To rescue Kahlo from the clutches of the corporate art market, we need to acknowledge the overt and covert political dimensions of the work, demands GAVIN O’TOOLE
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BEN LUNN celebrates the beautiful and subversive music of Eddie McGuire
ON SONG: (L to R) On the picket line with fellow composers 1980, a strike to save the Scottish Symphony Orchestra (SSO); Eddie McGuire addresses the STUC
[edwardmcguire.com]
If you can see past the relentless commodification you will be rewarded by enormously powerful work, suggests JENNY MITCHELL
CHRIS SEARLE revels in the one-off collaboration between an American polymath and a British Muslim, and detects the presence of their revolutionary forebear
GORDON PARSONS revels in an ebullient production of Shakespeare’s magical comedy
BRENT CUTLER welcomes a thoughtful analysis of the Erdogan regime, viewed through the evolving history of a neighbourhood in Istanbul
GORDON PARSONS regrets the price, but is dazzled by an outstandingly ambitious study of the way art restoration in particular, and culture in general was weaponised by the Nazis
YOU can learn a lot about a composer, and a person, simply from the place you first meet them. My first encounter with Eddie McGuire was at a meeting of Radical Options for Scotland and Europe in the Unite offices in Glasgow. Since then, to this day, most of my encounters with the composer have been at a protest or rally rather than in a concert hall.
Shortly after I moved to Scotland, after my years living in Vilnius, I attended a Morning Star event (although I can’t remember for the life of me which) where Keith Stoddart deployed his usual charm and curiosity and quickly discovered I was a composer. His instant response was: “In Scotland you only need to know two composers James MacMillan and Eddie McGuire.”
Two very telling signs about a composer who celebrates his 75th this year.
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