Glasgow artist Norman Gilbert at Tramway
- 2 years ago
Tramway, Glasgow.
GLASGOW SOUTHSIDE ARTIST NORMAN GILBERT HAS MAJOR SOLO EXHIBITION AT TRAMWAY THIS AUTUMN
OPEN 3rd SEPTEMBER 2022 – 5th FEBRUARY 2023
Norman Gilbert (1926-2019) lived and worked on Glasgow’s south side for over fifty years painting intimate, domestic scenes of his wife Pat, their four children and an extended family of friends and neighbours who frequented their home on Shields Road, and enriched and shaped their lives. Tramway is pleased to present the first solo exhibition of his work, in his home city and neighbourhood.
Gilbert’s vibrant and formally diverse paintings are characterised by bold, inventive colour palettes and flat areas of vivid pattern that sit next to one another in exuberant combinations. Intricately detailed and complex in their composition, his paintings deftly shape a fluid synthesis between figure and space, creating a sense of wholeness in which people, objects and their environments exist harmoniously. In Gilbert’s own words “each colour and shape enhances every other colour and shape, so it’s entirely satisfactory, so it’s at peace.”
Along with Norman Gilbert's paintings, Tramway are also exhibiting pencil studies as well as textiles, objects and ephemera from the artist’s studio which was just moments from Tramway. Murals and elements of the painting have also inspired the scenography of the exhibition.
Using pattern to dynamic effect, Gilbert democratically embellishes every intricate detail of the painting, exaggerating outlines and contours to build depth and spatial complexity. This technique combined with his inventive narrative eye draws audiences into the paintings inviting them into Gilbert’s world in which the daily rhythms and intimacies of family life are teased out.
Gilbert’s studio was based in the family home and the interlacing of pattern and motif echo the confluence of art and life which defined Gilbert’s process. From the 1970’s fashions of his teenage children and printed textiles created by his wife Pat, to the architectural motifs of their Victorian tenement, Gilbert’s paintings are steeped in domestic life. Everyday family scenes from the banal to the touchingly poignant are played out as if on a stage, blurring the lines between art and life, and challenging what might be considered a valuable or important subject for a painting.
Perhaps most poignantly Gilbert’s work has also come to mark the passage of time, as fashions change and children grow, his subjects age and life unfolds. Notably his works feature his four sons as they grew up, formed relationships, and had children of their own. He also painted many portraits of his wife Pat, continuing into old age in paintings such as ‘Chair’ or ‘Pat’ characteristically titled simply but evoking in them the complex intimacies and inner emotional worlds that make up a life. In the words of his son Mark “Dad’s pictures are a tender and affec
GLASGOW SOUTHSIDE ARTIST NORMAN GILBERT HAS MAJOR SOLO EXHIBITION AT TRAMWAY THIS AUTUMN
OPEN 3rd SEPTEMBER 2022 – 5th FEBRUARY 2023
Norman Gilbert (1926-2019) lived and worked on Glasgow’s south side for over fifty years painting intimate, domestic scenes of his wife Pat, their four children and an extended family of friends and neighbours who frequented their home on Shields Road, and enriched and shaped their lives. Tramway is pleased to present the first solo exhibition of his work, in his home city and neighbourhood.
Gilbert’s vibrant and formally diverse paintings are characterised by bold, inventive colour palettes and flat areas of vivid pattern that sit next to one another in exuberant combinations. Intricately detailed and complex in their composition, his paintings deftly shape a fluid synthesis between figure and space, creating a sense of wholeness in which people, objects and their environments exist harmoniously. In Gilbert’s own words “each colour and shape enhances every other colour and shape, so it’s entirely satisfactory, so it’s at peace.”
Along with Norman Gilbert's paintings, Tramway are also exhibiting pencil studies as well as textiles, objects and ephemera from the artist’s studio which was just moments from Tramway. Murals and elements of the painting have also inspired the scenography of the exhibition.
Using pattern to dynamic effect, Gilbert democratically embellishes every intricate detail of the painting, exaggerating outlines and contours to build depth and spatial complexity. This technique combined with his inventive narrative eye draws audiences into the paintings inviting them into Gilbert’s world in which the daily rhythms and intimacies of family life are teased out.
Gilbert’s studio was based in the family home and the interlacing of pattern and motif echo the confluence of art and life which defined Gilbert’s process. From the 1970’s fashions of his teenage children and printed textiles created by his wife Pat, to the architectural motifs of their Victorian tenement, Gilbert’s paintings are steeped in domestic life. Everyday family scenes from the banal to the touchingly poignant are played out as if on a stage, blurring the lines between art and life, and challenging what might be considered a valuable or important subject for a painting.
Perhaps most poignantly Gilbert’s work has also come to mark the passage of time, as fashions change and children grow, his subjects age and life unfolds. Notably his works feature his four sons as they grew up, formed relationships, and had children of their own. He also painted many portraits of his wife Pat, continuing into old age in paintings such as ‘Chair’ or ‘Pat’ characteristically titled simply but evoking in them the complex intimacies and inner emotional worlds that make up a life. In the words of his son Mark “Dad’s pictures are a tender and affec