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Open Eye Gallery’s exhibition celebrates the Lives of W. Gordon Smith and Mrs Jay Gordonsmith

By Susan Mansfield, 26.01.2021
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Craigie Aitchison, Indian Crucifixion. © The Estate of the Artist. Courtesy Open Eye Gallery.

What does your art collection say about you? One might well consider this question while browsing the extensive collection put together by documentary-maker, writer and art critic W. Gordon Smith and his wife Jay. It’s too bad it can only be viewed online as it is as lively and eclectic a show of (mainly) Scottish art as one might hope to see.

Smith is best known as the man behind more than 100 documentaries made for the BBC in the 1960s and 1970s about figures in the arts in Scotland, and later became art critic for Scotland on Sunday. After his death in 1996, his wife Jay continued to add to the collection, which covered every wall in their Edinburgh home (and of which this show is only a partial representation).

John Byrne RSA, Painted Banjo. © The Artist. Courtesy Open Eye Gallery.

There are significant paintings by artists such as David McClure, John McLean, Robin Philipson and Craigie Aitchison, alongside sketches by J D Fergusson and a painting by George Leslie Hunter. There are drawings by John Bellany, paintings by Alexander Moffat, a plaque by Benno Schotz and a painted banjo by John Byrne.

But it would be a mistake to come to this show looking only for the ‘greatest hits’. Gordon and Jay did not always go for headline pieces, preferring to limit individual purchases to under £1,000. There is a striking still life of magnolias on a red background by Margot Sandeman, a boat with a red sail by Jack Knox, landscapes and seascapes by James Morrison’s experimental phase in the late 1960s, a metal bird by George Wylie, sketches by Adrian Wiszniewski of his designs for the top floor restaurant at GoMA.

Dorothy Stirling, the Optimist and the Pessimist. © The Artist. Courtesy Open Eye Gallery.

And it is a show full of discoveries: Barry McGlashan’s quirky take on Bruegel, Dorothy Stirling’s symbolism, Claire Banks’ lonely interiors, a tapestry by Archie Brennan, magic realism by Neil Dallas Brown and Peter Collins, watercolours and prints and sculptures and ceramics. It is a collection driven by a desire to support artists, not by specific themes or aesthetic concerns, and the sale of these works ensures that this legacy of support will continue, through a range of prizes and bursaries, for years to come. 

View the exhibition at Open Eye Gallery