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A new exhibition exploring the connections between ancient Pictish symbols and the Glasgow Style will open at Glasgow Art Club in October 2026.
The Flower and the Stone: Pictish Symbols and the Glasgow Style is a site-specific exhibition by Scottish-born, New York-based artist Scott Kilgour. It brings together 18 large-scale works that connect early medieval Pictish symbol stones with the ornamental designs of the late Victorian Glasgow Style.
Kilgour, who moved from Glasgow to New York in 1983, developed the exhibition as a contemporary exploration of Scotland’s artistic heritage and cultural identity.
Conceived for the historic gallery interior redesigned by Charles Rennie Mackintosh in 1892, the exhibition explores themes of memory, cultural transition and national identity.
The works are arranged into five interconnected series: four Guardians of the Thistle compositions; four Glasgow Rose works dedicated to the artists known as The Four; twoSleeping Princesses honouring Margaret and Frances MacDonald; four paintings based on Pictish symbol stones; and four works combining Pictish symbols with the Scottish thistle.
Through stencilling and aerosol spray paint, Kilgour brings ancient motifs into conversation with proto-modernist abstraction and contemporary street art.
The Scottish thistle is central to the exhibition, serving as a link between the Pictish era and the Glasgow Style. The motif already features in the stencil frieze that circles the Mackintosh-designed gallery.
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Kilgour reinterprets the thistle as both a national emblem and a spiritual motif, with angelic figures acting as guardians of the exhibition space.
The project also draws on the research of anthropologist Anthony Jackson, whose study of Pictish symbol stones provides historical and conceptual context. Jackson described the stones as a “swan-song” of a pagan Celtic society that was gradually transformed and ultimately erased by incoming Christian Scots.
The exhibition opened to the public on Tuesday, October 20.