Artwork Glasgow
ARTWORK GLASGOW
by Roger Billcliffe, Managing Director of the Billcliffe Gallery
by Roger Billcliffe, Managing Director of the Billcliffe Gallery
Roger Billcliffe came to Glasgow in 1969 as a curator in the University Art Collections (now the Hunterian Art Gallery). He originally only expected to stay in Glasgow for four or five years but in 1977 joined Glasgow Museums as Keeper of Art, and then in 1979 moved to The Fine Art Society as director in charge of their Scottish galleries in Glasgow and Edinburgh. In 1992 he opened his own gallery in Glasgow specialising in contemporary Scottish painting and Scottish art of the twentieth century.
Glasgow has all the feel and grandeur of a big city while being quite small and self-contained. I grew up in the north of England, went to University in London and then began my museum career in Liverpool, so I saw a lot of English cities and was never really drawn to them. Only the Victorian centre of Liverpool and its inner suburbs really appealed to me as a place to live, so the scale and dignity of much of Glasgow's townscape has always made a big impression on me.
The historical accident of Scotland having only four art schools and, until the mid-1980s, each of them being staffed and 'studented' by Scots meant that Scottish painting had a very particular feel and set of standards. Until the mid 1980s, when the locally trained lecturers began to be replaced by more cosmopolitan colleagues, it was usually possible to identify which art school a painter might have attended. Drawing and painting was then the driving force of these four art schools.
In the late 1880s and 1890s the Glasgow Boys gave the city an international reputation. With their backing, and the recognition Glasgow received in Europe and America, the Art School was able to expand and build further on the growing reputation abroad of Charles Rennie Mackintosh and his contemporaries.
Glasgow has all the feel and grandeur of a big city while being quite small and self-contained. I grew up in the north of England, went to University in London and then began my museum career in Liverpool, so I saw a lot of English cities and was never really drawn to them. Only the Victorian centre of Liverpool and its inner suburbs really appealed to me as a place to live, so the scale and dignity of much of Glasgow's townscape has always made a big impression on me.
The historical accident of Scotland having only four art schools and, until the mid-1980s, each of them being staffed and 'studented' by Scots meant that Scottish painting had a very particular feel and set of standards. Until the mid 1980s, when the locally trained lecturers began to be replaced by more cosmopolitan colleagues, it was usually possible to identify which art school a painter might have attended. Drawing and painting was then the driving force of these four art schools.
In the late 1880s and 1890s the Glasgow Boys gave the city an international reputation. With their backing, and the recognition Glasgow received in Europe and America, the Art School was able to expand and build further on the growing reputation abroad of Charles Rennie Mackintosh and his contemporaries.
Twenty years later, the success of the Glasgow Boys abroad encouraged the four Scottish Colourists to travel and train in France and Germany. This in turn showed future generations of Scottish artists that they could work and live in Scotland, and have a successful career, without resorting to London and the south. Above all, the Boys and the Colourists established a following among collectors in Scotland, creating a fertile ground for younger painters who then found a ready market for their work.
In more recent years, Scottish artists have also looked to the English market to enhance their careers, as Scottish painting has long been recognised in the south as retaining many of the art-form’s traditional values.
The best students at the art schools in Scotland are continuing to extend both technical and artistic values, whether they work in traditional methods or in newer video or photography-based disciplines.
Among the painters, a young man who graduated from Glasgow about five years ago seems to have the greatest potential. Geoff Uglow continued to work in Glasgow for a couple of years after graduating and then won a scholarship to the British School in Rome. He has been working there ever since and we hope to show some of his recent paintings in the coming months. In the meantime, we have several of his paintings of Glasgow and Glasgow Green, which he made before he left for Rome last year.
Although drawing and painting have now been overtaken by a greater emphasis on video, installation and conceptual art, Scottish collectors are committed to more traditional drawing and painting values.
www.billcliffegallery.com
In more recent years, Scottish artists have also looked to the English market to enhance their careers, as Scottish painting has long been recognised in the south as retaining many of the art-form’s traditional values.
The best students at the art schools in Scotland are continuing to extend both technical and artistic values, whether they work in traditional methods or in newer video or photography-based disciplines.
Among the painters, a young man who graduated from Glasgow about five years ago seems to have the greatest potential. Geoff Uglow continued to work in Glasgow for a couple of years after graduating and then won a scholarship to the British School in Rome. He has been working there ever since and we hope to show some of his recent paintings in the coming months. In the meantime, we have several of his paintings of Glasgow and Glasgow Green, which he made before he left for Rome last year.
Although drawing and painting have now been overtaken by a greater emphasis on video, installation and conceptual art, Scottish collectors are committed to more traditional drawing and painting values.
www.billcliffegallery.com