Norman Gilbert

By Beth Williamson, 21.09.2022

Norman Gilbert. Photo by Enzo Di Cosmo, 2016.

There is a sense of sanctuary in the paintings of Norman Gilbert (1926–2019) who lived and worked in the south side of Glasgow for more than sixty years. His studio in the family home, just a stone throw from Tramway, was deeply immersed in everyday life; the domestic minutiae, the comings and goings of family and friends, especially his wife Pat and their four sons.

This exhibition shows Gilbert’s paintings alongside drawings, ephemera, textiles and objects from his home and studio, lending it a domestic feel. It is as if visitors wander from room to room in his home, joining the family at the table, or sitting with them on a comfortable chair, perhaps even looking over Gilbert’s shoulder while he paints.

Gilbert’s method was to create a pencil drawing, then a black and white painted study, before the final colour painting. The black and white studies included in the exhibition are as bold and captivating as the finished works. The riot of colour and pattern on every space and surface within each finished painting belies a calm and congruent completeness in every scene, which helps to explain the feeling of sanctuary.

Despite the energetic use of line and colour, the faces of many of the figures in Gilbert’s images remain rather expressionless. Where expression is evident is in their hands and those points of contact where figures touch – an intimate gesture, a comforting embrace, or a welcoming hand.

The figures tend to fill much of the picture space until, that is, there is no one left to paint and Gilbert turns to painting the interior of the home he lived in alone. This shift pivots on a poignant painting of Pat in Chair (2017). Pat, who died of an Alzheimer’s related stroke in 2016, is here depicted on a different scale, a diminutive melancholic figure who disappears among the patterns. While Gilbert maintains his signature style, there is a slight lessening of intensity, perhaps another indicator of his loss of Pat.

The tender portraits of the people he loved come to a close with Plants, Patchwork and Two Green Chairs (2019). By now in the last year of his life and facing his own mortality, the two green chairs are empty, an allegorical portrait of Norman and Pat, perhaps.

At the heart of Gilbert’s paintings is an ordinary life acutely observed. Vivacious and patterned beyond imagination, that life and this exhibition is a celebration of Gilbert’s achievements in his home city and neighbourhood.

The exhibition is on at Tramway, Glasgow until 5 February 2023.