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Scotland arguably has made a disproportionate contribution to society for a country of its size, but your lack of awareness of them does not diminish these achievements.
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Yes, but so has pretty much every other country that I'm well acquainted with, and I suspect most of the ones I'm not well acquainted with.
Having been born and grown up in Scotland, I had many of the names you mention rammed down my throat for many years, but in truth not many have made their mark internationally. It is an unfortunate habit of the Scots to eulogise their contribution to the world in a rather immodest way. It is an immodesty based on a comfortable ignorance of other countries' cultures.
Burns and RLS are the key ones in the arts,and are actually very decent, the rest undoubtedely exist and have done some decent things, but are minor. I don't count Sir Walter Scott even though he IS internationally famous because being the inventor of the Mills & Boon novel is not much to write home about. The Scottish composers you mention are obscure and/or terrible.
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Painting?... This present crop, whose style I'm personally not too keen on, are about the hottest stuff on the international art market. Unless you could bid against Jack Nicholson or Madonna, you wouldn't even get a look in.
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I don't think so. By way of experiment, I have just asked a Polish artist who studied at Poland's leading Academy of Fine Art, about all of the names and movements in the Scottish visual arts world that you mentioned old and new, and she has not heard of any of them, not even Raeburn. OK, Scottish painting is not her speciality, but I think that it says something about the extent of their international fame. This is despite the fact that the Scottish artists are not far from London, and London is very much the centre of the international art scene at the moment, and my friend is very much into the London art scene. I'm not saying they didn't do some good things, just that the rest of the world isn't necessarily bending over in awe at Scotland's impact on the rest of the world.
Incidentally, even Burns isn't very well known here, even among very educated people, the best I got was "he was some kind of writer, wasn't he?". He is however well known in Russia, mainly because a famous Russian poet, Marshak, did some excellent translations of him. Nothing like the originals, but nice works in their own right.
In the end, I do really believe that there have been many excellent Scottish inventors and artists etc. But the same can be said for most countries. I find the Scottish tendency to praise blindly what an amazing contribution they've made to the world ahead of anyone else a trifle nauseating. Much better instead of talking about it, to go out and DO it.
Scotland arguably has made a disproportionate contribution to society for a country of its size, but your lack of awareness of them does not diminish these achievements.
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Yes, but so has pretty much every other country that I'm well acquainted with, and I suspect most of the ones I'm not well acquainted with.
Having been born and grown up in Scotland, I had many of the names you mention rammed down my throat for many years, but in truth not many have made their mark internationally. It is an unfortunate habit of the Scots to eulogise their contribution to the world in a rather immodest way. It is an immodesty based on a comfortable ignorance of other countries' cultures.
Burns and RLS are the key ones in the arts,and are actually very decent, the rest undoubtedely exist and have done some decent things, but are minor. I don't count Sir Walter Scott even though he IS internationally famous because being the inventor of the Mills & Boon novel is not much to write home about. The Scottish composers you mention are obscure and/or terrible.
[ QUOTE ]
Painting?... This present crop, whose style I'm personally not too keen on, are about the hottest stuff on the international art market. Unless you could bid against Jack Nicholson or Madonna, you wouldn't even get a look in.
[/ QUOTE ]
I don't think so. By way of experiment, I have just asked a Polish artist who studied at Poland's leading Academy of Fine Art, about all of the names and movements in the Scottish visual arts world that you mentioned old and new, and she has not heard of any of them, not even Raeburn. OK, Scottish painting is not her speciality, but I think that it says something about the extent of their international fame. This is despite the fact that the Scottish artists are not far from London, and London is very much the centre of the international art scene at the moment, and my friend is very much into the London art scene. I'm not saying they didn't do some good things, just that the rest of the world isn't necessarily bending over in awe at Scotland's impact on the rest of the world.
Incidentally, even Burns isn't very well known here, even among very educated people, the best I got was "he was some kind of writer, wasn't he?". He is however well known in Russia, mainly because a famous Russian poet, Marshak, did some excellent translations of him. Nothing like the originals, but nice works in their own right.
In the end, I do really believe that there have been many excellent Scottish inventors and artists etc. But the same can be said for most countries. I find the Scottish tendency to praise blindly what an amazing contribution they've made to the world ahead of anyone else a trifle nauseating. Much better instead of talking about it, to go out and DO it.
