Alexander McCall Smith: Photography has its place, but painted portraits provide a more evocative depiction of who we are scotsman.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from scotsman.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
/
Rarely can a portrait, including a dead body under a sheet, have created such a powerful, immediate, critical and public response.
Ken Currie, undoubtedly among the most significant painters of our time, is known for his dark side, his bleak, black pictures of haggard figures and harrowing happening, tortured flesh, forensic finales, illness, death. Long before Co-vid, he recognised the fragility, vulnerability and desperate aspects of human life and, never flinching, captured them with an evocative intensity.
Ken Currie Unknown Man
Death is also central to this new work. Yet, it is transformed into a welcome statement about power for good, knowledge as key, medicine’s possibility to resolve problems, and – in the right hands, a consoling ability to reveal lost identity.
May 6th, 2021 By David Knox 2 commentsFiled under: News,
Skilling South Australia, a $200 million initiative, sees the South Australian Film Corporation and the federal government set to bolster local crew.
Twenty-five skilled workers from adjacent industries such as performing and visual arts, festivals and events, accountancy, trades, construction and more will undergo training to join the screen industry for the first time, while 25 existing crew will also be upskilled.
SA Minister for Innovation and Skills David Pisoni said, “It’s an exciting time for our state’s screen industry as we become an attractive destination for Australian and international productions.
“SAFC has identified there are skill gaps within the following crew departments – Assistant Directing, Camera, Art Department, Production Office and Production Accounting.
Subscription Notification
We have noticed that there is an issue with your subscription billing details. Please update your billing details here
Please update your billing information
The subscription details associated with this account need to be updated. Please update your billing details here to continue enjoying your subscription.
Your subscription will end shortly
Please update your billing details here to continue enjoying your access to the most informative and considered journalism in the UK.
The Scottish National Portrait Gallery is to reopen on Friday with a new Ken Currie work depicting forensic anthropologist Professor Dame Sue Black.
Arriving at the National Galleries of Scotland (NGS) on a long-term loan directly from the artist, the large portrait is titled Unknown Man and shows Professor Black in surgical robes standing behind the covered remains of a body.
The pair met during a BBC Radio 4 discussion programme on the relationship between art and anatomy.
Currie then visited the Centre for Anatomy and Human Identification at the University of Dundee, where Professor Black then was director, and was so moved by her work he asked her to sit for a portrait.