Loco Legacy...?

I took a snap of the front page of todays Herald because it had an ad for the George Wyllie exhibition, WHY IS THERE A ? IN SCUL?TURE at The Beacon Arts Centre in Greenock on the front page.
I posted it in the George Wyllie Facebook page and Twitter feed to remind people there's just four days left of this fab show.
It's too short a run really.
George, who died at the age of 90 in 2012, used to talk about things being beautifully crude and I think that's what this exhibition is. It has been beautifully laid out and presented by George Wyllie Foundation curator, Lynne Mackenzie. Lynne has still managed to retain the essential George-ness of a rough yet clean line combined with a clear eye.
It's not an easy room in which to put on an exhibition as the view consists of an entire wall of floor-to-ceiling window looming out to an endlessly fascinating Firth of Clyde.
Lynne has managed to turn the view into an integral part of the exhibition, which contains work from key periods of George's late flowering career as an artist.
The ashes of his great ephemeral work, The Straw Locomotive, dating back to 1987, are even on show.
In my humble opinion, they should be included in the GENERATION show which is currently celebrating 25 years of contemporary art in Scotland at 71 venues throughout the land.
George's Straw Loco demonstrated that you had to be bold and take risks with your art to break down barriers.
There's not an artist from the GENERATION currently being lauded by this major survey who would deny George Wyllie's Straw Locomotive hanging from the Finnieston Crane in Glasgow did not have a profound impact on them. It was a real lesson for everyone, from artist to man-or-woman-in-the street, on what art could be.