Modern Women
Until February 13; Scottish National Portrait Gallery, Edinburgh

When galleries play musical chairs (or walls) with their permanent collection and announce a new display, it’s not usually cause for great excitement. I’d make an exception for Modern Women; curators at the Portrait Gallery have racked their racks and put together an exhibition which is well worth a visit.

The show celebrates Scottish women over the last 100 years, in sections devoted to writers, politicians, sportsters, artists, medics and so on. Next to each portrait hangs a long caption about the sitter, drawn in most cases from the forthcoming Biographical Dictionary of Scottish Women. About these I have two quibbles. Often running to two pages, they’re a bit much to digest in an exhibition setting; succinct captions and a more detailed exhibition guide would have been a neater solution.

Despite the fullness of the information given, it doesn’t cover all the bases. Most of the artworks are, alas, by men, but where they are by women I want to know about the artist. Who, for instance, is the Florence St John Cadell who painted the friendly, light-filled portrait of nationalist Wendy Wood? There’s no clue that she’s the Australian-born cousin of Colourist FCB Cadell, and that she specialised in landscapes and continental market scenes.

Where artists painted themselves, there’s no such problem. Cecile Walton’s Romance shows the artist prostrate after giving birth to her second son. She’s naked, but far from passive. The picture highlights the active challenge of motherhood, the heroism of giving birth, and the unacknowledged stoicism of dedicating your life to your children. Surrounded by society portraits in standard head and shoulder format, it looks just as startling today as it was in 1920.

It’s inspiring, and comforting, to be surrounded by such a strong framework of successful women in every walk of life. They are the historical pillars which support today’s Scotland, even if we’ve never heard of some of them.

You get a strong sense, too, that the Portrait Gallery is thinking hard about ways to progress their collection. Many of the exhibits are relatively new commissions, recognisable from recent shows about writers and university figures. Those gaps are being plugged all the time, and yet the gallery recognises that there are still gaping holes. We’re asked to make our own suggestions and the visitors’ book is crammed full of nominations. The same names keep cropping up, including Evelyn Glennie, Eddi Reader, Alison Watt, and Kirsty Wark.

This feels like a genuine consultation which will help shape the national collection for years to come. Here’s a real chance to get involved and name your favourites. But don’t worry about me, I’m already in the exhibition. In a manner of speaking. I bet that you can’t find me.

Catrìona Black, Sunday Herald 10.10.04