Glasgow art Jan 2012

Alasdair Gray, City Recorder at GoMA until 13 Aug 2012. In 1977 Gray was commissioned as Glasgow's artist recorder, and he drew about 30 pictures of daily street life, people, buildings, cars, fashions. Fantastic drawings. Gray describes the project:

I brought to the store sketches of well-known or typical Glaswegians with as much as possible of their everyday surroundings. I brought sketches of nearby streets, many of them semi-demolished because industries were being closed in what had once been a strong working-class district. That summer was unusually sunny so I worked a lot outside, drawing what I could see directly with pencil or Rotring pen. The drawings were pasted on to boards coated with special paint that sealed off acids beneath. Then I tinted them with watercolour, crayon pencil and in a few areas acrylic paint, though I chiefly used it as a background sky. I deliberately kept the colours light, to stop them distracting from the character of the outlines. In this way I finished 33 paintings before reluctantly leaving the job.

Harry Papadopoulos at Street Level Photo Works until 25 Feb 2012. Great photos of the post-punk scene in Glasgow and London. Edwyn Collins, Devo, The Associates, many others, all looking like children. Reminded me of Ewen Spencer's work in the 2000s.

Tales of the City at GoMA until 1 Dec 2012. Standouts: Daphne Wright's project for the Gorbals redevelopment and Martin Boyce's ventilation grilles. The rest a bit average.

You, Me, Something Else at GoMA until 18 Mar 2012. Andrew Miller's work is funny and there's something in the work of Karla Black and James McLardy (whose work reminds me of Martin Westwood somewhat), but the rest is weak. More images.

Comments

[Amiria]

Hi Rod,
Just letting you know I have featured one of your drawings in a blog post I wrote to help high school art students: http://www.amiria.co.nz/artist/line-drawings/
I have credited the image to you and linked back to this site.
Hope you don’t mind! (If you do, I will remove the image at your request).
Keep up the great work! :)
Amiria

[Skip Hire Walton On Thames]

The link does not work. I would love to have a look at some of these drawings. I too have made some paintings of derelict streets, although I am not happy with my style. I am using pencil and paint but I need to find a decent texture, which has proved difficult.