Alexander Stoddart: Making History documents the fascinating process behind the creation of History, a new monumental sculpture recently installed on the exterior of the Scottish National Portrait Gallery. Made by Alexander Stoddart, who was appointed Sculptor in Ordinary to The Queen in Scotland in 2008, the sculpture is a representation of ‘History’, or Clio, one of the nine muses, the daughters of Zeus, who in Greek mythology inspired learning and the arts.
Stoddart’s new figure is cast in aluminium, stands almost two metres tall and weighs 85 kg. The exhibition explores the technical process employed in creating History through the display of a rich and varied collection of the artist’s preparatory drawings and sculptural studies.
These are accompanied by photographs taken in Stoddart’s studio at the University of the West of Scotland, Paisley Campus, and at the Black Isle Bronze foundry in Nairn where the sculpture was cast.
Alexander Stoddart is perhaps best known for his neo-classical sculptures of key proponents of the Scottish Enlightenment which grace some of Edinburgh’s most iconic civic spaces; these include representations of the philosophers David Hume and Adam Smith on The Royal Mile and the physicist James Clerk Maxwell on George Street, a bronze study for which is currently on display at the Portrait Gallery in the Pioneers of Science exhibition.
Scottish National Portrait Gallery, 1 Queen Street, Edinburgh EH2 1JD