"Choice" at the National Gallery

BondBloke and I had a high culture Sunday morning today at the National Galleries of Scotland. We visited both the unique (and soon to close) exhibition Choice (which documents the acquisition activities of the Galleries) and the regular Edinburgh tradition of Turner in January. This shows the 38 exquisite watercolours which constitute the National Galleries of Scotland share of the overall Vaughan Bequest, and the National Galleries of Scotland continue the tradition of only showing these in January (but every January). It was great for us to be able to see these for the first time since moving up to Scotland (I suppose theoretically we were here last January, but we were too busy humping boxes to think about cultural matters).

Both exhibitions were greatly appreciated, but in rather different ways. The Choice exhibition is quite substantial, and ranges across 800 years of art-production or more. The Turners offer a small but beautifully formed insight into one man's creativity. I'd be hard pressed to say which I enjoyed more. They definitely spoke to different parts of the brain, and both should be seen.

And both were free. Three cheers for the policy which ensures that access to the core collections of the public galleries continues to be free.