Jolene and I have been given a temporary reprieve with the kids being looked after by their gran for just shy of a week, ideally this would mean loads of extra time for crafting. Unfortunately the opposite seems to be true, although the extra freedom has given us a chance to get out and about without them, in this first instance this has meant that we were able to go to The Glasgow Boys exhibition in Glasgow’s Kelvingrove art galleries and museum.
The exhibition finishes on the 27th September 2010 and features 150 paintings and a couple of sculptures from the group of artists who later became known as the Glasgow Boys. These artists focused, for a period, on painting subject matter realistically and chose subject matter from the day-to-day grind of life, painting portraits of the common folk and scenes of people going about their daily chores. This realism was something new and different from the sentimentality of the Victorian era and illustrated a different approach to painting and capturing objects on paper and canvas.
James Guthrie, John Lavery, Arthur Melville and E A Hornel
The works have been drawn from a large number of sources including other galleries and museums, although there was a huge number of rarely seen works from private collections and individuals. Indeed, I’ve heard it suggested (from people that know better than I) that there is likely to be a huge number of paintings in the lofts of houses all around Glasgow, perhaps this exhibition might encourage a few more to be dusted down and brought out into the light of day.
If I’m being honest I found some of the works to be rather prosaic, if not outright baffling, although it was interesting to see how some individuals styles developed over time and note where their focus lay. Some of the paintings, for example, had hands and faces painted to almost photo-realism standards whilst clothing and background would be almost abstract or entirely ‘out of focus’.
I think that the exhibition is well worth a visit, even just to catch a taste of local culture and history, all the more so if you happen to have so much as a passing interest in painting yourself. Adults get in for £5 (Concession £3) whilst under 16′s go for free … although a bit of a bore for younger children I’d think!
This exhibition will also be showing in London at the Royal Academy of Arts from 30 October 2010 – 23 January 2011, well worth a look if you can get the chance.
Tags: art, exhibition, harder than it looks, Kelvingrove, paint, painting, The Glasgow Boys
Just went with college, would have loved it if it weren’t so busy, but the paintings were fantastic :)
It can always be a problem at these high-profile events, I think we got lucky and whilst I wouldn’t have said it was quiet it wasn’t mobbed either. Still there’s bound to be a surge of interest before the exhibition ends at the end of the month!
Would you kindly advise how much the painting of the girl and geese (by James Guthrie) would fetch at auction, assuming it was in pristine condition.