at 2:05 pm
[...] 2 Travelodges in city centre, a wide array of museums and galleries such as the National Museum, Gallery of Modern Art and the Museum of Childhood, much to see and do off the beaten track and a good bus service [...]