Alison Watt with Andrew O’Hagan: The Joy of Influence

Alison Watt is one of Scotland’s best-known living artists, renowned for her paintings of human figures and more recently for her intimate depictions of the folds in fabrics and draperies. With titles such as Phantom and Aware, these evoke the human body even in its absence. Watt has often spoken about the influence on her work by other artists, and now she has produced an exhibition for the Scottish National Portrait Gallery featuring paintings made in response to the art and practice of 18th century Scottish artist Allan Ramsay. In the catalogue for the show, novelist Andrew O’Hagan has written a story, Affinity, which acts as a fascinating companion piece to Watt’s work. A long-standing friend of Watt, O’Hagan has himself spoken about the importance of artistic influences on his own work, drawing from the worlds of film, music and art among other things. Today Watt and O’Hagan share the Edinburgh stage to discuss the joy of influence.

This is a live event with an author Q&A. Authors and participants will be on stage, in the venue.

Book Festival News

Communities Programme participants celebrate success of 2024 Communities Programme participants celebrate success of 2024
Friday 13 December

Enjoying this event? You can help us produce more like it.

Donate

Share

Watch more

Michael Frayn (2015 Event) Michael Frayn (2015 Event) With Matchbox Theatre, Michael Frayn has produced perhaps his most daringly unusual book to date. Blurring the boundary between the page and stage, the brilliant author and playwright has produced a book of thirty short entertainments that function both… Amy Liptrot: Traffic Islands Are for Lovers Amy Liptrot: Traffic Islands Are for Lovers Amy Liptrot’s first memoir, The Outrun, offered irresistibly readable reflections on alcoholism, sea swimming and solitary sobriety in Orkney. Her new book, The Instant, follows on from The Outrun as Liptrot moves to achingly cool Berlin, yearning for the… David Diop & Anna Moschovakis: Winners of the 2021 International Booker Prize David Diop & Anna Moschovakis: Winners of the 2021 International Booker Prize French-Senegalese author David Diop, whose At Night All Blood Is Black has won this year’s International Booker Prize, joins us with translator Anna Moschovakis to discuss their unforgettable short novel. In a story set in the French trenches of the First… Chris Packham (2016 Event) Chris Packham (2016 Event) As the presenter of BBC's Springwatch, Chris Packham has become one of the nation’s favourite naturalists. But Packham was far from popular as a child: in his brave and lyrical memoir, Fingers in the Sparkle Jar, he recalls life as a solitary child… Tobias Kelly & Charlotte McDonald-Gibson: Radical Outsiders Tobias Kelly & Charlotte McDonald-Gibson: Radical Outsiders How much is your life shaped by your conscience? Journalist Charlotte McDonald- Gibson and academic Tobias Kelly ask us to imagine having views that set us apart. Kelly’s new book, Battles of Conscience, traces the histories of five beleaguered… The New York Times Book Review: The Power of Words The New York Times Book Review: The Power of Words This year is the 125th anniversary of The New York Times Book Review, a key part of the paper’s coverage of culture and news since 1851. Francis Brown, who edited the Book Review for 21 years from 1949, described it as ‘the period of Trollope and Dickens… Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi: Uganda’s First Woman of Fiction Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi: Uganda’s First Woman of Fiction Ugandan short story writer and novelist Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi burst onto the scene when she won The Kwani? Manuscript Project in 2013 with her first novel Kintu. Since then, she’s garnered legions of readers and accolades including a Commonwealth… Highlights of the 2016 Edinburgh International Book Festival Highlights of the 2016 Edinburgh International Book Festival In August 2016, the Edinburgh International Book Festival welcomed over 800 writers, illustrators, poets, politicians and philosophers from 55 countries to Charlotte Square Gardens in a packed programme of passionate ideas, engaged debates and pure… DeRay Mckesson at the Edinburgh International Book Festival DeRay Mckesson at the Edinburgh International Book Festival In 2014 DeRay Mckesson quit his job and moved to Ferguson, Missouri to protest against the police shooting of Michael Brown Jr, an unarmed African-American teenager. He spent the next 400 days on the streets as an activist and helped bring the Black Lives… Jeffrey Boakye, Sinéad Gleeson & Bob Stanley: The Many Voices of Music Jeffrey Boakye, Sinéad Gleeson & Bob Stanley: The Many Voices of Music Three authors come together in an event for music lovers, chaired by Arusa Qureshi. Jeffrey Boakye takes us through key moments in Black history through 28 of its most powerful songs in Musical Truth. Sinéad Gleeson discusses This Woman’s Work, a…