Richly diverse show is a visitors’ delight — and critics’ nightmare

The Society of Scottish Artists is a venerable institution and a cultural stalwart. Traditionally, it has maintained a more rebellious edge than its august counterpart, the Royal Scottish Academy, with which it once again shares premises this year. The The Society of Scottish Artists is a venerable institution and a cultural stalwart. Traditionally, it has maintained a more rebellious edge than its august counterpart, the Royal Scottish Academy, with which it once again shares premises this year.

The rich diversity of themes, media and approach is a delight for audiences but a nightmare for critics in that, while almost everything seems deserving of mention, only a tiny minority can have one.

Many works of art succeed through immediate visual impact. There’s plenty of that here. Take Meghan Josephine’s Touch II, a study of young women. Paul Gauguin painted superficially similar works in the 1890s but Josephine has a darker palette, an edgier feel and a very different stance.

There’s plenty of paint, from Iain Black’s group portrait, They Know, to James Lumsden’s highly abstracted study in blue acrylic, Point Series — Resonance (2/24). Don’t miss Ruby Mitcham’s A Scottish Lass or the Valediction pictures by Amy Odlum.

Installations include Hans K Clausen’s The Winston Smith Library of Victory and Truth. Part monument, part office, it contains hundreds of copies of Nineteen Eighty-Four, a typewriter, a desk and a facsimile of George Orwell’s manuscript. Another installation, by Catherine Sergeant, uses ceramics and text to answer the question: What words come to mind when watching the sea?

The Emirati artist Ahed Alameri has used the words of the Tunisian poet Ouled Ahmed’s 1988 poem, We Love the Country, as the basis of her installation-performance. Nuanced repetition changes the words’ meaning, allowing for numerous interpretations. It’s the kind of subtle tangentiality that makes for a work of strong aesthetic and political force.

If this show is a bellwether for Scotland’s artistic health, then it’s in very good shape.

Until December 11