WHILE THERE IS still much faux ‘art’ to be depressed by, many people are now trying to restore our great tradition of classical art. I am therefore pleased to share with you I am having a large Painting Exhibition from this weekend at The Abercairny Stables, Abercairny Estate, Crieff PH7 3NQ, a local historic and beautiful building. It is the same elegant building I used to film my Masterclasses for Online access, during the public Covid breaks in 2020-2021.
I am very happy with this opportunity and the superb location, as it is perfect for my natural traditional Scottish landscapes, and classical traditional portraits. And of course this Exhibition will include new unseen local landscape works, from what I still consider the most beautiful natural places in the world. While this is the first Exhibition of my work in Britain for a long time it follows the last Exhibition and display of my works in Miami in January 2019, before Covid arrived.
The Exhibition will be held over two weekends, starting with a Private View on the Saturday 13th May 2023 and then the public viewing on Sunday 14th May 2023, from 2.00pm – 5.00pm.
During this following week, the show will be available to be seen by appointment.
The Exhibition will then be open again for the Public during the Abercairny Estates own Annual Open Days 20th – 21st May 2023.
Readers might be interested to know that in 2015 I gave an address to the Smart Cities Event in Barcelona which I hope provides an overview of my view of Art.
“After the Second World War, the need for restoration and modernisation were paramount, and the word ‘Modern,’ became symbolic with these improvements. This occurred across society in differing degrees and activities, but with modern art, the idea was then carried to an extreme.
A former modern fashion became an obsession, and skill-based art was frowned upon as old-fashioned. This, in turn, also led to proper drawing being abandoned and frowned upon in education in favour of conceptual ideas, e.g. talking about art instead of making it, or writing art, making artist statements, making videos. So in fine art, as a consequence of this trendy foolishness, pupils or university students were all being asked in effect to service a formula one racing car equipped with just a pair of pliers and a screwdriver. Clearly, a modern society does not need modern art, but needs appropriate art, and sensibly located accordingly.
Here the media, unfortunately, followed tamely, often employing modern artists themselves for their features, and with a few exceptions (most notably the late Brian Sewell) our media has sadly continued to present modernism in art as desirable. And this without their usual careful scrutiny, or suggesting any other directions in art is possible today; whilst the world’s best classical art from the ‘Great Tradition,’ which led in all of the great developments of mankind still remains self-evident within our National museums, yet without any media attempts whatsoever to address the disaster of its loss in education and public understanding.
The miserable consequences and long-term effects of all of this were felt strongly in education, where students were not encouraged to make traditional ‘conventional’ art, and without those skills and standards needed in the making of Great Art, naturally it could not be expected to occur again regardless of any personal opinions or views to the contrary.
Unhappily, this situation described above continued to the present, where recently, leading figures in business and the CBI complained that in Art, university students were almost unemployable, as they could not draw properly, when advances in technology, in particular, the next generation of three-dimensional computer programmes – all required good 3D drawing skills throughout. While the most important loss culturally to our societies has been in the absence of proven great art in keeping with the ‘Great Tradition’ and its traditional cultural values, which lasted for more than seven hundred years and helped continuously with the development and improvement of mankind.
Yet happily this loss in art and in education has been recognised today, and an opportunity now exists to begin again afresh. Nevertheless, this black hole in Art also affected the outlook of many cities. It led to poor modern attempts in public art, later described as ‘conceptual installations,’ yet claiming the status of Art, while clinging onto the coat tails of modern architecture to justify their existence. However, like those brutal high-rise buildings of the 1960’s, they have both proved equally unsuitable for the real needs of human life and proper communities.
Thus Smart Cities do not have to be soulless places for its citizens without proper Art. Alongside food, and entertainment, cities can now encourage a genuine taste of new art for its citizens. Art which reconnects our world with proven beauty, that touches our hearts and fills us with pride and wonder. It is for this purpose that I believe classical art, which reveals a love of human nature, and the countryside, offering beauty and appealing to the human heart, would have an appropriate place.
In Cities, we need this new art, not just more of that expensive cold modern fashion object, like decorative kerb railings; lifeless knobbly lamp posts; or flowery metal wastepaper bins. Miserably, this all becomes incompatible with sincere feelings of love for life, nature, and human nature, which it cannot portray; with a subsequent loss of conventional wisdom, experience, practical skills, learned ability, tradition, and knowledge.”
…and from Barcelona to Madrid – where my work has suddenly appeared in a range of art on display at Madrid Railway Station…
I do hope you might be able to visit my exhibition – but if not you can take a look at my website CharlesHarrisInternational.com
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Photo of Charles painting in Perthshire and standing with his painting of Kinkell Bridge, River Earn, Perthshire, courtesy of the author.
