Arts diary: Byrne's mural could be the best thing at the RSA show, but not for long…

Published on Wednesday 9 December 2009 22:05

A WITTY, beautifully drafted mural by John Byrne is the first thing that greets visitors to the Royal Scottish Academy's annual art exhibition, which wraps up on 22 December. Observers might be tempted to say it's the best thing in it.

The playwright sketched it out on the wall facing people as they climb the steps into the galleries. On the right, a long, spindly figure that is surely Byrne himself appears to look at a dumpy creature to the left. This newspaper's art critic, Duncan Macmillan, suggested the second figure is Byrne's alter-ego, Patrick, the name with which he has signed some of his most prized artworks.

Byrne, whose theatre writing runs from the Slab Boys trilogy to his memorable Chekhov adaption, Uncle Varick, has found new energy recently in his second talent, visual art. He guest-curated the RSA show, and added the mural to the line-up in about two hours, the evening before it opened.

Sadly, it is now headed for what Byrne called a "Richard Wright moment". The Scottish Turner Prize winner's intricate gold leaf wall design, which secured him Britain's top art prize, will be painted over when the prize exhibition finishes.

In recent British art shows, Byrne paintings have been fetching prices of between 25,000 and 30,000, but he did the mural sketch in the full knowledge it would go.

Behind the scenes, there have been quiet regrets at the RSA, it is said, that the work – on an MDF wall – could not be saved for posterity.

An official spokeswoman said: "It was just a temporary piece. Next year we have a number of invited artists who will also be doing temporary wall pieces." So far, artists Kate Downie, Arthur Watson and Beth Fisher, have been asked to take part.

If there are any sadnesses about this particular piece of ephemeral art, Byrne doesn't share them. "It was just a number. I never gave it a title," he said.

Comparing it to mural work he did in Glasgow in the 1970s – since destroyed – he said: "I have no regrets about it. I enjoyed doing it."

&#149 IN THE 1950s, when the Edinburgh International Festival was beginning to get into its stride, Christopher Grier was a much-loved music critic on The Scotsman.

He did much to enhance the reputation of the fledgling Edinburgh festivals and of post-war classical music in Scotland, and had the happy knack of finding something positive to say about each performance. He later became the London music correspondent for The Scotsman, as well as a Radio 3 programmer.

Now his nephew, Francis Grier, has composed a Christmas carol, At the Manger Mary Sings, with words by WH Auden, in his memory. It gets its premiere at the 6pm carol service on 20 December at the Church of St John the Evangelist in Princes Street, where Christopher Grier was in the congregation.