It’s an amazing show: dance, music, art, dresses – and quite a few hats! And through it all, the long, long love story of Fergus and Meg.
Timeless style
Introducing Fergus and Meg, one of three overlapping exhibitions at the Fergusson Gallery in Perth, marks the meeting of the artist and the dancer in Paris in 1913. At the same time it celebrates the extraordinary collection in one of Scotland’s most interesting art galleries, an old water tower on the edge of the Tay (and oh-so-handily positioned by the South Inch car park).
It’s a beautiful old building, well worth a visit any time – the wealth of the collection means there is always something new to see – but the latest show is a real treat.
That Paris meeting one hundred years ago changed many lives and helped to shape the course of Scottish art and dance during the 20th Century. JD Fergusson taught the dancer to paint. And Margaret Morris (who was to become the founder of today’s Scotland National Ballet) introduced the Scottish Colourist to the endless artistic opportunities of dance in movement, colour and form. Plus a good supply of stunning models!
You can see all of this in a fantastic mix of visual art, costume, Impressionist music and flickering black and white film. Here’s Meg and her dance students performing and practising in summer schools in the south of France – diving off rocks, snaking through shady woodlands, exercising on sun-bleached beaches. Upstairs the exhibition Dancing in The Sun also displays timelessly beautiful costumes designed and worn by Margaret Morris. Downstairs in Hats and Headgear, there are wonderful hats and paintings of hats.
Screen shot from Fergusson Gallery website
Both Fergus and Meg had a flair for fine head gear (the artist could be seen in trilby, bowler or old straw hat, the dancer was rarely without a splendid titfer). Hats feature in many of Fergusson’s portraits of women, and men too. So the gallery cleverly gives space to contemporary hat makers, Jeanette Sendler and Alison Mountain, who will be running millinery workshops during May and August. See the Textile Centre website for details and call the Fergusson on 01738 783425 to book.
The whole exhibition, in welcoming circular space, is a heartwarming celebration of performing and visual art which looks fresh and challenging in 2013. The timeline traces international cultural links between Edinburgh (Fergusson was born in Leith), London, Paris and Glasgow, where Fergus and Meg chose to settle when World War Two disrupted artistic communities – they called it the Paris of the North. But The Fergusson is also reminder that great art collections are not confined to big cities; the gallery is a unique research centre and a vibrant part of Scotland’s seventh city. Or to put it another way, a real treasure trove!
Go and explore.
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