The Scottish artist Bruce McLean turns 80 this year, so Modern One in Edinburgh is mounting a celebration of his long and prolific career, taking in photographs, sculptures, paintings, video works and more. McLean has a reputation for playfulness and subversion. He studied at the Glasgow School of Art and then Saint Martin’s School of Art in London, but disliked the strictures of art historical study. His solo exhibition at Tate, at the age of 27, was dominated by his piece King for a Day (1972), which consisted of a list of 1,000 ideas for artworks laid out in a grid on the floor; this show also includes McLean’s puckish architectural plans for a redesign of Argyle Street in Glasgow, including an Irn Bru bar, a panoramic Tunnocks Tower and a giant helium-filled fabric cloud that would shelter residents from rain. Throughout his career, McLean also took aim at the art world’s sacred cows, Henry Moore in particular, whose sculpture Fallen Warrior he parodied in his photograph series from 1969 of the same name, which show McLean falling awkwardly over various plinths, as well as in the later work Pose Work for Plinths (1971) – both of which are shown here.
Find out more from the National Galleries of Scotland’s website.
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The Blind Leading the Blind (2014), Bruce McLean. Courtesy Bernard Jacobson Gallery; © the artist
Fallen Warrior (1969/2011), Bruce McLean; © the artist. All rights Reserved. Licensed by DACS
Untitled (2018), Bruce McLean. Courtesy Bernard Jacobson Gallery; © the artist
Still from I Want My Crown (2013), Bruce McLean. Courtesy Bernard Jacobson Gallery; © the artist. All rights Reserved. Licensed by DACS