Scottish National Museum of Modern Art

The Weeping Woman

Beth made her first visit to the Scottish National Museum of Modern Art, to building Modern One. A visit to the other building, Modern Two, will come soon. The museum opened in August 1960 in Edinburgh’s Royal Botanic Garden and moved to its present site with much additional acreage in 1999.

Interestingly, the building, which was designed by William Burn in 1825, was constructed as an institute for fatherless children, but was renovated for the Gallery in 1984. The neo-classical building is quite spectacular as it sits atop a knoll, overlooking a stepped, serpentine-shaped mound complemented by crescent-shaped pools of water. The grounds offer a delightful setting for sculptures by Henry Moore, Barbara Hepworth, Tony Cragg, and others.

The first level of the museum houses temporary installations and the second depicts genres of contemporary and modern art, encompassing post-war European art, figurative art in Scotland in the twentieth century, art at the turn of the twentieth century in Britain, abstract art in Britain between the world wars, Cubism, Symbols of Suffering, and beyond Realism: Dada and Surrealism. Pablo Picasso’s black and white drawing of “The Weeping Woman“ captured Beth's attention because of its severity of style, Cubist details, and depiction of horror. Picasso was commissioned in 1937 to create a piece for the International Exhibition in Spain. However, after the bombing of Guernica where hundreds were killed, he decided to create a mural depicting the horrendous destruction continuous in every war. “The Weeping Woman” is one of the major studies for his masterpiece “Guernica”.  The woman’s face sports jagged lines, a jaw that seems removed from the face, chattering teeth, and eye-popping tears. The work is spell-binding and thought-provoking today as the horrors and ravages of war continue around the world.