A catalogue to accompany the exhibition, An Artist’s Life, Act I, taking place at The Scottish Gallery in July 2021.
Flamboyant and confrontational, Scottish figurative painter Alexander Goudie (1933-2004) was part of a generation of influential painters who graduated from the Glasgow School of Art in the 1950s, and whose reputations are ripe for reappraisal. An Artist’s Life, Act I, charts his beginnings in post-war Paisley in the 1940s, student years at Glasgow School of Art in the 1950s and his early career – a period in which Goudie embarked upon a life-long project to document the evolving landscape and culture of his wife’s homeland, Brittany. To accompany this exhibition, we have created a beautifully illustrated publication, which includes vintage images of the artist and family. Join our events programme, which includes personal insight from his son, the artist, author and broadcaster, Lachlan Goudie.
About Alexander Goudie
Alexander Goudie (1933–2004) is widely regarded as one of Scotland’s greatest figurative painters, an artist whose exuberant personality, technical brilliance and devotion to the traditions of European painting shaped a remarkable and highly individual career. Born in Paisley in 1933, he enrolled at Glasgow School of Art at just sixteen, where he studied under influential tutors including David Donaldson. A gifted but outspoken student, Goudie immersed himself in the study of the great masters, particularly Manet, Velázquez and Van Dyck, developing an understanding of paint as both material and language. His training emphasised draughtsmanship, tonal control and the “alchemy of paint”, the tension between line and colour, and the ability to transform lived experience into art.
