Biography – Norman McBeath Photographer (en-GB)

Norman McBeath RSA

Norman McBeath is a photographer and printmaker. The National Portrait Galleries in London and Edinburgh have over seventy of his portraits in their collections. His work has been shown as part of exhibitions at the Leica Gallery in New York, the National Portrait Gallery in London, the Scottish National Portrait Gallery in Edinburgh, the Royal Scottish Academy in Edinburgh and the Royal Academy of Arts in London. A number of award-winning writers have produced original work in response to his photographs including Jeanette Winterson (Oxford at Night, 2006), A. L. Kennedy (Evidence, 2006) and Janice Galloway (City Stories, 2008). Collaborations with poets include Plan B with Paul Muldoon (Enitharmon Press, 2009), Simonides with Robert Crawford (Easel Press, 2011), Venice with Robert Crawford (Easel Press, 2013), The Beach with Kathleen Jamie (Easel Press, 2013) and Holy Rood with Robert Crawford (Easel Press 2017).

Simonides was shown at Yale University (2012) and the Poetry Foundation, Chicago (2013). He was recently awarded a Fellowship at the Ballinglen Arts Foundation, Co. Mayo (2015) and subsequently invited to show work from the Fellowship in the exhibition Between the Land and the Sea (2016) at the Keeper’s House, Royal Academy, London.

In 2019 the Scottish National Portrait Gallery held a major exhibition (25th May - 27th October) of The Long Look, a collaboration with Audrey Grant, which explored the art of portraiture beyond the conventional artist and sitter relationship.

His latest work is a limited edition boxed set, Perdendosi, a collaboration with Edmund de Waal. The twenty-four leaf set is made up of 12 hand-printed black and white photographs with Twelve Leaves, a uniquely personal oblique and moving text in which Edmund draws from poets including Proust, Goethe and Celan in exploring his emotional response to living with the photographs. A book of the work has been published by Hazel Press (2022).

Education

1976–80 University of Stirling, BSc Hons Psychology.

Residencies and Awards

2015 Fellowship at Ballinglen Arts Foundation.
2012 New Work Award, Creative Scotland.
2012 Arts and Humanities Small Research Grant, Royal Society of Edinburgh.
2010 Jenifer Cole Charitable Trust Award.

Collections

National Portrait Gallery, London.
Scottish National Portrait Gallery, Edinburgh.
Australian National Portrait Gallery, Canberra.
The British Library, London.
National Library of Scotland, Edinburgh.
The Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge.
The British Council, London.
Royal Collection Trust.
Royal Scottish Academy.
The Ballinglen Museum of Contemporary Art.
Special Collections, University of St Andrews.
Special Collections, University of Edinburgh.
Gracefield Arts Centre, Dumfries.
University of Stirling Art Collection.
Harry Ransom Center, The University of Texas at Austin.
Stuart A. Rose Manuscript, Archives and Rare Books Library, Emory University.
Harvard University.
Yale Center for British Art.

Key Exhibitions and Commissions

2023 Royal Scottish Academy 197th Annual Exhibition, Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh.
2022 Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, London.
2022 Perdendosi, Zembla, Hawick, Scottish Borders.
2022 Royal Scottish Academy 196th Annual Exhibition, Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh.
2022 Perdendosi, collaboration with Edmund de Waal, The Fine Art Society, Edinburgh.
2022 Perdendosi, collaboration with Edmund de Waal, Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge.
2021 Royal Scottish Academy 195th Annual Exhibition, Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh.
2020 Prism 12 – Stockholm (invited artist), Nordens Ljus Gallery and Moriska Rummet, The Swedish Printmakers’ Association, Stockholm.
2020 Royal Scottish Academy 194th Annual Exhibition, Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh.
2019 Intimate - A Portrait, (invited artist), Edinburgh Art Festival, The Fine Art Society, Edinburgh.
2019 The Long Look, collaboration with Audrey Grant, Edinburgh Art Festival, Scottish National Portrait Gallery, Edinburgh.
2019 Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, London.
2019 Holy Rood, collaboration with Robert Crawford, The Fine Art Society, Edinburgh.
2018 Khoros, (invited artist), Clifford Chance Gallery, Canary Wharf, London.
2017 IXth International Engraving Exhibition, invited artist, Cremona, Italy.
2017 Ambit, exhibition of photographs showcasing leading contemporary photography by invited photographers, Stills Gallery, Edinburgh.
2016 Between the Land and the Sea, exhibition of works on paper by invited artists and academicians, Keeper’s House, Royal Academy of Arts, London.
2016 Loch Computer, collaboration with Leena Nammari, Tent Gallery, Evolution House, Edinburgh College of Art.
2016 Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, London.
2015 Portrait of Ian Hamilton Finlay featuring in Collecting Now, Scottish National Portrait Gallery, Edinburgh.
2015 Imprints, new folio of photogravures commissioned by Edinburgh Printmakers.
2015 Light Box, collaboration with Robert Crawford commissioned by the University of St Andrews in response to the 2015 Unesco International Year of Light.
2014 New Bridges,(invited artist), Nitra State Museum, Slovakia.
2013 Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, London.
2012/2013 Simonides, collaboration with Robert Crawford, Yale University, New Haven, USA; Corpus Christi College, Oxford University; and The Poetry Foundation, Chicago, USA.
2012 Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, (invited artist), London.
2012 Cast Contemporaries, (invited artist), Edinburgh College of Art.
2010 Plan B, collaboration with Paul Muldoon, Scottish Poetry Library as part of Edinburgh Art Festival; and Triskel Arts, Cork, Ireland.
2009 Faces of Poetry: Contemporary Photographs National Portrait Gallery, London and touring.
2008 Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, London.
2008 City Stories, collaboration with Janice Galloway, French Institute, Edinburgh.
2006 Evidence, Photogravures and photographs, text by A.L. Kennedy, Edinburgh Printmakers, Edinburgh.
2006 Oxford at Night, text by Jeanette Winterson, Ashmolean Museum, Oxford.

Key Acquisitions

2023 Perdendosi, collaboration with Edmund de Waal, limited edition boxed set, Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge.
2023 Perdendosi, collaboration with Edmund de Waal, limited edition boxed set, Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh.
2022 Perdendosi, collaboration with Edmund de Waal, limited edition boxed set, British Library.
2022 Perdendosi, collaboration with Edmund de Waal, limited edition boxed set, National Library of Scotland.
2022 Perdendosi, collaboration with Edmund de Waal, limited edition boxed set, Special Collections, University of Edinburgh.
2022 Perdendosi, collaboration with Edmund de Waal, limited edition boxed set, Fine Art Collection, City Art Centre, Edinburgh.
2018 Holy Rood, collaboration with Robert Crawford, limited edition artist's book, Yale Center for British Art.
2018 Holy Rood, collaboration with Robert Crawford, limited edition artist's book, British Library.
2017 Holy Rood, collaboration with Robert Crawford, limited edition artist's book, National Library of Scotland.
2017 Six portraits, Scottish National Portrait Gallery.
2017 Five portraits of Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother, Photography Collection, Royal Collection Trust, Windsor Castle.
2017 Andante, limited edition artist's book, Special Collections, University of St. Andrews.
2016 Self-portrait and five other portraits, National Portrait Gallery, London.
2016 Andante, limited edition artist's book, National Library of Scotland.
2016 Light Box, collaboration with Robert Crawford, limited edition artist's book National Library of Scotland.
2014 Venice, collaboration with Robert Crawford, limited edition artist's book, British Library.
2014 The Beach, collaboration with Kathleen Jamie, limited edition boxed set, Harvard University, Cambridge, USA.
2012 Two portraits, National Portrait Gallery of Australia, Canberra.

Key Publications (books)

2022 Perdendosi, collaboration with Edmund de Waal, published by Hazel Press.
2019 Strath, collaboration with Robert Crawford, published by Easel Press.
2019 The Long Look, collaboration with Audrey Grant and National Galleries Scotland, published by Easel Press.
2017 Chinese Makars, collaboration with Robert Crawford, published by Easel Press.
2012 Simonides, collaboration with Robert Crawford, shortlisted for the Ted Hughes Award, published by Easel Press.
2009 Plan B, collaboration with Pulitzer Prize-winner Paul Muldoon, published by Enitharmon Press.
2008 City Stories, collaboration with Janice Galloway, published by Easel Press.
2006 Oxford at Night, collaboration with Jeanette Winterson, published by Easel Press.
1992 Photographers’ Britain: Oxfordshire, published by Alan Sutton.

Talks

2020 Presentation about the development of the new work, 'Perdendosi', in the Scottish Society for Art History and Creative Informatics webinar 'Lockdown Legacy'.
2019 In Conversation with Val McDermid, Audrey Grant and Imogen Gibbon, Deputy Director of the Scottish National Portrait Gallery, National Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh.
2019 The Long Look, with Audrey Grant on the development of the work in The Long Look exhibition at the Scottish National Portrait Gallery, Edinburgh.
2019 Holy Rood and Noiseless Noise, with Robert Crawford about the collaboration to produce the Holy Rood work and about the development of my Noiseless Noise series of photographs, the Fine Art Society, Edinburgh.
2017 In Conversation with Stills Director, Ben Harman, Stills Gallery, Edinburgh.
2016 Presentation of the Light Box Work, with Robert Crawford, University of St. Andrews.
2014 Loch Computer: Remoteness and Connectedness in the Digital Era, Turing Room, School of Informatics, University of Edinburgh.
2013 Beirut and Beyond, Palace of Holyroodhouse, Edinburgh.
2012 Development of the Simonides Work, with Robert Crawford, Royal Society of Edinburgh.
2012 Simonides and the War on Terror with Robert Crawford, Yale University, New Haven, USA.