Art, audiences and display: fragments of modernity in Glasgow

Eldridge, Alison (2006) Art, audiences and display: fragments of modernity in Glasgow. MPhil(R) thesis, University of Glasgow.

Abstract

At the point of proposal, this dissertation had clear and seemingly attainable aims - to provide an empirical account of the Compass Gallery and to assess its cultural significance against particular theoretical concepts such as those of Pierre Bourdieu. Early promises of access to the gallery's archives could not be met. Under staffed and under funded, the time constraints on the gallery's directors soon began to intervene with my own. It became clear that my initial project had to be re-negotiated in some way. I was reluctant however to give up on the idea that Compass could provide a useful area for study, and had already spent considerable time chasing up information outwith the gallery's own archives - references in catalogues provided the main source alongside newspaper cuttings and reviews. Alongside this, my background reading had followed a fairly wide remit, ranging from larger historical overviews of Scottish art to more specific accounts of Scottish cultural production as well as general sociological writing on both art and Scotland. I had conducted an interview with the art critic and writer Cordelia Oliver. I had also obtained some papers connecting to the New Charing Cross Gallery, a predecessor to the Compass Gallery, from the artist John Taylor. Taylor had been among the initiators of the New Charing Cross Gallery in 1963. Finally, I conducted an interview with Cyril Gerber, the founding director of Compass (1969). The notion of exploring The Compass Gallery as a specific and emergent cultural formation in Glasgow seemed the most practical way forward. As such, the gallery will be looked at as - to borrow David Frisby's phase - "a fragment of modernity". By keeping this sense of perspective, making any exaggerated claims on behalf of the gallery will hopefully be avoided. At the same time, the social mediation of historical process, the persistence of residual cultural practices in the interplay of the dominant and emergent can be examined. (Abstract shortened by ProQuest.).

• Item Type: Thesis (MPhil(R))
• Qualification Level: Masters
• Additional Information: This research was carried out with the help of a grant from the Arts and Humanities Research Board.
• Keywords: Art history, art and society, art exhibition audiences, Scotland, Glasgow.
• Subjects: N Fine Arts > NX Arts in general
• Colleges/Schools: College of Arts & Humanities > School of Culture and Creative Arts > History of Art
• Supervisor's Name: Stirton, Paul and Kinchen, Juliet
• Date of Award: 2006
• Depositing User: Enlighten Team
• Unique ID: glathesis:2006-71074
• Copyright: Copyright of this thesis is held by the author.
• Date Deposited: 10 May 2019 10:49
• Last Modified: 30 Jun 2021 15:43
• URI: https://theses.gla.ac.uk/id/eprint/71074