Exhibitions at the National Galleries of Scotland

ARTIST ROOMS: Joseph Beuys - Tate Modern - 1st April 2012 to 31st December 2013

National Galleries of Scotland — 2013-03-28 15:51:38

This room brings together works by the German artist Joseph Beuys from the early 1980’s, including the installation Lightning with Stag in its Glare. One of the most important German artists of the twentieth century, Beuys was known for performances and sculptural installations that explored myth, politics and man’s relationship to the natural world. He saw creativity as central to human existence, and his art was rooted in processes of change and transformation. His sculptures were often based on found objects which he invested with symbolic associations derived from science, anthropology and his own life. Many of the works shown here were part of an exhibition called Zeitgeist held in 1982 at the Martin-Gropius Bau, Berlin. In a section entitled ‘Workshop’ Beuys installed a huge mound of clay – a raw material formed from the earth – and surrounded it with sculptures as well as furniture, tools and other items taken from his studio. After the exhibition, Beuys made casts of some of the elements to create Lightning with Stag in its Glare. In this installation, his animal sculptures – composed from the ramshackle detritus of industrial civilization – are endowed with mythic significance. The bolt of lightning itself was a bronze cast from a section of the clay mound, while the stag was cast in aluminium as if illuminated by a sudden flash of light. Maggot-like primordial creatures were fashioned by embedding tools such as spanners and screwdrivers in scoops of clay. Made towards the end of the artist’s life, the installation addresses themes of finality and death, but also ideas of regeneration through the transformative power of natural energies. Tate Modern Image: Joseph Beuys, Fettstuhl [Fat Chair] (1964 - 1985)© DACS 2008

ARTIST ROOMS: Lawrence Weiner - Tate Modern - 27th September 2012 to 1st September 2013

National Galleries of Scotland — 2013-03-28 17:06:28

Installations of Weiner wall texts will be on display from the 27 September 2012. Tate Modern Image: Lawrence Weiner, STRAIGHT DOWN TO BELOW (1988)© Lawrence Weiner

Lucknow to Lahore - 6th October 2012 to 29th September 2013

National Galleries of Scotland — 2012-08-09 09:28:02

Spanning forty years, from 1882 to 1922, Lucknow to Lahore explores the particular vision of Fred Bremner, a Scottish commercial photographer. Bremner’s travels in the Indian subcontinent are recorded in these spectacular photographs. Through Bremner’s eyes we invite the visitor to get a sense of the people and places of Imperial India. Using his words, the exhibition brings to life individual experiences and opinions about ‘that far-off land known as the Indian Empire’.

ARTIST ROOMS: Damien Hirst - New Art Gallery Walsall - 6th October 2012 to 27th October 2013

National Galleries of Scotland — 2013-03-27 12:39:08

The New Art Gallery Walsall will present a year-long display of key works by Damien Hirst within the context of its Garman Ryan Collection. The collection, which is on permanent display, reflects Sir Jacob Epstein’s lifelong preoccupation with birth, new life, fertility and the spiritual and religious concerns surrounding these extensive and significant themes. There is a cyclic approach to this pairing: with Epstein exploring the joy of life and Hirst’s fascination with our own mortality. The ARTIST ROOMS display will offer a contemporary insight into the work within the collection and will be accompanied by a series of inspired satellite exhibition and events through the course of the year. New Art Gallery Walsall

The Scottish Colourist Series: SJ Peploe - 3rd November 2012 to 23rd June 2013

National Galleries of Scotland — 2012-05-31 18:05:54

‘One of the best exhibitions of the year’ ***** The Scotsman'Handsome retrospective…hung in a clever balance between themes and chronologies' Scotland on Sunday Discover beautifully composed still lifes and stunning landscapes of France and Scotland in this extensive retrospective of SJ Peploe, the second exhibition in our Scottish Colourist series. Samuel John Peploe (1871-1935) was the eldest and most successful of the four artists popularly known as The Scottish Colourists, along with FCB Cadell, JD Fergusson and GL Hunter. Peploe is considered by many to be the leader of the group and indeed it was his friendship with the others which bound the four together. Born in Edinburgh, Peploe lived in the Scottish capital all his life, apart from two years spent in Paris between 1910 and 1912. Most celebrated for his beautiful still lifes, Peploe depicted a selection of props, including roses, tulips and coffee pots, placed in an infinite variety of combinations and lovingly painted in his studio. The care which Peploe lavished on his still lifes contrasts with the more spontaneous technique with which he created his stunning French and Scottish landscapes, painted en plein air from 1896. At certain periods Peploe also painted figure studies of beauty and significance, including images of his wife and their two sons. This important exhibition will bring together more than 100 of Peploe’s most significant paintings from public and private collections around the world, including highlights such as the 1905 masterpiece, The Coffee Pot, early 1920s work, Red and Pink Roses, Oranges and Fan, and a selection of the original objects used within Peploe’s still life arrangements. Sponsored by Dickson Minto W.S.

From Death to Death and Other Small Tales - 15th December 2012 to 8th September 2013

National Galleries of Scotland — 2012-09-05 15:16:02

'rewarding and remarkable' Scotland on Sunday‘Superb’ The Guardian**** The Daily Telegraph**** The Independent***** The Skinny Explore works from the D.Daskalopoulos Collection, one of the world’s most important private collections of contemporary art, alongside many rarely-seen major pieces from the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art. Including many world-class artworks that have never before been seen in Scotland, discover the diverse ways in which 20th and 21st century artists have approached the subject of the body. More

Tickling Jock - 23rd February 2013 to 25th May 2014

National Galleries of Scotland — 2012-11-07 08:57:35

Tickling Jock celebrates Scotland’s masters of mirth and our truly distinctive contribution to the world of entertainment in the twentieth century. We turn the spotlight on performers who have generated laughter at home and abroad – a list of comedy greats that runs from variety stars of the music hall, stage, gramophone and radio to comedians and actors who have made audiences fall about with laughter on the big and small screens. With legends such as Rikki Fulton, Jack Milroy Sir Stanley Baxter and Una Mclean rubbing shoulders with Ivor Cutler, Ronnie Corbett, Lulu, and of course Billy Connolly. Enter our ‘On Air’ booths to listen and watch comedy clips and become a Tickling Jock yourself by leaving your own recording of a comedy performance. Image: Heidi Harrington, Ronnie Corbett, 2003 ©Heidi Harrington

Migration Stories: Valentina Bonizzi - 23rd February to 22nd September 2013

National Galleries of Scotland — 2012-11-26 11:26:05

Italian-born artist Valentina Bonizzi has lived in Scotland for eight years. Using photography and video Bonizzi aims to create what she has termed the ‘Image document’, exploring migrant experiences from 1850 to today. Her work explores the transformational experience of migration: a transitory and fluid existence which challenges ones sense of certainty of place and meaning. The exhibition develops Migration Stories’ commitment to raising questions about citizenship and belonging.

Rodin's The Kiss - 23rd February 2013 to 2nd February 2014

National Galleries of Scotland — 2012-12-12 15:19:32

Auguste Rodin’s magnificent marble sculpture comes to Edinburgh on year-long loan from Tate Britain. Rodin is widely regarded as one of the greatest sculptors of the 19th century and this life-size evocation of love is amongst his most famous works. Having first shown The Kiss to huge popular acclaim in 1898, Rodin was commissioned to make this second version, which was completed in 1904. It depicts the adulterous lovers Paolo Malatesta and Francesca da Rimini, who appear as characters in Dante’s The Divine Comedy. Dante relates how the couple’s passion grew as they read together the story of Lancelot and Guinevere (the book can just be seen in Paolo’s hand), but they were discovered and murdered by Francesca’s outraged husband, Paolo’s older brother Giancotto. The story inspired many playwrights, composers and artists in the nineteenth century, and is the subject of a much-loved painting in the Gallery’s collection, Francesca da Rimini (1837) by Sir William Dyce. Three full-scale marble versions of The Kiss were made in Rodin’s lifetime, and the sculptor also made smaller versions in plaster, terracotta and bronze. Such was allure of The Kiss that hundreds of bronze copies were produced by the Barbedienne foundry. As a result, this spectacular sculpture has become one of the most instantly recognised and best-loved works of art in the world.

The House of Annie Lennox - 23rd March to 30th June 2013

National Galleries of Scotland — 2012-11-19 10:45:22

Annie Lennox, one of the nation's most internationally acclaimed singer-songwriters, presents her exhibition The House of Annie Lennox at the Scottish National Portrait Gallery. Curated in partnership with the V&A and the artist herself, the exhibition focuses on the artist’s work over three decades, as an iconic performer, singer-songwriter, recording artist and political activist. Tracing her unique career from its early beginnings, the exhibition includes The Tourists, Eurythmics, and her solo work through to the present day, with an array of stunning photographs, iconic videos, and a dazzling selection of costumes taken from her personal archive. Image: Satoshi Saïkusa, Annie Lennox, 1991 © Satoshi Saïkusa

ARTIST ROOMS: Gerhard Richter - Tate Modern - 5th April 2013 to 1st April 2014

National Galleries of Scotland — 2013-03-28 10:51:03

Featuring works from the ARTIST ROOMS collection. Tate Modern Image: Gerhard Richter, Abstraktes Bild [Abstract Painting](1994)© Gerhard Richter

Through American Eyes - 11th May to 8th September 2013

National Galleries of Scotland — 2013-03-13 11:08:44

This exhibition celebrates one of the greatest American painters of the 19th century. Frederic Church (1826-1900) is renowned for his spectacular landscapes, which combine dramatic compositions with beautifully observed light effects. His travels took him to locations as distant as the Arctic Circle, South America and Europe. The show brings together 25 of his remarkably fresh and spontaneous oil sketches, borrowed from collections in the United States, and juxtaposes these with Church's magnificent and imposing Niagara Falls from the American Side, donated to the Scottish National Gallery in 1887 by an expatriate Scot, John Stewart Kennedy. This exhibition is organised by The National Gallery, London, in partnership with and through major support from the Terra Foundation for American Art. Image: Frederic Edwin Church, Sunrise(detail), 1862 © New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation / Olana State Historic Site, Hudson, NY

ARTIST ROOMS: Jeff Koons - Brighton Museum and Art Gallery - 11th May to 8th September 2013

National Galleries of Scotland — 2013-03-28 14:45:29

This exhibition at Brighton Museum and Art Gallery is the first showing in England (outside Tate) of Koons’s group of works in ARTIST ROOMS. Provocative and playful, Jeff Koons’s work reflects upon the power of consumer industries and the aesthetics and culture of taste. On display will be works from series such as The New; Equilibrium; Banality; Made in Heaven; Easyfun and Popeye. Brighton Museum & Art Gallery Image: Jeff Koons, Winter Bears (1988)© Jeff Koons

ARTIST ROOMS: Robert Mapplethorpe - Old Gala House - 11th May to 11th August 2013

National Galleries of Scotland — 2013-03-29 16:17:53

This exhibition at Old Gala House features a selection of works by photographer Robert Mapplethorpe from the ARTIST ROOMS collection. Old Gala House Image: Robert Mapplethorpe, Self Portrait (1983)© Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation. Used by permission.

ARTIST ROOMS: Douglas Gordon - Tate Britain - 13th May to 6th October 2013

National Galleries of Scotland — 2013-03-27 17:15:55

In his video installations, Douglas Gordon (born 1966) plays with the cinematic techniques of duration, doubling and mirroring to explore the dynamic between audience and image. Play Dead; Real Time was filmed at an empty Gagosian Gallery in New York, where the artist arranged to have Minnie, a four-year-old Indian elephant, brought in to perform a series of tricks – ‘play dead’, ‘stand still’, ‘walk around’, ‘back up’, ‘get up’ and ‘beg’ – on the command of her off-screen trainer. The footage showing Minnie’s sequences of tricks is simultaneously presented in a front and a rear life-sized projection and on a monitor, with each one depicting the same event from a range of perspectives. The viewer is presented with an opportunity to see the animal with an intimacy and perspective that are very rarely offered. For Gordon, Play Dead; Real Time sits between ‘a nature film and a medical documentary, to observe the subject in a way that could be used for a practical purpose but also had a very certain aesthetic. One of the beautiful things about film and video is that it can imbue a sense or sensibility that doesn’t actually physically exist.’ This display has been curated by Carmen Julia. Tate Britain Image: Douglas Gordon, Play Dead; Real Time (2003) © Douglas Gordon

ARTIST ROOMS: Robert Therrien - Paxton House - 2nd June to 31st October 2013

National Galleries of Scotland — 2013-04-01 16:21:47

Work personally chosen by Robert Therrien to be displayed around Paxton House. Showcasing a display of the Book from the Red Room split and framed for the first time. Admission costs apply, although under 25s are free. Paxton House Image: Robert Therrien, Red Book (2000-2007)© ARS, NY and DACS, London 2009

ARTIST ROOMS: Martin Creed - Ferens Art Gallery - 8th June to 6th October 2013

National Galleries of Scotland — 2013-03-29 13:21:39

The Ferens is pleased to be the first associate gallery to host the Martin Creed ARTIST ROOM. The exhibition will show important works by Creed, who first came to prominence when he won the Turner Prize in 2001 with Work No. 227 The lights going on and off. Creed is an artist and musician whose works often excite controversy by challenging our ideas about what art is. He has exhibited extensively worldwide and is renowned for his straightforward approach to making art, often using simple materials to create sculptures, installations, drawings, films, music and text. His work can be refreshing, unexpected and humorous, as well as provocative. The exhibition will explore a range of different media including a neon sign Work No. 890 (DON’T WORRY), a twenty-one part drawing, Work No. 944, 2008, and a series of four paintings from 2011. Ferens Art Gallery

Tesco Bank Art Competition for Schools 2013 - 8th June to 27th October 2013

National Galleries of Scotland — 2013-06-18 11:32:59

In this, the tenth year of the competition, we received a record-breaking 11,222 entries from budding young artists from nursery, primary, secondary and special education schools all around Scotland. All fifty three winners, inspired by a selection of works from the National Galleries of Scotland, will have their art on display at the Scottish National Gallery until October 2013. Tesco Bank has proudly supported the competition for a second year. Both Tesco Bank and the National Galleries of Scotland are overjoyed with a huge increase of 81% on participation figures from 2012. The Tesco Bank Art Competition for Schools aims to give children from across the country the best possible opportunity to experience, create and enjoy the magic of visual art. Themes included Dogs inspired by Callum by John Emms, Water, looking at Alex Katz’s 2000 painting Grey Marine; Let’s Play, influenced by Andy Warhol’s 1948 work Cano; and Scary Monsters and Creepy Things looking at Agnes Miller Parker’s 1934 wood engraving The Challenge. Adding extra excitement, designs from this category will be used by Scottish National Ballet to inspire set designs for their upcoming winter show, Hansel & Gretel.

Man Ray Portraits - 22nd June to 22nd September 2013

National Galleries of Scotland — 2012-11-26 13:11:26

Man Ray Portraits, presented in collaboration with the National Portrait Gallery in London, is the first major museum retrospective of the highly influential artist’s photographic portraits and features over 100 works from his career in America and Paris, dating from 1916 to 1968. Drawn from collections, such as those of New York’s The Museum of Modern Art and Metropolitan Museum of Art, the exhibition will demonstrate Man Ray’s central position among the leading artists of the Dada and Surrealist movements. It will feature portraits of lovers, friends and contemporaries, ranging from two of his most significant muses, Lee Miller and Kiki de Montparnasse, to fellow artists, Pablo Picasso and Salvador Dali, and American author, Ernest Hemingway. Running from 22 June 2013 to 8 September 2013, following its opening at the National Portrait Gallery, London, the exhibition will be a key highlight of the Gallery’s summer season. The show then travels to The Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts, Moscow. Image: Man Ray, Solarised Portrait of Lee Miller, c. 1929 © Man Ray Trust/ADAGP, Paris and DACS, London 2012, courtesy The Penrose Collection. Image courtesy the Lee Miller Archives

Ken Currie | New Works - 20th July to 22nd September 2013

National Galleries of Scotland — 2012-11-19 10:46:38

Ken Currie is one of the outstanding figurative painters of his generation. The Glasgow-based artist is renowned in the context of the Portrait Gallery for his haunting, luminous painting Three Oncologists (2002) and his searing self-portrait Unfamiliar Reflection (2006). Widely admired for his intensely powerful and provocative work, the portraiture of the Old Masters, such as Velasquez, Goya and David has always fascinated Currie, and his own work has often obliquely engaged with its traditions and concerns. In this exhibition of new paintings, on public view for the first time, Currie meditates upon the idea of the portrait, its origins and purposes, and its continued significance in the modern world. Image: Ken Currie, Unfamiliar Reflection, 2006 © Ken Currie

ARTIST ROOMS: Ron Mueck - Wolverhampton Art Gallery - 20th July to 2nd November 2013

National Galleries of Scotland — 2013-04-01 16:30:52

Artworks by Ron Mueck from the ARTIST ROOMS collection will be on display at Wolverhampton Art Gallery. Wolverhampton Art Gallery Image: Ron Mueck, Spooning Couple (2005)© Ron Mueck

ARTIST ROOMS: Bill Viola - Wednesbury Museum & Art Gallery - 25th July to 1st December 2013

National Galleries of Scotland — 2013-03-27 12:03:01

Featuring works from the ARTIST ROOMS collection. Wednesbury Museum & Art Gallery Image: Bill Viola, Four Hands (2001)© Bill Viola

ARTIST ROOMS: Bruce Nauman - York St Mary's - 26th July to 10th November 2013

National Galleries of Scotland — 2013-03-27 12:12:50

Bruce Nauman rose to prominence in the 1960s working across a broad spectrum of different media including sculpture, film and video, neon, installation, photography and performance. This exhibition at York St Mary’s brings together a selection of his art work spanning 30 years, exploring Nauman’s constant experimentation and re-invention in his artistic practice. York St Mary's

Witches & Wicked Bodies - 27th July to 3rd November 2013

National Galleries of Scotland — 2012-12-10 10:54:59

Delve into the world of Witches and Wicked Bodies in this major new exhibition coming in summer 2013. Discover how witches and witchcraft have been depicted by artists over the past 500 years, including works by Albrecht Dürer, Francisco de Goya and William Blake, plus pieces by 20th century artists such as Paula Rego and Kiki Smith. Through 16th and 17th century prints and drawings, learn how the advent of the printing press allowed artists and writers to share ideas, myths and fears about witches from country to country. Including major works on loan from the British Museum, the National Gallery (London), Tate, the Victoria & Albert Museum, as well as works from the Galleries’ own collections, Witches and Wicked Bodies will be an investigation of extremes, exploring the highly exaggerated ways in which witches have been represented, from hideous hags to beautiful seductresses. Supported by the Patrons of the National Galleries of Scotland Image: After Henry Fuseli, mezzotint by John Raphael Smith, The Weird Sisters, 1785 − © The Trustees of the British Museum

Peter Doig - 3rd August to 3rd November 2013

National Galleries of Scotland — 2013-04-16 13:10:53

A major exhibition of the work of Peter Doig (b. Edinburgh 1959), one of the most internationally-renowned painters working today. No Foreign Lands surveys the paintings and works on paper that Doig has created during the past 10 years, with a particular emphasis on the artist's approach to serial motifs and recurring imagery. These works are exotic in their subject matter, formally spare and monumental at the same time, and show Doig working at the height of his extraordinary powers. Over the period covered by this exhibition Doig has split his time between Trinidad, London and Düsseldorf. His peripatetic life and memories of growing up in Canada (he left Edinburgh as a small child) and studying and living in London for 20 years have given him a particularly rich visual knowledge, that cross fertilizes his works, wherever the motifs are taken from. As fellow Scot, Robert Louis Stevenson, wrote in The Silverado Squatters: ‘There are no foreign lands. It is the traveller only who is foreign.’ Although Doig may travel a lot, he is no foreigner seeking out the exotic. Rather his eye spots that significant detail which transcends locale and spans both time and space. Over a career of nearly three decades, Doig has reinvigorated a medium considered by many to have fallen into irrelevance. His inventive style, uncommonly sensuous palette and suggestive imagery set him apart from the conceptualism dominating much of contemporary art. A willingness to take up the challenge still posed by the paintings of Gauguin, Matisse, Bonnard, Marsden Hartley and Edward Hopper places him in a long line of great colourists, expressive handlers of paint and creators of richly textured worlds. This will be the first major exhibition of Doig’s work to be shown in the country of his birth. After Edinburgh it will travel to Canada, where it will be shown at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts.

ARTIST ROOMS: Ian Hamilton Finlay - Park Gallery - 23rd August to 16th November 2013

National Galleries of Scotland — 2013-03-28 12:03:56

Featuring works from the ARTIST ROOMS collection. The Park Gallery Image: Ian Hamilton Finlay, Sailing Dinghy (1996)© The Estate of Ian Hamilton Finlay

ARTIST ROOMS: Martin Creed - Tate Britain - 21st October 2013 to 1st May 2014

National Galleries of Scotland — 2013-03-29 13:30:15

ARTIST ROOMS: Joseph Beuys - Worcester City Art Gallery & Museum - 26th October 2013 to 1st February 2014

National Galleries of Scotland — 2013-03-28 15:54:18

Featuring works from the ARTIST ROOMS collection. Worcestershire City Art Gallery & Museum Image: Joseph Beuys, Fettstuhl [Fat Chair] (1964 - 1985)© DACS 2008

ARTIST ROOMS: Richard Long - The Potteries Museum & Art Gallery - 30th November 2013 to 9th March 2014

National Galleries of Scotland — 2013-03-29 13:56:53

Featuring works from the ARTIST ROOMS collection. The Potteries Museum & Art Gallery Image: Richard Long, A Line Made by Walking (1967)© Richard Long