The art of Fife based, Scottish artist Reinhard Behrens inhabits a mythical world of snow and ice, of eastern mystery, and of found objects and ideas which transcend time and place.
Born in Germany 1951
1971 – 78 Hamburg College of Art
1979 – 80 German Academic Exchange Grant for Post graduate Course in Drawing and Painting at Edinburgh College of Art
1982 – 84 Part-time Lecturer Edinburgh College of Art
1986 Full-time Lecturer Grays School of Art, Aberdeen
1989 – 92 President of Society of Scottish Artists
1995 - Lecturer, Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design
Since 1987 Lives and works in Pittenweem, Fife
Awards
1980 Andrew Grant Major Award, Edinburgh College of Art
1981 & 1986 Educational Institute of Scotland Award (SSA & RSA)
1983 Benno Schotz Award
1985 IBM Award (SSA)
1987 Scottish Arts Council Major Bursary
1991 Paisley Drawing Biennale
1998 Noble Grossart Painting Prize
2011 Creative Scotland Bursary
Solo Exhibitions
1982 Edinburgh College of Art Henderson’s Gallery, Edinburgh
1984 Glasgow School of Art Printmaker’s Workshop, Edinburgh
1985 Smith Art Gallery and Museum, Stirling
1986 An Lanntair Gallery, Stornoway Artspace Gallery, Aberdeen
1987 McLaurin Art Gallery, Ayr Open Eye Gallery, Edinburgh
1988 Seagate Gallery, Dundee Pier Arts Centre, Orkney
1989 Open Eye Gallery, Edinburgh
1991 Barrack Street Museum, Dundee
1992 Galerie Gehring, Frankfurt Aberdeen Art Gallery
1993 St. Andrews Festival, University of St. Andrews Open Eye Gallery
1996 Arts in Fife Bus Tour,
Campo Sant Chapel, Ghent
Crawford Arts Centre, St. Andrews
Galerie Claude Andre, Brussels
1997 Kirkcaldy Museum and Art Gallery
1999 Roger Billcliffe Gallery, Glasgow
2000 Pittenweem Arts Festival
2004 Byre Theatre, St. Andrews
2005 Methil Heritage Centre, Fife
2006 Marischal Museum, University of Aberdeen
Bonhoga Gallery, Shetland
2008 Open Eye Gallery, Edinburgh
43 Years of Expeditions into Naboland
In 1975 when I was working as a draughtsman for the German Archaeological Institute in Turkey on the site of historical Pergamon and suffering from the ill effects of a mild sun stroke I chanced upon a newspaper that reported a collision between a Turkish submarine and a Swedish cargo ship. The photographs reminded me of a toy submarine that I had found the previous year on the German North Sea coast. The only word in that Turkish newspaper that I could read was the name of the damaged ship: NABOLAND.
My feaverish condition inspired me to combine this name with the image of my found toy : In years to come my little tin submarine would explore the unknown continent of “Naboland”. Like the archaeologists around me I would use found objects as proof of the existence of Naboland.
My move to Scotland in 1979 to take up a post graduate course in Drawing and Painting at Edinburgh College of Art gave me access to the rich visual resources of the former British Empire and the explorations of the Edwardian era in particular. My joining of the Edinburgh University Mountaineering Club made it easy to feel like a member of Scott’s desperate party struggling for the South Pole and to explore the wilderness of the Scottish countryside through the goggles of the little tin mariner battling through the white outs of the Cairngorm plateau.
The ready sense of humour and appreciation of oblique perspectives that I encountered in Scotland was not a small element in the growing success of my artistic vision that has sustained me and over the last four decades I expanded my original “Naboland the North” chapter by the following regions of my parallel world:
Naboland – The Origins of Golf
Naboland – Across the Desert
Naboland – The Last Yeti
Naboland – The Italian visits
Naboland – A Flemish Excursion
Naboland – The Viking Connection
All these manifestations of “Naboland” have taken the form of drawings, paintings, prints and installations. For the last 10 years I have been working on the creation of a brief animation entitled “Naboland News” that will, in it’s Pathe News documentary style give final evidence of the existence of NABOLAND.
