Paintings tell Tam’s tale
An exhibition showing the tale of Tam O’ Shanter across 54 amazing paintings is on display for only the second time in its history.
The series, by Scottish artist Alexander Goudie, has been in the possesion of South Ayrshire Council since 1999, when it was purchased by Sir Tom Hunter and Brian Souter with the help of the Hugh Fraser Foundation, who spent £ 500,000 to keep the collection together.
Now The Maclaurin Galleries and Rozelle House at Ayr’s Rozelle Park play host to the mammoth series of paintings, which went on display for the first time in 20 years on Sunday.
Completed in 1996 for the 200th anniversary of Robert Burns, the paintings went on display at the Edinburgh Festival that year.
Now they are on public display once again and Lachlan Goudie, son of the artist behind the series who died at the age of 70 in 2004, says it is a perfect legacy for his father to leave behind.
He said: “In Scotland we’ve always had this urge to tell stories and my dad was a 20th century version of that Scottish impulse to tell stories in pictures.”
The collection was almost broken up following its showing in 1996 before Hunter and Souter stepped in to save it. South Ayrshire Council has held the paintings since 1999 but has never had the space to display them all.
Lachlan, an artist himself who has fronted BBC programmes on Scottish art, is delighted that they will once again be on display to the public.
He said: “The point of these paintings is that they need to have an audience and that’s anyone from five to 105.
“The paintings make sense out a poem that some people might think is difficult to understand.
“Children and people who are not used to reading Scots will find a story, a tale, that will thrill them in the images and hopefully that will direct them to the poem.”
The 54 paintings follow Tam’s journey from market day, through an almighty drinking session to the witches that torment him as he tries to make his way home.
Lachlan said: “It’s wonderful to look on them, because as a child I remember this whole collection emerging in my dad’s studio and being littered around our house. In our hallway, the sitting room, the studio, the kitchen these pictures were all propped up.
“I haven’t seen them very often in their entirety and they make complete sense as a story when viewed together but they also demonstrate he was a kind of visionary. He had this idea which he wanted to allow other people to enjoy and see through his eyes.
“I’m very proud the collection is still being admired and it continues to excite, and reveal what a great artist he was.”
‘ Tam o’ Shanter: A Tale Told in Pictures’ is on display at The Maclaurin Galleries and Rozelle House until March 12. Admission is free.
As a child I remember this whole collection being littered around our house