An exhibition in the Reid Gallery at The Glasgow School of Art brings together drawings by Thomas McGoran, a talented Glasgow artist – now in his nineties – who, although he has had few chances to exhibit his work, has been working diligently throughout his lifetime to create an exceptional body of work.
One of nine children, McGoran was born in Ayr in 1927 and the family moved to Glasgow in 1930. His father was a labourer, his mother a housewife. He left school at the age of fourteen, and his first job was as a spoolboy (rewinding films after they had been projected) and eventually he went on to work as a film projectionist. He then worked for British Railways for thirty-three years, before retiring after being made redundant at the age of sixty. It was at this time that Mr McGoran began developing his talent as an artist.
By the end of the 1930s, Glasgow was a true ‘Cinema City’ and boasted more cinema seats per head than any other city in the world. The work exhibited in this show features a collection of drawings of Glasgow cinemas which were commissioned by Cinema Memory and the Digital Archive (CMDA), a three-year research project looking at memories of cinema-going in 1930s Britain.
Also on show is a series of images of other well known Glasgow landmarks made by Thomas McGoran shortly after his retirement from British Railways in the 1980s. Journeying across the city with a sketchbook in hand, McGoran set about documenting the distinctive architecture of Glasgow, both past and present, and in varying states of glory and decay.
The exhibition is curated by Sarah Neely, Professor of Film and Visual Culture, University of Glasgow.
Hear interviews with Thomas McGoran from the early 1990s here:
https://www.lancaster.ac.uk/fass/projects/cmda/participant_detail.php?fileRef=TM-92-009
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For further information contact:
Lesley Booth,
07799414474
press@gsa.ac.uk
Notes for Editors
About the Cinema Memory and the Digital Archive project:
The CMDA is a three-year project funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council, and led by Professor Richard Rushton (University of Lancaster), Professor Annette Kuhn (Queen Mary), and Professor Sarah Neely (University of Glasgow). The project builds on research conducted by Annette Kuhn in the 1990s which looked at memories of cinema-going in the 1930s Britain.
Thomas McGoran, who was interviewed as part of Kuhn’s research in the 1990s, is the only known participant from the original project who is still living. He was interviewed at his home on 30 November 1994 and 22 February 1995. Both interviews are available, along with 170 hours of additional interview material, on the CMDA website.