In this Edinburgh Festival exhibition, we marked the centenary of the birth of Alberto Morrocco, one of the dominant figures in the Scottish art world in the second half of the 20th Century. His personality, described ‘in a few words’ by his friend David McClure in his introduction to our retrospective of 1990 Paintings from the Artist’s Studio, was full of ‘abundance, energy, intelligence and generosity of spirit.’ McClure went on to write “Alberto painted as an Italian operatic tenor sings that is with a passionate theatricality and always ‘con brio.’” There was something exotic about his rich voice, rolling ‘rs’, never far from laughter, but the accent, difficult for many to place, (Italian?) was pure Aberdonian. He had a commanding, Picasso-like presence to which all naturally gravitated, but he had none of the entitlement or arrogance which sometimes accompanies such a talent.
About Alberto Morrocco
Alberto Morrocco OBE, was one of the most charismatic and influential figures in Scottish art during the second half of the twentieth century. Born in Aberdeen to Italian parents, he studied at Gray’s School of Art from the age of fourteen under James Cowie and Robert Sivell, winning both the Carnegie and Brough Travelling Scholarships which enabled him to study and travel in France, Switzerland and later Italy.
