Avenue

12
HISTORY OF ART 13
Working closely with a
Scottish artist
Anne Dulau, curator at The Hunterian, talks
about working with Duncan Shanks, one of
Scotland’s most accomplished painters.
Getting to know The
Hunterian’s founder
Peter Black, curator at The Hunterian,
talks about researching William Hunter’s
art collections and finding hidden gems.
History of
Art
‘The first living artist I’d ever collaborated with was the contemporary
Scottish landscape and still life painter Duncan Shanks.
‘He had been encouraged by friends to consider leaving his entire
collection of sketchbooks to The Hunterian, and I was asked to
investigate. Although familiar with contemporary Scottish art I had never
produced an exhibition on that subject before: it was a real baptism of
fire. As my areas of specialty are mainly confined to pre-World War II
French and British art, I usually research the output of artists who are no
longer alive. At last here was an artist who could answer my questions.
‘I started visiting him to go through the sketchbooks and to
establish what would be most appropriate for The Hunterian: to select
representative examples illustrating his career or to take the whole lot –
over 100 sketchbooks from his student days right up to the present day.
After a few visits it became clear that the material in those sketchbooks
was quite outstanding, and that it could also be used for teaching.
‘We decided to celebrate the gift of his entire output with an exhibition
and Duncan very kindly allowed me to choose a painting in his studio
that would help to illustrate his remarkable journey through the creative
process, from sketchbook to finished work. He was also instrumental in
the production of the accompanying publication, which sold out within
four months of the exhibition opening and will probably be reprinted.
‘Thinking about how to best display the sketchbooks was a team
effort between The Hunterian and Duncan. A room full of tabletop
cases, the most obvious way, did not feel like an attractive option.
Our head of design, Stephen Perry, came up with the solution. The
sketchbooks were displayed on wall-mounted shelves behind a glass
wall, allowing us to maximise their impact within a relatively small area.
‘The whole process, very different from most other exhibitions I have
worked on, was very enjoyable and I’m quite sad it is over. Visiting
Duncan in his studio was a unique experience and I will miss it.’
‘The Hunter picture collection is the most memorable research and
exhibition projects I’ve been involved in here.
‘In 2007 we celebrated the museum’s bicentenary and we used that
opportunity to do research on the art collections of our founder William
Hunter.
‘For me the most exciting part was trying to understand how and why
he bought his collection of 65 old master paintings. The study of his
habits as a collector of paintings was one of the most important outputs
of this exhibition.
‘So Stubbs, for example, was a living artist whom he commissioned
to make paintings of animals that were interesting anatomically, such as
exotic animals, but on the whole he bought old masters.
‘He had a Rubens and a Rembrandt. And three gems of the
collection are works by Chardin, a mid-18th-century French still life
painter.
‘We also improved the state of the collection a great deal as a result
of our research. We investigated the attribution of paintings and found
that there were important paintings that had been downgraded in the
past by scholars, and we were also able to provide some of them with
more suitable frames, where the original had been lost and replaced by
something that was not worthy of the painting.
‘When you go into the gallery now we have a bay dedicated to
William Hunter’s picture collection. We didn’t have that when I came
here in 1998.
‘A curator’s role is to be an ambassador for the objects in the
collection. We are an essential intermediary between the object and the
public. Research is the primary motivation for me, but the research is
useless if it can’t be shared with somebody. So the real pleasure comes
from research directed towards exhibitions and publications. That’s
what motivates me.’
History of Art is a discipline with its origins in
the 19th century,’ says head of History of
Art, Dr Tom Nichols, in his office at University
Gardens, surrounded by several hundred books, a
self-portrait by Albrecht Dürer and a charcoal sketch
of Michelangelo’s David.
‘It’s a popular subject with undergraduates – close
to 200 in first year – despite not being taught in
most schools. Young people are often looking for
something different to what they’ve done at school
when they come to university.
‘And postgraduate courses are taking students
into whole new areas of art and its interpretation,’
says Dr Nichols. ‘We’ve gone from a handful of
postgraduates five years ago to around 60 this year.
At any one time we have 20 to 30 PhD students.’
And the growth of the subject is only going to
continue, helped along by the opening of phase one
of the Kelvin Hall in autumn 2016.
Housing over 1.3 million scientific, history,
archaeology and design objects from The Hunterian,
and around 2 million if we add those from Glasgow
Museums, the Kelvin Hall development will provide
knowledge exchange and object-led education in the
arts, sciences and social sciences.
Postgraduate students will benefit
from research and teaching labs,
and advanced conservation
studios. A range of new
postgraduate programmes has
been developed for the Kelvin Hall, while existing
programmes will be enhanced by the new facilities.
Students will also still have access to and be inspired
by the gallery spaces within the Hunterian Museum
and Art Gallery which remain on campus.
Art History-related Masters-level programmes
offered will include:
• Dress & Textile Histories
• Technical Art History, Making & Meaning
• Curatorial Practice (Contemporary Art)
• Material Culture & Artefact Studies
• Museum Education
• Museum Studies
• Provenance & Collecting Studies in a
Global Context
• Textile Conservation
The iconic Kelvin Hall building was for many
years a sporting and leisure venue and home to
the Transport Museum. It is now home to a
partnership between the University of Glasgow,
Glasgow Museums, Glasgow Life, and the Scottish
Screen Archives from the National Library of
Scotland. The new facility will be the first of its kind
in the UK to enjoy the benefits of a unique
combination of research, cultural heritage, civic,
educational, media, sport and commercial activities
under one roof.
To find out more, see www.glasgow.ac.uk/avenue.
Pink Cloud,
Red Pole
(1973–78)
was inspired
by the view
from Duncan
Shanks’
garden.
A Lady Taking
Tea is a
masterpiece
by French
18th-century
painter Jean-
Siméon
Chardin.
To find out what exhibitions are on at The Hunterian, turn to page 29.
Watch Peter and Anne talk more about these artists, see www.glasgow.ac.uk/avenue.