Samuel Reilly

Glasgow made the Clyde, the Clyde made Glasgow...and then they promptly forgot each other. Great getting out on the water for this article for @theglasgowbell , exploring the strange disconnect between river and city – and what's being done to try and bridge that gap

Just wanted to say how sorry I was to hear about the death of Dr Elspeth King over the weekend. Via her work at the People’s Palace Dr King had an enormous impact on Glasgow’s culture. What she achieved there was impressive, particularly in the face of the museum possibly being swept away for Glasgow’s motorway expansion and relentless urban renewal and how she was unfairly treated by the Glasgow Museum’s hierarchy. To bravely hire Alasdair Gray for the Continuous Glasgow Show and to retrieve artworks and material from condemned buildings during the Comprehensive Development Area, in the face of questioning, deserves respect especially for how this added to Glasgow’s civic collection. For the People’s Palace to be European Museum of the Year in 1981 and then British Museum of the Year in 1983 is a huge achievement. I hope that is reflected in the refurbishment of the People’s Palace and her key role is acknowledged as it deserves to be. It is sad that Yorgos Lanthimos’s version of Poor Things omitted those key details from Alasdair Gray’s book as they absolutely summed up that era in Glasgow’s history. My condolences to Michael Donnelly and her family and friends.

@daisyldixon Reminds me of my favourite opening to any of John Berryman's Dream Songs

a man in front of me stopped walking abruptly and just paused and said to himself “Jesus christ” and like, yeah same bro, same

Deplorable. Forcing people who want to live and work in the UK to undertake compulsory unpaid labour. This is a dark path Labour is taking down. But there IS an alternative. Join me in building a welcoming country. join.greenparty.org.uk

This. Please please please can @thisisyourparty just throw in the towel now and not lumber about like a fatally wounded bull in a china shop for the next three years?

@GrumpyArt Lot of good provenance work being conducted in/on Africa that treats circumstance of acquisition as an opportunity for advancing knowledge, rather than a logistical hindrance. A nice instance of a work found to be stolen that wasn't requested back: theartnewspaper.com/2019/02/07/bro…

@SamuelReilly9 That way lies madness, IMHO. We can't reason everything from first principles. And we're always starting from some prejudices.

This is false. The Kingdom of Benin no longer exists. The museum is repudiating works that it's responsible for, and giving it back to an arbitrary recipient in modern-day Nigeria.

@GrumpyArt Feel like I'm arguing against any fixed starting belief - including that prima facie the object belongs in a Western museum - and for each case to be explored in the round. With Benin, 1897 is really quite recent and the chain of ownership seems ironclad.

@SamuelReilly9 That's interesting framing. It assumes we start from belief that the object belongs 'elsewhere', and then considers who should receive it - rather than starting from a claim of ownership. I disagree with that starting point, and modern cultures are often far from the makers, too.

@GrumpyArt These political disputes over ownership have previously been fractious on the Nigerian side – Barnaby Phillips has written well on this (apollo-magazine.com/benin-bronzes-…) – but they are working it out.

@GrumpyArt To be sure – and I'm sorry the phrasing got my hackles up. Would suggest though that these contextual issues are being actively negotiated in Nigeria, by Nigerians – per the ARTnews article (below), the (federally operated) NCMM is coordinating with the Oba of Benin.

@GrumpyArt But most importantly - denying the existence of another culture's institutions is a really harmful, disrespectful and unproductive way of trying to spark these complex discussions - hence why I felt compelled to call it out.

@GrumpyArt I don't agree that 'property rights' dictated by Western legal frameworks are an infallible authority. Bronzes looted in 1897 should have been covered by spoliation laws, were those not then intrinsically racist.

@CllrWallace I propose some form of window at the centre of the top of the bridge as an economic way of mitigating against the experiential damage that has been caused.

@CllrWallace Budget concerns notwithstanding, this is really deeply depressing planning that will impact the lives of generations of children in Giffnock. 'Choo-choo the train is coming' - oh wait, you can't see it because the council made a myopic decision in 2024/25.

Relief for Giffnock and Thornliebank with the opening of the new railway bridge TOMORROW with access to and from Glasgow via the B769 through Thornliebank restored. Note - official opening at 10am so early morning rush-hour will need to put up with one more day of frustration.

Just published – the official website of Peter de Francia, best described simply as an artist you really should know. Been a joy to put this together with his estate, and so pleased to have so many of his paintings and his incisive texts in one place. peterdefrancia.co.uk

The art critic David Sylvester was born #otd 100 years ago - for @Apollo_magazine I wrote about his sparring with Francis Bacon, his warring with John Berger and the substantial rewards of rereading his encounters with modern art today apollo-magazine.com/david-sylveste…