Talbot Rice Gallery Festival exhibitions

Anton Henning's 'Interieur No. 493'

For Festival 2011 Talbot Rice Gallery will be transformed as German artist Anton Henning wages war against the way modern art is viewed.

For his first solo show in Scotland Henning has created a 'Gesamtkunstwerk', a total work of art. In the process the White Gallery’s clean lines and empty spaces, the traditional space to display contemporary art, will be subverted.

Henning’s work 'Interieur No.493' will fill the entire space, inviting the audience to not just view it, but at points walk over it. Even the carpet is part of the art work. Henning uses several different art forms including, furniture, lighting, easel painting, sculpture, window painting, film and drawing.

As Henning references modern artists as varied as Matisse and the ‘bad painting’ of the 1970s and 1980s, he creates an uncanny, immersive, and occasionally uncomfortable experience.

It is an unusual opera of art works. It brings everything together to startling effect asking us questions about the meaning of an exhibition itself and playing with domestic and institutional display.

Pat Fisher

The Ragamala paintings

The Talbot Rice Gallery will also show a selection of rare miniature Indian paintings dating from the 1800s. Gathered from the University of Edinburgh’s Collections, it is the first exhibition of its kind in the UK for 40 years.

The Ragamala paintings depict romantic and devotional situations in an aristocratic setting. They are highly symbolic visual interpretations of Indian music. The word ‘raga’ derives from the Sanskrit root - ranj - which means to tinge or to colour and evokes love, passion and beauty, particularly of a voice or song.

One set of these paintings originate from Jaipur and were gifted to the university by Dwarkanath Tagore (1794-1846), grandfather of poet laureate Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941). The artist William Prinsep (1794-1874), a friend of Tangore, was important in helping these paintings to arrive safely in Edinburgh.

The second set, from Hyderabad, were acquired by John Ballie (1772-1833) during trips to India.