EDINBURGH.- This winter, the Royal Scottish Academy presents Benno Schotz and A Scots Miscellany, an exhibition inspired by the extensive studio gift left to the Academy by the family of sculptor Benno Schotz RSA (1891-1984). This is the first exhibition to showcase that gift, and Schotz’s work has been complemented with that of other international artists who have chosen to make Scotland their home over the RSA’s near two-hundred-year history.

Marking the 40th anniversary of Benno Schotz’s death, the exhibition showcases major sculptures that haven’t been on public view for decades, alongside sketchbooks, tools and photographs. Benno Schotz and a Scots Miscellany brings key works in Schotz’s portraiture together with some of his notable abstract sculptures. His Diploma work of James Caw and his portrait of William MacTaggart have been joined by sculptures of friends and family, including his life size half figure of Alan Fletcher and busts of his children Cherna and Amiel.

Schotz was born in Estonia and immigrated to Scotland in 1912. He worked as an engineer at John Brown’s shipbuilders on the Clyde while attending evening classes at Glasgow School of Art, where he would become Head of Sculpture in 1938. In 1925, nearly a decade before Schotz was elected as Associate Royal Scottish Academician, Fanindra Nath Bose joined the Academy as its first Indian member. Several works by Bose are also available to view in the exhibition, following a significant gift received by the Academy from the artist’s family earlier this year. Sculpture, sketchbooks, drawings and photographs are being displayed for the first time, alongside new research into Bose’s life and career, marking the 100th anniversary of his election to the Academy.

Benno Schotz and A Scots Miscellany features works from the RSA Collection, highlighting several immigrant artists who have settled in Scotland since the RSA’s foundation in 1826. From William John Thomson and Otto Leyde in the Academy’s early history, via Fanindra Nath Bose and Benno Schotz through the twentieth century, to current Academicians Thomas Joshua Cooper, Beth Fisher, Jacki Parry and Joe Fan, and most recently Ade Adesina, Leena Nammari and Ilana Halperin. As Academicians these artists are integral to our cultural heritage, and they play a vital role in the broader landscape of Scottish art.

The exhibition is accompanied by an illustrated publication that includes significant new historic research and reflections by the living artists in the exhibition.

Sandy Wood, RSA’s Head of Collections said: ‘Today’s multicultural Scotland has followed on from a history of immigrating artists who have enriched and enlivened its artistic landscape. Benno Schotz and A Scots Miscellany presents an opportunity to recognise these artists and their personal stories within the RSA and Scotland, our people, our landscape and our world.’

Leena Nammari RSA said: ‘We seek to belong, if only in artistic terms. As artistic belonging has no boundaries, artists understand other artists, support other artists and empathise with their struggles. Borders are imposed by others, but as artists, we can see beyond them, and we break these borders, not as activists or revolutionaries but simply because we are artists. We breakthrough edges and margins by interpreting the world around us, wherever we find ourselves.’

Exhibitors
Benno Schotz (1891-1984) [Estonia] | Ade Adesina [Nigeria] | Fanindra Nath Bose (1888-1926) [India] | Thomas Joshua Cooper [USA] | Joe Fan [Hong Kong] | Beth Fisher [USA] | Ilana Halperin [USA] | John Lavery (1856-1941) [Ireland] | Otto Leyde (1835-1897) [Prussia] | Leena Nammari [Palestine] | Jacki Parry [Australia] | William John Thomson (1771-1845) [USA] | Phoebe Anna Traquair (1852-1936) [Ireland]