Cathy's Art Diary

Delightful exhibition at the Fleming Collection of work by Joseph Crawhall, a contemporary of the Glasgow Boys. The upper floor put him into context by showing work by the Glasgow Boys with some beautiful pictures such as The Bridge, Crowland by James Guthrie with lovely square brush strokes and an Arthur Melville of Cairo. Downstairs were the works by Crawhall himself starting a wonderful picture of a girl on a bicycle in water colour with spare brushstrokes and a dog running beside her to give a sense of speed. I loved the attached picture of a hunt with a sea of expressive dogs’ heads at the bottom and the huntsmen as lumps of red on the horses. I thought it had a feeling of William Nicholson prints. He was known for his pictures of horses, including two here of horses’ bottoms and for his whimsical works such as Road Hog in shades of grey and red of a fast car running down people and animals. He also spent a lot of time in Tangiers. Closes on 12 March 2016

Excellent lecture at the Royal Academy given by Tony Jones, Chancellor of the School of Art Institute of Chicago, to compliment the current Glasgow Boys exhibition. The lecture looked in detail how the Glasgow boys together, what their connection with Glasgow was and what were the influences on them. My only criticism as that it ran well overtime as it started to be 2 good lectures. He went on to talk about how the Glasgow Boys influenced those who came after them particularly MacIntosh and the Glasgow Girls. This was fascinating but he was starting to rush as some of the audience was getting a bit restless!

Exhibition at the Royal Academy of the work of this school of painters based around Glasgow in the late 20th century. The exhibition concentrated on the work they produced, what influenced it and how it challenged the art market of the time. I found it odd that as a group they had challenged the sentimentality of Victorian art and yet I found many of the pictures very sentimental. I want to like the Glasgow boys but I can’t quite manage to. Reviews Guardian Independent