Nichol Wheatley

Artist and close friend who enabled Alasdair to realise some of his most ambitious works such as the murals in the Hillhead Underground station and the Oran Mor arts venue.

What does Alasdair Gray mean to you?

Explain yourself?

Audio transcript

Inspirational. Genius. Intellectual. So he was incredibly inspirational as an artist. Utterly a genius! ‘Cause obviously his literature is… is genius.

But also as somebody who’s worked as an artist and I’m 50 so I’ve had a reasonable career so far. I recognise that he’s so clever at so many things in art.

And intellectual is just the intellect that drives the work. There’s an intellectual thread that runs from the beginning of the conception of the work through to the delivery of it. To the detail of the finish.