Anda Paterson R.S.WI. R.G.I. (Scottish, 1935-2022)
The Protestors by Anda Paterson, 1974. Gouache and watercolour.
Anda Paterson was born in Glasgow and studied at Glasgow School of Art from 1952-1958. She was taught by David Donaldson, Mary Armour and Benno Scholz.
Anda Paterson (1935-2022) was an important presence in Scotland’s cultural landscape for some 70 years. As an artist, she stood apart from her contemporaries and predecessors: her images of beggars, peasants and outcasts flew in the face of the polite “drawing-room-picture” tradition, so deeply rooted in our visual culture. Perhaps most strikingly, Anda’s distinctive style cannot be aligned to any specific Scottish or British influence. As an “administrator”, she encouraged a unified, cooperative, artist-led approach to promotion: she co-founded the Glasgow Group and played a key role in its success for some fifty years. (an extract from her obituary written by Douglas Erskine, published on art-scot, June 2022).
She balanced life as an artist with teaching at schools in Glasgow. One of her pupils was Turner Prize Winner Douglas Gordon.
