Unicorn- The Scottish Bestiary
Artist
Adrian Wiszniewski
(Glasgow, Scotland, born 1958)
AssociatedAssociated with
George MacKay Brown
(Stromness, Orkney, Scotland, 1921 - 1996)
Date1986
Mediumscreenprint, lithograph, etching and woodcut on paper
ClassificationsPrints
DimensionsOverall: 58.4 x 39.4cm (23 x 15 1/2in.)
AcquisitionPurchased in 1986 with assistance from the National Fund for Acquisitions.
Copyright© The Artist. All Rights Reserved 2023 / Bridgeman Images
LocationView by Appointment - Aberdeen Treasure Hub
Object numberABDAG007562.8
Keywords
UNICORN
YOU will not meet the unicorn
Outside the queen's garden.
He goes among the roses and the fountains
Very delicately treading.
His silver horn shines in the sun.
The queen's ladies
Offer him roseleaves and honey.
Too coarse!
He devours the scent of the flowers.
He leans his white neck
On the white necks of the ladies.
Peacocks fold their fans and droop
When the unicorn walks in the garden.
The swans
Drift dingily to the far side of the lake.
Blackbirds stop singing.
The unicorn comes to the garden at night
Under the full moon.
He feeds on dew, delicately.
He will not go near the sundial.
In winter he moves through the snow
Invisible
But when he breaks the script of the bare branches.
When king and council come
With their talk of war and trade and taxes
The unicorn gallops to the bower
Where the ladies sit at the looms.
'Sweet ladies, give me sanctuary now
In your tapestry'...
Gravely, there, for centuries, heraldic,
He sports with the lion.
One by one the royal ladies have withered and died.
Adrian Wiszniewski
Born Glasgow 1958. Studied at Mackintosh School of Architecture 1975-79 and Glasgow School of Art 1979-83. Artist in Residence at Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool, 1986-87. Solo exhibitions include Air Gallery, London, 1984; Galerie F17, Ghent,1989; Fruitmarket Gallery, Edinburgh, 1990; and Rex Irwin Gallery, Sydney, Australia, 1995. Lives near Glasgow.
From; Contemporary British Ari in Prints
