Donald Urquhart: Invisible Ideas

A consolation in the landless culture of city life

Article by Jenny Richards | 06 Jan 2008
The basement in the City Art Centre where Donald Urquhart's exhibition is located provides peaceful sanctuary from a rain-drenched Waverley. Although Urquhart is a Scottish artist best known for his public artworks, this exhibition, Invisible Ideas, reveals the importance of drawing to his practice.

Urquhart explores the land through a variety of methods. He examines our environment's alluring qualities, as well as questioning where we place ourselves within it. The show is all new work except for a single drawing from 1977. This drawing, Study of a Thistle, can be easily identified and lies in stark contrast to his newer works. These depict vast landscapes, and, in comparison to the thistle, are much harder to locate. However, Urquhart's careful attention to detail and tremendous concentration remain apparent across this 30-year time-span. Many drawings are placed next to counterparts of colour or pencil. These painted planes seem like an effort to strip back and simplify the work further, almost providing a tool to help us reach the height of poetic dialogue which the land suggests. In places where the coloured strip would occur through the drawing its effect is more of an interruption, carrying aesthetic concerns which dissect the works' explicit resonance. Overall the show exudes a mindful stillness, providing a consolation in the landless culture of city life.
Until 16 Feb, City Art Centre, Edinburgh http://www.cac.org.uk