Art Acquired for the Nation – Steven Campbell’s On Form and Fiction
Art Acquired for the Nation –
Steven Campbell’s On Form and Fiction
One of the foremost works by a contemporary Scots artist has been bought for his home nation. It’s an important work called On Form and Fiction by artist Steven Campbell who died in 2007. The piece meant to be an immersive experience and consists of nine large, framed paintings hung on walls papered from floor to ceiling with 105 unframed ink drawings. The artwork is viewed on the kind of benches usually seen in museums and galleries and a reel-to-reel tape player gives the soundtrack to the experience.
A Major Work
It has been bought by the National Galleries of Scotland and Glasgow Life and it is widely regarded as a seminal work. It was first shown back in 1990 at Glasgow’s Third Eye Centre, which later became the Centre for Contemporary Arts.
Glasgow New Boys
A member of the movement called “New Glasgow Boys” Campbell first came to the public notice in the mid 1980s. Campbell, who died in 2007, was born in Glasgow in 1953. Before art he worked in a steelworks as an engineer and then went to Glasgow School of Art. From there he won a Fulbright scholarship and moved to New York. He flourished in the USA, but returned to Scotland permanently in 1986. The installation which is the only one by Campbell to survive has now been saved for perpetuity, or until the next trend overtakes us all.
Not Immersive but Fine
We don’t have any immersive experiences for you here at James Pirie, immersed as we are ourselves in giving you the very best service, but we do have some very nice glassware to drink from and enjoy any work of art.
