David Harding
Born: April 3, 1937;
Died : February 21, 2026.
David Harding, who has died aged 88, was a sculptor and an inspiring teacher of art who believed his creations should be seen outdoors in all weather conditions. He brought to town centres, underpasses and housing estates – especially in Glenrothes – a vibrance and naturalness that reflected contemporary life. Harding worked with town planners from the outset and complemented their original designs by using concrete and brick in his sculptures.
At the Glasgow School of Art (GSA) where he was chief of the Environmental Art department in the 1980s, he encouraged students to create works that fitted into a landscape or an urban area with style and panache; the sculptures were not there as civic ornaments.
Professor Penny Macbeth, director and principal of the GSA, has written, “David’s legacy as an artist, educator and passionate advocate of socially engaged practice is evidenced across towns and cities in the UK and internationally whether through his own work or the work of the many students who he taught and inspired with generosity and rigor.”
David Harding was born in Leith, the son of Alfred Harding, a ship’s plumber, and Kathleen (nee Murray). He attended Holy Cross Academy and Edinburgh College of Art (1955-59). He then attended Moray House College of Education.
His first job was as a master at Holy Cross where he met Frances McKechnie whom he married in 1962. They moved to Nigeria where he taught for five years at a training college. In 1968 Harding returned to Scotland and after working as a freelance artist he was appointed ‘town artist’ with the Glenrothes Development Corporation and proposed that the artefacts should capture the architecture of the new town.
Harding was fortunate for, as he later wrote, “the Chief Architect of the town, Merlyn Williams, and his deputy, John Coghill, simply believed that it was a natural thing that an artist should work with the architects and other professions in creating a new town.” Harding was a member of the planning department and was consulted at every stage of development.
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Harding had some imaginative ideas to create an identity for Glenrothes which would involve its townsfolk. Landmarks were created by the locals: he invited primary school children to model their own individual ceramic tiles and sign them. They were then fired by the children onto walls adjacent to their local play areas. Secondary school pupils and adults painted murals. It proved a wonderfully bold and imaginative scheme: at a stroke, it gave the locals a sense of belonging.
Elsewhere, Harding also had poems inscribed on slabs on the pavements and buildings near bus stops and telephone kiosks. At Brownsbank Cottage near Biggar, the home of the poet Hugh MacDiarmid, Harding installed a concrete slab inscribed with MacDiarmid’s poem The Little White Rose.
Henge is perhaps Harding’s most noted work in Fife. Created in 1970 Harding cunningly refers to the neolithic stone circle at nearby Balbirnie. It comprises 13 concrete slabs each with a different decorative relief moulding and referring to Pictish and Celtic symbology. In the dawn and dusk Henge provides a captivating and singular sight. His visually stunning Heritage nearby is made of several concrete sculptures.
From 1975– 85 he lectured at Dartington College of Arts, in Devon and in 1985, he returned to Scotland to establish the environmental art department at GSA until his retirement in 2001. He was keen that his students should work within a community and engage purposively with architects and local institutions. He taught students that environmental art played an important part in urban landscape and he encouraged them to further their own independent styles. His students included the Turner Prize winners Douglas Gordon and Simon Starling and nominees.
Harding had the ability to work in close harmony with architects, builders and councils which greatly facilitated the making of his sculptures. He was invited to advise on other major civic refurbishments at Falkirk, Paisley, South Uist, Galashiels, Hamilton, Edinburgh and Glasgow. He exhibited his work across Scotland including at the National Gallery of Scotland. In 1981 he was asked to give a lecture tour across Australia of his work at Glenrothes.
Harding, a man with keen and incisive intellect, had an acute sense of justice, was a keen singer and a life-long fan of Hibs. At his home in Crown Terrace, Glasgow, he hosted Burns suppers for students, introducing many to Scottish poetry.
In Art in Architecture in Great Britain since 1945, Richard Cork wrote, “David Harding produced a series of deliberately varied works for a community he grew to understand with exceptional intimacy…. they were all informed by a knowledge of the locality.”
He was made OBE in 2002 and awarded an honorary doctorate at GSA in 2018.
He and Frances separated in 1989. Harding is survived by their six children.
ALASDAIR STEVEN
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