Polymaths ready for their complementary close-ups

There’s a lot to link John Byrne and Alasdair Gray. Both were born in the west of Scotland (Byrne in 1940 and Gray in 1934) and both became known, initially, as visual artists before extending their reach into writing (novels and poetry in the case of Gray and, for Byrne, plays and TV). The two have worked as public artists, constructing murals and other publicly visible imagery in Glasgow, and elsewhere.

Both have easily recognisable styles as visual artists — while Gray’s is more graphic, stylised and eminently reproducible, Byrne has favoured portraiture, and self-portraiture, especially. Both are adept print-makers, with Gray favouring screen-print and Byrne tending more towards etching.

The show is titled Two Great Glasgow Polymaths and while this may be a slight overstatement, there’s no doubting the range and reach of both artists’ work. Gray found fame as a writer with his epic, partly autobiographical novel, Lanark: A Life in Four Books, while Byrne became a household name with his TV series, Tutti Frutti, featuring Robbie Coltrane.

Some of the illustrations from Lanark (based on those of Hobbes’s Leviathan) are on show here — book four of Lanark was introduced with a take on Abraham Bosse’s anamorphic illustration of 1651 which shows a Sovereign King created from a composite of smaller human figures, demonstrating the theory of the social contract.

“A multitude of men, are made one person, when they are by one man, or one person, represented; so that it be done with the consent of every one of that multitude in particular,” wrote Hobbes. Gray’s image shows modern Scotland straddled by a ruler, who holds a sword (Force) aloft in one hand, and in the other, a sceptre (Persuasion). In essence, it’s a critique of Empire and colonialism. The large scale of the original is much better than its reproduction in the novel, whose size makes it seem disappointing and partly indecipherable.

Gray translated TS Eliot’s quirky, nine-stanza poem, The Hippopotamus, into Scots (and by doing so, improved it mightily) and here the individual verses are matched by equally quirky, graphically adept illustrations, demonstrating that Gray can tackle the simpler, humorous themes with the best of them.

Byrne’s enduring interest in self-portraiture can sometimes seem introspective, and even repetitive, and he’s at his best when he looks outward into the wider world in work such as Downtown (a screen print with watercolour) that depicts a street-wise New York kid.

Tutti Frutti (2016) brings to life something of the energy and humour of the TV series, while an untitled monotype revisits the success of Byrne’s stage hit, The Slab Boys Trilogy, based on Byrne’s experiences of working in Stoddard’s carpet factory in Elderslie (a “slab boy” mixes and grinds colours for the carpet designs).

It’s great to see the work of these gifted individuals side by side. Both have made a very great contribution to the cultural life of the nation and the RGI must be congratulated for bringing them together.

Until January. Admission free