Scottish Art Scene

SCOTTISH ART SCENE

ALASDAIR L i f e

98 GRAY

i n P i c t u r e s t h e E x h i b i t i o n P a i n t i n g s , D r a w i n g s a n d P r i n t s , 1 9 5 1 - 2 0 1 7

Coningsby Gallery 27 July 2017 – 12 August 2017

Alasdair Gray is one of Scotland’s most accomplished 20th century authors and draughtsmen. I am looking at the cover of Lanark – a monumental work created over many years. It nods to Bosse’s frontispiece for Hobbes’ Leviathan. Gray offered to do the jacket and provide illustrations for Canongate – not a very wealthy firm at the time. The publishers, not the artist, won a Scottish Arts Council award for the book’s design! He is justly described by Will Self as a creative polymath. He studied at Glasgow School of Art from 1952 to 1957, and taught there from 1958 to 1962. His paintings, drawings and prints are widely collected and many are held in public collections, including the V&A, Kelvingrove Gallery, Museum of Modern Art, Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art and National Library of Scotland. He is a muralist, playwright, illustrator and award-winning author.

From the ceiling mural in the Oran Mor auditorium in Glasgow Photograph by Mark Wild Photography

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Alasdair’s work deserves all the praise it receives. It is an honour to have him agree to be featured in our magazine and to give us an insight into his latest exhibition at Coningsby Gallery, London, curated by Kevin Brown and Dom Nasilowski.

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Alasdair

Gray

Alasdair Gray is legendary in Scotland, and well known around the world, mainly as an author. He burst onto the European literary scene in 1981, with the publication of his groundbreaking novel ‘Lanark’ described in the Guardian in 2008 as a ‘landmark of 20th century fiction’ He has gone on to write numerous other titles in all manner of genres, including short stories, novels, essays, polemics and poetry. His novel “Poor Things” won both the Whitbread Novel Award and the Guardian Fiction Prize in 1992.

Mrs Nanni in White Slip and Bra with a Glass of Wine Oil, gouache and pencil on paper 62 x 28 cms 1964 Photo courtesy ot the Hidden Lane Gallery


Famously a polymath, Alasdair is well known in Scotland as an artist, but less so abroad. This is in part because of his well known murals in Glasgow’ West End, including in the Oran Mor arts venue, in the Hillhead subway station and at the popular Ubiquitous Chip restaurant; and as well because of a major retrospective of his work at the Kelvingrove in 2014/2015. Outwith Scotland, his artistic ouevre is less celebrated.

Nude at a Red Table Felt tip pen and paper collage 61 x 32 cms 1954 Photo by Peter McNally


Dom Nasilowski interviews Alasdair Gray for Scottish Art Scene. Dom is the co curator of an upcoming exhibition of Gray’ work in London: Alasdair Gray’ Life in Pictures: Paintings, Drawings and Prints 1951 - 2017. She interviews Alasdair about his art and about the upcoming exhibition.

May Hooper on a Blue Cushion Ink on paper and acrylic paint 48.5 x 45.5 cms 1984 Photo by Peter McNally


Alasdair, you have been an artist for 70 odd years. While your writing is well known around the world, your drawing and painting is rather less so. Can you talk about the trajectory of your career and situate your visual art within it? In the beginning, I couldn’t make a living off either my painting or my writing. So, the writing helped the painting and the painting helped the writing. I have always painted – but I’ve felt like I belonged to a lost generation of Glasgow painters.

Ian Fleming Pen and ink with acylic paint 39 x 42 cms 1972-2017 Photo by Peter McNally


At the Glasgow School of Art, where I trained as a mural painter in the 1950s, the expected career path was to become a teacher. Which, I did for a time. Some of my contemporaries went to London, I did not. Artists such as Adrian Wiszniewski, Steven Campbell, and Peter Howson made connections in the U.S. A. When they returned to Glasgow they started selling quite well.

Cowcaddens Streetscape Giclee Print Original 1962 Photo courtesy ot the Hidden Lane Gallery


My idea was to arrange exhibitions for myself –big ones –but they didn’t get much attention. So I applied for support from the Scottish Arts Council to put on a show of my own work with that of my contemporaries: Alan Fletcher, Carl Gibbons, Alasdair Taylor and John Connolly. They said they would consider it but they made me put up half the money to rent the space. Once they saw some of the work that was going to be shown they backed out of providing the funds!

Marlene Kitts Pen, ink and crayon on brown paper with a watercolour wash 36 x 34.5 1970 Photo by Peter McNally


At this point, I was getting known for my novels and had sold some of my diaries and manuscripts to the Scottish National Library. With that money I was able to pay for the rest of the rent for the gallery space! Then I rented a van to take the show around Scotland. These were also largely ignored.

Eve Gross Kitts Two Views, and One of the Artist Blue pen on paper 7 x 37 cms 1970


Later there was a fire near one of the galleries near Sauchiehall St., which blocked off access to the show. Eventually I thought, well, well, this is USELESS. I shall never do another show again unless people pay for it themselves or ask me!

Bill Skinner Pen and ink with acylic paint 48 x 70 cms 1962-2017 Photo by Peter McNally


But I did end up doing another show, years later, in the basement of a café. There I met people who would organize exhibitions of my work over the last decade such as the ones at the Talbot Rice Gallery, the Kelvingrove, and the Gallery of Modern Art in Edinburgh. And some paintings were sold to the English Council of the Arts in London.

Inge Sorenson Ink on paper 38 x 24 cms


After that I was beginning to have a reputation for my art in Scotland. I was also beginning to get known in England because of the Arts Council of England purchase and so forth.

Inge with Teacup and Yellow Background Pen, acryllic and watercolour on paper. 34.5 x 26.5 cms 1963 Photo by Peter McNally


How did this current show in London come about? I got to know your co-curator, Kevin Brown, because he was running these concerts on behalf of Scottish Independence in the Oran Mor. He asked if he could use my images to advertise these shows he was directing and organizing. I said certainly! My images of Bella Caledonia and the Bagpiping Lion Rampant, both from the Oran Mor, were featured in the Songs for Scotland promotional material, as well as on the album covers. Later Kevin asked if he could deal my work, hence, this exhibition in London.

May Hooper Ink on Brown Paper Ink on brown paper 71 x 46 cms 1984 Photo by Peter McNally


You mentioned feeling like you belong to a lost generation of Glasgow painters because you never went to London. Now several years after a major career retrospective at the Kelvingrove Gallery in Glasgow, you are having another albeit smaller retrospective show in London. With your literary reputation now well established, is this perhaps a better time for your artistic work to reach an international audience? Perhaps. Most of my contemporaries are dead now. I am pleased but puzzled that I’m being named alongside important conceptual artists today. Also pleasing is the interest from a newer generation of artists and writers. I’ve always regarded my artwork as deeply unfashionable. So it will be interesting to see what people will think of my paintings and drawings in London.

A Thorough Woman Ink on paper and acrylic paint 46 x 24.5 cms 1974-2017 Photo by Peter McNally


The new exhibition is named after your 2010 book ‘A Life in Pictures’ which I see as an unrepentant love child of autobiography and catalog raisonne. This kind of genre bending is surely one of the reasons you are regarded as a postmodernist. Given that interviewers always ask about the relationship between your writing and your painting, I’d like to flip the script a bit. Tell me about writing your own virtual exhibition catalog? “Alasdair chuckles” In art school I would have preferred Kenneth Clark to present a book of my own work, later Herbert Read or later still John Berger. Discovering more recently that I could persuade my publishers to publish a book of my life in pictures was really another attempt to represent myself.

Woman with Spectacles 27 x 16 cms Photo by Peter McNally


Fair enough. Now that I’ve said that I won’t ask you what everyone else always asks, I must ask: What is the boundary between your painting and your writing? How are we to understand the relationship between the two practices? There isn’t one. They inform each other. I always wanted to draw and paint and write. The earliest children’s books I saw had pictures in them. When I went to art school I had already started my first novel –it only took 25 more years before I finished it.

Ozymandias Silkscreen, edition of 60 Image Size: 37 x 60 cms Paper Size: 56 x 76 cms 2017 Photo courtesy of Glasgow Print Studio


That kind of lengthy incubation period, as well as frequent reworking of the surface seems standard for your working process whether painting or writing. In the London show some of your recently completed paintings are quite bold and simple. Stylistically, they look very much like your illustrations in Lanark. What can you tell me about how the Lanark imagery developed? I didn’t originally plan to do illustrations for ‘Lanark’ but then I thought I’d do a cover. Later I added five title pages for each Book. The publisher didn’t pay me for those illustrations; but when ‘Unlikely Stories, Mostly’ published in 1984, they did. I was paid for the illustrations and the book won an award for best illustration and book design. But I didn’t get the award, the publishers did!

The Tower of Babel Silkscreen, edition of 60 Image Size: 37 x 60 cms | Paper Size: 56 x 76 cms 2017 Photo courtesy of Glasgow Print Studio


Some of your most recognizable works are the illustrations. I’m glad they will be included in the show. Absolutely. Keeping my art as accessible as possible is important to me.

Corruption is the Roman Whore Silkscreen, edition of 60 Image Size: 37 x 60 cms | Paper Size: 56 x 76 cms 2007/08 Photo courtesy of Glasgow Print Studio


You have two large public murals in Glasgow - one at the Oran Mor and the other at Hillhead Subway Station. The Subway station is a tiled wall that features a panoramic view of Glasgow flanked by the phrase ‘All kinds of folk/folk of all kinds’ and illustrated examples of them. Walk us through your vision. For the Hillhead mural, I reworked an illustration in my book ‘Old Men in Love’ a panorama of the West End of Glasgow, where I live. It brings together perspectives, which combine a great many view points that can’t possibly be reconciled in real life. That doesn’t matter. It gives a better truth to the buildings. The ‘all kinds of folk’ flanking panels are emblematic of the kinds of people who live in Glasgow, or any city.

Inside this Box of Bone Silkscreen, edition of 60 Image Size: 37 x 60 cms | Paper Size: 56 x 76 cms 2007/08 Photo courtesy of Glasgow Print Studio


One of the exciting aspects of putting on this show has been looking at your drawings we’ll be featuring. Many of these have never been exhibited before. Some are clearly studies for your book illustrations and public murals. Who are the people in these paintings and drawings that you depict, these “folk of all kinds”? Some are family members or people I have known well. Others are people I’ve just met in pubs. Thank you, Alasdair Gray !

Bagpiping Lion Rampant Design for a mural (entranceway to the Oran Mor) 2002


A Charm against Serpents Giclee, edition of 200 (original oil on board) 16 x 69.5 cms 1962 Photo courtesy ot the Hidden Lane Gallery

A l a s d a i r

G r a y

Life in Pictures the Exhibition: Paintings, Drawings and Prints, 1951 - 2017 at

Coningsby

Gallery

30 Tottenham Street, London, W1T 4RJ, United Kingdom

27

July

V i s i t

2017

–

12

August

2017

w w w . c o n i n g s b y g a l l e r y . c o m / OUR THANKS

We’d like to thank Alasdair Gray, Kevin Brown & Dom Nasilowski co-curators and those who gave permission to use their images for all of their assistance in putting this magazine together. It has been a pleasure to work with them. PROMOTING SCOTTISH ART

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© COPYRIGHT 2017 This magazine is the copyright of scottish-art-scene.com, please do not alter it or extract images or words. Copyright of the images remains the property of the contributing artist Alasdair Gray and / or any other properly constituted and designated owner and is subject to their terms and conditions.

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