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Rethinking Highland art : the visual significance of Gaelic culture

This book restores to prominence the art of the Scottish Gàidhealtachd, both historical and contemporary. It does this both through written content, which is, crucially, in both Gaelic and English, and also, equally crucially, through a substantial visual essay. It complements and extends a number of exhibitions (e.g. An Lanntair, Stornoway, 2008; City Art Centre, Edinburgh, 2010). It was only possible to develop the methodology of image-dense research displayed in the book because of the AHRC-funded Window to the West: Towards a redefinition of the visual within Gaelic Scotland (PI Macdonald, 2005-2011, £543K). Further support was received from The Carnegie Trust for the Universities in Scotland, the PF Charitable Trust, and the Gaelic Books Council. In-kind support (fee waivers, image provision, translation, etc) came from the Royal Scottish Academy; Fleming Collection, London; City Art Centre, Edinburgh; University of Edinburgh (collections); University of Dundee (collections); Sabhal Mòr Ostaig (collections). The book acts as a visually articulated extension of Macdonald’s text for Section 6.1 of the Open University Open Learning Gaelic in Modern Scotland initiative (website and iBook). Its content, both in word and image, draws on Macdonald’s invited and externally funded international public lecture ‘The Art of An Leabhar Mòr and the Art History of the Scottish Gaidhealtachd’, given at Cape Breton University, Nova Scotia, Canada in October 2009 at the opening of the exhibition An Leabhar Mor / The Great Book of Gaelic (100 exhibits); and on Macdonald’s paper to the Association of Art Historians Annual Conference 2010, ‘A New Celtic Revival – Researching Art and the Highlands Today’.

Work by Gaelic speaking artists and artists responding to the culture of the Gàidhealtachd is an important part of the art of Scotland. This book has its origin in a research collaboration between the Visual Research Centre, Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design (University of Dundee) and Sabhal Mòr Ostaig (University of the Highlands and Islands) which led to a major exhibition Uinneag Dhan Àird an Air: Ath-Lorg Ealain na Gàidhealtachd / Window to the West: The Rediscovery of Highland Art, held at the City Art Centre in Edinburgh in the winter months of 2010/2011.