Exploring the Glasgow School of Art: A Historical Overview

This entry sits within the Decorative and Applied Arts Encyclopedia, a master reference hub indexing design history, materials, movements, and practitioners.

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“Glasgow School’ is a term used to describe several groups of artists based in Glasgow. The first and most significant of these groups was a loose association of artists active from around 1880 to the turn of the century; there was no formal membership or programme, but the artists involved (who preferred to be known as the Glasgow Boys) were united by a desire to move away from the conservative and parochial values they believed the Royal Scottish Academy in Edinburgh represented.

Sir James Guthrie (1859–1930) and Sir John Lavery were the group’s most well-known members. Several of them had lived and worked in France and opposed outdoor painting. The group’s heydey was gone by 1900 and did not survive the First World War. Still, it offered a significant spur for Scottish art in the twentieth century, paving the way for the Scottish Colourists. From roughly 1890 through 1910, a slightly later group created a different style of Art Nouveau. Charles Rennie Mackintosh, the architect and designer, was its most significant member.

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Glasgow Pups

The title ‘Glasgow School’ (or, more jokingly, ‘Glasgow pups’) has recently been ascribed to a group of figurative painters active in the city since the 1980s. Ken Currie (1960– ), Peter Howson (1958– ), and Adrian Wiszniewski (1958– ), all of whom attended the Glasgow School of Art at the same time, are among them.