Key Information
Reference code
Title
Date(s)
- c1929-1984 (Creation)
Level of description
Series
Extent
2 archive boxes & 15 outsize folders.
Content and Structure
Scope and content
A collection Kath Whyte's drawings, sketches and embroidery designs.
Consists of loose sketches and sketchbooks which contain sketches and drawings done in various mediums such as pencil, pastel, and watercolour. Subjects include florals, trees, birds, cats, mermaids, boats, ecclesiastical figures, death masks, fashion, and weaving designs; etc. Some sketchooks also contain notes.
Included are design drawings for: Creation pulpit fall, 1959; chair for Eaglesham Church, c1961; Mayfield cloth, 1972; Old Parish Church Gourock, 1973; double bow & silver cross, 1973; Live Coal, not dated; long lecturn fall for Cathcart South, 1978/79; studies for last piece of work, early 1980s; Prestonkirk Pulpit Fall (includes some correspondence), 1984; and poppies panel in V&A collection, not dated.
There are a number of outsize folders which contain design material for:
- "Dove Fall"; includes paper dove cutouts, design on tracing paper, postcards and cuttings, and illustrations of grouse and owls.
- "Tay Bridge Stole"; includes news cuttings, textile sample, photographs, and design drawing.
- Design for quilted panel for Netherlee Figure.
- Folder of lettering and graphic work , life drawings, and "proposed design for embroidery 'Rosemount', Linlithgow"; including a Norwegian Art Treasures poster, and piece of graphic work signed by "E. Younger".
- Folder of designs for "Hand of God"; including a folder labelled "Queen Mother's, Yorkhill 1971".
- Designs for Arbroath Panel, 1943 and Design for Communion Cloth for Shawlands.
- Designs for St Martins Church, Port Glasgow, 1959.
- Folder entitled "Architecture & Interior Decoration" but containing portrait and life drawings done in pencil.
- Folder of material relating to "Tree of Light"; includes a scenic watercolour signed Leslie Bewes 12/1/83.
- Folder of designs for Life Force Lectern, Cathcart South, Celestia, Last Supper etc.
Also included is a folder of cuttings from "The Scottish Annual & Braemar Gathering Book" featuring Kath Whyte artwork; as well as some other artwork.
Other designs:
- Hand of God, Lettering and graphic work; life drawings; design for Rosemont, Floral Sketches, Design for Arbroath panel, Design for communion cloth shawlands, Dove Fall, Floral Sketches and abstract drawings and paintings, Tree of light, Floral Sketches and sketch of a bench, Welcome to Britain design, street scene etching, The Flowers in the Valley, Scenic watercolours, floral sketches, embroidery design, pictorial embroidery, build sketches, Portraits and life drawings, St Martins Church, Tay Bridge Stole, The Scottish Annual & Braemar Gathering artwork, Design for quilted panel for Netherlee figure.
Appraisal, destruction and scheduling
This material has been appraised in line with Glasgow School of Art Archives and Collections standard procedures.
Accruals
System of arrangement
General Information
Name of creator
Biographical history
Helen Kathleen R Whyte, or Kath Whyte as she was known, was the outstanding influence of her generation on embroidery in Scotland and, through her writing and teaching, made a major contribution to textile art in Britain and abroad.
She was brought up in a home where "real" things - hand-made textiles, books, pictures - were loved and appreciated. Some of her formative years were spent in India, where her father worked, from where the rich colours and exciting textiles obviously made a lasting impression. After attending Arbroath High School, Arbroath, Angus, Scotland, where the strength of design teaching in the art department developed her sense of direction, she went on to Gray's School of Art, Aberdeen, Scotland, where she took the Diploma Course in General Design. Two strong influences during that period of her life were James Hamilton, a colourful character and strong design teacher, and Dorothy Angus, who awakened in Kath her true dedication to stichery and textiles. After leaving art college she taught in schools in Aberdeen and organised craft classes for youth clubs during and after the war. Her influence on textile design really developed after she took up her post as Head of Embroidery and Weaving at Glasgow School of Art, Glasgow, Scotland, in 1948, a position she held until she retired in 1974. She became part of the team of design lecturers there, earning great respect from her colleagues for her passionate and single-minded enthusiasm. She was also active in other forms of art education. She was part of a team appointed to validate the DipAD course in English art colleges. She was a much respected adviser on many of the English courses and continued her interest in them through the years as a friend. She was also an art advisor to the Scottish Education Department, so her influence carried on through to secondary school education. Kathleen Whyte was awarded the MBE in 1969 for her contribution to art education. Also, in 1969, her book, Design and Embroidery was published by Batsford and was also produced in the US and Holland with a second edition in 1982. In the introduction to the catalogue for her Retrospective Exhibition in 1987, William Buchanan said: "She is one of a great line of embroiderers at Glasgow who have practised and taught and written and proved that, along with the brush, the pencil and the chisel, used by the finger of an artist, the needle is a potent means of visual expression."