MASTERPIECE MOURNED
Billy Connolly, Alasdair Gray and John Byrne lead tributes to cultural landmark
SCOTLAND’s artistic community united in grief yesterday over the inferno that has again destroyed one of the country’s best-loved buildings.
Eminent figures from painting, literature and design spoke of their shock that a second fire in four years had lain waste to the priceless architectural legacy of Charles Rennie Mackintosh.
Struggling to take in the damage to the landmark building which some feared might even have to be demolished, those who had studied at ‘The Mack’ described the building’s power to inspire all who passed through its doors.
Artist and author Alasdair Gray, whose 1981 novel Lanark is regarded as a classic of 20th Century fiction and who studied at Glasgow School of Art in the 1950s, said: ‘How could this have happened for a second time?
‘It is certainly queer that the last fire wasn’t a warning against this one. I feel shock and horror.
‘It should have been a big inspiration for any student who went there and I hope they can rebuild it once again from the ground up.
‘It was a unique building – Mackintosh’s masterpiece. He was one of only a few great art nouveau architects.
‘Mackintosh’s building was the most uniquely elegant in that he embraced not only architecture but electrical fittings including tableware and clocks, which I suppose will have been damaged, too. Glasgow School of Art not only had his furnishings but was [his] complete architecture. Its loss is a terrible thing.
‘The architect John Belcher, who died in the early 20th Century, said this was a man who could have designed and devised a whole civilisation, which I think is true.’
Visiting the scene yesterday, dressed in a tartan coat and sheltering under an umbrella, comedy legend Sir Billy Connolly said: ‘It’s horrific – just when they were getting it all back together.’
Artist and playwright John Byrne said working inside the building, ‘a world-renowned masterpiece’, had been ‘heavenly’ and had ‘egged on’ its students to produce their best work.
Former student Alistair McAuley, of award-winning design firm Timorous Beasties, said: ‘I am devastated and bewildered.
‘Why the hell did this happen in the age of risk assessments and health and safety?
‘When I was a student there you could smoke in the building. When I started there, the drawing and painting students were stubbing their roll ups out on the oil paintings and nothing ever happened.
‘It has burned down with nothing in it as opposed to the old days of 400 students abusing the place and treating it like the art school it was designed to be.
‘Now it is being treated as a museum and falls apart. To lose the art school for a second time means another lifetime of loss for art and for Glasgow as well.’
Artist Frank To, who counts actor Patrick Stewart among fans of his work, said: ‘My feeling is anger because surely we would have learned our lesson from the first fire and installed a sprinkler system or some kind of fire safety protocol or surveillance, but we didn’t. That could have stopped the fire from spreading.’
Greenock-born painter Alison Watt added: ‘I just can’t watch the footage of Glasgow School of Art in flames. I feel physical pain, it is unbearable.’
Singer Alex Kapranos, who studied there before finding fame with his band Franz Ferdinand, tweeted: ‘Can’t believe what’s happening to the art school. Terrible.’
Singer Emily Middlemas said: ‘My heart is really breaking looking at the Glasgow School of Art on fire AGAIN, why is this happening?’
Glasgow artist Margaret Archbold visited the cordon around the building to ‘say goodbye’. She said: ‘I thought there was nothing left. I’m an artist and my uncle’s an artist – he studied here, too – and I just needed to come and see it.’
Former student Louise Rowley, who once worked as a tour guide at ‘The Mack’, said the building was ‘so inspirational. It’s a real blow to see the damage done’.
Artist and TV presenter Lachlan Goudie said he was ‘horrified’ by the destruction of the building, calling it ‘a terrible bereavement’.
He said: ‘This building was part of Glasgow’s soul, a visual expression of Scottish creativity at its peak. To see it devastated once was horrendous, to see it assaulted a second time is gut-wrenching.’