Bet Low (28 December 1924 – 2 December 2007) was a Scottish figurative and landscape painter, notable as one of the Glasgow Girls, and as a co-founder of the Clyde Group.

Life

Born in

Gourock Gourock ( ; ) is a town in the Inverclyde council areas of Scotland, council area and formerly a burgh of the County of Renfrew in the west of Scotland. It was a resort town, seaside resort on the East shore of the upper Firth of Clyde. Its ma ...

, Bet Low grew up by the Clyde Estuary in poor circumstances, influenced by the stark contrast between Glasgow's industrial areas and the surrounding Scottish countryside. Low married, and later divorced, the painter Tom MacDonald. With her family, she regularly visited Hoy in Orkney, where the light and landscape provided fresh inspiration for her work.

Work

Low studied at the

Glasgow School of Art The Glasgow School of Art (GSA; ) is a higher education art school based in Glasgow, Scotland, offering undergraduate degrees, post-graduate awards (both taught and research-led), and PhDs in architecture, fine art, and design. These are all awa ...

during the Second World War, and continued her studies at Hospitalfield House under James Cowie in 1945, who stimulated her lifelong interest in literature, philosophy and politics. She studied to become a teacher at

Jordanhill College Jordanhill College of Education was a higher education college in Jordanhill, Glasgow, Scotland. It opened as a teacher training college in 1921. The college merged with the University of Strathclyde in 1993, becoming its Faculty of Educati ...

from 1945 to 1946 but did not complete her training after becoming interested in the theatre. Following the war, Low was a co-founder of the Clyde Group, part of the left-wing New Scottish Group of writers and artists. Low's early figurative work was influenced by

German Expressionism Expressionism is a modernist movement, initially in poetry and painting, originating in Northern Europe around the beginning of the 20th century. Its typical trait is to present the world solely from a subjective perspective, distorting it radi ...

, and frequently depicted post-war Glasgow settings, characters, and refugees. Low also worked in illustration and theatrical set design at the

Glasgow Unity Theatre The Glasgow Unity Theatre was a theatre group that was formed in 1941, in Glasgow. The Unity theatre movement developed from workers' drama groups in the 1930s, seeing itself as using theatre to highlight the issues of the working class being prod ...

, and created her first set design for

Ena Lamont Stewart Ena Lamont Stewart (10 February 1912, Glasgow – 9 February 2006, Dalmellington) was a Scottish playwright. Life and career Stewart was the daughter of a Church of Scotland minister whose family was originally from Canada and had settled in Gl ...

's '' Men Should Weep''. By the 1960s, Low had moved on to the more abstract work for which she is now best known. Of ''Merge and Emerge'' (1961) Low said,

''"I was trying to produce an effect of water moving over stones in a riverbed. In some parts, everything is hidden by the depth or movement of water and merged together, and in other parts where the water is more shallow, the stones appear beneath the surface again and emerge into sight"''

A friend and contemporary of the poet

George Mackay Brown George Mackay Brown (17 October 1921 – 13 April 1996) was a Scottish poet, author and dramatist with a distinctly Orkney, Orcadian character. He is widely regarded as one of the great Scottish poets of the 20th century. Biography Early life a ...

, Low collaborated with him on the poster poem, "Orkney, the Whale Islands" (1987).

Exhibitions and awards

Low exhibited with The Society of Scottish Independent Artists, the Royal Glasgow Institute, and the New Art Club founded by J.D. Fergusson and Margaret Morris. In 1956 Low co-organised Glasgow's first open air exhibition, on the railings of the Botanical Gardens. It was reported in ''The Scotsman'' as "The Left Bank come to the Kelvin". The exhibition was run independently for five years. A retrospective of Low's work was presented in 1986 at the Third Eye Centre in Glasgow and at the Pier Arts Centre in

Stromness Stromness (, ; ) is the second-most populous town in Orkney, Scotland. It is in the southwestern part of Mainland, Orkney. It is a burgh with a parish around the outside with the town of Stromness as its capital. Etymology The name "Stromnes ...

References

External links

Bet Low interviewed on STV's "Talking Pictures", Episode 4 (1991)

Modern Scottish Women - uncovering a vital period in art history
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Papers of Bet Low, 1924-2007 (GB 247 MS Gen 1764) Archives & Special Collections, University of Glasgow
{{DEFAULTSORT:Low, Bet 1924 births 2007 deaths 20th-century Scottish painters Alumni of Hospitalfield House Alumni of the Glasgow School of Art British landscape painters Glasgow School People from Gourock 20th-century Scottish women painters

Life

Work

Exhibitions and awards

See also

References

External links