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Three very different takes on Scotland
Lillie shows archive photos, woodcuts and Alasdair Gray prints
FOR me, art galleries have always provided shelter from the storm. The tempest in question might be a literal one, such as Storm Dennis, which buffeted us all from on high last weekend, or it could simply be a sudden squall in the mind. Art in all forms can take us out of ourselves – even if it’s for a split-second – and recalibrate the mind.
Last Saturday, as the rain bounced off pavements and cascaded down windows, I hurried into Milngavie’s Lillie Art Gallery, with its brutalist exterior and homely interior, to seek shelter and to check out three new exhibitions, all of which provide visual balm for the soul.
Scotland’s Far North
To say that every picture tells a story is an understatement when it comes to Scotland’s Far North. I first saw this exhibition in Glasgow’s Street Level Photoworks in 2017, but the photographs are so box-fresh it was like seeing them for the first time.
So many individual photographs in this collection vie for attention and cram the mind with unanswered questions; from Tom Kidd’s perfectlycomposed Boy in Boat near Scalloway to Chick Chalmers’ Stromness Shopping Week fancy dress parade, to Glyn Satterley’s women hand-folding and assembling The Northern Times in a Golspie hotel.
All the photographs were taken before social media was a glimmer in Mark Zuckerberg’s eye and portray a view of Scotland’s people and places which is far removed from the Instaview of Scotland which tempts 21st century tourists to scour Scotland in search of Outlander-like hunks and dramatic scenery.
Glyn Satterley documented life in Caithness and Sutherland at a time when the oil industry was mooted as the saviour of Scotland’s economy. Similarly, Chick Chalmers’ Orkney project and Tom Kidd s Shetland present a grainy insight into these island archipelagos at a time of social, cultural and economic upheaval.
These are images to lose yourself in. They live on in the imagination long after you have left the building.
Tom Kidd and Glyn Satterly will be giving a talk about their work in the gallery at 3pm on Saturday March 7.
36 Views of Dumgoyne
James Greer uses the centuries-old technique of wood engraving to unleash his distinctive view of the world around him. Wood engraving sees an artist incise into a block of hard wood, rather than cutting away the background to leave a line in relief. Using this method, he creates contemporary scenes close to his home in the Glasgow suburb of Bishopbriggs.
Inspired by Japanese artist Katsushika Hokusai’s famous woodblock print series, Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji (1830-32), created when he was in his seventies, Greer, who is 85, began his own series of woodcuts, called 36 Views of Dumgoyne over a decade ago. The distinctive little hump of Dumgoyne on the edge of the Campsie Fells can be seen from all over Glasgow.
Greer’s series grew arms and legs, to the extent that he made were more than 36 woodcuts featuring Dumgoyne; some more obscure than others. The series includes scenes close to home – there is a beautiful and affecting small work called Stobhill Again, which depicts his late wife, Patricia, in her hospital bed surrounded by hospital paraphernalia and flowers. In the background, out the window, you can just pick out the outline of Dumgoyne.
There’s comedy and sex too in the mix. Not to mention a homage to Rembrandt in the form of Susanna and the Elders, a woodcut which depicts a languorous nude stretched out on a tartan travelling rug clutching a photograph of a man. James Higgins, team leader at the Lillie, explains that a sudden gap in the exhibition schedule allowed this exhibition to happen at short notice. “We had just acquired 47 woodcuts by Jimmy through the National Fund for Acquisitions when we heard that we had a space to exhibit them sooner than we thought.
“We are so lucky to have them. The idea behind them is so clever and they are beautifully executed. In 100 years from now, people will be thinking, ‘thank God they bought these works.”
Books and Prints – Remembering Alasdair Gray
In the Lillie’s smallest space, there’s a
display of five screen prints by Alasdair Gray held in the gallery’s permanent collection, and a host of books and ephemera designed by the Glasgow-born artist and author, who died recently at the age of 85.
The prints, created by Gray in 2008 at Glasgow Print Studio, were purchased several years ago for the collection by Peter McCormack, Museums Development Officer with East Dunbartonshire Leisure and Culture Trust (EDLCT). McCormack, a bibliophile and self-confessed Gray groupie, has put together this tribute to the artist books and associated ephemera from his own collection. He says: “I realised many years ago how lucky we were to have an artist like Alasdair ‘on our doorstep’. He was unique, an artist with much to say, who was concerned with Glaswegian, Scottish and international politics.
“I was never able to afford a painting, let alone a print, for myself, so I started collecting his books, and anything else, including ephemera, I came across that was designed by him.
Unfortunately, the artist who was supposed to be exhibiting in galleries two and three had to withdraw for personal reasons at short notice and this allowed me to put together a little personal tribute to Alasdair Gray.
“He was a fascinating person; a serious and brilliant artist and it’ll be a long time before we see his like again. It was always nice to know that Alasdair was around and you might bump into him in Byres Road any day of the week... and think, yeah, there’s a real artist, just getting on with being an artist.” Scotland’s Far North, 36 Views of Dumgoyne & Books and Prints – Remembering Alasdair Gray, Lillie Art Gallery, Station Road, Milngavie, Glasgow, G62 8BZ, 0141 956 5536, https:// www.edlc.co.uk/heritage-arts/exhibitions/lillieart-gallery-exhibitions Until March 12. Open Tue-Sat, 10am to 1pm and 2pm to 5pm. Free