We’re delighted to welcome Ronald Forbes RSA to talk about his exhibition The Everyman Variations with art historian Tom Normand HRSA.
The works in The Everyman Variations are inspired by the Bruegel drawing titled Elck. Elck was the Netherlandish version of Everyman who figures centrally in a range of morality plays in various European cultures. In this discussion, Ronald Forbes will explain why these drawings attempt to fill a ‘missing link’ in his practice.
The publication A Blind Man's Dreams: The Paintings and Films of Ronald Forbes by Tom Normand will be available for purchase and signing. A special limited edition of the publication including a signed digital print will also be available on the evening.
Ronald Forbes RSA is a narrative artist who explores the way we see and understand the world. He is primarily a painter but has also worked in film throughout his career. Forbes has had more than forty solo exhibitions and two and three person shows in venues such as the Third Eye Centre, Glasgow, Project Art Centre, Dublin, Drian Galleries, London, Fruitmarket Gallery, Edinburgh, Sonia Zaks Gallery, Chicago, Galerie Trace, Maastricht, Plimsoll Gallery Hobart and the Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh.
Dr Tom Normand HRSA is an art historian specialising in British, and especially Scottish art, photography, and culture. He has published a number of books relating to the Academy and to Academicians. These include the edited catalogue Ages of Wonder: Scotland’s Art 1540 to Now, Edinburgh, 2017, and, Portfolio: Treasures from the Diploma Collection at the Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh, 2012. He is also author of The Constructed Worlds of Calum Colvin: Symbol, Allegory, Myth, Edinburgh, 2019; Scottish Photography: a History, Edinburgh, 2007; Ken Currie: Details of a Journey, London, 2002; Calum Colvin: Ossian, Fragments of Ancient Poetry, Edinburgh, 2002; The Modern Scot: Modernism and Nationalism in Scottish Art 1928-1955, London, 2000; and, Wyndham Lewis the Artist; Holding the Mirror up to Politics, Cambridge, 1992. He has also authored numerous academic articles, critical essays and artists' catalogues.
