Alasdair Gray works including original Poor Things cover to go on display at Kelvingrove Museum for first time

Nine works by Alasdair Gray, including the original cover design for Poor Things, will be displayed in Glasgow for the first time.

The works were gifted to Glasgow Life Museums by Gray over a decade ago in memory of his wife, and will go on display at Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum from June 14.

The display, entitled Alasdair Gray: Works from The Morag McAlpine Bequest, marks the first time the works have been on display since they were gifted to the city.

The collection includes nine works, including the original art for his 1992 novel Poor Things, which was made into a major feature film in 2023.

Four Folk in Glasgow Publishing 1977: Simon Berry and Bill McLellan, Glasgow Publishers, Jim Taylor, Australian Writer and Printer, Shelley Killen USA Artist (1977/2004) by Alasdair Gray. Glasgow Life

It also includes the wrap-around jacket for Old Negatives, artwork in progress for the jacket design of Agnes Owens’ People Like That, and A Working Mother, among others.

Exhibited in the Fragile Art Gallery, the display opens in what would have been Gray’s 90th year, in the very place where he credited a weekend art class with sparking his early love of painting.

Born in Riddrie, in the east end of Glasgow in 1943, Gray was a prolific poet, playwright, novelist, painter, and printmaker.

The artist died in 2019 at the age of 85, but his work continues to be celebrated annually on February 25, also known as Gray Day.

Katie Bruce, producer curator with Glasgow Life, said Gray showed “great generosity” when he gifted The Morag McAlpine Bequest to the city, following the passing of his wife.

“These personal gifts for anniversaries, birthdays, and Christmas, include portraits later transformed into characters in his work and framed drawings for book covers and dust jackets, both for his own publications and those of fellow writers,” she said.

“Among them is the original cover design for Poor Things, which many will now recognise from the recent film adaptation.”

She added: “It is fitting and wonderful to display this collection in a place that meant so much to Gray, and to offer audiences a deeper understanding of his innovative practice and extraordinary talent.”