Newburgh in Aberdeenshire is celebrating local artist James McBey and his American wife Marguerite over a weekend in March.
In an initiative of The James McBey Project and the Newburgh & Ythan Community Trust, there will be a free two-day art exhibition at the village’s Udny Arms Hotel: BEAUTIFUL DREAMERS The Art of James & Marguerite McBey celebrates McBey’s marriage to American creative Marguerite Loeb in New York 95 years ago, and the exhibition gives the Scottish public a chance to see the art which defined them both.
McBey was born near Newburgh in 1883 and lived a colourful and fascinating life. His death in Tangier in 1959 left behind a rich legacy of artworks inspired by his experiences in Europe, North Africa and the USA.
The Udny Arms Hotel was a bustling centrepiece of village life in McBey’s formative years, so it’s highly-appropriate for it to host the exhibition, during which copies of Alasdair Soussi’s biography Shadows & Light: The Extraordinary Life of James McBey will be available to purchase.
Launched in January 2024, the James McBey Project promotes McBey’s legacy, and has been responsible for several local initiatives including the erection of threshold road-signs, tourist information leaflets, and the development of an app by students from Robert Gordon University. A tourist trail was conducted in November last year, and an exhibition was held in Newburgh Village Hall of McBey works of significance to the area: see Artmag’s post, and a fascinating article in the Press & Journal about the McBeys.
