Lorna Irvine reviews the exhibition tribute to Alasdair Gray at GOMA.
As befitting an artist turning eighty, there are three exhibitions concurrently celebrating Glasgow's favourite polymath: the writer, teacher and artist Alasdair Gray, with two others at the GSA and Kelvingrove.
For this, GOMA looks at those who influenced Gray as a young art student in his twenties, such as the religious, intensely detailed work by Albrecht Durer, the thread of which continues to Mark Gertler's 1932 study After Giotto, and the bold Primitivism of Paul Gaugin, and Gray's influence on contemporary artist Rob Churm and many others.
No Gray exhibition would be complete without his most famous works, so the illustrations for his classic Lanark series of four books are included, taking in his extraordinary figurative work and painstaking calligraphy. These alone would be incredible, but the quality of his philosophical and wry musings is always inspired. Gray, who defines himself as a 'civic socialist', says 'Man is the pie that bakes and eats himself, and the recipe is separation'. Self-Portrait as a Bankrupt Tobacconist is a typically self-deprecating Gray title, from 1977.
There is a typically eccentric interview with him, wheezily chuckling away in the corner as he tries to recall his earliest influences. 'Expressionism, I think,' he grins. He has described himself as 'a fat, spectacled, balding, increasingly old Glasgow pedestrian,' but this is a disservice. His considerable legacy reaches out far beyond Scotland—a world-class artist, and this birthday tribute is an apposite reminder of his scope, wit and skill.
Not one to retire anytime soon, Spheres of Influence I lets Gray flourish.
Spheres of Influence I runs at GOMA from 22 Nov 2014- 25 May, 2015.
Images:
1. The first of a series Lanark: a Life in Four Books, Set of Six Prints, 1981, by Alasdair Gray, © CSG CIC Glasgow Museums Collection.
2. Installation shot of Alasdair Gray Season: Spheres of Influence I, GoMA, Glasgow Courtesy Glasgow Museums, Photo © Alan Dimmick.
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