* GREGORY RANKINE (SCOTTISH b 1971),
CUTTY SARK
oil on board, signed
14cm x 20cm
Mounted, framed and under glass.
Titled on Compass Gallery, 178 West Regent Street, Glasgow label verso3
Note: In Burns' poem Tam o' Shanter (first published in 1791) the drunken Tam, riding home on his horse, happens upon a witches' dance. Among the dancing figures is a particularly beautiful young witch named Nannie (Scots pet form of Anna), "ae winsome wench and wawlie" (line 164). She is wearing a harn (linen) sark (nightshirt) which fitted her as a child (a "lassie") but is now rather too short for her.
Artist: Gregory Rankine graduated from Glasgow School of Art in 1996 and since that time has exhibited in the UK and abroad, including London, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Dublin, Limassol and New York. He undertook a six-month residency in Cyprus, exhibits at the RGI and RSA and was awarded the N.S. Macfarlane Trust Award at the Royal Scottish Academy in 2007. Rankine’s horses are not portraits of bloodstock, but evocations of the strength, elegance and movement embodied by the animal. Widely collected across the UK, Ireland, France, Finland and the US, Rankine’s work is in private and public collections, including The Woolwich, The Prince’s Trust and the University of Strathclyde.