The Wyllieum, a new space dedicated to the work and legacy of one of Scotland’s most beloved and well-known artists, George Wyllie, announces its inaugural exhibition and an opening date for the new gallery.
Situated in Greenock, on the mouth of the River Clyde, The Wyllieum is close to both Wyllie’s home in Gourock and his place of work, The Customs House. The purpose-built gallery, designed by renowned Scottish architect Richard Murphy OBE, is housed in the new Ocean Terminal.
Home to the largest collection of works by George Wyllie in the world, The Wyllieum will showcase Wyllie’s work and legacy, hosting a rolling display of exhibitions and displays of art which connect to Wyllie by outlook or ethos. Alongside a permanent collection display showing items from The Wyllieum’s own collection, The George Wyllie Estate, as well as generous long term loans from private collections, the artworks will be accompanied by a range of ephemera and archival material building a fuller picture of how Wyllie worked. The year-round gallery programme will include two temporary exhibitions showcasing Wyllie’s practice and placing it in dialogue with his collaborators, such as George Rickey and Joseph Beuys, while also creating a platform for contemporary artistic responses to his work.
George Wyllie was born in Glasgow in 1921 and trained as an engineer with the Post Office before serving in the Royal Navy from 1942 to 1946. He was a Customs and Excise Officer for thirty years before becoming a full-time artist in his late fifties, pioneering socially engaged artwork such as the Straw Locomotive (1987), which hung over an empty Clyde as a requiem for Glasgow’s engineering prowess and Paper Boat of the Origami Line (1989) a reminder that over two fifths of the world’s merchant ships were launched in The Clyde in the early 1900s.
Chair of The Wyllieum Board, Michael Dale said “I first met George Wyllie in 1984 when I was director of the Edinburgh Fringe and I like to think I was the first person to commission him to do a large-scale outdoor event, for Fringe Sunday in 1984. We worked together over the next 25 years on various public installations including the Glasgow Garden Festival in 1988.
As a result, when I was asked to be a Trustee, I was very pleased to take on a role to promote the man, his work and to find a way to honour his memory through Art in the new Gallery. Now, as Chair, it is most important that we work together to create a destination in Inverclyde, his home, to inspire and entertain the many people who like to go and see culture on an accessible level, just as he would have wanted. The gallery will open in 2024 thanks to the efforts of many people, and it is our responsibility to combine with partners across the region to sustain the legacy of this remarkable man.”
George Wyllie: Spires brings together, for the first time, the largest selection of Spires ever shown in a single exhibition, alongside previously unseen archival documents, photographs and drawings.
Irene Brown
Radio Summerhall Arts 