ART & EXHIBITIONS LIST
The Campbells are coming...
Campbell had a rosy life in . i ' V
the Big Apple. On the eve of his first exhibition in his home town, The List asks art-world pundits for their views on the man and his art.
Steven Campbell is often credited with being at the ioreiront oi contemporary Glasgow painting. Born in 1953, he is olderthan Ken Currie, Peter Howson and Adrian Wizniewski, but is nevertheless oi the same art college generation. The tour have been dubbed the ‘Hew Glasgow Boys' - a title to which they seem not to object, and which relers back to the group at colourists oi the turn at the century whose paintings are collectors’ items. Heavily promoted and marketed as being not only individuals oi signilicance but also as a group representative oi Glasgow’s visual art production, ‘The New Glasgow Boys’ are prominent in media coverage oi the City oi Culture. Typical of the work of the iour are heroic gestures with romanticised images oi masculinity and working class struggle; ubiquitous to Campbell‘s own painting are improbable situations where nature and domesticity seem to conspire against tweedy young men.
Alter leaving Glasgow School oi Art, Campbell moved to New York where he successiully obtained exhibiting space and sold work to private collectors and museums. Because of this he is sometimes credited with slnglehandedly renewing international interest in Scottish art. His work inspires passion, both for and against. The tall-out from this, his ilrst one-person show in his home-town, should be glowing hot.
Cyril Gerber, Compass Gallery
We showed one or two things in the New Generation show when he first graduated. One would welcome this first exhibition of his in Glasgow. It‘s good he‘s still working from Glasgow after having success in New York, London and elsewhere. It‘s a sign of the improved situation for Glasgow artists, that they can make their names and still work from the city. I‘ve not seen the work yet. but good luck to him!
Xx.‘\%
Clare Henry, Critic, The Glasgow Herald
I admire the fact that he‘s doing something different. that he has changed tack, and is tackling the awesome project of transforming the Third Eye into his own space by introducing music. seats to sit down on — an element of atmosphere. What a change to see one of the Glasgow boys featuring a nude centre stage! What a relief.
John Mackechnie, Glasgow Printmaker's Workshop
1 like his work generally. but I‘ve not seen this stuff apart from a
58 The List 9 — 22 March 1990