Joanna Meacock – författare

The first proper overview of Fred Farrell's vivid drawings from the First World War. Beautifully illustrated in full colour, insightful essays and catalogue entries explain the genesis, execution and reception of these poignant works.Frederick Arthur Farrell (1882-1935) came from a distinguished Glasgow family. He initially studied civil engineering, and as an artist was self-taught, although he owes a debt to the advice and example of Muirhead Bone. By the outbreak of World War I, he was developing a reputation as an up-and-coming etcher and watercolourist of portraits and topographical subjects. He enlisted as a sapper, or military engineer, with the Royal Engineers Railway Troops Depot but was discharged from the Army due to ill health.In December 1916, Farrell returned to the Front as a war artist, attached for three weeks to the 15th, 16th and 17th Highland Light Infantry in Flanders. In November 1917 he was in France, attached for two months to the staff of the 51st (Highland) Division. In between, authorized by the Minister of Munitions and Admiralty, and supported by Glasgow's Lord Provost, Farrell drew the heroic home effort of women in Glasgow's munitions factories, shipyards and engineering works. As a former soldier, Farrell's sketches and watercolours of the Front powerfully offer a landscape filtered through personal experience and emotion.Battle scenes and strategic deliberations are reconstructed, informed by first-hand accounts. Many include portraits of actual soldiers. There are poignant images of graves, devastated landscapes and destroyed churches. However, there are also scenes of reconstruction and renewed activity amid the desolation. He is at his most dynamic in his drawings of the munitions factories which are full of noise, light and movement. In these there is a sense of joy and energy in industry and machinery, in patterning and design.The commission Farrell received from the Corporation of Glasgow to produce 50 drawings of the front line and munitions factories in the city to record the war for posterity was extraordinary. He was unique in being the only war artist to be commissioned by a city rather than by the government, Imperial War Museum or armed forces. Glasgow was one of the first cities to recognize the importance of creating such a memorial, rather than just creating images for propaganda purposes.

In October 2018 Christine Borland unveils a new artwork at Kelvingrove Museum and Art Gallery, Glasgow, Scotland, as part of the 14–18 NOW World War I centenary commemorations. The artwork is co-commissioned by Glasgow Museums and 14–18 NOW and supported by the Art Fund. This highly illustrated book showcases the new, commissioned artwork and gives an insight into Borland’s research and practice. It includes an interview with the artist and an essay by Professor Andrew Patrizio reflecting on Borland’s career to date and placing the new work in context. The artist shares her research and personal response to the objects she selected from over 2,000 in Glasgow Museums’ World War I collection, and which have variously informed the new artwork. The publication comprehensively documents Borland’s artistic processes, the commission and the finished artwork installed in Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum, Glasgow, Scotland.

Marianne Grant’s story is a remarkable one of courage. She was an artist who managed to paint in the most extreme circumstances, and her works of art tell of her experiences of WWII and imprisonment in Theresienstadt, Auschwitz and Bergen-Belsen concentration camps. These unique and extraordinary works, painted at first hand, help us to better understand the impact of the Holocaust. Her work still resonates today, particularly in Glasgow, the city that became her home and a city which has a strong tradition of welcoming refugees. Marianne Grant (1921–2007), was a remarkable woman, and a remarkable artist. Born in Prague in 1921 to Jewish parents, she loved to paint and draw. In 1942, she and her mother were deported to the Theresienstadt ghetto, and Marianne took watercolour paints, brushes and paper in the one suitcase she was allowed to bring. Her mother was later sent to Auschwitz, and Marianne jumped on the same train in order to stay with her. In the concentration camp Marianne came to the attention of Dr Mengele, who gave her an architect’s drawing kit and got her to work with him, documenting his work. He would pace up and down as she worked, and Marianne knew that she was, literally, drawing for her life. In April 1945, Marianne and her mother were sent to Bergen-Belsen. Throughout the war Marianne painted and sketched the scenes she saw, showing compassion for her fellow inmates, but also using her art as a form of silent protest. She and her mother survived the war, and after the liberation of Bergen-Belsen went to Sweden on a Red Cross ship. There Marianne earned a living making Christmas decorations. In 1951 she married a German Jewish refugee living in Glasgow, Jack Grant (born Jaakov Horst Grodszinksy), with whom she had become pen pals, and came to live in Glasgow, where they raised their three children. In 2002, when Marianne was still alive, Glasgow Museums was fortunate to be able to work with her on projects relating to her work, and in 2004, with grant aid assistance from the Heritage Lottery Fund, The Art Fund, and the National Fund for Acquisitions, we were able to acquire 77 of her remarkable works. Every January, we rotate the display of her works in Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum.This is the first full catalogue of Marianne’s works.