BARRY McGLASHAN The Sunken Dream
BARRY McGLASHAN The Sunken Dream 4 – 28 June 2014
16 Dundas Street, Edinburgh EH3 6HZ Tel 0131 558 1200 Email mail@scottish-gallery.co.uk www.scottish-gallery.co.uk
Front cover: Now It Is Winter (detail), oil on canvas, 106.5 x 127 cms Left: The Birdcatcher, oil on panel, 61 x 71 cms Above: Owl, oil on panel, 15 x 15 cms
foreword Barry McGlashan’s second solo exhibition at The Scottish Gallery, The Sunken Dream, takes us to the edge of reality. Inspired by an array of literary works including William Burroughs’ Cities of the Red Night and Herman Melville’s Moby Dick, as well as his own travels to America’s Mid-West, McGlashan’s paintings are haunting and beautiful. His time in America, and the landscapes of Yosemite National Park in California and the Mid-West, has informed his work and often feature in the backdrop of his paintings. Isolated communities and their interaction with nature is a resonating theme in this body of work, while the juxtaposition of intimate objects in an epic landscape often creates an enigmatic narrative. Delicately painted, each work is like a carefully crafted stageset. A lustrous, varnished surface invites us on a mysterious voyage of chance encounters and we are led into bewildering landscapes, by the light of the moon and deep into distant realms bordering on the surreal. But rather than giving away the whole plot, McGlashan is insistent on the viewer playing their part in the story, we enter the narrative at critical moments, the artist inviting us to draw our own conclusions. Barry McGlashan’s paintings are a window into the mind of an artist who walks sure footedly between the fantastical and the wonderful. Elizabeth Wemyss
Antiquity oil on panel, 15 x 15 cms 2
But now I have come to believe that the whole world is an enigma, a harmless enigma that is made terrible by our own mad attempt to interpret it as though it had an underlying truth. Umberto Eco
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introduction People often tell me my paintings are ‘dream-like’, but I always think they occupy that space between dream and reality. Often, they seem to show us a glimpse of something beyond; a sense of a larger purpose perhaps. I am not a religious person so I often wonder: how do I make sense of everything? Those big questions, ‘why are we here and where are we going?’ I keep the roots of my work well watered with literature, history, film, philosophy and science – I am interested in so many things that somehow find their own home in these little vignettes. At times it feels like building a world all your own, where the players are seen on the edge of some wondrous frontier, where the outcomes are uncertain. Often, something may be about to happen or perhaps we are seeing an aftermath, some great plight that says more about us than mere words ever could. Painting can be like that. It’s an odd thing when you think of it – not unlike being a writer but instead of words leading you, the painted mark does. I am interested in painting as a vehicle, it is both the painted mark and that thing it is describing all at one time. I love the traditional, handmade process of it. But this alchemy is more than the mere sum of its parts, more than coloured mud on a piece of material stretched over a wooden frame (and how antiquated it seems when you speak of it like that.) Rather, it is the experience and time of its making and of its maker; an illusory trick, fooling the mind and somehow showing us another reality. Maybe even something from our dreams? Barry McGlashan, 2014
Right: The Artist in his Studio, Aberdeen, April 2014 4
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The Cosmos is all that is or ever was or ever will be. Our feeblest contemplations of the Cosmos stir us – there is a tingling in the spine, a catch in the voice, a faint sensation, as if a distant memory, of falling from a height. We know we are approaching the greatest of mysteries. The size and age of the Cosmos are beyond ordinary human understanding. Lost somewhere between immensity and eternity is our tiny planetary home. In a cosmic perspective, most human concerns seem insignificant, even petty. And yet our species is young and curious and brave and shows much promise. In the last few millennia we have made the most astonishing and unexpected discoveries about the Cosmos and our place within it, explorations that are exhilarating to consider. They remind us that humans have evolved to wonder, that understanding is a joy, that knowledge is prerequisite to survival. I believe our future depends on how well we know this Cosmos in which we float like a mote of dust in the morning sky. Those explorations required skepticism and imagination both. Imagination will often carry us to worlds that never were. But without it, we go nowhere. Skepticism enables us to distinguish fancy from fact, to test our speculations. The Cosmos is rich beyond measure – in elegant facts, in exquisite interrelationships, in the subtle machinery of awe. The surface of the Earth is the shore of the cosmic ocean. From it we have learned most of what we know. Recently, we have waded a little out to sea, enough to dampen our toes or, at most, wet our ankles. The water seems inviting. The ocean calls. Some part of our being knows this is from where we came. We long to return. These aspirations are not, I think, irreverent, although they may trouble whatever gods may be. Carl Sagan, Cosmos
The Transit of Venus oil on panel, 45.5 x 37.5 cms 6
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Captain Cook discovered Australia looking for the Terra Incognita. Christopher Columbus thought he was finding India but discovered America. History is full of events that happened because of an imaginary tale. Umberto Eco
The Beagle oil on panel, 50 x 61 cms 8
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And it grew wondrous cold. Samuel Taylor Coleridge, The Rime Of The Ancient Mariner
Ever North oil on panel, 50 x 61 cms 10
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A noble craft, but somehow a most melancholy! All noble things are touched with that. Herman Melville, Moby Dick
The Mischief oil on panel, 22 x 38 cms 12
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With our thoughts, we make the world. Buddha
The Mystic oil on panel, 30 x 45 cms 14
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From a little spark May burst a flame. Dante Alighieri, Paradiso
Last and First Men oil on panel, 48.5 x 41.5 cms 16
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‌they had drifted upon the swift river channel and then the river night dropped abruptly upon them and there were no lights but the stars and the shanty-boat lamps along the shore and the drifting dust of fireflies against the black, looming hills above the narrows. Davis Grubb, The Night Of The Hunter
The Bayou oil on canvas, 76 x 102 cms 18
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Stork oil on panel, 15 x 15 cms 20
Black Swans at Night oil on panel, 15 x 15 cms 21
It is not down in any map; true places never are. Herman Melville, Moby Dick
Now It Is Winter oil on canvas, 106.5 x 127 cms 22
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The woods are lovely, dark, and deep, But I have promises to keep, And miles to go before I sleep, And miles to go before I sleep. Robert Frost, Stopping By Woods On A Snowy Evening
The Birdcatcher oil on panel, 61 x 71 cms 24
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Owl oil on panel, 15 x 15 cms 26
Sad Spanish Song oil on panel, 30 x 18 cms 27
The heavens are calling you, and wheel around you, Displaying to you their eternal beauties, And still your eye is looking on the ground. Dante Alighieri, Purgatorio
The Witness oil on canvas, 76 x 86.5 cms 28
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You’ll wait a long, long time for anything much To happen in heaven beyond the floats of cloud. Robert Frost, On Looking Up By Chance At The Constellations
You’ll Wait A Long, Long Time oil on canvas, 30 x 30 cms 30
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Way Out in the Middle oil on panel, 15 x 15 cms 32
The Prophet oil on canvas, 30 x 30 cms 33
That country was so flat, you know. You could see for just miles. And they used to say that there wasn’t a fence between there and the North Pole. Robert ‘Boots’ McCoy, Texas County, Oklahoma from The Dust Bowl by Dayton Duncan and Ken Burns
Broken Down oil on panel, 30 x 45 cms 34
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Nothing is true. Everything is permitted. William Burroughs, Cities Of The Red Night
A Moment of Eternity oil on canvas, 76 x 102 cms 36
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BIOGRAPHY Barry McGlashan (b.1974) Born and raised in Aberdeen on the North East coast of Scotland, Barry McGlashan studied painting at Grays School of Art, graduating in 1996 with first class honours. In 1998 he returned to Grays School of Art where he continued to teach in the drawing and painting department until 2005 when he left teaching to pursue painting full time. In 2001 he was awarded The Alastair Salvesen Scholarship through The Royal Scottish Academy which allowed him to travel in the United States for three months. Since that time he has continued to travel extensively in America, a country which continues to fascinate him and influence his work. He has exhibited widely in both solo and group exhibitions with his work being held in many private and public collections both in the UK and abroad. SOLO EXHIBITIONS 2014 The Sunken Dream (The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh) 2013 That Howling Infinite (John Martin Gallery, London) 2012 We Are Stardust (Smart Gallery, Aberdeen) Quiet Please (Open Eye Gallery, Edinburgh) 2011 The Secrets (John Martin Gallery, London) 2010 The Whiteness Of The Whale (Foyer Gallery, Aberdeen) 2009 Somewhere In The North (The Rendezvous Gallery, Aberdeen) Wonderland (John Martin Gallery, London) 2007 New Ways To See The World (The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh) Way Out West (John Martin Gallery, London) 2006 The Big Country (The Rendezvous Gallery, Aberdeen) 2005 The Great Adventure (John Martin Gallery, London) 2004 Between Journeys (The Rendezvous Gallery, Aberdeen) There And Back Again (Roger Billcliffe Fine Art, Glasgow) 2003 Recent Works (The Rendezvous Gallery, Aberdeen) 2002 Small Town Continuation (The Rendezvous Gallery, Aberdeen) 2001 The Alastair Salvesen Art Scholarship Small Town (The Royal Scottish Academy – The Fettes Gallery, Edinburgh) 2000 New Lands (The Rendezvous Gallery, Aberdeen) 1999 Work on Paper (The Open Eye Gallery, Edinburgh) Recent Work (The Rendezvous Gallery, Aberdeen) 1998 New Works (The Rendezvous Gallery, Aberdeen)
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AWARDS 2011 The Cuthbert Award (Royal Glasgow Institute) Commendation (Aberdeen Artists Society) 2009 First Prize, The Meffan Winter Exhibition (Meffan Museum, Forfar) 2006 The Meyer Oppenheim Award (Royal Scottish Academy) 2005 The James McBey Travel Award Aberdeen Visual Arts Awards Scheme Grant Commendation (Aberdeen Artists Society) 2003 The Shell Expro Award (Aberdeen Artists Society) 2001 The Alastair Salvesen Travelling Scholarship (Royal Scottish Academy) The Shell Premier Award (Aberdeen Artists Society) 2000 The Shell Expro Award (Aberdeen Artists Society) 1998 The Guthrie Award (Royal Scottish Academy) 1996 The Macallan Award (Royal Scottish Academy) The John Kinross Scholarship (Royal Scottish Academy) 1995 The Steele-Cornwall Scholarship (Grays School of Art) Grays Former Pupil Award (Grays Former Pupil Society) 1994 The Hector Memorial Prize (Grays School of Art) The Wood Group Purchase Prize (Grampian Hospitals Art Trust) COLLECTIONS Aberdeen Art Gallery Aberdeen Asset Management (UK & New York) Aberdeen City Council BP El Museo De La Ciudad (Mexico) Grampian Hospitals Art Trust Macallan Distilleries (Scotland) Paintings In Hospitals (Edinburgh) Professional Footballers Association The Fuller Museum of Art (Boston) The Robert Gordon University (Aberdeen) The Royal Bank Of Scotland (Edinburgh) The Royal Scottish Academy (Edinburgh) The Scottish Society (New York) 39
Published by The Scottish Gallery to coincide with the exhibition Barry McGlashan – The Sunken Dream 4 - 28 June 2014 Exhibition can be viewed online at www.scottish-gallery.co.uk/thesunkendream ISBN 978-1-905146-95-6 Designed by www.kennethgray.co.uk Photography by Stuart Johnstone Printed by Barr Colour Printers All rights reserved. No part of this catalogue may be reproduced in any form by print, photocopy or by any other means, without the permission of the copyright holders and of the publishers.
Right: Last and First Men, oil on panel, 48.5 x 41.5 cms Back cover: You’ll Wait A Long, Long Time, oil on canvas, 30 x 30 cms 40
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16 Dundas Street, Edinburgh EH3 6HZ Tel 0131 558 1200 Email mail@scottish-gallery.co.uk www.scottish-gallery.co.uk