Remembering John Patrick Byrne

“We are deeply saddened to hear of the death of John Patrick Byrne, a genius at whatever he turned his hand to. From fine art to murals, from theatre, television and film writing to set design, he combined it all with a dapper fashion sense.

"Byrne’s impressive, vast body of work rightly made him a cultural icon but first and foremost, Byrne was a painter and Glasgow Life Museums are fortunate enough to hold multiple works by him in the City’s collection.

“Last year Glasgow Life Museums mounted a retrospective, John Patrick Byrne - A Big Adventure at Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum. The exhibition was one of the most successful and loved shows in recent years. We are pleased and honoured to have worked with Byrne to produce the show. The exhibition could only show a small part of what was an extraordinary career. We hope other institutions across the country will follow in celebrating Byrne and his many talents.”

Martin Craig, Curator of Art Post 1945 with Glasgow Life Museums

Some well-kent faces feature in our film below, in which we posed a tricky question: can you describe John Patrick Byrne in only three words...?

The film was created to support John Patrick Byrne: A Big Adventure, the major retrospective which took place at Kelvingrove in 2022.