FOURTEEN GLASGOW ARTISTS

Left: Glasgow School of ArtFront Cover: Alasdair Gray, Carole Gibbons’ Mother, blue ballpoint pen, 31.8 x 47 cms

FOURTEEN GLASGOW

ARTISTS

7 - 31 January 2015

John ByrneRobert Colquhoun

George DevlinDavid DonaldsonPat Douthwaite

Joan EardleyJD Fergusson

Archie ForrestAlasdair Gray

Robert Henderson BlythPeter Howson

James MorrisonDuncan Shanks

Geoff Uglow

Introduction

Five Turner Prize winners since 1996 have been graduates of Glasgow School of Art but this tradition of nur-turing world-class artists has been prevalent for many decades. The city has long been known as a hub of cre-ativity so to coincide with our centenary exhibition of William Crosbie we present a modest exhibition, which celebrates the work of a selection of Scottish Gallery artists active in Glasgow from JD Fergusson who moved to the city with Margaret Morris in 1939 to Cornish-born artist Geoff Uglow who graduated from Glasgow School of Art in 2000.

robert henderson blyth, rsa, rsw (1919-1970)

Right: Robert Henderson Blyth, Fettercairn Landscape, watercolour, 57 x 62 cms

Robert Henderson Blyth was born and educated in Glasgow, and he attended Glasgow School of Art from 1934 to 1939. After a post-graduate year at Hospitalfield, near Arbroath, he served in the Second World War. He was on the staff of Edinburgh College of Art from 1946 to 1954 and afterwards moved to Gray's School of Art in Aberdeen. Henderson Blyth's painting moved through distinct phases from early work where line and structure were uppermost in his mind to his late work where form dissolves into colour.

john byrne, rsa(b.1940)

Photo Credit: David Eustace

In 1958 Byrne was accepted for the First Year General Course at Glasgow School of Art- specialising in Drawing & Painting in his Third Year under the then Head of Painting, Willie Armour.

The school still had life drawing, painting and still life classes at their core and John Byrne was considered a star pupil. In his final year at GSA he won the Bellahousten Award, the school's most prestigious painting prize, and travelled to Italy, returning some six months later, a highly accomplished and confident young artist.

John ByrneTwo Jugsgouache on paper, 15 x 21.8 cms

robert colquhoun(1914-1962)

Colquhoun won a scholarship to Glasgow School of Art in 1933 where he studied under Hugh Crawford and Ian Fleming . It was shortly after enrolling that he met Robert MacBryde, a fellow Glasgow graduate with whom he has become inextricably linked. Colquhoun won a travelling scholarship from the art school in his final year, enabling both artists to travel to Europe.

Robert ColquhounBehind Santa Maria Nuova in Foro Romano, 1939pen & ink drawing, 21 x 27 cms

Robert ColquhounMysterious Figures, 1960lithograph in two colours, 40.5 x 54 cms (edition of 50)

Robert ColquhounPuppet Show, 1951 lithograph in black & white, 35.5 x 37 cms

george devlin, rsw, rws, frsa, rba, roi(1937-2014)

George Devlin studied at Glasgow School of Art 1955-1960 where he won the premier awards and top national scholarships from the Royal Scottish Academy. He then lived and worked in West Africa after crossing the Sahara. On returning to Glasgow in 1962, he taught composition in the Painting School of GSA. In 1964 he was elected RSW, awarded major Arts Council award 1968 before setting up his own painting school in 1969.

Right: George Devlin, Port Vendres, oil on canvas, 81 x 86 cms

George DevlinNight Vaporettopastel, 21.5 x 29 cms

George Devlin Towards Staffapastel, 21.5 x 29 cms

david donaldson, rsa(1916-1996)

David Donaldson was born in Lanarkshire and studied at Glasgow School of Art from 1932 to 1937. He was awarded a Travelling Scholarship to Florence and Paris which he fitted in around his part-time teaching at GSA 1938-44. He took on a full-time position from 1944 and became the highly influencial Head of Drawing and Painting there from 1968. Donaldson was appointed Her Majesty's Painter and Limner in Scotland from 1977 until his death in 1996.

Above: David Donaldson, Self Portrait in Oil (Not for Sale). Credit: Strathclyde Univeristy ArchiveRight: David Donaldson, Buisson, Provence, oil on canvas, 96.5 x 91.5 cms

pat douthwaite(1934-2002)

Pat Douthwaite was born in Glasgow in 1934. She began to study mime and modern dance with Margaret Morris, whose husband, J. D. Fergusson, encouraged her to paint. This important influence apart, she was self-taught. Barely out of her teens, Douthwaite moved to Suffolk where Glasgow grauates Robert Colquhoun, Robert MacBryde and William Crozier were also resident.

Pat DouthwaiteBentley, c.1977coloured pastel, 52.5 x 73.5 cms

Pat DouthwaiteBad Hair Day, c.1988pastel & collage. 65.5 x 50 cms

Pat DouthwaiteAn Indian Man I, 1985pastel, 57.5 x 78.5 cms

joan eardley, rsa(1921-1963)

Joan Eardley studied at Glasgow School of Art, enrolling in 1940. Several years after graduating she returned to the city, setting up a studio in Glasgow, close to the deprived Townhead area, where she became known for her drawings and paintings of deprived city children, often playing in the streets in ragged clothes. She was often to be seen transporting her easel and paints around Glasgow in an old pram.

Photo Credit: Audrey Walker

Joan EardleyWheat, c.1962oil on board, 45.7 x 50.8 cms

Joan EardleyRed Roofs, Trees & Cows, 1951mixed media on paper, 39 x 48 cms

Joan EardleyChild Study, c.1961mixed media on paper, 22 x 20 cms

j.d. fergusson, rba(1874-1961)

Photograph: Fergusson in his Clouston Street Studio in Glasgow, 1952

Scottish Colourist, J.D. Fergusson settled in Glasgow in 1939 with Margaret Morris, which he believed was the most Celtic city in Scotland. ‘Fergus’ and ‘Meg’, as the couple were affectionately known, played a vital part in the renaissance of the arts in the city, including as founder members of the exhibiting and discussion groups the New Art Club in 1940 and the New Scottish Group in 1942.

JD FergussonScotch Mist, Peebles, c.1905oil on panel, 19 x 24 cms

JD FergussonThe Artist’s Motherconté, 13.2 x 11.5 cms

JD FergussonLuxembourg Gardens, 1905conté, 13.2 x 11.5 cms

JD FergussonView from the Luxembourg Gardens, 1905conté, 11.5 x 13.2 cms

JD FergussonMan with Bowler Hat & Glasses, c.1907charcoal, 21 x 12.5 cms

archie forrest, rgi(b.1950)

Archie Forrest was born in Glasgow in 1950. He attended Glasgow School of Art between 1969 and 1973 prior to becoming a tutor there for seven years. In 1985, he gave up his teaching so that he could devote his time to painting. He was elected a Member of the Royal Glasgow Institute of the Fine Arts in 1988 and has been a regular exhibitor there since 1975.

Photograph: Archie Forrest in his Studio by David Eustace

Right: Archie Forrest, Barges, Seurre, Burgundy, oil on linen, 60 x 60 cms

alasdair gray(b.1934)

He studied at Glasgow School of Art from 1952 to 1957, and taught there from 1958 to 1962. It was as a student that he first began what would become his acclaimed novel Lanark. After his graduation, Gray worked in Glasgow as a scene and portrait painter, as well as an independent artist and writer. Between 1972 and 1974, he participated in a writing group organised by Philip Hobsbaum, which also included James Kelman, Liz Lochhead, Tom Leonard, Aonghas MacNeacail and Jeff Torrington. From 1977 to 1979, he was Writer in Residence at Glasgow University. In 2001, he became, with Tom Leonard and James Kelman, joint Professor of the Creative Writing programme at Glasgow and Strathclyde Universities.

Right: Alasdair Gray, Carole Gibbons & Douglas Abercrombie, c.1959, blue ballpoint pen on paper, 42 x 54.5 cms

Alasdair GrayCarole Gibbons’ Motherblue ballpoint pen on paper, 31.8 x 47 cms

Alasdair GrayMike Gill Standing with Cigarette & Tumblerblack ink on brown paper, 54.6 x 38.1 cms

Peter howson, obe(b.1958)

Howson moved to Scotland as a child and enrolled in the Glasgow School of Art in 1975. He burst into the limelight during the 1980s, as part of the much acclaimed New Glasgow Group, his striking images of working class struggles explored themes of violence, physicality and inner turmoil. These concepts he was to develop further during his role as official war artist to the British Forces in Bosnia in 1993.

Peter’s work is collected throughout the world by many famous and faithful patrons. Throughout his career Peter has been honoured for his services to the visual arts; first, with a Doctors of Letters Honoras Causa from the University of Strathclyde, and most recently, with an OBE. In 2012, Peter was commissioned by St Andrew’s Cathedral in Glasgow to paint the newly instated Saint of the Catholic Church, John Ogilvie to commemorate the life of Ogilvie and to celebrate the monumental renovation of the building itself.

Peter HowsonThe Docker, 1985pastel, 40 x 31 cms

Peter HowsonFlatland, 2007ink on paper, 29 x 19.5 cms

Peter HowsonDante’s Vision, 2009pen on paper, 20.5 x 14 cms

james morrison, rsa, rsw(b.1932)

James Morrison (b. 1932) was born in Glasgow and attended Glasgow School of Art from 1950 to 1954 where he counted David Donaldson amongst his influential teachers. As early as 1952 he had begun sketching and painting the buildings and character of post-war Victorian Glasgow. He frequently painted Townhead, the South Side and the West End, paint-ing ‘Half Demolished Tenements’ in 1964.

“Morrison’s paintings of Glasgow tend to fall into one of two types. They are often either images of dereliction and ruin or they give to their subjects a faded elegance, which seems to aspire to something that is past or passing.” Professor John Morrison, 2013.

James Morrison Half Demolished Tenements, 1964oil on canvas, 32.5 x 154 cms

James Morrison Break in the Clouds, 25.i.2014oil on board, 30 x 38 cms

James Morrison The Lurgies, 15.ii.2014oil on board, 15 x 28 cms

Duncan shanks, rsa, rsw, rgi(b.1937)

Duncan Shanks studied at Glasgow School of Art in the early 1950s and after graduating became a part-time lecturer at the School, where he taught until 1979.

He paints landscape with an emotional commitment which points out to us the beauty, the power and grandeur of the so-called ‘lowland’ hills, the moors and glens of the Clyde Valley where he has lived for nigh on fifty years. In all weathers he can be found on Tinto or its neighbours making the sketches that he transforms over time into visceral paintings in the studio.

Duncan ShanksGannet, 1995 acrylic & collage on paper, 25.5 x 21.5 cms

Duncan ShanksThe Edge of the Field, 2000acrylic on paper, 21.5 x 25.5 cms

Duncan ShanksBird and Gate, 1998acrylic on paper, 22.5 x 21.5 cms

geoff uglow(b.1978)

Geoff Uglow is one of the greatest painting talents to emerge from Glasgow School of Art in recent years, graduating in 2000. His regular visits as a student to the roof of Glasgow Art School showed his early commitment to painting his im-mediate environment. Since then he has been on a continuous search for knowledge, discovery and understanding of his surroundings; translating the interaction between himself, the subject and his medium into pure pigment.

Geoff UglowLapis XV, 2013 oil on board, 31 x 26 cms