This exhibition was an overview of the early, mid and late works of the Scottish artist Bet Low (1924-2007) bringing together work from 10 public institutions and 15 private lenders in Scotland. This Centenary exhibition was co-curated by Jenny Brownrigg and Andrew Parkinson (curator, The Pier Arts Centre), including 64 artworks and 74 pieces of ephemera. The exhibition ran at Reid Gallery, The Glasgow Art 11 Jan - 8 Feb 2025, continuing to the Pier Arts Centre, 1 March-7 June 2025. The exhibition was accompanied by a 24 page catalogue, published by Pier Arts Centre, with an essay by Brownrigg.
This exhibition on Low is another output and contribution to Brownrigg's research on historic and modern women photographers, filmmakers and painters in Scotland. It builds on 'Early Eardley: Selected Works 1940-1950' (co-curator Susannah Thompson, 2023) by examining the motivations, aims and processes of another significant painter in Scotland - Bet Low.
The research question was 'What new knowledge can curatorial methodology and exhibition-making as a research tool bring to understanding the often overlooked practices of women painters in Scotland, in this case, Bet Low?' The exhibition sought to trace Low's processes and genesis as an artist through three significant periods of her career - these were defined as her early works predominantly of Glasgow in the 1940s; her abstract period in the 1960s; and her later formal landscapes, inspired by her time in Orkney. Her process was scoped through inclusion of preparatory works, shown in exhibition cases. The artist's work is dispersed across numerous archives and collections. Working across archives and collections, gave the ability to connect sketches in one archive with corresponding final works in other collections. The exhibition was also contextualised by the inclusion of reviews of Low's exhibitions in her lifetime - in particular her solo exhibition at the Third Eye Centre, Glasgow in 1985.
This exhibition also reassessed Low's contribution to Scottish art and culture, from her role co-founding the New Charing Cross Gallery (1963-8), to her other activities with Glasgow Unity Theatre, the Clyde Group and open-air exhibitions on the railings on Glasgow Botanics (1956). This was achieved through loans of associated ephemera.
Loans were from public and private collections, including The Bet Low Trust, Centre for Contemporary Art Glasgow (CCA) Archive, Culture Perth & Kinross Museum & Galleries, The Glasgow School of Art, Lillie Art Gallery, National Galleries of Scotland, National Library of Scotland, North Lanarkshire Council, Orkney Islands Council, The Pier Arts Centre Collection, Royal Scottish Academy Diploma Collection and University of Glasgow Library Archives and Special Collections.
The loans and exhibition were supported by the Weston Loan Programme with Art Fund. Created by the Garfield Weston Foundation and Art Fund, the Weston Loan Programme is the first ever UK-wide funding scheme to enable smaller and local authority museums to borrow works of art and artefacts from national collections.
As part of public engagement, there were 9 events including:
- A curators exhibition tour (11.1.25 GSA, 1.3.25 Pier Arts Centre)
-A lecture 'City Streets, Scottish Islands and Silhouetted Hills: Bet Low (1924-2007) Art and Life', by Hildegarde Berwick (21.1.25, GSA)
-LOWLANDS round table (28.1.25, GSA), a collective of artists inspired by Bet Low
- 3 papermaking workshops (23.1.25 Multicultural Centre, 27.1, 28.1.25, GSA)
- Round Table, 'New Charing Cross Gallery (1963 – 68) and Contemporary Artist-Run Models in Glasgow' (3.2.25, GSA) chair: Neil Clements (Ivory Tars), Celine, Oren Shoesmith and Nikki Kane. This round table began with New Charing Cross Gallery’s history and move to wider discussions on different current artist-run initiative models in Glasgow.
A walking tour ' Bet Low – an Artist’s Life Reflected Through Glasgow’s Architecture', with Hildegarde Berwick (8.2.25)
Bet Low RSA RSW RGI D.Lit. was born in Gourock in 1924. She attended Glasgow School of Art (1942-45), during the period of the Second World War, gaining a diploma in Drawing and Painting. In 1945, Low undertook a three-month diploma course at Patrick Allan-Fraser School of Art, Hospitalfield, Arbroath. Low attended teacher training at Glasgow’s Jordanhill Training College in 1945. However, she did not wish to teach and left the course, to become involved in Glasgow Unity Theatre. She helped paint set scenery, did occasional set design and assisted with publicity.
In 1946 she joined the Clyde Group of Writers and Artists, going on to be part of their ‘Art and Peace Festival and Exhibition’ in McLellan Galleries, Glasgow. In 1956, with her husband Tom Macdonald and others, she co-organised a series of open-air exhibitions on the railings of Glasgow’s Botanic Gardens. She joined the Glasgow Group Society in the mid-1960s, taking part in many of its exhibitions. In 1963 she co-founded and was one of the directors of the New Charing Cross Gallery in Glasgow (1963-1968). Low was elected a Professional Member of the Society of Scottish Artists in 1964 and was an invited Professional Member of the Scottish Society of Women Artists.
Whilst Glasgow was to remain home, in 1967 Low and Macdonald bought a small cottage in Lyness, Hoy (Orkney). This sustained relationship with place had a great impact on her practice. Low had several solo shows through Cyril Gerber Fine Art, including ‘The Forties, Glasgow People and Places: Drawings and Paintings, Tom Macdonald & Bet Low’ (1984). In 1985 she had a significant retrospective, selected by Cordelia Oliver, at the Third Eye Centre, Glasgow, which toured Scotland to Dumfries, Perth and the Pier Arts Centre, Orkney. Her work was acquired for both public and private collections in her lifetime. Low was elected an Associate of the Royal Scottish Academy in 1988 and made a Royal Scottish Academy Academician in 2005. In 1999 she was awarded an Honorary Degree of Doctor of Letters from Glasgow University. Bet Low died at the age of 82 in Glasgow.
