MORAY ART CENTRE is delighted to announce the hosting of the internationally acclaimed exhibition, An Leabhar Mor / The Great Book of Gaelic. The exhibition, which will be the second exhibition to be featured in the Centre’s premier gallery space, will be open to the public from Friday 31 October to Saturday 31 January.
An Leabhar Mor/ The Great Book of Gaelic brings together the work of more than 200 poets, visual artists and calligraphers from Scotland and Ireland to create a major contemporary artwork in the form of a visual anthology. Moray Art Centre with the backing of Gleaner Oil and Gas have been able to bring 28 prints from collection to Moray, which some have called “a modern day Book of Kells”.
The exhibition of Gaelic literature and art from Scotland and Ireland, celebrates the breadth and diversity of contemporary Gaelic culture. Scotland and Ireland share a mythology, a rich music tradition, languages and some history and this major exhibition renews old Scottish and Irish connections and makes new ones. At the moment the exhibition of 200 prints has been split and are currently on show internationally. Eventually the whole collection will be bound together into one volume as a permanent exhibit.
The 100 Gaelic poems featured in the exhibition were nominated by leading poets and writers such as Seamus Heaney, Hamish Henderson and Alastair Macleod as well as the contributing poets themselves. The selection features work from almost every century from the 6th to the 21st and includes the earliest Gaelic poetry in existence. Comedy, tragedy, love, death, the spiritual and the bawdy are all represented in poems by Sorley Maclean, Nuala Ni Domhnall, Iain Crichton Smith, Michael Davitt, Kevin Macneil and Cathal O Searcaigh. One hundred visual artists respond to the poetry in a variety of media and this exhibition features the work of Scottish artists including Calum Colvin, Elizabeth Ogilvie, George A. Macpherson, Edward Summerton and Frances Walker. Also involved were a small team of calligraphers and typographer Don Addison who worked in collaboration with the artists to integrate the key lines of poetry and the artist’s images. (See below for a full list of artists involved).
Moray Art Centre will be running an education programme in conjunction with the art work including school visits and family days. Randy Klinger, Director of Moray Art Centre said, “We are delighted to be able to bring this rich language and art based exhibition to Moray which we will be expanding to include talks, tours, school visits and classes. We have to thank Gleaner for their kind sponsorship of this exhibition, which without their support, would not make it possible to bring exhibitions of this standard to Moray.”
Andrew Laing of Gleaner Oil and Gas added “As a business based in the Highlands which provides services to the Grampians, the Highlands, Argyll and Bute and the Western Isles, we are proud to support this exhibition. We have been impressed by the work of Moray Art Centre and were thrilled to have an opportunity to support art and art education in Moray.”
The project was originated and developed by Proiseact nan Ealan, The Gaelic Art Agency, Stornoway.