IN GLASGOW, art has never been just for rich collectors.
The Royal Glasgow Institute of The Fine Arts (RGI) has played a vital part in the city’s arts development and promotion since its establishment on May 29, 1861.
It was founded by a group of artists and businessmen in Glasgow, with a view to holding regular exhibitions of living painters and sculptors from the city and west of Scotland area.
By the 1860s, Glasgow was a major industrial and trade centre, and so unsurprisingly was growing as a cultural hub. The city was full of theatres, concert halls and libraries, so the additional of an annual art show for living artists had been discussed for some time by various groups eventually leading to the creation of the Glasgow Institute of Fine Arts.
Its annual exhibitions were an immediate critical success (with moderate financial profits too) as recorded in its minute and sales books, now in the care of the City Archives.
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The first exhibition was held at the Corporation Galleries (now McLellan Galleries) on Sauchiehall Street, hired from the Glasgow Corporation. It proved extremely popular, attracting 39,099 visitors. With the majority of tickets sold being ‘Working Man Tickets’, the first exhibition demonstrated that there was an enthusiasm for new art amongst the general public in Glasgow, not just within art dealing circles.
In 1879, due to big attendance figures, and the increasing number of works being shown, a new purpose-built gallery was created on Sauchiehall Street.
The exhibitions attracted international works as well as home-grown talent. Artists such as Turner, Constable, Poynter, Burne Jones, Whistler, Renoir, Hornel, Gauld, Lavery and Guthrie were all included in exhibitions as well as later key 20th century artists such as Peploe, Leslie Hunter and Cadell.
The decision to host works that highlighted new developments in art have inspired local artists. For example, the internationally renowned group known as the Glasgow Boys were hugely influenced by the then modern works of French painters exhibited by the institute.
In 1896 the institute received its Royal Charter in recognition of its achievements, and by this time the annual exhibitions were as much of a fixture on the British art scene’s calendar as those of London’s Royal Academy and Edinburgh’s Scottish Royal Academy.
However, in 1902, high running costs meant the institute had to sell its gallery building (to department store Pettigrew & Stephens) and return to hiring the McLellan Galleries.
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From the start, the institute promoted new and contemporary art. Despite leaning to more conservative art in the 1920s and 1930s, the institute nowadays is back to its original aims, including more experimental and modern works. For many years its annual art show was Scotland’s largest, and it continues to encourage new and forward-thinking artists in its exhibitions today.
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