Output details

New Academicians Exhibition - three original artworks, peer selected on the occasion of Agnew’s appointment to full academician status to the Royal Scottish Academy, displayed 26th September to 26th October 2008.

This output consists of three original artworks, peer selected on the occasion of Agnew’s appointment to full academician status (2008) to the Royal Scottish Academy (RSA) http://www.royalscottishacademy.org/pages/exhibition_frame.asp?id=193.

Agnew chose to research a new body of work that analysed the dichotomy between methods of printmaking and methods of painting. Working with autobiography, locale and sense of place as subject matter, this inquiry extracted formal questions of juxtaposing found elements of composition, experimenting with representation and symbolic meaning. The work is positioned in a revival of interest in the Scottish Emblematic tradition (Bath 2003). Agnew rehearses the processes of this tradition, extending the symbolic range by introducing the autobiographical as well as collage to repurpose found emblems in the development of new presentations and meanings. The preparatory sketches reference the works and theories of Dada, aiming to challenge the possibilities of facilitating idiosyncratic narratives through an element of irrationality and incongruity. Thom Laycock, RSA Collections, describes Agnew’s work as,” illuminating, generating an interplay of meanings... that is both humble and indulgent, humorous and clinical, personal and distant.” https://www.facebook.com/egoart.selfportraits

The resulting New Academicians Exhibition recognised Agnew’s practice along with three other elected artists, Baillie, Castle and Urquhart. Agnew’s “Picture Disc Of My Life: 1968 to 2007”, was selected for the archive at The Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh. http://www.bbc.co.uk/arts/yourpaintings/artists/michael-agnew/paintings/slideshow#/0.

From 27th April to 30th September 2013 this work was included in the RSA exhibition titled, Ego, selected from their permanent collection. Associated research led to further work such as “Aberdeen Dada Siegt No. 6”, included in, “The Grace Of The Birch: Art Nature Healing,” a permanent public collection for New Stobhill Hospital, Glasgow, 2011, curated by Lindsay Blair and including Dalziel+Scullion, Gwen Hardie, Kenny Hunter, Chad McCail, John McLean and Toby Paterson. http://www.nhsggc.org.uk/content/galleries/artshealth/files/gallery1.html