This year we made Clare Henry – the renowned art critic for the Herald – an honorary member of the Glasgow Group. This story was given some great coverage in the Herald newspaper.
You can read the full text of the Herald article, written by Brian Ferguson, below:
https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/25131724.honour-critic-half-century-arts-champion/
HERALD May 2nd 2025.
A long-time critic for The Herald has been honoured by one of Glasgow’s leading groups for independent artists.
Clare Henry has been made an honorary member of the Glasgow Group almost half a century after she first started writing about their exhibitions.
Membership of the “artists cooperative” is usually restricted to practising artists who were born or are currently living in Glasgow.
Henry was the art critic for The Herald for 20 years from 1980 to 2000 before moving to New York for 20 years, but is now back living in Glasgow.
An art curator and printmaker, as well as a critic, Henry has curated exhibitions in Edinburgh, London, India, Los Angeles, Chicago, Washington and New York. She also curated a landmark Scottish show at the Venice Biennale in 1990.
Henry was a founder member of and then chair of the Glasgow Print Studio in the 1970s before working for The Herald.
She donated a personal archive of work spanning 37 years – including cuttings, programmes, flyers and photographs – to Glasgow School of Art in 2014.
Former Herald critic Clare Henry has been honoured by the Glasgow Group artists’ cooperative after writing about their work for nearly half a century.
Now 83, Henry was offered an honorary membership of the Glasgow Group ahead of the launch of its latest exhibition, at the New Glasgow Society, which runs until May 8.
The Glasgow Group was instigated in 1958 by three Glasgow School of Art graduates, James Morrison, Anda Paterson and James Spence.
They were said to be motivated by the “conformist and unadventurous” policies of existing groups and a death of commercial outlets for artists in Glasgow. Their efforts were seen to have paved the way for artist-run spaces like the Transmission Gallery, which was formed in the early 1980s.
Clare Henry was art critic of The Herald between 1980 and 2000.
The Glasgow Group, which is financially supported by its own members and donations from supporters, has curated at least one annual exhibition a year in the city since it was formed. The work of more than 70 artists was featured in a 50th anniversary at the Royal Concert Hall in 2008.
Artists involved in the group have included Alasdair Gray, Douglas Gordon, George Wyllie, Ian McCulloch, James Watt, Carole Gibbons, Douglas Abercrombie, Ewen McAslan, Margery Clinton, William Birnie, Philip Reeves, Fred Stiven and Alan Fletcher.
Henry’s son Damian has been a member of the Glasgow Group for several years.
Clare Henry was visual art critic at The Herald between 1980 and 2000.
Its latest exhibition, which showcases the work of 13 different artists, features a mix of painting, printmaking, sculpture and photography.
Speaking in the run-up to the exhibition launch, Henry said: “I have been going through my online archive and have so far found 18 different articles that I wrote about the Glasgow Group between 1978 and 1999. They were a very big deal.
“They staged huge exhibitions at the Tramway and the McLellan Galleries in the 1980s and 1990s.
“When the Glasgow Group started out in 1958 there was nothing else like it. It was a rebellious thing to do. It was very much run by artists for artists.
“There has always been a broad range of work in their exhibitions, which the public have really liked as the work is not that expensive to buy.”
Henry, who is still casting a critical eye over Scotland’s art scene and shining a light on its controversies, including the Glasgow School of Art fires and the recent dispute between Paisley Art Institute and Paisley Museum over how rare paintings should be displayed after the attraction’s ongoing £45 million makeover.
Henry added: “I started writing for The Herald in 1978 when I covered the Edinburgh Festival. I have written for practically everybody since then and have never stopped writing, although I feel very ancient now!
“I still have a couple of regular opinion columns (in visual art publications) where I am allowed to say what I want and am therefore quite outspoken.
“I was delighted to be offered an honorary membership of the Glasgow Group recently. It’s always very nice when a group of artists think you can be of some help. I have always said ‘yes’ when I have been asked to help in some way.
“I’ve now been more involved with the visual arts in Scotland since 1971. I was still doing a lot when I was in the United States.
“I’ve worked as hard as I can for more than a half a century now and I’m still doing as much as possible.”
The Glasgow Group 