A NEW gallery dedicated to renowned artist George Wyllie will welcome its first visitors tomorrow as the purpose-built museum opens its doors at Greenock Ocean Terminal.
The Wyllieum is housed within £20m visitor centre on the town’s waterfront, which officially opened in August last year.
Launching with an exhibition titled ‘I Once Went Down to the Sea Again’, the gallery has brought together the largest selection of Wyllie’s spire sculptures ever shown in a single event.
The show also features previously unseen archival documents, photographs and drawings by the Gourock artist.
The Spires are considered to be among the most well-developed bodies of work Wyllie produced in his career.
He began making the structures – which feature a three-legged base with a vertical pole held in balance by a rock or stone – in 1982.
In the decades following, Wyllie developed spires for sites across the UK, Europe and America.
These included his piece ‘32 Spires for Hibernia’, which was first shown bridging a stream outside Derry – with half of the spires sitting within Northern Ireland and the other half in the Republic.
The exhibition was co-curated by The Wyllieum’s inaugural director Will Cooper and artist Sara Barker.
Will said: “George Wyllie started making art full-time after a career that included stints in the Royal Navy and 30 years as a customs and excise officer in Greenock.
“His decision to become an artist in his retirement is an inspiration to us all.
“I am in awe of the dedicated hard work of impassioned supporters who have turned their love for George into The Wyllieum.”
“Our opening programme is hugely exciting. I can’t wait to welcome visitors into our building.”
Sara, a graduate of Glasgow School of Art who now tutors there, became involved in the project after being asked by Will, her friend of more than 10 years.
She told the Tele: “It’s been a really lovely process.
“Going through any artist’s archive like that is a really special thing.
“It’s almost like looking through something secret that you otherwise wouldn’t be privy to.
“You can, in a way, extract the important things that tell the story.”
Sara hopes The Wyllieum will be an asset people from Greenock and beyond can enjoy for many years to come.
She added: “I suppose in terms of a local audience coming and coming again, they’ll rediscover different things and different sides to Wyllie.
“He really believed in every one of us being creative.
“I think there’s a really generosity in the work and humour, and I think that does give an access to all sorts of different audiences.”
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