Let me take you back in time. It is the 1960s in Glasgow. A group of men stand around a roaring fire surrounded by a huge oak fireplace designed by Charles Rennie Mackintosh at the end of the 19th century. We are inside Mackintosh’s Art Nouveau masterpiece, The Glasgow Art Club. The men (women are not allowed to be members of the club) are a tight-knit group. The air is thick with smoke and banter.
There is talk of artists and exhibitions and, intermittently, about art. Artists in this informal group include well-known painters such as John Cunningham, Dan Ferguson, Sandy Goudie and David Donaldson. Acclaimed sculptor, Benno Schotz, is here too. There’s a smattering of businessmen; fish merchant Livi Neill and racing driver turned car dealership owner Ninian Sanderson. At least two of the assembled men, Ferguson – a waspish and mischievous caricaturist on the side – and newspaper cartoonist, Emilio Coia, are drawing the scene in their head.