Opening days after the close of Bet Low’s centenary year, a new exhibition at Glasgow School of Art’s Reid Gallery pulls together over 60 works loaned from two dozen public and private collections in the largest collection of her work seen this century and one of the most comprehensive displays since a 1985 exhibition at Glasgow’s Third Eye Centre.

Including unseen drawings and rare glimpses of Low’s material practice and process, the exhibition reflects on her working life, from early studies of Glasgow to late Orkney landscapes – both places which played a crucial role in the artist’s life and work.

The last 30 years have seen a resurgence of interest in the Scottish painter Bet Low (1924-2007). Art commentator Douglas Erskine likened her to a ‘poet in paint’ for her unique ability to capture the essence of the landscape. Contemporary artist Karla Black included seven of Low’s paintings in her 2009 exhibition at Inverleith House in Edinburgh, allowing new readings by re-contextualising the paintings with her own sculptural works. The Lowlands Artist Collective’s show at Glasgow’s Oxford House in 2021 mounted seven artists based in Glasgow, Fife and Finland and incorporated work on paper by Bet Low.