Larger than Life Exhibition

Larger than Life
The Dundee Imagists in the 1980s

This exhibition features paintings, drawings and prints by students at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art in the 1980s. Under the influence of the new Head of Fine Art, Professor Alan Robb, and fellow tutors such as Peter Collins and Ronald Forbes, a distinctive style emerged at that time, which Robb has termed the Dundee Imagist School.

Robb encouraged his students to look at artists such as Giorgio de Chirico, Edward Baird, Felice Casorati, Edward Burra and the magic realists, and the result was a uniquely Dundonian response - brightly coloured, highly finished and grotesque or cartoon-like works which could seem sinister yet funny, realistic yet surreal. The work gave Duncan of Jordanstone an enviable reputation for its drawing and painting. Many students from the time have since gone on to national and international success.

The exhibition features work by John Beeston, Stephen Bird, Colin Brown, Jon Calman, Ruth Corbett, Derrick Guild, Alexander Guy, David Hewie, Robert Holmes, Alexander Hope, Neil Irons, Marc Jennings, Angus McEwan, Duncan Mosley, Christopher Neill, Vince Rattray, Ian Scott, Alice Shannon, Lars Stenberg, Edward Summerton, Graeme Todd, David F Wilson, Robert Wilson and Susan Winton. It has been created as a response to the exhibition A Painted World, opening at The McManus: Dundee's Art Gallery & Museum on 27 January and featuring work by Alan Robb and his contemporaries.