#NGSTwoRoberts Await their Public

A roomful of paintings at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art by two Ayrshire-born painters, Robert Colquhoun and Robert MacBryde. Together, they were known as The Two Roberts.
A major exhibition of the work of the two men, partners in life and love, opens to the public this weekend.
I attended the media preview today as I'm reviewing it for (takes a nervous gulp of air) BBC Radio 4's Front Row programme tomorrow night. I'm also writing about it for The Herald next weekend.
Dubbed 'the last of the real Bohemians painters' by film director Ken Russell, who made a short Monitor film for the BBC about them in 1959, their collective star burned brightly during the 1940s and into the 1950s.
Changing fashions, penury and a love of liquor chased them both to early graves. Colquhoun died in MacBryde's arms in the early hours of 20 September 1962 on the floor of a London gallery, where he was making work for a show. Ever his help-mate, MacBryde was there writing labels ahead of the imminent opening of an exhibition which they hoped would revive his career.
Four years later, MacBryde was knocked down and killed by a car on a Dublin street. After a long session in a pub, MacBryde emerged into the night and started to dance; oblivious to the car which was heading in his direction.
This exhibition is long overdue. I'm going back to see it on Monday with my former art teacher from Kilmarnock Academy, Davy Brown.
Davy has been a long-time champion of the Two Roberts. He first heard Colquhoun's name as a schoolboy at Kilmarnock Academy, when his art teacher, Jock McKissock, exclaimed one day: "Bobby Colquhoun's dead!". The two men had been contemporaries at Glasgow School of Art in the 1930s.
It planted a seed and Davy went on to become an advocate, first for the reputation of Colquhoun and then, also for MacBryde.
He has also been quietly collecting their work since the 1970s. Many of the works on show have been loaned by him for this exhibition.
It's a lifetime ambition for Davy to see a retrospective of the Two Roberts' work in the National Gallery of Scotland.
I'd love to see his face when he walks into the exhibition and sees the work writ large on the walls.