Alasdair Gray

The Two Alasdairs is an exhibition of the work of two artists who trained at the art school in the Mural Painting and Painting & Drawing departments of the 1950s. The exhibition reunites the work of these two aesthetically divergent artists, a tribute to their life-long friendship and sustained intellectual collaboration.

This exhibition focuses on one strand of the art of Alasdair Gray, namely his treatment and use of the city of Glasgow and Scottish landscape, the people in it and their relationship with their environment. Including landscapes and cityscapes rarely seen, this exhibition will include works from private collections, works from the People’s Palace series of drawings and his most recent illustrations from novel, Old Men In Love (published Cannongate 2008).

Alasdair Taylor’s traditional art school training in drawing and composition remained a constant in his art until the time of his death in 2007, but it is in the abstract expressionist work that a freedom of colour and form is embraced. Influenced by European Situationist movement COBRA and the painterly expressionism of artists such as John Houston and Asger Jorn, the work in this exhibition is a selection from the vast archive of canvasses, collages and assemblages created in his remote Portencross studio.

There is a colour catalogue to accompany this exhibition with new commissioned essay about Alasdair Taylor’s work by Malcolm Dickson, Director of Streetlevel Gallery and a new drawing of Alasdair Gray and essay about his work by artist Stuart Murray.

The exhibition is supported by: The Glasgow School of Art , Glasgow City Council , Streetlevel Gallery , National Library of Scotland , Collins Gallery , Glasgow Museums and Sorcha Dallas Gallery.

2 December, 7pm St Mungo’s Mirrorball Poetry Club at The Glasgow School of Art presents an evening celebrating the poetry and prose of Alasdair Gray, hosted by Liz Lochhead.

5 December, 11am GSA Friday Event at the Glasgow Film Theatre, Dr John Morrison (University of Aberdeen) will give a lecture on Autonomy and Identity: Independent Art in Glasgow 1955-65.

For further information and press images, please contact Gráinne Rice and Talitha Kotzé in the Exhibitions department at The Glasgow School of Art on 0141 353 4525 or email g.rice@gsa.ac.uk and t.kotze@gsa.ac.uk