Type | The Arts |
---|---|
Headquarters | Glasgow, Scotland |
Location |
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Coordinates | 55°51′52″N4°15′45″W / 55.8645°N 4.2626°W |
President | Robert Ferguson |
Website | www |
Glasgow Art Club is a club in Glasgow for artists and non-artists interested in creating art and the enjoyment of art - all illustrative arts, sculptures, poetry, prose, plays, music, song, choreography and dance. To advance, promote and encourage the arts in all forms. [1] It has ranges of exhibitions, events and concerts, open to the public for their enjoyment; and, subject to club events, a number of its rooms are available as venues for social occasions. [2]
It is the performance venue of Westbourne Music and its regular series of Wednesday lunch-time concerts. [3]
It is also now the home-base of Paisley Art Institute which was established in Paisley in 1876 and continues to have exhibitions, workshops and events in the promotion of art for all. [4]
One of Glasgow and Scotland's most creative institutions, Glasgow Art Club was founded in 1867. Membership is open to ladies, gentlemen, students and corporate organisations. The club premises include function rooms, studios, library, dining room and Gallery. Extensive exhibitions and events are programmed each year. [5] It is based in Bath Street close to Blythswood Square.
Following initial discussions by artists William Dennistoun, {Sir} David Murray and friends at a tea room above a baker's shop in Candleriggs, Glasgow, on the proposal to form a club, the first formal meetings of the club were held at the Waverley Temperance Hotel, on Buchanan Street, Glasgow, with Dennistoun elected the club's first president. [6] Membership was to grow during the 1870s, with more artists joining and exhibitions being held and in 1875 the club moved to another hotel called the Waverley, this time one on the city's Sauchiehall Street. From there the club was to relocate to the Royal Hotel on the city's George Square, renting rooms for six months at a time, where life and sketching classes were held.
Membership of the club began to be extended beyond painters (in 1881 the pioneering photographer James Craig Annan was admitted as a ‘'photographic artist'’ [7] and in 1903 John M. Crawford (another former pupil of Hamilton Academy), Fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects, became the first architect to be elected President of Glasgow Art Club.) [8]
In 1878 the club moved to rented premises at 62 Bothwell Street [6] and the need to raise funds led to a change in the club’s constitution and the admission in 1886 of male lay members with an interest in the arts (women could be guests, but membership admission of women was not extended until 1982). [6] [9] With membership burgeoning new premises were rented at 151 Bath Street on Blythswood Hill, originally developed by William Harley in the early 19th century. [10] These formally opened on 12 November 1886 [11] but soon afterwards two adjacent townhouses at 185 Bath Street were purchased, these converted by the architect John Keppie, a member of the club, also creating an exhibition gallery in what were the back gardens of the houses. It has recently been confirmed that the young Charles Rennie Mackintosh was involved in the decorative details of the renovations and created a mural. [12] The club’l's new premises were formally opened on 14 June 1893 [13] [14] (in the same period the Glasgow Society of Lady Artists was formed, and came to be based nearby at Blythswood Square).
In 2011, the club undertook and completed a major programme of renovation of its historic category A Listed building on Bath Street. [15] including the restoration of the Gallery frieze designed by Charles Rennie Mackintosh, who assisted John Keppie and John Honeyman in the design of the Gallery saloon.
The club has a range of memberships for all ages. It first admitted women as members in 1984, electing its first female president, Efric McNeil, in 2015. [16] In 2022, Westbourne Music moved their base for lunchtime mid-week concerts to the Club, and continue there. [17] There is a long established association with Paisley Art Institute, founded in 1876, and the Institute's 135th Open Annual Exhibition is being held in Glasgow Art Club in 2024. [18] [ circular reference ] [19]
The club’s stature in Glasgow was confirmed when on the occasion of the official opening by the Prince of Wales of the Glasgow International Exhibition of Science, Art and Industry in 1888, the Lord Provost of Glasgow presented the Prince and Princess of Wales with an album of paintings by members of the Glasgow Art Club. [20] In the succeeding years the club has played host to many events, including, on the evening of 28 October 1932 a dinner honouring Dr. Pittendrigh Macgillivray RSA, King’s Sculptor in Ordinary for Scotland a member of the Club for some fifty years, and club member James B. Anderson ARSA. [21]
Initially the Club’s exhibitions were open only to members, in later years admission extended also to the general public. In 2008 Glasgow Art Club exhibited the jewelled panel The White Rose and The Red Rose by Margaret Macdonald Mackintosh, wife of Charles Rennie Mackintosh, before its sale for £1.7 million at Christie's on 30 April 2008. [22] Since 2010 the club has opened its exhibition spaces and collections to the public on a regular basis (i.e. not just when specific exhibitions are being held.) [23]
Many notable member artists have exhibited at the club's exhibitions, including:
The club's Winter exhibition of 1909 included works by: Sir James Guthrie, E A Hornel, Muirhead Bone (Britain's first official War Artist, knighted 1937 [24] ) Sir David Murray RA. [25]
The club's Spring exhibition of 1923 included works by: E A Hornel, Sir David Murray RA, and James Kay. [26]
The club's Memorial Exhibition of 1935 included works by: E A Walton, Sir James Guthrie, W Y Macgregor, James Paterson, Maurice William Greiffenhagen, Leslie Hunter, Stuart Park, E A Hornel. [27]
The club's exhibition April 1939 included works by: Sir John Lavery (exhibiting his The Lake at Ranelagh,) and J W Ferguson, who submitted a portrait. [28]
The Club also hosts touring exhibitions each year.
Notable members include:
Charles Rennie Mackintosh was a Scottish architect, designer, water colourist and artist. His artistic approach had much in common with European Symbolism. His work, alongside that of his wife Margaret Macdonald, was influential on European design movements such as Art Nouveau and Secessionism and praised by great modernists such as Josef Hoffmann. Mackintosh was born in Glasgow, Scotland and died in London, England. He is among the most important figures of Modern Style.
The Hunterian is a complex of museums located in and operated by the University of Glasgow in Glasgow, Scotland. It is the oldest museum in Scotland. It covers the Hunterian Museum, the Hunterian Art Gallery, the Mackintosh House, the Zoology Museum and the Anatomy Museum, which are all located in various buildings on the main campus of the university in the west end of Glasgow.
James Pittendrigh MacGillivray was a Scottish sculptor. He was also a keen artist, musician and poet. He was born in Inverurie, Aberdeenshire, the son of a sculptor, and studied under William Brodie and John Mossman. His works include public statues of Robert Burns in Irvine, Lord Byron in Aberdeen, the 3rd Marquess of Bute in Cardiff, John Knox in Edinburgh's St Giles Cathedral, and William Ewart Gladstone in Coates Crescent Gardens, Edinburgh.
The Glasgow School was a circle of influential artists and designers that began to coalesce in Glasgow, Scotland in the 1870s, and flourished from the 1890s to around 1910. Representative groups included The Four, the Glasgow Girls and the Glasgow Boys. Part of the international Art Nouveau movement, they were responsible for creating the distinctive Glasgow Style.
Sir James Guthrie was a Scottish painter, associated with the Glasgow Boys. He is best known in his own lifetime for his portraiture, although today more generally regarded as a painter of Scottish Realism.
Sir Muirhead Bone was a Scottish etcher and watercolourist who became known for his depiction of industrial and architectural subjects and his work as a war artist in both the First and Second World Wars.
Blythswood Hill, crowned by Blythswood Square, is an area of central Glasgow, Scotland. Its grid of streets extend from the length of the west side of Buchanan Street to Gordon Street and Bothwell Street, and to Charing Cross, Sauchiehall Street and Garnethill. Developed from 1800 onwards, its Georgian and Victorian architecture is a Conservation Area. It started as the "Magnificent New Town of Blythswood", becoming a part of the city-centre's business and social life.
Sauchiehall Street is one of the main shopping streets in the city centre of Glasgow, Scotland, along with Buchanan Street and Argyle Street.
Edward Atkinson Hornel was a Scottish painter of landscapes, flowers, and foliage, with children. He was a cousin of James Hornell. His contemporaries in the Glasgow Boys called him Ned Hornel.
Sir David Murray was a Scottish landscape painter.
Blythswood Football Club was a 19th-century football club based in Glasgow.
The Glasgow Society of Lady Artists was founded in 1882 by eight female students of the Glasgow School of Art with the aim of affording due recognition to women in the field of art. It has been described by Jude Burkhauser as "the first residential club in Scotland run by and for women". In the early days of the club, they met at 136 Wellington Street, Glasgow.
James Paterson PRSW RSA RWS, was a Scottish landscape and portrait painter associated with The Glasgow Boys movement of artists. He is best known for his landscape paintings of Dumfriesshire, where he lived, at Moniaive from 1885 to 1905.
St. Vincent Street, is one of the major streets in the city centre of Glasgow, Scotland. It was formed in the early 1800s as part of the residential New Town of Blythswood developed by William Harley of Blythswood Square. St. Vincent Street was named to commemorate the victory of Sir John Jervis, on 15 February 1797, off Cape Saint Vincent, Portugal. when the Royal Navy defeated the Spanish fleet which was on its way to join Napoleon's French fleet. The first part of the street, from George Square to Buchanan St, containing numbers up to 41, is named St Vincent Place.
John Keppie was a Glasgow architect and artist. From an early age he was a close friend of Edward Atkinson Hornel and would often bring in New Year with him in Kirkcudbright. Within the architectural profession, he was closest to John Archibald Campbell, and is credited with training Charles Rennie Mackintosh.
Stansmore Richmond Leslie Dean Stevenson was a Scottish artist known for her oil paintings. She was a member of a group of women artists and designers known as the Glasgow Girls.
William Somerville Shanks ARSA, RSA, RSW was a Scottish artist who was a tutor in painting and drawing at the Glasgow School of Art for 29 years. His painting Tiddley Winks sold for £181,250 at Sotheby's in 2008, a record for the artist.
Leonard Gow (1859–1936) was a Scottish shipowner, philanthropist and art collector.
James Wallace Ferguson was a Scottish painter, born in Stirling, and resident in Glasgow for most of his life. He went to the Glasgow School of Art before the First World War. He won the Guthrie Award in 1923 for young artists of the Royal Scottish Academy. He became the President of the Glasgow Art Club in the 1950s. He also was a Principal Lecturer in Art at Jordanhill Teacher Training College. He died in New Zealand while staying with his son.
William Drummond Bone was a Scottish painter, born in Ayr. He won the Guthrie Award in 1939 with his work, the oil painting Leisure.