Timorous Beasties

Timorous Beasties was set up in 1990 by Alistair McAuley and Paul Simmons, who met at Glasgow School of Art. They still design and hand print in Glasgow, and have showrooms in Glasgow, Edinburgh and London.

The work is best known for taking a traditional form and putting something modern inside it. Their toiles look like eighteenth century pastoral scenes until you stand close enough to read them, and the Glasgow and London toiles show the cities as they actually are. Elsewhere it is insects, thistles, seaweed and birds, drawn properly and printed large.

It has been collected as much as it has been sold: pieces are held by the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Art Institute of Chicago, Cooper Hewitt and the Royal Ontario Museum. They won Walpole awards in 2007 and 2010, and have worked with Nike, Ercol, Brintons and Penguin Books, drawn the Royal Bank of Scotland polymer notes in 2016 and wrapped the tail of a private jet.

It is the house to show somebody who says they want something nobody else will have. The repeats are big and the drawing rewards being close to it, so it is worth putting where people sit rather than across a whole room.