Gut Feelings: Garnethill Murals

In the context of the late John Kraska’s life, the postcode G3 is a gesamtkunstwerk: a total work of art made up of the tessellated mural, preserved tenements, the aging mosaic, and, in its North-Eastern corner, his flat. 

I never had the fortune of meeting Kraska, but our lives briefly touched this summer. I received a message on my dormant LinkedIn account and instantly recognised the sender’s name. Kraska was an eminent artist within Glasgow’s mural scene in the 1970s and a figure of interest in my undergraduate research on community art across Scotland. 

Kraska had equally chanced upon me. While preparing for an exhibition at SWG3, he stumbled across an article I had written about Glasgow’s murals and reached out in the hope I could reconnect him with a fellow artist. I gladly did so and he subsequently invited me to talk about his work over a cup of tea. 

Before these plans could firm, his son, Sam, informed me of his passing in July. Sam kindly welcomed me to his father’s flat and obliged my curiosity in his work as an artist. From engaging school children to create the celestial mosaic wall in Garnethill Park, to successfully taking Glasgow’s Council to court over plans to demolish much of the residential neighbourhood, Kraska fought tooth and nail for his neighbourhood’s prosperity. 

A tour of his flat revealed the outpourings of his creativity, covering wall to floor of each room. Life-sized puppets perch on kitchen cabinets, wardrobes and ledges, each representing fellow artists who assisted Kraska with the staging of a particular exhibition. On his kitchen wall, there was a photograph I immediately recognised: a sunsoaked snapshot of his bygone mural on Scott Street, Garnethill. Kraska painted what he described as “Scotland's largest poem,” constituting the words 'ethereal', 'cosmos', 'astral', 'mound', 'island', quartz' and 'Garnet' in vermilion. 

My impression of John Kraska is that the survival and betterment of Garnethill was his greatest art project. It took a lifetime of Kraska’s work to shape Garnethill into a work of art, understated and alive.