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The Rock - The Radical Road

Artist: Moffat, Alexander, OBE RSA · b. 1943

With a letter of 27th March 2009 Moffat attached the following information about the painting (letter and note in his file) the text replicates some asepcts of Moffat's essay in the catalogue of the exhibition 'Alexander Moffat, Images of people, places and country' (Pittencrief House Museum, Dunfermline, 1991) "Although brought up in Fife, Edinburgh is my formative place. "The first sight of/ Edinburgh after an absence is invariably exciting. Its bold and stoney look recalls/ ravines and quarried mountains..." (Edwin Muir: Scottish Journey).This powerful/cityscape is something I have been attempting to make images of for a long time now./ In the summer of 1988 I filled a sketchbook with drawings of Arthur's Seat and the/ Salisbury Crags, those volcanic ruins looming over Scotland's capital city. I was/ aware of their literary significance - the setting for James Hogg's 'Confessions of a/ Justified Sinner' and Walter Scott's role in the creation of the 'Radical Road'. My first/ thoughts were concerned with Rober Burns and Edinburgh, however, and I asked/ myself what Burns (who as a patriot and radical republication) might make of Scotland/ today - especially the current political situation. As Tom Nairn put it at that time "since the/ row over participation in the Constitutional Convention...once that short lived unity over/ rational progress towards our own state had been destroyed, what was left apart from/ an intensifying struggle between two hirpling lunatics trying to smash each others/ crutches?"/ I proceeded to make a number of works depicting the two battling protagonists. Specific / Edinburgh landmarks , The Calton Hill, St Andrews House, the former Royal High/ School, the Burns Monument, were deployed for their symbolic qualities and as a/setting for the struggle for Scottish liberty (Liberty's in Every Blow). The viewpoint/ used was that of the Salisbury Crags./ Following on from this I made a number of small paintings and one large painting/ inspired by the Salisbury Crag....attempting to create an emblamatic image of/ Edinburgh...and perhaps of Scotland. Again taking to heart Edwin Muir's description of the Scottish capital "It is a city built upon rock and guarded by rock."/ Landmarks are bound up with the mythologising most of us indulge in - the process by/ which we internalise, and identify with, a particular terrain. The crags and the rocks of/ Edinburgh speak of a sense of history and therefore confer identity. This is where my/ nationality was learned. How such places contribute to an awareness of self and country/ is wrapped in mystery. All we can be sure is that they do."