Memorial Works

  • John [Ian] Emslie Arnott RSA

    1929 - 2022
  • Ian Arnott was born 7 May 1929. He studied Architecture at Edinburgh College of Art before going on to study...

    Timeline, 2004, Scanned drawings and photographs.

    Ian Arnott was born 7 May 1929. He studied Architecture at Edinburgh College of Art before going on to study at the School of Town and Country Planning, where he was awarded the Andrew Grant Scholarship. He was elected ARIBA in 1953 and ARIAS in 1957. From 1955-57 he did his National Service as a flying officer with the Royal Air Force. Ian joined Robert Matthew Johnson-Marshall as a Project Architect in the late 1950s, where worked on the Hutchesontown – Gorbals Redevelopment Project. In 1961 he joined Eric Hall & Partners where he was Senior Project Architect, responsible for the Haddington Town Centre renewal and a number of other smaller housing regeneration projects before founding Campbell & Arnott with William Campbell in 1962.
    In 1963, Ian designed his own home, ‘The Rink’, in Gifford, for which he won a Civic Trust Award.

  • He retired as Chairman of Campbell & Arnott LTD in 1994 and undertook consultancy work, arbitrations, expert witness work, and became an assuror in various awards and competitions. Ian received numerous awards including the Royal Scottish Academy Award for Architecture, Civic Trust Awards, RIBA Award, EAA Awards and Saltire Housing Awards. He won a Sir William Gillies Award in 2006 and again in 2008 to support his research in Italy and subsequent book, The Hidden Theatres of the Marche, which was published in 2013.
    Throughout his career, Ian was interested in architectural education and served on the Councils of the RIAS, EAA and RSA, was a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and Chairman of the Saltire Society.


    Ian Arnott was elected ARSA in March 1987, the same year as artists John Busby RSA, Victoria Crowe RSA and Andrew Stenhouse RSA. He became a full Academician in February 2004. He was an enthusiastic and staunch member of the Academy, serving on the Hanging and Arrangement Committee for the Annual Exhibition on several occasions, and as Deputy Convenor in 2005. He also participated in the Kinross Awards panel and, as it was then, the Student Exhibition. He was also a Member of the RSA Finance Committee.

  • Gordon Barry Gasson OBE RSA

    1935 - 2022
  • Barry Gasson RSA was born in Essex in 1935. He studied for the Diploma in Architecture at Birmingham and was...

     British Ambassador's Residence, Moscow (detail), around 2002, CAD drawings. RSA Diploma Collection Deposit.

    Barry Gasson RSA was born in Essex in 1935. He studied for the Diploma in Architecture at Birmingham and was an Owen Jones Student in 1959. He was elected ARIBA in 1960. By 1963 he had moved to work in New York, and whilst there he studied at the University of Columbia for the degree MS(Arch). He returned to England and studied for an MA and then lectured in the School of Architecture at the University of Cambridge. In 1970, Gasson won the first stage of the architectural competition held to design a bespoke building to hold the Burrell Collection, which had been bequeathed to the City of Glasgow in 1944 by Sir William Burrell, beating such prestigious names such as Sir Basil Spence and Denys Lasdun. After winning the first stages of the competition, Gasson joined forces with John Meunier and Brit Andresen, two colleagues in the department, who worked with him on the project until Meunier went off to teach in Cincinnati and Andresen in Brisbane, leaving Gasson to finish it and get most of the credit when it opened in 1983.

    Historic Scotland noted the original design concept as being 'an outstanding bespoke museum commission of international importance, and an important example of Structuralist Tendency in architecture in the second half of the 20th century, emphasising the users’ experience and the sense of place, and, in particular, making the most of the interior and exterior interface with the surrounding landscape.'

  • Following the opening of the Burrell in October 1983, Gasson was proposed as an Associate Member of the Royal Scottish...

    British Ambassador's Residence, Moscow (detail), around 2002, CAD drawings. RSA Diploma Collection Deposit.

    Following the opening of the Burrell in October 1983, Gasson was proposed as an Associate Member of the Royal Scottish Academy (ARSA) by Izi Metzstein, seconded by John Richards on 13 February 1985.

     

    He exhibited just twice in the RSA Annual Exhibitions, in 1985 and again in 1986, both featuring the Burrell. He was elected to serve on the Committee of Arrangements for the 1986 Annual Exhibition under the Convenorship of Sir Robin Philipson PRSA.


    In 1987 Gasson was practicing under his own name with an office in Glasgow. Amongst his other major designs, were those for the Museum of Agriculture in Bagdad, Iraq (1976), and the British Ambassador’s Residence in Moscow, which he described in a letter to the President of the RSA in 2006 as 'a fascinating project, a place that was to become a family home and an international rendezvous'.


    On retirement Gasson and his wife, Rosemary, relocated to France.

     

  • Frances [Frank] V H Pottinger RSA

    1932 - 2022
  • Frank Pottinger was born in Edinburgh in 1932 and his working life started as a fitter apprentice in an engineering...
    Overland, 1983, screenprint on paper cut and pasted on 3D foam-cor board construction. RSA Collections.

    Frank Pottinger was born in Edinburgh in 1932 and his working life started as a fitter apprentice in an engineering firm. He served his National Service in the Army, returning to the trade and to three years of further education whilst preparing for entrance to Edinburgh College of Art. In 1963, he graduated with a Diploma (as it was then) in Sculpture. He visited Greece and Turkey on a Travelling Scholarship, returning to Moray House College of Education to undertake teacher training. He began teaching in Edinburgh and Fife and from 1973-85 lectured in Art at Aberdeen College of Education alongside Frederick Bushe RSA and Barbara Rae CBE RA RSA. After 1985, he became a full-time artist concentrating upon large wooden abstract sculptures, ceramics and constructed prints.


    Frank first exhibited at the RSA in 1974 and was elected an Associate in 1979, becoming an RSA on 20 February 1991. He was a highly regarded, and supportive Member of the RSA - a regular attendee with plenty to say at Assemblies. Between 1988 and 2002 he served on various committees including Kinross Scholarship Committee, as RSA Governor of ECA, Finance Committee, Nasmyth Fund and Spalding Fund Committee, Member of Council, Diploma Collection Committee and RSA representative on the National Trust for Scotland Council. In 2003 Frank was Convenor for Sculpture during the 177th Annual Exhibition, plus serving on the Hanging and Arrangement Committees of the Annual and Student Exhibitions on several occasions.

  • Frank was the recipient of many awards including the RSA William J Macaulay Award, the John Maxwell Bequest and in...
    Rural Icon, around 1990-91, Stone.

    Frank was the recipient of many awards including the RSA William J Macaulay Award, the John Maxwell Bequest and in 1988 the Sir William Gillies Bequest Award to travel to ceramic and sculpture workshops in Hungary. In 2002 a further Gillies award enabled travel to the Baltic States and Lithuania to study Folk Art, wooden carvings and wooden churches.


    Having completed a Scottish Arts Council Research Award, Frank also was in receipt of a Scottish Arts Council Grant to attend an international conference in Oakland, California. He won an IBM Award in 1996 and was also an artist in residence in various locations throughout the UK and Germany.


    Frank was a member of the Society of Scottish Artists and exhibited widely in the UK including the Richard Demarco Gallery; the Compass Gallery; the Hunterian Art Gallery and Museum; Aberdeen Art Gallery; Peterloo Gallery, Manchester; Camden Arts Centre, London; the Yorkshire Sculpture Park; and in 1981 the major Sculpture Open at Kildrummy Castle near Lumsden. In 1991 he was involved in a series of sculpture workshops organized by Arthur Watson PPRSA to run in tandem with National Galleries of Scotland/Edinburgh International Festival exhibition Virtue and Vision. His work has also been shown in Scandinavia and Hawaii and he has pieces in many national and private collections.

  • Graeme Todd RSA

    1962 - 2022
  • Having grown up in Cumbernauld, Graeme moved to Dundee at the age of 17 to study painting at Duncan of...
    The Great Vine, 1989, oil on canvas, 1976, oil on canvas. RSA Diploma Collection Deposit.

    Having grown up in Cumbernauld, Graeme moved to Dundee at the age of 17 to study painting at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art. Following his postgraduate year in DJCAD, Graeme moved to Edinburgh after receiving the John Florent Stone Scholarship. This success secured him a position as lecturer in Drawing and Painting at Edinburgh College of Art. Graeme was regarded as one of the most inspirational painting tutors at ECA over the past thirty years, inspiring both undergraduate and post graduate students until his recent ill health.

    He exhibited continuously throughout his years of teaching with solo shows in venues such as the Fruitmarket Gallery, Edinburgh; Kunsthaus Glarus, Switzerland; Osaka Contemporary Art Centre, Japan; and Leeds Metropolitan. His work has been included in major group shows of painting from Los Angeles to Tokyo and held in public collections which include The Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art; The Fleming–Wyfold Foundation; Kunsthaus Zurich; Migros Museum Zurich and The Arts Council of England.

  • Since 2007, Graeme has curated several notable exhibitions and projects as Co-director of Polarcap Contemporary Arts Project. These shows enabled...
    Hermit House VII, Acrylic, ink, pencil, gesso, varnish on MDF.

    Since 2007, Graeme has curated several notable exhibitions and projects as Co-director of Polarcap Contemporary Arts Project. These shows enabled him to share, not only his valuable experience gained as an international artist, but, as importantly for him, to bring together his peer group of artists and friends to generously offer them the opportunities he had received. As one of our countries most original artists and thinkers, his influence is witnessed every year with painting graduates tapping into the beautiful cosmic world he created.


    Graeme was elected to the Royal Scottish Academy in August 2014. He was a dedicated and respected member of the Academy, serving on the Exhibition Committee and on the Hanging and Arrangement Committees for both the Annual and New Contemporaries exhibitions. In 2020, he was elected Convenor of the 194th Annual Exhibition, overseeing the successful last-minute move to an online exhibition due to the Covid-19 pandemic.