Like many, I was disturbed to read the article by Phil Miller on George Wyllie's work being omitted from the National Galleries of Scotland's forthcoming exhibition on the History of Modern Scottish Sculpture from 1900 ("Friends of George Wyllie accuse galleries of snub", The Herald October 29).
The first piece by George Wyllie I ever saw was a plough with welded Mickey Mouse ears and the whole thing painted yellow and black.
This was at an RGI exhibition at the McLellan Galleries in the early 1970s when I was a student at Glasgow School of Art. Each year I looked forward to seeing what he came up with next. As time passed, his career rocketed and major pieces held our attention and made us all view objects and situations in new ways.
Who can ever forget the Straw Locomotive hanging from the Finnieston Crane by the Clyde? Then there was the Paper Boat and the Running Clock and the giant Safety Pin and … so many more.
That the National Galleries of Scotland would consider mounting an exhibition showcasing Modern Scottish Sculpture from 1900 and not include Mr Wyllie is astonishing.
Could this be an example of Edinburgh choosing to ignore what happens here in the West? Surely not. Or worse: is this a failure to recognise the importance of his work?
Perhaps it is simple snobbery. I don’t know and I hope someone in the National Galleries can explain it to me.
If this is because the National Galleries of Scotland do not have any of Mr Wyllie’s work in their collections, it is surely time they did.
I do know that his work connects with people from all strata of society and is extremely popular (that might be the problem). There’s nothing like a little elitism to get a major gallery excited.
I love Mr Wyllie’s work. I love his swipe at establishment. Indeed he swipes at us all whilst at the same time embracing us with the challenge to take a refreshing look at our world.
He paved the way for many of the artists working today. Ignoring his contribution would be, to me at least, something of a cultural crime – and one in three dimensions.
Charles Jamieson,
41 Lugton Road,
Dunlop, Ayrshire.
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