John Byrne RSA, Beach Boy, 2011, oil on board
Open Eye Gallery
John Byrne RSA
13 August – 5 September 2011
John Byrne was born in Paisley in 1940, and grew up in the Ferguslie Park housing scheme. He studied at Glasgow School of Art from 1958 to 1963, and has since made a remarkable contribution to Scottish arts and culture through his varied career as a prolific illustrator, painter, printmaker and writer.
In 1967 he had his ï¬rst successful exhibition in London of faux-naïf images under the pseudonym ‘Patrick’, claiming they were created by his father. He illustrated record covers for the Beatles, Billy Connolly and the late Gerry Rafferty, with whom he also co-wrote songs and was a close friend. From 1964 to 1966 he illustrated jackets for Penguin Books and more recently Selected Stories by 1994 Booker Prize winner James Kelman.
The six-time BAFTA award-winning television series Tutti Frutti (1987) starring Robbie Coltrane, Emma Thompson and Richard Wilson is one of his most notable written creations. Drawing upon his pre-artschool experiences in the colour-mixing room of a 1950s carpet factory in Paisley, The Slab Boys (1978) is named by the National Library of Scotland as one of the 12 key works of the last 40 years. He designed sets for his own plays and for other productions including Clifford Odets’ The Country Girl (1983).
John Byrne’s first major exhibition of paintings, drawings and etchings at the Open Eye Gallery will coincide with the launch of his biography published by Lund Humphries. A selection of original artworks from the children’s book Donald and Benoit: The Story of a Cat and a Boy, written and illustrated by Byrne, will also be shown.
Additional Exhibition
European Masterprints 1890–1980
13 August – 24 September
Lithographs, etchings and silkscreen prints by artists including Picasso, Miró, Braque, Dufy, Toulouse-Lautrec and Marini.
34 Abercromby Place, EH3 6QE
0131 557 1020 / 0131 558 9872
Mon–Fri, 10am–6pm; Sat, 10am–4pm