#salmond

Alex Salmond sues Scottish government #Alex #Salmond #Scottishgovernment #sues

Jeremy Salmond passed away peacefully in Auckland on the third of January 2023, a day after his 79th birthday. Jeremy was a friend and mentor of, and collaborator with, many architects around Aotearoa. He was, to many, the most respected conservation architect in the country, having literally written the book on old New Zealand houses. He was the founding director of Salmond Reed Architects and,…

For me it meant reading the word salmon and wondering why the d at the end of the word is missing.

“Stillbirth of a Nation”

This work, attributed to the earliest days of the insurrection period, is redolent with dissatisfaction and disappointment. Portraying the two central figures of the revolution era, it was originally conceived to be an inspirational painting and the record of the birth of a successful political ideology and of a new nation. The artist intended to convey the close dependence of the two, yet from the outset we see the clues to some contradictions even in the faces of the sitters themselves (as they are already appearing to think on different outcomes).

Scholars now note that this work was more propaganda than art. The dual portrait shows the sitters in revolutionary clothing. In fact, like much of the ‘facade’ presented to the public at the time, the clothing was rather more theatre than practical reality. As ‘father‘ and ‘mother’ of the intended revolution, the pair never really got along. He was not, as his attire implies, ever in the military. And she was not, as her place in the composition may suggest, ever comfortable with human contact.

Unreal

The two are seen in the throes of planning a campaign yet their canvas is blank. He appears hesitant, angry, disconcerted - it is as tho he about to start fight with some figure out-of-view, perhaps over his indecision on the plans? There is an interesting aside here when the painting’s alternate title, long discarded and unused, was revived by scholars. ‘Sunk by Sterling’ was the only title of the work for some years before an effort to update the work changed it to an historical account of the couple’s broader failure - i.e. the “Stillbirth” title. The Sterling reference was originally a direct reference to currency plans - or the lack of them. Hence, this school of thought adds, the blankness of the folio before the pair.

But much as our understanding of the pair’s relationship has evolved over time, so too has analysis of their campaigns. Fraught with incompetence and poor decisions, they each led battles that cost millions and yet they were never bowed by such losses. They appeared committed to eachother as much as they were to campaigns that never counted the cost. The sterling reference, then, also became a hallmark of their failures more broadly.

Into this background then we pour one querulous portrait, one entirely feigning to be honest.

The work had central place in the Nat Gallery for many years until scholarly research uncovered so many inconsistencies with the previously attributed provenance of the work. Not just the affection of the subjects was apparently fraudulent, but - to the embarrassment of the Gallery - the work itself is now believed to be a forgery.

Ultimately this was the romance of a doomed cause matched only by the romance of a doomed couple. Here conveyed in a work now condemned to be fraudulent.

This work remains in the Collection of the Nat Gallery, but now is only seen when accompanied by a narration of its fraudulent nature.