Two Glasgow Polymaths runs from Monday July 15 until Friday July 26 at Lyon & Turnbull’s city centre gallery and features the work of John Byrne and Alasdair Gray.
Both men studied at the Glasgow School of Art and were renowned writers and visual artists during their lifetimes.
Byrne was born in Paisley and died last December at the age of 83 while Gray living in Glasgow throughout his life before passing away at the age of 85 in December 2019.
The rare painting of The Beatles, which was done by Byrne in 1969 and later used as a cover image for The Beatles Ballads LP in 1981, is one of the highlights of the show but there’s plenty more to discover too.
Rarely seen treasures feature in the exhibition and two of those will be sold live online in Edinburgh next month. Other works have been loaned to the auction house by collectors and will be available to view over the coming two weeks.
It was rumoured at the time that the original painting of The Beatles was lost by EMI Records, and makes this a unique work of art to be a surviving early version.
Also included in the exhibition is a study for a project with Scottish music legend Donovan, and it is part of a series on which Byrne collaborated with the Maryhill-born singer in the early 1970s.
Donovan had commissioned Byrne to design a cover for HMS Donovan, an album of children’s songs, in 1971. The pair also worked on an animated film together which was Donovan’s answer to The Beatles’ Yellow Submarine.
Byrne’s young family were supposed to appear in the film and they all relocated to Los Angeles for a month, but the project never came to fruition in the end.
Painting from that form an extraordinary collection amassed form the 70s onwards by Father Tom Jamieson, who was Byrne’s parish priest in Renfrew.
The priest would meet Byrne in the artist’s garden shed to discuss ‘matters of great importance’, according to his niece. The artist would then show Father Jamieson his latest work and he developed an interest in collection it from his parishioner.
She said: “My uncle was very proud of these paintings and of knowing John Byrne. He loved anything that was a ‘one off’, and I think that led him to start buying from his talented but not-yet-famous parishioner.
“Being around these paintings in my childhood gave us a gateway into Byrne’s incredible world. I remember John describing his early work once as ‘wee guys with big ears’. These are so much more than that, but Byrne’s sense of humour walks hand-in-hand with his art and I’ve always loved that.”
The exhibition also includes a painting by Gray which was an important project in the development of his career.
Film sequence with Liz Lochhead is one of a series which saw Gray create artworks to illustrate his friend’s poetry. The collaboration was then filmed by BBC producer Malcolm Hossick and Lochhead would go on to become Scotland’s Maker (National Poet).
There are also several drawings and paintings included in the show by Gray of his family and friends. It includes a drawing in ink from 1963 which depicts his first wife Inge sleeping with their son Andrew.
The Alasdair Gray Archive, based in Glasgow, is supporting the exhibition by loaning its new Travelling Archive resourse. It is to be displayed alongside seminal Gray works, including some which will be exhibited for the first time.
Sorcha Dallas, custodian of The Alasdair Gray Archive, said: “We appreciate the care Lyon & Turnbull has taken in developing this project and placing important works of Alasdair Gray over the years in key Scottish based collections.”
Lyon & Turnbull’s head of contemporary art, Charlotte Riordan, who has curated the exhibition, said: “It has been a pleasure and a privilege to mount this show with the kind support of our collectors and the Alasdair Gray Archive.
“The significance of Gray and Byrne’s impact on Scottish culture cannot be overstated.
“This exhibition aims to honour their legacies: to celebrate the more widespread recognition Gray’s work received this year off the back of the Oscar-winning film adaptation of Poor Things, as well as mark the passing of John Byrne late last year. The Scottish art world will miss him greatly.”
The exhibition, at Lyon & Turnbull’s gallery at 182 Bath Street, Glasgow, is by appointment only.
