THIS MONTH Cyril Gerber celebrates his 94th birthday. And this month, the joining of his former art gallery with the Compass Gallery in Glasgow is being celebrated by an exhibition called The Force & Form of Memory.

It brings together more than 70 artists promoted by Cyril Gerber across half a century in his quest to show the best of contemporary art in Scotland. Many will remember the days when he toured the annual degree shows in the country's four art colleges looking for the next generation of artists. This is a practice continued by his daughter, Jill.

Cyril Gerber Fine Art - en feté for the founder's 90th - now merged with nearby compass

The idea of the exhibition began with looking for a theme, since themes have regularly been used as the basis for exhibitions in the past. And, since this year there has been no New Generation exhibition - nor, for that matter, the annual art fair in City Square, itself conceived by Cyril, who regrets the decline in standards and the increasing commercialism over the years - the core of the exhibition began with around 30 artists, some old and some new.

All have shown in both Glasgow galleries, or at the Royal Scottish Academy or at Gimpel Fils and other galleries in London (or a combination of all or some of these venues).

There were, however, limitations: the Compass Gallery has only two exhibition rooms below street level, so that most of the paintings and sculpture are fairly small. In addition, given that the exhibition was put together in a year, it had to be accepted that many of the exhibits would not be new or conceived with the exhibition's title in mind.

Thus, for example, there is a small oil painting by Alan Davie called Memory of a Marble Place from 1960. The title is spot on and, at £ 21,6000, it is the most expensive piece in the show. But, looking at it, even the brush strokes seem tired.

There are others whose links with memory are stated in their titles, such as Adrian Wiszeniewski's very illustrative Les Tempus Perdue and Helen Angell-Preece's I Play, Yellow (though you'd have to look up the relevant issue of The Courier to find out what is her favourite song).

There is also the beautiful and small bronze sculpture called Blitz Survivors by Robert Truscott. It is not hard to imagine running from German bombs during the Second World War.

There are also paintings in which memory is implied, such as Elsbeth Lamb's mysterious Alice Pursuing the White Rabbit (memories of being read to as a child?) and David Gillander's haunting portrait of Charlotte (both digital prints).

And the disorderly chaos of memory seems to be suggested by Barry Atherton's pastel and Conté Study for Portrait of Ray McKenzie, who is surrounded by a plethora of paintings, prints and sculpture suggesting that he is an ageing art historian. There are even notes in the margins to help the viewer (or the subject?) get to grips with the past.

And there are images that demonstrate how the past can continue to haunt us, as in Ana Maria Pacheco's drypoint print, Dark Events VII, or become melancholic, as in Joyce Cairns's oil, Remember Dovecot Grove. The past can also be transformed into a surrealist vision, as in Neil MacPherson's Moonlight Serenade, or forgotten, as in Lys Hansen's If Only I Could Remember.

That title is strangely appropriate because the proceeds from exhibition are being shared with Alzheimer Scotland and, when the exhibition begins its travels, it will start off in January at Hampden's football ground because the club is a strong supporter of the charity.

The exhibition then moves to the Smith Art Gallery in Stirling and on to galleries in Wick, Thurso, Inverness, Greenock and Aberdeen (ending in October). It will also enable Jill Gerber to introduce new (and maybe larger) pieces as the exhibition travels, while anyone who purchases pieces will be asked to lend them to the next two shows before taking possession of them. Thus The Force & Form of Memory will become a moveable feast!

RICHARD CARR