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Glasgow鈥檚 Treasure Palace

Episode 3 of 4

Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum is a place artist Lachlan Goudie has loved since he was a boy. He explores Glasgow鈥檚 most popular cultural jewel, home to thousands of treasures.

Artist Lachlan Goudie visits Glasgow鈥檚 Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum to explore a collection that he has loved since he was a boy.

Kelvingrove is Glasgow鈥檚 most important and popular cultural institution, a treasure palace that is home to a vast array of art and artefacts from across the world and across time. It has been a hugely influential part of Lachlan鈥檚 life, the single most important collection in shaping his ambition to become a painter.

Since the age of 12, Lachlan has taken his pencils and brushes to Kelvingrove to enter the Glasgow Museums Annual Art Competition. Among his prizewinning entries was a drawing of one of the stars of Kelvingrove鈥檚 collection, Sir Roger the Elephant, a taxidermy giant who has stood in the museum since its opening in 1902. Lachlan begins his tour of the museum with a visit to his old friend before moving on to other objects in the collection that fired his childhood imagination.

Rembrandt鈥檚 Man in Armour was the first painting Lachlan felt inexorably drawn towards as a boy, and one he has spent a lifetime trying to emulate. From his unique perspective as a practising artist, Lachlan鈥檚 exploration of the collection includes other masterpieces, including Salvador Dali鈥檚 controversial Christ of St John of the Cross, Van Gogh鈥檚 celebrated portrait of Alexander Reid and John Duncan Fergusson鈥檚 groundbreaking experiments in fauvist colour.

Lachlan examines the artistic processes underpinning these extraordinary paintings as well as exploring the astonishing and heartbreaking works by the lesser-known artist Marianne Grant, created at Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. Grant鈥檚 drawings force us to confront one of the most shocking moments in world history and sit alongside other objects in the museum that have renewed resonance in the context of today鈥檚 global events.

Revisiting an institution he has treasured all his life, in this film Lachlan will re-see objects with fresh eyes, revealing the power of Kelvingrove鈥檚 extraordinary collection to enlighten our history and to change the way we look at the world.

29 minutes

Credits

Role Contributor
Presenter Lachlan Goudie
Production Manager Eleanor Keddie-Johnson
Editor Jane Tubb
Executive Producer Charlotte Sacher
Executive Producer Nick Kent
Director Morag Tinto

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