Richard Demarco
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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Richard Demarco, CBE (born Portobello near Edinburgh, 1930) is a Scottish artist and promoter of the visual and performing arts.
He was co-founder of the Traverse Theatre in Edinburgh in 1963. Three years later he and other organisers of the gallery space left the Traverse to establish what became the Richard Demarco Gallery.
For many years, the Gallery promoted cultural links with Eastern Europe, both in terms of presenting artists such as Paul Neagu from 1969, Marina Abramovic from 1973 and Neue Slowenische Kunst from 1986 within Scotland, organising exhibitions of contemporary Polish, Romanian and Yugoslav art and in establishing outgoing connections for Scottish artists across Europe.
His involvement with Joseph Beuys led to various presentations, from Strategy Get Arts in 1970 to Beuys' hunger strike during the Jimmy Boyle Days in 1980.
Also particularly notable were the presentations by Tadeusz Kantor's Cricot 2 group during the 1970s and 1980s. An unofficial performance of The Water Hen at the former Edinburgh poorhouse during the Edinburgh Festival in 1972 was a notable success. Cricot 2 returned to Edinburgh in later years. Demarco introduced Beuys and Kantor to one another and in one performance of Lovelies and Dowdies Beuys performed under Kantor's direction.
For many years, after the Scottish Arts Council deprived it of its annual grant in 1980, following the furore associated with Joseph Beuys' support for Jimmy Boyle, the Demarco Gallery led a financially-straitened existence. Since the early 1990s, Richard Demarco's activity has been through the Demarco European Art Foundation.
Richard Demarco has attended every Edinburgh Festival. He has attended or been extensively involved with the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, the largest arts festival in the world, since its inception. In many years, his venue ran outstanding theatre productions, art exhibitions and cultural events which led the Fringe. In some years he outraged Fringe organisers by holding events and staging plays outside Edinburgh. These included a full costume, full length version of a play by Shakespeare staged on an island in the Firth of Forth.Many of the young artists appearing at his venue went on to become major figures in the arts.Others did not but have precious memories of performing at his venue.It seemed like an artistic version of Brigadoon, and was never run for profit; many performers were allowed to put on productions or exhibit at little or no cost.
Unlike many other venues, his always took large artistic and commercial risks. For instance, in 1995, his venue hosted a group of artists flown out from the then besieged city of Sarajevo, and an opera installation by the young Damian Hirst.Other regular attendees at his venue included the publisher John Calder, the ligger Jim Haynes, and sundy bohemians.
Since the mid 90's and end of the Cold War he has lost backing from Visiting Arts and other sponsoring bodies. Always a controversial figure he has been the object of much vilification in the Scottsh arts world, at a time when the Festival Fringe has become dominated by purely commercial considerations. His current reduced involvement at the Fringe is in collaboration with Rocket Venues.Even so he retains much goodwill, respect and some gratitude across the international arts world.Sadly, the Edinburgh Fringe has changed since the 1960's and there no obvious successor for his role in it.
Previously appointed as an OBE, he was raised to a CBE in the News Years Honours List in December 2006. In 1976, Richard Demarco received a Gold Medal from the Polish government and in 1986, he was made a Cavaliere of the Italian Republic. He has been awarded honorary doctorates by universities in Europe and North America and, from 1993 to 2000, he was Professor of European Culture at the University of Kingston.
