Ronald Forbes

Ronald Forbes RSA, RGI (born 1947 in Braco, Perthshire, Scotland) is an artist who is primarily a painter but who has also made films throughout his career. He is an academician of the Royal Scottish Academy (elected Associate, 1996, Academician, 2005), was elected a Professional Member of the Society of Scottish Artists in 1971 and a member of the Royal Glasgow Institute of the Fine Arts in 2013.

Forbes studied at Edinburgh College of Art from 1964–1968, and was awarded an S.E.D postgraduate scholarship there from 1968–1969. He later studied education at Jordanhill College, Glasgow, from 1970–71.

The Work Forbes’s art reflects the complex visual languages of modern life while referencing mythology and art history, and, as Dr Tom Normand wrote in "Portfolio: Treasures from the Diploma Collection of the Royal Scottish Academy", 2013, "his work has explored a philosophical discourse that speculates on the nature of reality." while Dr Carol Gow, writing in Cencrastus issue 36, 1990, noted that Forbes prefers the term "imagist" rather than "figurative."

Dennis Adrian, Chicago historian, critic and collector, wrote in Riddles and Puzzles: Paintings by Ronald Forbes,

"Ronald Forbes is a metaphysical painter out of the necessities of his own perceptions. His metaphysical qualities are those which can be found in much modern and older art; a sensibility which evidences an unshakeable conviction that the full perception and comprehension of our experience are not and cannot be achieved through logic alone and that there are other forms of knowledge to which we have access in art through images and symbols as well as the forms and colors which manifest them.

In Forbes’s painting, this sort of awareness (logical thought plus perceptual awareness) is a disrupted state in which no one single structural system or vocabulary of images has primacy. Accordingly, Forbes’s imagery seems never to be presented through a consistent and uniform language of form and image, but usually presents several such systems simultaneously within a "single" composition. The result has been called collage-like."

Professional activity There have been solo, group and curated exhibitions of Forbes’s work in Scotland, England, Ireland, USA, Australia, Japan, France and the Netherlands. His paintings are held in a range of public collections in the UK, Ireland, the USA, Poland and Australia. He has received many prizes, including the Guthrie Medal from the Royal Scottish Academy, the Carnegie Trust, the Scottish Arts Council and the Hope-Scott Trust.

His films have been shown in many exhibitions and have been part of the official selection for film festivals including Glasgow Short Film Festival, Abstracta Film Festival, Rome, Italy Lucerne International Film Festival, Switzerland and Skepto Film Festival, Cagliari, Italy.

Throughout his career, Forbes has fulfilled a number of artist residencies in Scotland, The Netherlands and Australia, including the Leverhulme Senior Art Fellowship at the University of Strathclyde, 1973–74, Artist in Residence in Livingston New Town, 1978–80, the Scottish Arts Council Amsterdam Studio Award 1980, Artist in Residence at the University of Tasmania Art School, Hobart, Australia in 1995, and the Leverhulme Trust Artist in Residence at the Scottish Crop Research Institute (now the James Hutton Institute) 2006–08.

Forbes has been curator of a number of exhibitions such as ‘Focus on Film’ at the Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh, Scotland in 2014 and the Celtic Connections Festival Visual Art Exhibition, Glasgow, Scotland in 1994 and 1995. He has also been founder and organiser of artists groups including the Glasgow League of Artists in 1971.

2023 “The Everyman Variations” The Academicians’ Gallery, Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh 2021 “The Dreamweaver’s Puzzles” Festival Exhibition Scottish Arts Club, Edinburgh 2018 “Inside Out” Studio Pavilion Gallery, The House for an Art Lover, Glasgow 2011 “De Rerum Natura: The Meaning of Things” Perth Museum and Art Gallery, Perth, Scotland 2010 “De Rerum Natura: The Meaning of Things” Collins Gallery, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, Scotland 2010 “De Rerum Natura: The Meaning of Things” John Hope Gateway Centre, Botanics, Edinburgh, Scotland 2009 “De Rerum Natura: The Meaning of Things” Hannah Maclure Centre, University of Abertay, Dundee, Scotland 2009 “De Rerum Natura,” Digital-Collage Prints" Edinburgh International Science Festival, CAC, Edinburgh, Scotland 2008 “Ronald Forbes: Paintings” Scottish Art Club, Edinburgh, Scotland 2007 “De Natura” Hamnavoe Gallery, Aberdeen, Scotland 2005 “mind-games” Hannah Maclure Centre, University of Abertay, Dundee, Scotland 2005 “Indian Summer” Smith Art Gallery and Museum, Stirling, Scotland 2003 “Indian Summer” Crawford Arts Centre, St Andrews, Scotland 2001 “Riddles” Vardy Gallery, Sunderland, England 2001 “Indian Summer” Royal Over-Seas League Gallery, Edinburgh, Scotland 2001 “Indian Summer” Fine Art Gallery, University of Tasmania, Australia 2000 “Indian Summer” Royal Over-Seas League Gallery, London, England 1999 “Ronald Forbes: Drawings” Southern Illinois University Museum, Carbondale, USA 1999 “Ronald Forbes: Catalogue of Disasters and Other Paintings” Sonia Zaks Gallery, Chicago, USA

1997 “Catalogue of Disasters” De Keerder Kunstkamer, Cadier en Keer, Netherlands 1996 “Consuming Passions” NS Gallery, Glasgow, Scotland 1995 “Vegetable Lamb and Other Travellers’ Tails” Plimsoll Gallery, Hobart, Tasmania, Australia 1995 “All Consuming Landscape” Seagate Gallery, Dundee, Scotland 1995 “All Consuming Landscape” An Lanntair Gallery, Stornoway, Isle of Lewis, Scotland 1991 “Paintings and Related Works” Maclaurin Art Ga1lery, Ayr, Scotland 1991 “Paintings and Related Works” Perth Museum and Art Gallery, Scotland 1990 “Paintings and Related Works” Seagate Gallery, Dundee, Scotland 1986 “Robbie McRuse: Drawings and Paintings” Mayfest Exhibition, Babbity Bowster, Glasgow, Scotland 1984 “World State Circus Paintings” Drian Galleries, London, England 1983 “Ronald Forbes: Paintings 1973-1983” Compass Gallery, Glasgow, Scotland 1980 “Ronald Forbes: Paintings” Third Eye Centre, Glasgow, Scotland 1980 “Ronald Forbes: Paintings” Forebank Gallery, Dundee, Scotland 1980 “Ronald Forbes: Paintings” The Lanthorn, Livingston, Scotland 1978 “Ronald Forbes: Paintings” Cork Art Society Gallery, Cork, Ireland 1976 “Ronald Forbes: Paintings and Films” Project Arts Centre, Dublin, Ireland 1976 “TV Series to Roadworks?” Cork Art Society Gallery, Ireland 1975 “Recent TV Series Paintings” Drian Galleries, London, England 1974 “Leverhulme Fellowship Exhibition” Collins Gallery, Glasgow, Scotland 1974 “Back to Nature” Goethe Institute, Glasgow, Scotland 1973 “Back to Nature” Compass Gallery, Glasgow, Scotland

Curated exhibitions

2018 From the Sublime to the Concrete The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh, curated by Derrick Guild

2018 Under the Goldie Fish: Views of Cork from the Collection Crawford Art Gallery, Cork, Ireland.

2017-18 Music, Myth and Magic Crawford Art Gallery, Cork, Ireland, work from the permanent collection

2016-2018 A Sense of Place McManus, Dundee’s City Art Gallery and Museum, work from the permanent collection

2010-15 RSA Annual Exhibition Curated Section: 2015 Realised, curator Alan Robb 2014 Focus on Film, curator Ronald Forbes 2010 The Expressive Artist and Social Involvement curator Ian McCulloch 2014 Life Cycles: John Grant Clifford, Ronnie Forbes, Alastair Ross

2014 Life Cycles: John Grant Clifford, Ronnie Forbes, Alastair Ross Tatha Gallery, Newport-on-Tay

2006 Parallel Paths, Doug Cocker and Ronald Forbes The drawing and development processes of each artist. Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh

2002 Nature: Only and Idea, Ronald Forbes, Nicole Hardy and Jannel: Galerie Trace, Maastricht, Netherlands

1983 Netherlands and Belgium Touring Exhibition, Ronald Forbes, John Nelson and Cameron Shaw, British Council/Culturele Raad Limburg Hoensbruck, Roermond, Maastricht and Liege

1978-79 Scottish Arts Council Touring Exhibition, Ronald Forbes and Alan Robb: 1979 Aberdeen Art Gallery 1978 Fruit Market Gallery, Edinburgh 1978 Collins Gallery, Glasgow 1978 Arts Council Gallery, Belfast

Prizes and awards

2021 Sir William Gillies Bequest Award, Royal Scottish Academy 2019 Scottish Arts Club Award, RSA Annual Exhibition 2014 Dundee Visual Artists Award Scheme award 2012 Award of Merit, Lucerne International Film Festival for "Joking Apart" 2009 Publication award, the Carnegie Trust for the Universities of Scotland 2009 Dundee Visual Artists Award Scheme award 2006 Leverhulme Artist in Residence Award at SCRI 2002 Publication award, the Carnegie Trust for the Universities of Scotland 2001 Shortlisted for Rootstein-Hopkins Major Sabbatical Award 1999 Sir William Gillies Bequest Award, Royal Scottish Academy 1996 Highland Society of London Award, Royal Scottish Academy 1994 Commendation, Aberdeen Artists Exhibition 1990 Hope Scott Trust Award 1980 S.A.C. Amsterdam Studio Award 1979 Scottish Arts Council Award for Film-making 1979 R.S.A. Guthrie Award, Royal Scottish Academy 1975 Prize for film, "Between Dreams" in BBC "Scope" Film Competition 1968 Prize in Scottish Young Contemporaries Exhibition 1967 1st prize in first Scottish Young Contemporaries Exhibition 1964–69 Numerous awards and prizes at Edinburgh College of Art