Lyon & Turnbull
4 January 2024
Alasdair Gray was a Scottish writer and artist, described by The Guardian as ‘the father figure of the renaissance in Scottish literature and art which began in the penultimate decade of the 20th century.’
We were delighted to present an excellent selection of work by Gray including his masterwork Glasgow Triumph of Death (Fall of Star Wormwood) which achieved a world auction record for the artist in our January 2024 auction of Contemporary Art // Prints & Multiples.
Join Head of Contemporary Art, Charlotte Riordan as she discusses Gray's masterwork.
Born in Glasgow in 1934, Gray studied Design and Mural Painting at Glasgow School of Art from 1952-57. At the GSA, Gray was said to have ‘immediately impressed both his teacher and fellow students with fantastic, even visionary, projects’ (The Guardian).
Having been in private hands since the 1957 exhibition, Glasgow Triumph of Death (Fall of Star Wormwood) is arguably Alasdair Gray’s masterwork. Though perhaps not as well-known an image as its fellow mural Cowcaddens (now held in the city of Glasgow’s collection), it is the ultimate visual realisation of the literary, artistic and philosophical preoccupations which Gray was to crystallise in his landmark novel Lanark (1981).
In 1957, against the backdrop of the Cold War, Gray was invited to participate in a special exhibition to be held at the Glasgow McLellan Gallery before travelling to Edinburgh’s Gateway Theatre. It was called ‘Artists Against the Bomb’ – a topic that had become especially pressing for Scottish creatives given the recent announcement of plans to house Europe’s biggest nuclear arsenal in Holy Loch, just up the west coast from Glasgow. Gray took inspiration from Breughel’s horrifying masterpiece Triumph of Death, representing mutant-like figures in place of Breughel’s skeletons, as well as borrowing devils from that other preeminent apocalyptic painter, Hieronymus Bosch. Behind this grisly chaos are the Necropolis and Cathedral (which indeed feature so pivotally at the close of Lanark), the Royal Infirmary, Clyde and St Enoch station.
Gray’s perhaps best-known work is his first novel Lanark, published in 1981, which was written over a period of almost 30 years. Now a classic, Lanark has been described as ‘one of the landmarks of 20th-century fiction,’ inspiring the next generation of Scottish authors.
An important series and significant undertaking in Gray's career, Film sequence with Liz Lochhead, dating to 1972, saw Gray create artworks to illustrate Lochhead's poetry, which were then filmed by Malcolm Hossick, a BBC producer. The poems were written and the images finished, but the film that was to unite them fell through. The film was to tell the story of a doomed love affair, with the images acting as flashbacks or memories.
From 1977-78, Gray worked as Glasgow’s official artist recorder, painting portraits and streetscapes for the People’s Palace Local History Museum. He was constantly inspired by the people and places of Glasgow and often drew his friends and their families. He also undertook several mural commissions across the city, including a 40ft mural for the entrance hall of Hillhead subway station in the West end of Glasgow and the mural decoration of Oran Mor, an arts centre on Glasgow’s Byres Road. As Glasgow had a lasting impression on Gray and his artwork, so too did he on Glasgow.
Our January 2024 edition of the Contemporary Art // Prints & Multiples featured a fine selection of works by Gray which highlight key points throughout his career, from oils and drawings to prints and multiples.
Gray is remembered by those who knew him, as well as those who did not, for his ‘benignly nutty professor’ persona, with ‘thick spectacles and haywire hair.’ Over the course of his life, his work has been widely exhibited across Scotland and is currently held by several important international collections.
*All sold prices include buyer's premium.
