Long time readers of this blog will know of my interest in the International Exhibitions held in Glasgow (1888, 1901,) the Scottish National Exhibition of 1911 and the Empire Exhibition of 1938.

Hence I was delighted to see this painting of the main building by William J Kennedy of the 1901 Exhibition on display at the Hunterian Art Gallery when we visited:-

Charles Rennie Mackintosh submitted designs for some of that Exhibition’s buildings (as well as for the 1911 one) as noted in this :-

And of course this picture of Dumbarton Rock and the River Clyde was irresistible:-

Then there was this one by my favourite impressionist painter, Alfred Sisley, one of a series he painted of the church at Moret:-

Portrait of a child by Henry Rayburn:-

Not to mention a couple of Old Masters, The Entombment by Rembrandt:-

and the one that stood out from across the room, Head of an Old Man by Rubens. It’s absolutely stunning:-

Brain Gerald art drawn postcard of the Empire Exhibition, Scotland, 1938, Scottish Avenue Showing Tower and Restaurant. This view also shows the Times Building and one of the Scotland Pavilions (to left):-

Black and white Valentine’s postcard, Scottish Avenue from West:-

In March we dropped into the V&A, Dundee for something to do.

We came across a small exhibition of postcards by Valentine’s, once a Dundee institution.

According to the V&A site this exhibition was supposed to end in January 2023!

I have many Valentine’s postcards in my collection especially those of the 1938 Empire Exhibition.

I had not realised, though, that Valentine’s themselves had constructed for them an Art Deco building on Dundee’s Kingsway, as these two postcards from the V&A Exhibition attest. The building is now long gone:-

Also on display was this postcard of Portobello Bathing Pool:-

Images of Portobello Bathing Pool in its heyday are here.

Another postcard of the Empire Exhibition, Scotland 1938. The Cascade and Lake on Dominions Avenue, art drawn by Brian Gerald:-

I haven’t posted any of these for quite some time.

So here are three views of the North Cascade and Tower at the Empire Exhibition, Scotland, 1938, held in Glasgow’s Bellahouston Park.

First one of Brain Gerald’s art-drawn postcards:-

This is a very similar view but is a colourised photograph:-

This one, also a colourised photograph, omits the fountain:-

I haven’t done one of these 1938 Empire Exhibition posts for a while but these are two crackers.

On left the Tower of Empire by Night; a Brian Gerald art-drawn postcard by Valentine’s for the Empire Exhibition, Glasgow 1938.

On the right the South Cascade and Tower by Night, Empire Exhibition 1938: a colourised postcard of the Empire Exhibition, Glasgow, 1938.

The Tower at night must have been wonderful.

An artist drawn picture postcard of the Tower of Empire (Tait’s Tower) at the Empire Exhibition, Scotland 1938.

The zenith of Art Deco (or of Moderne if you must) in Scotland came in 1938 with the Empire Exhibition, Scotland, held in Bellahouston Park, Glasgow, and which opened 75 years ago today on 3/5/1938.

Its signature building was the Tower of Empire (seen in the above photograph taken from the link) designed by Thomas Tait whose houses at Silver End I featured eighteen months ago. The tower was erected on the hill in Bellahouston Park and dominated the Exhibition.

Tait was in overall charge of the architecture for the Exhibition – some of whose buildings made extensive use of the new construction material, asbestos cement! – and designed many of the buildings himself.

My favourite is the Atlantic Restaurant, a ship-shaped building cresting the wave of the hill on which it was set, two postcards of which I reproduce below.

Sadly almost none of the buildings remain. (It was a condition of such events that their locations were restored to their original condition soon afterwards. Moreover shortly afterwards the country was involved in the Second World War and conserving architecture became a minor consideration. The Exhibition itself came to an end in the midst of the Munich Crisis.)

Only the Palace of Arts is still standing in Bellahouston Park itself. It was transformed into a sports pavilion. The Palace of Engineering was taken down and re-erected at Prestwick Airport and can still be found there. The South Africa building was in Dutch Barn style rather than deco or moderne and later became a staff canteen at ICI Ardeer. All the rest were demolished.

Think of what a tourist attraction Tait’s Tower, as it was known, could have been! Glasgow’s answer to Eiffel.

As it is, the main tourist draw in the Park today is the House for an Art Lover built to designs of Charles Rennie Mackintosh whose buildings are a sort of bridge between the freer, flowing style of Art Nouveau and the more rigid Art Deco.

You may have noticed that I have added a new category to my list especially for this Exhibition. There is so much more I could, and will, post.