Glasgow mural row flares again after 20 years

• Ian McCulloch's mural on display at the Royal Scottish Academy of Art. Picture: Ian Rutherford

But instead Strathclyde – a monumental painting by Ian McCulloch – became the centre of a political row and was quickly removed by the city fathers.

Now two decades on, the artist – who blames former Glasgow council leader Pat Lally for the censorship of his work – has "provocatively" unveiled a reproduction of a section of the painting at the Royal Scottish Academy's Annual Exhibition in Edinburgh.

McCulloch, who believes his work did not fit in with the image of Strathclyde promoted by its political leaders, said: "For 20 years, I have continued to be puzzled by Glasgow City Council's reception of the painting, which eventually resulted in its suppression."

The artist is unaware even of the painting's location, presumed to be in a storeroom.

The first part of the gigantic and colourful painting depicted the history of Strathclyde from "the dawn of time to Mary, Queen of Scots". The second section showed the time from Mary until the modern day.

Only when the giant canvas was unveiled at a ceremony to celebrate the City of Culture did the artist discover that his work had not found favour with Glasgow Cultural Enterprises, the body set up to oversee the year of culture.

McCulloch said: "Pat Lally stood up and said the painting couldn't stay there and would have to be taken down after a year. There was pandemonium."

The artist stormed out of the official reception and mounted a legal challenge to try to force Strathclyde region to keep the painting in place. Questions were asked in the Westminster parliament about artistic censorship, but eventually the painting was removed.

"In the end, the painting was taken down in 1990. It was taken to the Tramway but only lasted a year. It hasn't been seen since."

According to McCulloch, the painting is not mentioned in any catalogues of work owned by Glasgow and the present whereabouts and condition of the painting is unknown.

The artist, who believes his painting was removed because it did not fit the establishment view of political history, said he had decided to hang a reproduced section of the "lost" work in the RSA exhibition as a "deliberately provocative" act.

The 12ft by 24ft section of the mural, which represents only one sixth of the whole, was painted for a documentary, filmed when McCulloch was making the work.

He said: "I recreated the original so it could be filmed. It was in the front of my mind, so I was able to reproduce it pretty accurately."

The canvas, which shows the influence of the French artist Fernand Lger, shows the elemental figure of a man with a twisted tongue, which ends in a spanner.

Royal Scottish Academy programme director Colin Greenslade said the painting and the story of its disappearance raised interesting questions. He said: "It is interesting because it has that whole other dimension which opens up the question of censorship in art.

"I think artists should be able to have a voice. They should be able to give expression to that political element."

In a letter in written support of McCulloch in 1990, and displayed next to the canvas at the RSA exhibition, the artist and writer Alasdair Gray wrote: "The artist intended this to be the post-industrial Adam – someone who without ideas or ideals, manages the world by his tongue rather than the sweat of his brow."

He continued: "I believe Pat Lally has taken this image in a personal way which the artist did not really intend."