Friends and supporters of the University of Aberdeen’s King’s College Chapel gathered today (Thursday 24 April) to celebrate a striking new painting now transforming one wall of the late medieval chapel in the heart of the Old Aberdeen campus.
Exposed Painting (Dioxin Violet) is a new work created by Callum Innes specially for the Chapel. It has been made with the key features of the Chapel's light, shape, and architecture very much in mind, and gifted to the University by the artist. The painting is a bold abstract composition of rich violets – reflecting the colours in the stained glass windows - contrasted with white and black. It is the latest in the artist's distinctive Exposed Paintings series.
The University is committed to enriching the King's College and Foresterhill campuses with thought-provoking artworks and installations designed to challenge, intrigue, and inspire. It is achieving this through a combination of gifts, loans and commissions.
Today, alumni and friends of the University enjoyed an informal lunch and the opportunity to hear from University Principal Professor C Duncan Rice and Professor Ian Booth, Chair of the University's Art Advisory Committee, on the institution's commitment to visual art on campus. Guests then had the opportunity to view the painting now hanging in the Chapel, meet the artist and hear at first hand the influences and thinking behind his work.
Callum Innes is one of Britain's most prolific and rigorous painters. Innes uses the language of the monochrome, an established format of abstract painting since the 1960s. He was shortlisted for the Turner prize in 1995 and was awarded the Jerwood Painting Prize in 2002. His work is represented in numerous collections worldwide, including the Guggenheim in New York, the National Gallery of Australia. San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Contemporary Arts Museum in Houston, Irish Museum of Modern Art in Dublin, Kunsthaus in Zurich and the Tate Britain. Private collectors who have bought his work include the singer and actress Jennifer Lopez.
Professor C Duncan Rice, Principal and Vice Challencellor of the University said:
"The University has a long history of collecting art. From its Renaissance beginnings, the paintings and sculptures chosen by our academic forebears inspired and challenged their generations in a way that reaches across the centuries, and gives us the perfect grounding for the engaging public spaces we want to create today.
"Our aim is to continue this tradition in a way which is appealing in today's world. The Innes painting does this in a unique way in our Chapel, as other new acquisitions are doing in communal areas across the University."
Callum Innes expressed his delight and enthusiasm at contributing to the University's vision for art on campus, saying: "I think that what the University is doing for art is wonderful. It has been a real pleasure to create a painting for the University and I was particularly excited to do this for the Chapel."
Other works recently acquired by the University include the bronze Case by sculptor Steve Dilworth as a new focal point in the busy courtyard between the Old Brewery and Taylor Building; Art and Science, a mural by Scottish artist Toby Paterson in the foyer of the Fraser Noble Building which is home to the College of Physical Sciences; the large bronze relief Diagram by sculptor Sam MacDonald which dominates the imposing entrance to the Institute of Medical Sciences at Foresterhill; and the Kenny Hunter bronze reclining student in front of New King's Building called Youth with Split Apple..