Case of the mouldering murals

JOHN KRASKA, artist and man-about-Garnethill, is not a happy man. ''It

is like beating your head against a stone wall,'' he said. Normally he

likes stone walls, as he is a muralist who has been instrumental in the

beautification of more than several, notably three in Garnethill.

The particular wall he refers to is the seeming indifference of

bureaucracy to the continued existence of his creation, the mosaic wall

which now forms part of Garnethill Park, the inspired design by

environmental artist Dieter Magnus which has already collected armfuls

of awards.

The mosaic was completed in 1979 as part of the Garnethill Mural

Project. Two painted gables and a 40ft long mosaic mural and pathway

were produced by a combination of artists, the local Community Council,

the Scottish Arts Council and the gone-but-not-much-missed Scottish

Development Agency.

No maintenance work of any kind has been carried out on them, despite

John Kraska sending more than 50 letters, including detailed suggestions

and surveys, to every imaginable combination of government, regional,

city, and arts councils. He says: ''I am of course concerned for my own

work and that of my colleagues in the project but there is a wider issue

here. Nobody seems to want to admit responsibility for any of the murals

in the city.''

He points to the somewhat ridiculous situation at Ancroft Street in

Maryhill, where Tim Armstrong painted two gable-length murals.

Someone, presumably because it was necessary, has recently rendered

and painted white the top 10 or 12 feet. It has been done with care and

finished in a straight line, but the end effect is to make a complete

nonsense of the intent of the artist.

There have been about 30 murals created in Glasgow since the seventies

and many of them are now gone, including the John Byrne wall in Partick,

Stan Bell's geometric creation at St George's Cross and half a dozen

others. The rest continue to deteriorate.

John Kraska has a point, one that he made four long years ago by

delivering as a calling card a 9in. by 4in. chunk fallen from one of his

own gable-end murals, together with practical plans for its repair to

Brian Fitch at the SDA. He insists that any work he carries out in

future should include maintenance plans and budgets.

His latest project, a #6500 mural in Glenrothes, which he won against

fierce international competition in this time of recession, will be

maintained in this way. ''Oh, yes. Anti-vandal varnish, the lot,'' he

says. ''I've learned from experience.''

His mosaic in Garnethill has suffered some small vandalism, mostly

from youngsters prising off bits for keepsakes, but in 1991 he and his

local colleagues rescued it from what they regarded as a major piece of

vandalism by the parks and recreation department, which built Garnethill

Park.

The builders, without consultation, ripped up about six metres of the

mosaic and terrazzo pathway, creating consternation among local people.

When these people approached the powers-that-be to express this

consternation it was discovered that further plans were afoot, including

more destruction and the building of a mound of earth against the mosaic

wall. Apprised of the depth of feeling locally, the parks and recreation

department quietly dropped these plans.

There is in fact a glimmer of light at the end of John Kraska's long

dark tunnel of frustration. A spokesman for the parks and recreation

department, who declined to be named but was design manager for the

Garnethill Project, said of John's proposals recently: ''They have not

been forgotten by a long chalk. They are under very active

consideration.''

A further glimmer was offered when he expressed guarded optimism

regarding the proposals by Kraska to create an extension to the mosaic

to cover the portions of the wall uncovered by the building work done in

the park.

John Kraska was less than sanguine. ''I've heard it before and every

time I hear it I feel good. But nothing ever happens.''

Meanwhile phone calls to the arts council, the planning department of

the City Council, and the GDA bear out his case that nobody will admit

responsibility for the gable-end murals which are now so much part of

our cityscape and which are so much discussed abroad. These are now part

of Glasgow's culture and are seen so internationally.

The Year of Culture office insisted that any works of art that it

funded, including the mural on the Central Community Halls in Maryhill,

should be maintained by the city but making this retroactive seems to be

out of the question.

If you have a work of art near you that you like, I suggest that you

get together with your neighbours and start writing to your local

councillor and/or putting away a few pennies for its conservation. If

you don't it would appear that no-one else will, except maybe people

like John Kraska.

* The Saltire Society is conducting a symposium entitled Public Art:

Who Is It For? Has Glasgow a Policy? on Wednesday. It starts with a

glass of wine at 7pm for 7.30pm in the Collins Gallery at the University

of Strathclyde and will be chaired by David Harding, head of

environmental art at Glasgow School of Art. The panel will contain

several of Glasgow's muralists and the aim is to form a pressure group

to lobby for a constructive approach to public art.