Description
Confessions of a Highland Art Dealer is by Tony Davidson who runs our local Art Gallery: The Kilmorack Gallery.
"An unexpected page-turner" The Scotsman.
This is a story of transformation. It reveals the untold life of a young, ambitious art dealer, and introduces us to the often-unseen lives of Scottish artists. It conjures global changes over the twenty-six-year period since Tony first dreamt of a new use for an old church.
Changes affected everything, even this beautiful glen. At the heart of this story is how to survive in the art world and a find a place in a family of very individual artists. It begins with the enigmatic Black Allan opening the door of a disused church and the conversion of this old kirk into an art gallery with next to no money.
Twenty-five years later, Kilmorack Gallery will be among the top commercial galleries in Scotland, with a stable of over sixty leading Scottish artists. It will have weathered the financial crash of 2008 and the pandemic of 2020, defying history, tradition and the commodification of art in the age of celebrity. The book starts as a coming-of-age story and ends with a powerful environmental call for change - a call for awakening.
We are introduced to artists as they join the gallery's stable: from Gerald Laing (pop artist from the 1960s,) Edinburgh's dark and satirical Robert Powell and the ethereal northern artists. We also meet the gallery's clients. Tony Davidson was born in 1967 in Edinburgh, moved to the Highlands in his twenties and opened the doors of Kilmorack Gallery in 1997.
He has been writing about artists since then, looking for new ways to express what they do, and constantly reinventing the gallery to reflect our changing times. Confessions is his first book.
Paperback Book 280 pages.
Approx: 13 x 19.7 cm.