The Burrell Collection - Pollock Park, Glasgow - 13th February 2010

Further Reading:

Thomson, John, 2010. China: Through the Lens of John Thomson (1868-1872). England: River Books.

http://www.glasgowarchitecture.co.uk/burrell_museum.htm

http://www.glasgowlife.org.uk/museums/our-museums/burrell-collection/Pages/home.aspx

When my band mates told me we were going to visit the Burrell collection for the day and take some 'shots', I was slightly apprehensive. I knew that the collection was housed in a large building in the middle of Pollock Park, Glasgow but I knew little else and I knew that this wouldn't be a normal 'band' day out.

On arrival, the modern building, nestled in the park with a dense backdrop of green trees was a view that I would recommend making the journey for on it's own. Integrating new and old with the architecture the elegant, spacious building gave a grand appearance that is only continued inside. Admission to the collection was free which was surprising considering the vast collection held at the Burrell and it seemed to be attracting all ages, from the very young coming with parents and grandparents to experience the in house cinema to the older coming for an afternoon of culture and coffee!

To give a little history on the building and collection itself Sir William Burrell, a Glaswegian businessman from the first half of the Twentieth century, was an avid collector of what you could call Bric-a-Brac. http://www.rampantscotland.com/famous/blfamburrell.htm
From atrwork to tapestry, furniture to even whole rooms, this vast collection of over 9000 pieces was donated to Glasgow in 1944. The building, modern and bright, was built especially for the collection and has been open to the pubic for the past 27 years.

I would absolutely not recommend doing this trip in one visit as in this Aladin's Cave there is so much to do, to see, too muse over, too study and in particular for myself the tapestry works which I could have spent hours taking in. The enormous back wall of the gallery shone glorious light onto suits of armour, paintings, ceramics, Chinese beds, archways and stone windows, statues and furniture, it's a wonder anyone knows where to start!




Another part of the Burrell that I particularly enjoyed was the Chinese collection taking part in the gallery. This exhibition was devoted to the images of China taken by the Scottish photographer John Thomson (1837 - 1921). With such a wide variety of images hung on vibrant red backdrops and Chinese music softly accompanying the collection, I found myself enthralled with ideas such as 'why did the photographer decide to take this picture' and 'I wonder what this woman's life was like' something that we were encouraged to think about in our recent art workshop with Sandra Ewing when discussing emotive elements behind a painting of a young boy.

On the whole the Burrell collection is a great day out if you can afford the time to pay generous attention to alot of different pieces. I had to be dragged away from gazing at paintings and pondering over ceramics to have some photo's taken for my band and yes, we did manage to get some taken after all of that!