Cowcaddens Streetscape in the 50’s and encounters with Glasgow’s creative polymath.
Around Glasgow, and particularly in the West End, the art of Alasdair Gray is ever present. Born in Riddrie in 1934, Gray went on to attend Whitehill Secondary in Dennistoun where his creative flair first began to shine through, achieving prizes for English and Art and editing the school’s magazine. Building from this, he went on to study mural painting at the Glasgow School of Art. Becoming a truly great and multi-faceted creative, Gray worked in a vast variety of fields throughout his life, examples of which can easily be found within a ten minute walk of the University. His murals can be seen by visiting Hillhead Subway Station or Òran Mór, his novels, such as the acclaimed Poor Things or his quasi-biographical Lanark, may be found in any one of the bookshops lining Byres Road. For his painting, you could visit Kelvingrove Art Gallery, where on the ground floor, in the Looking at Art exhibition, lies Cowcaddens Streetscape in the Fifties.
Cowcaddens Streetscape depicts, as its title suggests, an image of the streets of Glasgow’s Cowcaddens area in the 1950’s. Adapted from sketches made whilst at the School of Art, the piece captures a changing Glasgow, one still distraught from the war as necessities such as food, coal, and clothes continued to be rationed, yet also one which was beginning to rapidly modernise. A piece that spans across perspectives – exemplified with its’ positioning of St. Aloysius church on the far left and Pinkston Power Station on the far right – Gray’s slightly surreal approach here allows for the viewer to face both north and south simultaneously, presenting a panoramic view of the area. Spanning from left to right Glasgow changes before you, changing from decorative Victorian gas lanterns, tenements and joyful children to pylons, uninspired architecture, cooling towers and simple electric street lamps, the piece becomes a record of the short period of time in which these all coexisted. The period before the area’s tenements were torn down for being slums and after the power station built its massive cooling tower but before it ceased operations entirely.
This Cowcaddens barely even existed by the time Gray finished the piece in 1964. Emphasising the briefness of the moment, the painting intends to depict time passing before us, showing the couple at the forefront of the piece wandering off to the left, making it appear as if time is passing before Gray can even begin to take it in. The transitioning city can be highlighted again with further analysis of Gray’s bent perspective, as with either side of the piece representing a complete turn in the viewer’s perspective, the lampposts on either side of the piece must either be in the same spot or at least right next to one another, showing the old being replaced by the new quicker than we can comprehend it.
With the city evolving so rapidly, it is important to acknowledge how Gray draws attention to two things that never really change. The first, and most prominent of these is the weather, depicting the evening sky in a mix of cold tones complementing greys, Gray almost romanticises the city’s affinity with rain, giving incredible detail, shape and colour to the clouds with their round edges beautifully contrasting the hard unforgiving edges of the city and washing away the day’s problems.
Another thing ever present in Glasgow is the people, as a local legend whose work was set primarily in Glasgow, Gray understood the people well and with energetic children, a visibly discontent couple, a happier couple and a group of young men chatting away amongst many depicted in this piece, a vast multitude of feelings are on show and not discouraged, showing a wealth of acceptance encouraged by Gray.
Despite his work neither being particularly high-brow nor easily accessible, Gray still managed to be an infamously approachable Glaswegian. With his work not amassing worldwide acclaim in his lifetime and being too divisive for commercial success, he stayed in and around Glasgow for the majority of his life. Not long after this painting in the mid 70’s, he began working at the People’s Palace before moving on to become writer in residence at the University of Glasgow from 1977-79.
Staying local and working odd jobs to support his art when need be, Gray became well-acquainted with a vast array of regular locals, amounting to countless connections to random Glaswegians in the process. This can be exemplified by my own experience in which I have many links to him that were previously unbeknownst to me. Beginning in his school days, it is likely that he went to school alongside one of my Great Uncles who also attended Whitehill Secondary School around the same years as Gray. Moving on to the 70’s, it was at this point that another Great Uncle, who worked in the Mitchell Library and was well acquainted with many of Glasgow’s creatives, knew him, often running into him in pubs such as Curler’s alongside mutual friends. Further down the line, in the late 2000’s he worked alongside local indie band De Rosa – whose bassist, James Woodside, is my barber – on their sophomore album, Prevention, illustrating the album’s cover which features the band at Gray’s table.
With a wealth of connections to just me, I believe that this should help to convey the local legend that Gray managed to effortlessly accumulate simply by being and by using the city as his muse. Despite this however, it wasn’t until four years after his death that his work began to amass international fame as Yorgos Lanthimos adapted his novel Poor Things into a Hollywood film. Garnering widespread critical acclaim and dividing audiences simultaneously, the film motivated renewed interest in Gray’s works, particularly in his other written work. Having met Gray years prior to his death, I emailed Lanthimos’ team asking if he would wish to comment, though they have yet to respond. With his art in any field getting newfound attention, his local legend continues to live on as new audiences discover his unique perspectives and portrayals of the local area, as notably seen in Cowcaddens Streetscape in the 50’s.
For more on Gray and analysis of his works, visit https://thealasdairgrayarchive.org/, http://joemurray.me.uk/alasdairgray/contents.htm & https://www.poorthingsnovel.com/a-novel-guide-archived/
Image Credit: Estate of Alasdair Gray
