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(Contemporary & Post-War Art, 16th April 2020) § BET LOW A.R.S.A., R.S.W., R.G.I. (SCOTTISH 1924-2007) NORTHERN SEASCAPE Signed in pencil, watercolour 51.5cm x 49cm (20.25in x 19.25in) Provenance: Compass Gallery, Glasgow Biography: Bet Low was a Scottish landscape and figurative painter whose career spanned the majority of the twentieth century. Her mystical and beguiling landscapes offer great insight into the career of this prolific artist. Born into impoverished conditions in Gourock, Low studied at the Glasgow School of Art during the Second World War before going on to study briefly under James Cowie at Hospitalfield House. Low had a great love of Scottish landscapes and they are a typical theme in her oeuvre - notably of Orkney where she spent numerous summers with her family in Hoy. By the 1960s her works moved further into abstraction, and she is best known for her works in this style. After her studies, Low co-founded the Clyde Group around J.D. Fergusson in 1942 - a group joined together by shared left-wing views and influences from contemporary art in continental Europe. With this group, Low co-organised Glasgow's first open air exhibition in 1956 at the Botanical Gardens. In 1963, she went on to open the New Charing Cross Gallery in Glasgow with John Taylor and Cyril Gerber, which received great critical acclaim for encouraging contemporary art in Scotland. Throughout her career she exhibited widely - including a retrospective of her work in 1985 at the Third Eye Centre (now the Centre for Contemporary Arts), and her work is housed in numerous public and private collections.