New exhibition honours Edinburgh bodybuilder and tapestry trail-blazer who launched Sean Connery's modelling career

HE flexed his muscles with fellow bodybuilder Sean Connery in his younger days, held the title Mr Scotland and has been described as 'one of the greatest unrecognised pop artists of the twentieth century'. Now the life and work of Roslin-born Archie Brennan, a tapestry trailblazer, is to be celebrated in a new exhibition at Dovecot Studios.

Archie Brennan at the Shaefer Internation Gallery, Maui Arts and Cultural Centre

Archie Brennan: Tapestry Goes Pop! will be the first major retrospective of his work and will include pieces that have never been shown in public before.

Lisa Mason, the exhibition's co-curator says, "Exhibition highlights include A Full Meeting of the Members of the Board, a tapestry based on medieval tapestries depicting meetings of town burghers, juxtaposed with images from the 20th century media, Was it Worth it Mr Gutenberg, a newspaper article, concerning potato crisps transposed word for word into a large-scale tapestry, Tapestry Parcel, the first tapestry postcard that Brennan wove and sent through the post and Midlothian County Map an avant-garde tapestry representing Midlothian through geometric shapes.

The latter shared influences with Leith pop artist Eduardo Paolozzi, a contemporary and friend of Brennan throughout his 60 year weaving career after initially studying drawing at Edinburgh College of Art from the age of 15. In fact it as there that he met apprentices from Dovecot Studios, then the Edinburgh Tapestry Co, joining them a couple of years later. By 1963 he was the director of Dovecot Studios and over the six decades he was active, Brennan is credited with changing the course of modern weaving.

Muhammad Ali, Archie Brennan, 1973, tapestry

Bringing together over 80 tapestries and works, the exhibition is a chance for visitors to delve into his world exploring the key concerns of pop - ephemera, popular imagery and culture, and questions of value.

"Archie Brennan is one of Britain’s greatest unrecognised pop artists because his medium of choice was tapestry which has, historically, occupied a curious position at the intersection of fine art and craft,” explains Mason.

"Pop Artists such as Paolozzi and Andy Warhol sought to break down traditional hierarchies between art and everyday life by looking to popular culture for inspiration and employing reproductive mediums such as screen printing and casting within their work. Arguably Brennan’s work was even more subversive as he chose to approach popular culture and question artistic hierarchies through the medium of tapestry - an immensely costly and time intensive process that has historically been associated with the conspicuous display of wealth and status."

Throughout his career the weaver was drawn to public figures such as Princess Diana, and boxer Muhammad Ali, often using small images cut from newspapers and magazines or sketched from the TV to translate pop culture imagery to tapestry.

Dovecot Studios, Edinburgh Tapestry Company 1949 - Ronnie McVinnie, John Loufit, Fred Marin, Richard Gordon, Alec Jack, Ian Inglis, Archie Brennan, Sydney Ramage

"He wove images from TV screens and newspaper print, from old photographs of anonymous people disconnected from their identities. The notion of capturing fleeting moments in the labour intensive medium of tapestry is both subversive and aligned with the ideals of pop art,” says Mason. “Brennan didn’t occupy himself with the definitions of the art world, and wasn’t seeking the approval of his peers, however his work is as significant as that of Paolozzi in the pop art canon."

Down to earth, Brennan himself noted in a lecture in 1971 that tapestry is “about as sensible as building a life size model of St. Paul's Cathedral out of matchsticks” and also acknowledged it had been a life-long obsession for him: "Quite simply, the practice of woven tapestry has been an obsessive passion my entire adult life. It is my language and I love - hate - delight and struggle with it each day, all day. In a unique manner, it is a vehicle to convey concepts, comment, harmony, discord, rhythm, growth and form. Simply put, it is what I do. That tapestry today is widely regarded as a minor art form leaves me unconcerned. That is somebody else's loss.”

Mason reflects, "My abiding memory of Archie is his shining intellect, self awareness and playful sense of humour. All though he achieved many accolades throughout his life he was incredibly humble and always committed to his practice, viewing weaving as an artistic journey. He also kept a studio photograph of himself in his bodybuilding prime in his wallet and was, at the age of 87, immensely proud of the 27 inch waist captured in the photograph.”

She continues, “He believed that weaving engaged a tactile, thoughtful aspect of his mind and to balance this he trained as a bodybuilder as a physical challenge. Through bodybuilding he became friendly with Sean Connery who he introduced to the Dovecot, and suggested that he model at the art school to make a bit of money. You could say that Archie launched Connery’s modelling career."

Gossips, reconstruction, the Triumph of Caesar, At a Window XVIII, Archie Brennan, 2006

During a prolific career in weaving Brennan helped found the Australian Tapestry Workshop in Melbourne and taught weaving all over the world from Papua New Guinea to the United States where he continued to teach and weave until his death last year at the age of 88. He was also Acting Chairman of the British Crafts Center and President of the Society of Scottish Artists.

Brennan’s contribution to Scottish and international weaving is unparalleled, insists Mason, who concludes, “This exhibition is a chance for us to uncover and celebrate a local legend. Archie Brennan became the undisputed master of modern tapestry, however, outside of the weaving community is work has gone unrecognised. This retrospective will allow us to tell Archie’s story and to celebrate the work of an Edinburgh artist who did so much to push the boundaries of tapestry and indeed pop art.”

Archie Brennan: Tapestry Goes Pop! will run at the Dovecot Studios on Infirmary Street from 26 March-26 June, 2021

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