Famous Glasgow artist's works to go on show in city for first time
Now, a selection of pieces from this significant collection will be on show at Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum, from Saturday (June 14).Alasdair Gray: Works from The Morag McAlpine Bequest celebrates 10 years since this treasured gift was donated to the city that meant so much to the legendary artist.
Poor Things by Alasdair Gray, 1992 (Image: Glasgow Life Museums/The Estate of Alasdair Gray)
The exhibition opens in the Fragile Art Gallery in what would have been Gray's 90th year. The artist, who died in December 2019, credited a weekend art class at Kelvingrove with sparking his early love of painting.
Works on display include the original design artwork for Poor Things – his novel published in 1992, made famous by the 2023 movie starring Emma Stone.
Emma Stone in Poor Things (Image: Searchlight Pictures)
Others include the wrap-around jacket for Old Negatives, artwork in progress for the jacket design of Agnes Owens' People Like That, and A Working Mother, among others.
This display offers insight into key aspects of Gray's artistic practice, tracing the creation of artwork for publications from inception to print and explores how he reused imagery, and reimagined the influence of historical artworks in his own distinctive style.
It also highlights Gray's innovative and resourceful approach, including his willingness to use whatever was close at hand, such as Tippex and sticky labels, to make instant changes to his work.
It was a process that echoes the idea of erratum, where errors or alterations become a meaningful part of the creative act, explains Katie Bruce, producer curator with Glasgow Life.
'Alasdair Gray showed great generosity when he gifted The Morag McAlpine Bequest to the city, following the passing of his wife,' she said.
'These personal gifts for anniversaries, birthdays and Christmas, include portraits later transformed into characters in his work and framed drawings for book covers and dust jackets, both for his own publications and those of fellow writers.
'Among them is the original cover design for Poor Things, which many will now recognise from the recent film adaptation.'
Alasdair Gray (Image: Newsquest)
Katie added: 'It is fitting and wonderful to display this collection in a place that meant so much to Gray, and to offer audiences a deeper understanding of his innovative practice and extraordinary talent.'
Visitors to Kelvingrove Museum can also see Cowcaddens Streetscape in the Fifties, which shows life in an area of Glasgow where the landscape and community radically changed post-war.
Painted in 1964, it is one of Gray's best-known works and what he referred to as 'my best big oil painting.'
It represents a significant example of his painting within the decade following his graduation from the renowned Glasgow School of Art in 1957.
Born in Riddrie in 1934, Gray and his family were evacuated from Glasgow during World War II but he later returned to attend Whitehill Senior Secondary School and Glasgow School of Art.
He went on to work as a part-time teacher and a scene painter for local theatres.
Throughout the 1960s and 70s he wrote plays for television, radio and the stage.
(Image: Newsquest)
He worked on his first novel, the highly-acclaimed Lanark, for decades and when it was finally published in 1981, it was hailed as a landmark of Scottish literature.
In 2001 he became a professor of creative writing at the University of Glasgow.
Gray was a prolific poet, playwright, novelist, painter and printmaker, whose work continues to be celebrated in books, exhibitions, conferences and the annual Gray Day on February 25.
The Morag McAlpine Bequest enriches the Alasdair Gray collection held by Glasgow Life Museums, which includes the City Recorder series (1977–78), some of which can be viewed at the Gallery of Modern Art.
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