Marie Curie Exhibition at Glasgow Art Club

Here's two of my paintings (at far end of room on the end wall - see if you can spot them!) at the recent Marie Curie Exhibition at the famous Glasgow Art Club.

Above the paintings,  you can see the newly uncovered and restored frieze by Charles Rennie Mackintosh.  

It was stencilled onto the wall in 1893 when the artist was 25.  It was subsequently covered up, and has taken 3 years and £1.2 million to restore.

House for an Art Lover Christmas Show

I'll also have some work on display at Glasgow's House for an Art Lover over Christmas.

The House for an Art Lover is a design by Charles Rennie Mackintosh made in 1901 (for a competition run by a German design magazine, but disqualified for being a late entry).  It was never built in his lifetime, but was later constructed in Bellahouston Park in Glasgow, opening in 1996. 

Here's the rather fine Music Room.

It combines all the typical Mackintosh aesthetic, that so wowed the Secessionist movement on the Continent, especially in Vienna, but largely left Mackintosh an unsung hero during his lifetime. The contrasts and tensions between black and white, masculine and feminine, organic and geometric, and the sense of the vitality and cycle of life with the design references to trees, buds, flowers and seeds, were all startlingly different to the dark, cluttered look of contemporary Victorian interiors. 

Detail from the Music Room, House for an Art Lover by Charles Rennie Mackintosh (Declan O'Doherty)
 

Stained Glass Door Panel, House for an Art Lover by Charles Rennie Mackintosh (Declan O'Doherty)

 

 Detail of Door Lock Escucheon, House for an Art Lover by Charles Rennie Mackintosh (Declan O'Doherty)

 

 Detail of Chandelier, House for an Art Lover by Charles Rennie Mackintosh (Declan O'Doherty)

He had amazing attention to detail, designing the house right down to the cutlery as an organic holistic whole, a machine for living.  Mackintosh's rooms are very clean, uncluttered, enveloping, and sensual.  The man himself was rather hot as well.

Anyway, there's a Christmas show running at the House for an Art Lover from 26th November - 7th January, with a Private View from 6-8pm on Thursday 29th November, so if you're in the area, please do come along.

These are the works on show - 

At the Edge of the Water, White Sands, Morar (Oil on canvas, 20 x 20)

 

Study, Dark Sky, Yellow Moorland (Oil, 6 x 6)

Study, Yellow Grasses, Hell's Glen (Oil, 6 x 6)

 

For more information about the House, please click here.

New View of Mackintosh Building

Earlier this year, the 1960s concrete block of the Newbery Tower at Glasgow School of Art was demolished, gradually nibbled away by a rather intriguing dinosaur-like piece of machinery over the course of a couple of weeks.

(Thanks to Anne Morrison for her photos.)

Whilst it's goodbye to the Textile Department, and to the end of term exhibition in the Newbery Gallery, it does mean that for the first time in 50 years, you can actually see the whole facade of Charles Rennie Mackintosh's masterpiece.

Picture: Jeff J Mitchell

It's a great opportunity to see it before the new buildings opposite once again obfuscate the view.  You can read more here in an article in today's Herald.

There's also what promises to be a very interesting programme on BBC4 on Thursday which includes a discussion on Mackintosh and his influence, and also that of arguably the greater talent of his wife, Margaret MacDonald.  Sex and Sensibility: The Allure of Art Nouveau is on BBC4 on Thursday 29th March at 9pm.  You can see details here.  

You can catch up with episode one of this 3-part series about this lusciously sensual decorative style in Paris on BBC i-player here.

You can also read more in a piece in today's Guardian here called 'Art Nouveau - a Magical Style'.

At the London Art Fair

Even in the cold of January, the London Art Fair at the Business and Design Centre in Islington has lost none of its vibrancy, and remains a fresh, up-beat annual event and a great start to the year.

It’s a slightly awkward space, with a split-level main hall, and further stands housed upstairs, but once you understand the space, it’s a nice venue to explore and get lost in the art.

As soon as I went in, I was met by an excitingly large Henri Gaudier Brzeska relief of two wrestlers.

Henri Gaudier Brzeska Wrestlers 1914

However, this version was cast in the 1960s (Gaudier Brzeska having died in the first world war at 23) so it's arguable how much it is an 'original' - however it's yours for £85,000!  It was just one of many high-price tag (or even POA ) works for sale at the fair - obviously there's the market out there for them.

Also on the same stand was a gorgeous Peter Lanyon, with more of his work, including a blue glass sculpture, at Offer Waterman and Co.  Lanyon was a Cornish artist, whose edgily visceral landscape work was always very much about experiencing a place, and has a very tangible excitement about it.  He was a glider pilot although he suffered from vertigo (ultimately he was killed in a flying accident), and he liked to incorporate this seen-from-the-air viewpoint combined with an element of off-balance tension into his work.

Peter Lanyon Blue Glass Airscape 1960( glass, ceramic, plaster & paint on cork)

Another Cornish-based artist (though originally from Scotland) was Margaret Mellis, whose drfitwood construction was on the Cyril Gerber stand.  Her studio must have been a complete fire-hazard, as it was piled high with stacks of found wood which she collected from the Cornwall beaches.

There were plenty of other big names of 20th century art to get your teeth into -  Elizabeth Frink (especially the large Fighting Cocks bronze), Joe Tilson's Wooden Relief 1960 at Austin/Desmond Fine Art, the Boyle Family's Fire Series with Melted Records with Richard Saltoun (they used to do the groovy visual effects at early Pink Floyd concerts), even Charles Rennie Mackintosh's delicate watercolour Alder Catkins, Walberswick of 1914 (Mackintosh was arrested as a suspected German spy while he was at Walberswick because of his thick Scottish accent and constant sending of letters to foreign places).  Yours for £28,500!  Ewan Mundy also had a lovely William Gillies ink drawing of Anstruther for £4250 - yum.

I must mention Jo Taylor's work with Lena Boyle Fine Art.  Although I'm no expert on horses, I do love her large-scale equine collages, with their gorgeously expressive lines.

 Jo Taylor Desert Horse II (mixed media on paper, 31 x 27 in)

I must also draw attention to a (distant) member of the family firm, Adam Bridgland, with his very distinctive graphic work with TAG Fine Art.  His Darling Our Holiday Will Solve All Our Problems looked eerily of-the-moment.

 Adam Bridgland Darling This Holiday Will Solve All OUr Problems 2006 (Enamel Plaque 100cm x 100cm)

It's always strange when you see your own work at a gallery or an art fair.  In this case, my work was with Duncan Miller on a stand at the back of the main hall, which meant that you could see it from quite far away down one of the main corridors.  It's like seeing your work afresh, in its Sunday best.  It was great to view it in such a location getting a lot of positive attention at the fair, and also in such estemmed company as Joan Eardley and the Scottish Colourists.

I hope that those of you who attended the fair, and especially those of you who were able to make use of the complimentary tickets, will have had an equally interesting and fruitful time.  

If you were there, it would be great to have your feedback!