Edinburgh buzzes with hordes of artists

Sixth Edinburgh Art Festival kicks off impressive month-long programme

As Edinburgh buzzes with the hordes of actors, comedians and musicians who overwhelm the city for the annual Edinburgh Art Festival and Fringe, the traditionally vibrant visual art side of the Scottish capital might easily be overlooked. But for the sixth year of the Edinburgh Art Festival organisers have announced an impressive programme to build upon the reputation it has steadily developed since 2004.

The diversity of the campaign is perhaps its most singular quality this time around –established Scottish favourites such as landscape painter James Morrison (The Scottish Gallery, until September 5) and Jerwood Prize-winning abstract artist Callum Innes (Ingleby Gallery, until September 19) are joined by experimental post-war works from German-American Eva Hesse (taking over The Fruitmarket Gallery, until October 25).

There's film and photography by British Film Institute collaborators Jane and Louise Wilson (Talbot Rice Gallery until September 26) and street art and graffiti at the Scottish National Portrait Gallery (until August 30), projecting a "remixed vision of Scottish history" onto the empty walls of the renovated space.

Of the big names, the artist known as Bob and Roberta Smith is lugging the 11-metre panel of nine paintings, This Artist is Deeply Dangerous, to the nomadic Grey Gallery, positioned in a five-storey Georgian house this year (Picardy Place, until September 5).

Current Turner Prize nominee Lucy Skaer and long-term co-conspirator Rosalind Nashashibi are presenting their first Scottish solo exhibition at Doggerfisher (until September 26), taking the form of a specially-commissioned 16mm film exploring the philosophy of early 20th century British landscape painter Paul Nash, whose use of surrealism and natural phenomena fascinates the pair.

Equally reverential is the career of Alan Davie, the 89-year-old illustrator and author celebrated here with examples of his sculpture, painting, tapestry, rug-making, jewellery design, printmaking, photography, poetry and jazz (Dovecot, until September 26).

Fellow old hand Peter Blake takes his Venice Suite to Edinburgh Printmakers (until August 29), a set of 20 new screenprints inspired by his visit to the Venice Art Biennale in 2007. They set fairytale visions against collaged urban backdrops, designed to be toured around iconic cities.

There are various intriguing group shows dotted around the trail, from emerging artists (Art's Complex, until September 5) to responses from 22 creative reactionaries to the Obama theme of Change (Nekojuice, until September 5) and graduates of the Tapestry Department of Edinburgh College of Art (Patriothall Gallery, until August 29).

At the National Gallery Complex, The Discovery of Spain has filled the upper level of the Royal Scottish Academy with Latino masters including El Greco and Picasso, as well as notable British artists who were influenced by them (The Mound, until October 11).

The National Gallery sites make the most of their settings –the Dean Gallery sprawls through parkland, inviting a stroll through work by the likes of Henry Moore, Rachel Whiteread and Tacita Dean (Belford Road, until September 27), while the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art opens a room dedicated to influential American abstract figure Agnes Martin alongside Artist Rooms collections containing extensive contributions from Francesca Woodman, Damien Hirst and more (Belford Road, until November 8).

Photographic displays feature an image-led retrospective of Joseph Beuys by Alexander Hamilton (Studio 11, until August 22), an emotional photojournal of the grieving process by American Kate Pollard (Atticsalt, until August 29), a showcase of old-school photography techniques in We Love Lomo (Beyond Words, until October 31) and camera work by young artists from Japan and Europe in Camera Infinita (Tent Gallery, Evolution House, until August 19).

Sculpture is strongly represented, most notably at Inverleith House in the Royal Botanic Garden (Inverleith Place, until October 11), where major sculptures from John McCracken's 45-year calling revolve around towering planks of painted plywood leant against walls.

Andrew Ranville's large-scale forms from reclaimed materials will be in Gayfield Square Gardens throughout the Festival (also Corn Exchange Gallery, until September 10) and 10 international sculptors carve new arcs into huge blocks of stone in the quadrangle at the Edinburgh College of Art (Lauriston Place, until August 30).

John Edgar uses stone collected from "various historic quarters" in Scotland in 2005 in sculptures based on the land and its flag, and the New Zealander explores a sense of voyage and arrival in new lands (National Museum of Scotland Level 3, until November 8).

The sculptural highlight, though, is likely to come at Jupiter Artland (Bonnington House, until August 31), set in 90 acres of woodland 10 miles south of the city centre. Site-specific works by Andy Goldsworthy, a large-scale figure by Antony Gormley, a four-acre landform by Charles Jencks, a specially-crafted orchid by Marc Quinn, Anish Kapoor's Suck and pieces by Cornelia Parker, Alec Finlay, Peter Liversidge and more feature.

International exhibitors include photographs by early 20th century Belgian poet Paul Nougé (Institut Français d'Ecosse, until September 26), contemporary Polish fine-art film (Royal Scottish Academy, The Mound, until September 13) and theatrical oil paintings by Russian Gennadii Gogoliuk (Scotland-Russia Institute, until September 5).