http://www.nationalgalleries.org/exhibitions Exhibitions at the National Galleries of Scotland en-gb info@nationalgalleries.org Copyright 2012 National Galleries of Scotland http://www.nationalgalleries.org/whatson/exhibitions/george-bain-master-of-celtic-art <p><img src='http://www.nationalgalleries.org/media/4/georgebain.jpg' /></p> Often referred to as the ‘father of modern Celtic design', George Bain was a key figure in the revival of Celtic art in the twentieth century and devoted much of his life to studying intricate decorative designs used by ancient Picts and Celts. Bain popularised the subject, encouraging students not to simply repeat designs, but to also understand their constructions and create anew. This display features a selection of Bain’s drawings, as well as objects inspired by them. http://www.nationalgalleries.org/whatson/exhibitions/george-bain-master-of-celtic-art 2011-10-26 00:00:00 http://www.nationalgalleries.org/media/4/georgebain.jpg National Galleries of Scotland http://www.nationalgalleries.org/whatson/exhibitions/the-scottish-colourist-series-fcb-cadell <p><img src='http://www.nationalgalleries.org/media/4/cadell_2.jpg' /></p> Francis Campbell Boileau Cadell is one of the four artists known as the Scottish Colourists, along with JD Fergusson, GL Hunter and SJ Peploe. They all spent time in France early on in their careers and had direct contact with French painting from Manet and the Impressionists to Matisse and the Fauves. They shared a preference for bright colour and pronounced brushwork and are recognised as being amongst the most important modern Scottish artists. Exhibitions of the work of Peploe and Fergusson will be held at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art in autumn 2012 and 2013 respectively. This is the first solo exhibition of Cadell’s work to be held in a public gallery in seventy years, following the retrospective held at the National Gallery of Scotland in 1942. Cadell is perhaps the most elegant of the Colourists. He is renowned for his stylish portrayals of Edinburgh New Town interiors and the sophisticated society that occupied them; equally celebrated are his vibrantly coloured, daringly simplified still lifes and figure studies of the 1920s and his evocative depictions of his beloved island of Iona. http://www.nationalgalleries.org/whatson/exhibitions/the-scottish-colourist-series-fcb-cadell 2011-11-16 00:00:00 http://www.nationalgalleries.org/media/4/cadell_2.jpg National Galleries of Scotland http://www.nationalgalleries.org/whatson/exhibitions/scottish-painting-between-the-wars <p><img src='http://www.nationalgalleries.org/media/4/scottishpaintingbetweenwars.jpg' /></p> Although early twentieth-century Scottish art is often identified with the Scottish Colourists, and with bright colour and bold brushwork, another approach to painting existed during the same period. Edward Baird, James Cowie, William Crosbie and William Crozier are amongst those who trained at Glasgow School of Art, where a meticulous, linear style was popular. By contrast, students who trained at Edinburgh College of Art including William Gillies, John Maxwell and William MacTaggart, painted with brighter colours and with more gestural brushwork. Work by these artists can be seen in the Penrose Gallery. While the Colourists were influenced by direct contact with French Post-Impressionism and the Fauves, several of the artists whose work is displayed here also lived in France but began to adopt an almost abstract style of painting which had affinities with Cubism or with the Vorticist movement led by Wyndham Lewis. William Johnstone became interested in Surrealism in the 1920s, significantly earlier than did Baird, Cowie, Crosbie and Morrocco. He and McCance moved to London to further their careers and there came into direct contact with avant-garde English art. Most of the painters represented in this room taught for at least some of their careers, in Scotland and England, influencing younger generations of artists.     http://www.nationalgalleries.org/whatson/exhibitions/scottish-painting-between-the-wars 2011-11-09 00:00:00 http://www.nationalgalleries.org/media/4/scottishpaintingbetweenwars.jpg National Galleries of Scotland http://www.nationalgalleries.org/whatson/exhibitions/the-scottish-colourists-and-their-circle <p><img src='http://www.nationalgalleries.org/media/4/gma_1947.jpg' /></p> Popularly known as the Scottish Colourists, the four artists, FCB Cadell, JD Fergusson, GL Hunter and SJ Peploe, are amongst the most admired of early twentieth-century British painters. Each was born in Scotland in the latter part of the nineteenth century and each was attracted to France early in their careers. Although the four were friends, they did not constitute a formal group and the collective term by which they are now known derives instead from their shared preference for vivid colour and a fluid handling of paint. Their direct contact with French Post-Impressionism and early knowledge of the work of Henri Matisse and other Fauve artists, encouraged them to produce paintings which are among the most innovative in British art of the period. This display is dedicated to works by the Colourists and artists who, although not one of the four, were working in a similar manner at around the same time, such as John Maclauchlan Milne. Also on display are works by a younger generation of artists influenced by the Colourists, including William Gillies, John Maxwell and Anne Redpath, who also used bright colour and gestural brushwork in their paintings. This display consists of works from the Gallery’s permanent collection and of others which are on loan to us.   http://www.nationalgalleries.org/whatson/exhibitions/the-scottish-colourists-and-their-circle 2011-11-09 00:00:00 http://www.nationalgalleries.org/media/4/gma_1947.jpg National Galleries of Scotland http://www.nationalgalleries.org/whatson/exhibitions/pioneers-of-science <p><img src='http://www.nationalgalleries.org/media/4/pioneersofscience_1.jpg' /></p> Join us in an inspiring exhibition looking at the innovative figures who have helped shape the modern world. From portraits of John Logie Baird and Alexander Fleming to Dolly the sheep’s death mask, this unusual display charts scientific legacies and their enduring influence. http://www.nationalgalleries.org/whatson/exhibitions/pioneers-of-science 2011-10-25 00:00:00 http://www.nationalgalleries.org/media/4/pioneersofscience_1.jpg National Galleries of Scotland http://www.nationalgalleries.org/whatson/exhibitions/missing <p><img src='http://www.nationalgalleries.org/media/4/missing.jpg' /></p> In a major commission for the re-launch of the Scottish National Portrait Gallery, Graham Fagen has created a new moving-image work based on the theme of ‘the missing’. Missing is a video work which is shown projected onto two screens. The first contemplates place, taking the viewer on a journey through Irvine New Town, Glasgow and London. Each location speaks about absence and anonymity in society. The second shows people at home, in domestic spaces, observing - via laptops, televisions and books - images of those who have gone missing, and perpetrators linked to high-profile disappearances. This powerful and moving work explores how repeated, everyday familiarity with such images creates a distance between us and the people they portray, and the difficult issues they confront us with. Graham Fagen is one of Scotland and the UK’s foremost contemporary artists. In video, performance, photography, sculpture and text, he creates works which explore how national or personal identity is both created by, and is a response to, its cultural context. (Image: Video still from Missing, 2011, Two-screen HD projection, Graham Fagen, Commissioned by the Scottish National Portrait Gallery) http://www.nationalgalleries.org/whatson/exhibitions/missing 2011-11-29 00:00:00 http://www.nationalgalleries.org/media/4/missing.jpg National Galleries of Scotland http://www.nationalgalleries.org/whatson/exhibitions/migration-stories <p><img src='http://www.nationalgalleries.org/media/4/migrationstoriespakistan.jpg' /></p> For thousands of years communities from elsewhere have settled in Scotland while native Scots have moved abroad. From the Portrait Gallery you look out towards the port of Leith where the hopeful settlers of Scotland’s ill-fated colony at Darien set sail for modern Panama in 1698. Walking from here to Leith, you would pass through Picardy Place, a reminder of the Flemish weavers who settled in Scotland in the early eighteenth century; nearby Antigua Street and Baltic Street recall Scotland’s West Indies and North Sea trading connections. Migrants both into and out of Scotland continue to shape the nation. Migration Stories explores the visual culture of Scotland’s migration history. Working with contemporary artists and local communities, the exhibitions, planned as an on-going series, consider questions of Scottish identity, encompassing issues of place, belonging, exile and tradition. Migration Stories: Pakistan, our inaugural exhibition for this space, explores Scotland’s links with Pakistan through three contrasting displays. A Scottish Family Portrait features prominent Scots of Pakistani heritage photographed by Verena Jaekel.  Fragments of a Love Story is a personal film by Pakistani-born film-maker, Sana Bilgrami.  Isabella T. McNair provides a snapshot of the life of a remarkable Scottish teacher in Lahore. (Image: Aamer Anwar with his wife and son, Glasgow 29th August 2010, Verena Jaekel) http://www.nationalgalleries.org/whatson/exhibitions/migration-stories 2011-10-25 00:00:00 http://www.nationalgalleries.org/media/4/migrationstoriespakistan.jpg National Galleries of Scotland http://www.nationalgalleries.org/whatson/exhibitions/out-of-the-shadow <p><img src='http://www.nationalgalleries.org/media/4/outoftheshadow.jpg' /></p> The portraits in this display represent women whose lives span the late eighteenth to the early twentieth century.  These women were mostly the exception to a general rule, unusual in their achievements at a time when most women enjoyed few rights and freedoms and had limited expectations beyond the domestic sphere. A consideration of these individuals allows us to explore some of the important advances in women’s rights made during the nineteenth century. There were significant changes during the nineteenth century in legislation relating to the rights of women and by the end of Victoria’s reign in 1901 some women had achieved freedoms and were pursuing activities never possible before.  Women novelists contributed to these new aspirations by presenting fictional role models to real women.  The Universities (Scotland) Act of 1889 meant that women could study for degrees, but it was not until 1916 that they could study medicine.  And it was not until 1928 that women were granted the right to vote on the same terms as men. http://www.nationalgalleries.org/whatson/exhibitions/out-of-the-shadow 2011-10-25 00:00:00 http://www.nationalgalleries.org/media/4/outoftheshadow.jpg National Galleries of Scotland http://www.nationalgalleries.org/whatson/exhibitions/john-slezer <p><img src='http://www.nationalgalleries.org/media/4/johnslezer.jpg' /></p> John Abraham Slezer (about 1650 – 1717) first came to Scotland in 1669, probably from Germany, and settled here in 1671. He was employed in the Scottish army and his military work involved surveying the nation’s major defences and fortifications. While travelling around Scotland, Slezer produced images of many places he visited, publishing them in 1693 as a book, called Theatrum Scotiae. Theatrum Scotiae is a revealing portrait of Scotland over three hundred years ago. Painted views of Scotland were exceptionally rare at this time, and the examples shown here by Keirincx and Vosterman are three of the very few known. Slezer’s printed images presented a comprehensive view of Scotland for the first time. These views, or ‘prospects’ as he called them, show towns and cities, country houses, palaces and castles, universities and churches.  Slezer’s drawings were created using an optical instrument called a camera obscura which produced accurate depictions. These were then made into engravings by assistants.  We see recently-built grand residences, as well as great abbeys and cathedrals ruined and vandalised during the Reformation, and land being used for a variety of purposes. http://www.nationalgalleries.org/whatson/exhibitions/john-slezer 2011-10-25 00:00:00 http://www.nationalgalleries.org/media/4/johnslezer.jpg National Galleries of Scotland http://www.nationalgalleries.org/whatson/exhibitions/george-jamesone <p><img src='http://www.nationalgalleries.org/media/4/georgejamesone.jpg' /></p> George Jamesone (1589/90-1644) is a key figure in the development of portrait painting in Scotland.  He was the first great native-born artist in a profession dominated by foreigners. Born in Aberdeen, Jamesone served his apprenticeship in Edinburgh as a painter of decorative interiors before returning to his native city and setting up a studio.  In Aberdeen and Edinburgh Jamesone painted people from various walks of life: aristocrats, academics, lawyers and merchants.  Jamesone also completed major commissions, including an entire series of portraits of friends and family for his important patron Sir Colin Campbell, and a set of Scottish monarchs, painted for Charles I’s official entry into Edinburgh in 1633. Jamesone’s success as a portrait painter made him wealthy – he bought houses and estates and planted a pleasure garden to the west of Aberdeen.  When Jamesone died in 1644 he was widely mourned. The poet David Wedderburn wrote a Latin lament which emphasised his social and cultural achievements, describing the artist as ‘that most illustrious gentleman, George Jamesone of Aberdeen, the eminent painter’. http://www.nationalgalleries.org/whatson/exhibitions/george-jamesone 2011-10-25 00:00:00 http://www.nationalgalleries.org/media/4/georgejamesone.jpg National Galleries of Scotland http://www.nationalgalleries.org/whatson/exhibitions/close-encounters <p><img src='http://www.nationalgalleries.org/media/4/closeencounters.jpg' /></p> In 1868 the Fife-born photographer, Thomas Annan, began his series of thirty-one photographs of the closes and wynds of old Glasgow.  This area was one of the worst urban slums in Britain and had recently been scheduled for demolition by the City Improvement Trust, a body set up by the Glasgow Improvement Act of 1866 with sweeping powers to clear property.  Annan was charged by the Trustees with recording its passing, an antiquarian commission that answered an anxiety about the city’s ferocious pace of change. Facing technical problems due to the dark and dank conditions, he utilised the wet collodion process, the most sensitive technology then available. The series is acknowledged as the first record of slum housing in the history of photography. Today Annan’s closes still offer a mysterious encounter. Although taken at a time of public concern about the appalling overcrowding of the urban working class, his photographs are not obviously documents of social investigation. Through his dispassionate attention to the visual, Annan initiated what later came to be known as the documentary tradition. http://www.nationalgalleries.org/whatson/exhibitions/close-encounters 2011-10-25 00:00:00 http://www.nationalgalleries.org/media/4/closeencounters.jpg National Galleries of Scotland http://www.nationalgalleries.org/whatson/exhibitions/blazing-with-crimson-tartan-portraits <p><img src='http://www.nationalgalleries.org/media/4/blazingwithcrimson.jpg' /></p> Highland dress and tartan fabric are universally recognised signs of Scotland and Scottish identity. This display explores what these distinctive garments and this highly recognisable textile meant to six different people who were painted between 1680 and 1780. The Scottish National Portrait Gallery would like to thank Sabhal Mòr Ostaig The National Centre for Gaelic Language and Culture for their assistance with this display. (Image: Richard Waitt, Kenneth Sutherland, 3rd Lord Duffus, d. 1734. Jacobite, Scottish National Portrait Gallery) http://www.nationalgalleries.org/whatson/exhibitions/blazing-with-crimson-tartan-portraits 2012-01-11 00:00:00 http://www.nationalgalleries.org/media/4/blazingwithcrimson.jpg National Galleries of Scotland http://www.nationalgalleries.org/whatson/exhibitions/citizens-of-the-world-david-hume-and-allan-ramsay <p><img src='http://www.nationalgalleries.org/media/4/citizensoftheworld.jpg' /></p> Scotland made a remarkable contribution to the European Enlightenment of the eighteenth century with many of her citizens contributing to the ferment of ideas and shifts in attitude which transformed the world. Two Scots, David Hume, the great philosopher, and Allan Ramsay, the outstanding painter, were at the centre of this cultural and intellectual revolution. This display explores their world, their friends, their families and their patrons. (Image: Allan Ramsay, David Hume, 1711 - 1776. Historian and philosopher, Scottish National Portrait Gallery) http://www.nationalgalleries.org/whatson/exhibitions/citizens-of-the-world-david-hume-and-allan-ramsay 2011-10-27 00:00:00 http://www.nationalgalleries.org/media/4/citizensoftheworld.jpg National Galleries of Scotland http://www.nationalgalleries.org/whatson/exhibitions/romantic-camera-scottish-photography-and-the-modern-world <p><img src='http://www.nationalgalleries.org/media/4/romanticcamera.jpg' /></p> The opening masterpiece exhibition of the new Photography Gallery highlights some of the greatest works in the National Galleries of Scotland photography collection. It explores questions of identity, specifically the close relationship between romanticism and photography in Scotland. Over 60 works are included, ranging from iconic images by Adamson and Hill to new acquisitions being shown for the first time. http://www.nationalgalleries.org/whatson/exhibitions/romantic-camera-scottish-photography-and-the-modern-world 2011-11-14 00:00:00 http://www.nationalgalleries.org/media/4/romanticcamera.jpg National Galleries of Scotland http://www.nationalgalleries.org/whatson/exhibitions/playing-for-scotland-the-making-of-modern-sport <p><img src='http://www.nationalgalleries.org/media/4/playingforscotland.jpg' /></p> Join us in tracing the transformation of sport during the nineteenth century when traditional games flourished and new sports were invented. From football to fishing, canoeing to curling, hunting to hockey, this sporting revolution is illustrated through paintings, photographs and prints and a specially-commissioned film. http://www.nationalgalleries.org/whatson/exhibitions/playing-for-scotland-the-making-of-modern-sport 2011-11-29 00:00:00 http://www.nationalgalleries.org/media/4/playingforscotland.jpg National Galleries of Scotland http://www.nationalgalleries.org/whatson/exhibitions/reformation-to-revolution <p><img src='http://www.nationalgalleries.org/media/4/reformationtorevolution.jpg' /></p> At the beginning of the sixteenth century Scotland was a Catholic state governed by the Stewart dynasty (who later spelled their name Stuart).  By the close of the seventeenth century the monarchy, church and parliament had all changed drastically. After 1603 the Stuarts, now based in London, were absentee rulers, and the nature of kingship was itself increasingly contested.  The huge upheavals of the Reformation saw Protestantism become the nation’s official religion.  The collapse of the old church and the dispersal of its lands and wealth brought about a major shift of power and income: new landed classes vied with established noble families for status and influence. These complex changes had important cultural consequences.  With religious painting no longer acceptable, there was an increase in demand for secular art forms, portraiture in particular.  This coincided with a growing merchant and professional class beginning to commission works of art to display their increased ambition and economic strength. Painted portraits were expensive, and those who acquired them came from the wealthiest levels of society, both old and new.  These men and women used portraits to assert ideas of social status as well as to record an individual likeness.  Their images played a significant role in the struggles for power, identity and nationhood during this period. http://www.nationalgalleries.org/whatson/exhibitions/reformation-to-revolution 2011-10-25 00:00:00 http://www.nationalgalleries.org/media/4/reformationtorevolution.jpg National Galleries of Scotland http://www.nationalgalleries.org/whatson/exhibitions/war-at-sea <p><img src='http://www.nationalgalleries.org/media/4/waratsea2.jpg' /></p> Featuring rarely-seen paintings from the Imperial War Museum, this exhibition is devoted to the art of Sir John Lavery and shows the conflict of the First World War through the eyes of a war artist. Explore the story of how the two greatest navies in the world fought an epic battle on the North Sea. Experience Scapa Flow in the depth of winter and see the great battleships on the Firth of Forth, and the airfields, shipyards and munitions factories geared up for war. The Scottish National Portrait Gallery would like to thank the Imperial War Museum for the loan of most of the paintings in War at Sea and acknowledges gratefully the assistance of Professor David Stafford, University of Edinburgh, who first proposed the exhibition, and Angela Weight, former Keeper of Art at the Imperial War Museum, who curated it. (Image: Sir John Lavery, The American Battle Squadron in the Firth of Forth, 1918, The Imperial War Museum) http://www.nationalgalleries.org/whatson/exhibitions/war-at-sea 2011-11-29 00:00:00 http://www.nationalgalleries.org/media/4/waratsea2.jpg National Galleries of Scotland http://www.nationalgalleries.org/whatson/exhibitions/the-age-of-improvement <p><img src='http://www.nationalgalleries.org/media/4/ageofimprovement.jpg' /></p> Between 1750 and 1850 Scotland was transformed. Commercial, industrial and agricultural improvement changed the physical appearance and the social fabric of the country. A new meritocracy emerged, whose members demanded a leading role in civil society and politics, alongside the traditional landowning elite. These new middle-classes wished to see their own values – industriousness, self-reliance and social responsibility – asserted in their portraits, offering a moral contrast to the showy and often overpowering images of earlier times.  Civic virtue and moral fibre would be judged in the faces of those who were now able to commission a likeness. At the same time, artists were themselves responding to the intellectual ferment of the Enlightenment and developing innovative styles.  Portraiture was crucial in this.  It was in the laboratory of the portrait studio, and pre-eminently that of Sir Henry Raeburn, that the worth of these enterprising Scots was made visible. In this display you can see the face of a new society, where hard work and public spirit underpinned an age of improvement. http://www.nationalgalleries.org/whatson/exhibitions/the-age-of-improvement 2011-10-25 00:00:00 http://www.nationalgalleries.org/media/4/ageofimprovement.jpg National Galleries of Scotland http://www.nationalgalleries.org/whatson/exhibitions/the-modern-scot <p><img src='http://www.nationalgalleries.org/media/4/themodernscot.jpg' /></p> During the period of recovery and reassessment after the First World War (1914 – 1918), artists faced the problem of finding a means of creative expression appropriate for a radically altered society. Discover how Scottish artists and writers expressed a uniquely modern sensibility in the first decades of the twentieth century. Featuring such celebrated figures as Hugh MacDiamid and JD Fergusson, this display takes a closer look at the creative men and women who championed a progressive national culture and made Scotland’s distinctive voice heard. http://www.nationalgalleries.org/whatson/exhibitions/the-modern-scot 2011-10-25 00:00:00 http://www.nationalgalleries.org/media/4/themodernscot.jpg National Galleries of Scotland http://www.nationalgalleries.org/whatson/exhibitions/hot-scots <p><img src='http://www.nationalgalleries.org/media/4/hotscots.jpg' /></p> This display comprises some of Scotland’s most famous faces from Sir Sean Connery to David Tennant in a new collection of photographic portraits. Hot Scots, a display of 18 works recently acquired for the national collection, takes in a sweep of the nation’s contemporary culture and features Scottish names from TV, film and music including current Hollywood stars James McAvoy and Gerard Butler. Among the other new portraits on show will be images of Dr Who actor Karen Gillan, writer Armando Iannucci, singer Paolo Nutini, Michelin star chef Tom Kitchin and artist and playwright John Byrne. The portraits have been taken by celebrated photographers from Eva Vermandel to Albert Watson. This exhibition showcases the figures who are putting Scotland on the world’s radar in exciting, creative ways. http://www.nationalgalleries.org/whatson/exhibitions/hot-scots 2011-11-16 00:00:00 http://www.nationalgalleries.org/media/4/hotscots.jpg National Galleries of Scotland http://www.nationalgalleries.org/whatson/exhibitions/imagining-power <p><img src='http://www.nationalgalleries.org/media/4/imaginingpower_2.jpg' /></p> This dramatic exhibition considers the Jacobites - those loyal to the deposed Stuart dynasty at home and abroad. The Scottish National Portrait Gallery has the most extensive and significant collection of Jacobite visual material in the world. The term ‘Jacobite’ derives from ‘Jacobus’, the Latin form of James, and describes those who supported James VII and II, the exiled Catholic monarch of Scotland, England and Ireland, and his heirs.  Jacobitism was launched as a political and ideological cause by the birth of a son to King James in 1688 and the subsequent coup d’état led by his Protestant son-in-law, William of Orange. For nearly 100 years Jacobitism was a major factor in European affairs and it was responsible for the last battles on British soil. This fascinating display focuses on the way Jacobites presented themselves in portraiture. http://www.nationalgalleries.org/whatson/exhibitions/imagining-power 2011-10-25 00:00:00 http://www.nationalgalleries.org/media/4/imaginingpower_2.jpg National Galleries of Scotland http://www.nationalgalleries.org/whatson/exhibitions/sol-lewitt-wall-drawing-1136-2004 <p><img src='http://www.nationalgalleries.org/media/4/sollewittpreposter.jpg' /></p> Visit the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art this season and experience an incredible painting by one of the masters of conceptual art. Sol LeWitt’s spectacular wall drawing will cover three walls in the Gallery, surrounding you in a world of vibrant colours. Drawings such as these exist as a set of instructions that are then carried out by a team at the Gallery who make the drawing themselves and become part of the creative process. As different people create the works each time and in different locations, no piece is ever the same. Not only this but, unlike most works of art, LeWitt’s pieces are made by painting directly on to the walls then painted over at a later date. See Wall Drawing #1136 from the ARTIST ROOMS collection while you can – open from 17 December. (Image: Sol LeWitt, Wall Drawing #1136, Installation image courtesy the artist’s estate and Fraenkel Gallery, San Francisco. © ARS, NY and DACS, London 2009, ARTIST ROOMS, Tate and National Galleries of Scotland. Acquired jointly through The d’Offay Donation with assistance from the National Heritage Memorial Fund and the Art Fund, 2008.) http://www.nationalgalleries.org/whatson/exhibitions/sol-lewitt-wall-drawing-1136-2004 2011-12-20 00:00:00 http://www.nationalgalleries.org/media/4/sollewittpreposter.jpg National Galleries of Scotland http://www.nationalgalleries.org/whatson/exhibitions/the-sculpture-show <p><img src='http://www.nationalgalleries.org/media/4/sculptureshow_2.jpg' /></p> Join us this winter in celebrating sculpture in all its many forms at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art. The whole of the Gallery will showcase a breathtaking variety of works, ranging from Impressionist masterpieces by Rodin and Degas to cutting edge art by Damien Hirst, Turner Prize nominee Karla Black and this year's winner Martin Boyce. You can also see works by the biggest names in British sculpture like Henry Moore and Barbara Hepworth. The centrepiece of the show is Ron Mueck’s monumental work A Girl, back with us after a worldwide tour. Don’t miss the chance to see an outstanding work which brought record numbers of visitors to the Galleries last time it was on display. http://www.nationalgalleries.org/whatson/exhibitions/the-sculpture-show 2012-01-11 00:00:00 http://www.nationalgalleries.org/media/4/sculptureshow_2.jpg National Galleries of Scotland http://www.nationalgalleries.org/whatson/exhibitions/red-chalk <p><img src='http://www.nationalgalleries.org/media/4/sir_peter_paul_rubens_copy_of_the_figure_of_prudence_after_raphaels_fresco_of_the_virtues_scottish_national_gallery.jpg' /></p> This fascinating new exhibition at the Scottish National Gallery explores the versatile and beautiful drawing medium of red chalk. Comprising 35 works from the Gallery's world-class collection, Red Chalk: Raphael to Ramsay showcases a diverse range of exquisite drawings by distinguished artists, such as Peter Paul Rubens, Salvator Rosa, Jean-Antoine Watteau, Francois Boucher and David Allan. The display features works which, due to their delicate nature, are rarely on show, as well as a number of drawings being exhibited for the first time. http://www.nationalgalleries.org/whatson/exhibitions/red-chalk 2012-02-01 00:00:00 http://www.nationalgalleries.org/media/4/sir_peter_paul_rubens_copy_of_the_figure_of_prudence_after_raphaels_fresco_of_the_virtues_scottish_national_gallery.jpg National Galleries of Scotland http://www.nationalgalleries.org/whatson/exhibitions/edvard-munch <p><img src='http://www.nationalgalleries.org/media/4/munchpreposter.jpg' /></p> Norwegian artist Edvard Munch (1863-1944) is renowned for his preoccupation with universal emotions such as isolation, melancholy, anxiety and love. His graphic works are amongst his most arresting and poignant, and are celebrated world-wide for their technical mastery and visual intensity. The core of this exhibition features an outstanding group of fifty works on paper by Munch held in a private Norwegian collection, and will be the first time they have been shown in the UK. Featuring rare, hand-coloured versions of iconic images such as The Scream, Anxiety and Madonna, the exhibition explores Munch’s rigorous experimentation as he revisited subjects to heighten their emotive impact. The exhibition will be supplemented with a small number of additional prints by Munch held on long-term loan at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art from two further private collections, alongside a display focusing on the legacy of the artist’s first solo exhibition in the UK, staged in Edinburgh in 1931. On the ground floor at Modern Two, free permanent collection displays will introduce the European context in which Munch was active and highly influential, including work by Beckmann, Klimt, Kirchner, Dix and Kandinsky. (Edvard Munch, The Scream, Courtesy the Gundersen Collection, © The Munch Museum/ The Munch - Ellingsen Group, BONO, Oslo/DACS, London 2012) http://www.nationalgalleries.org/whatson/exhibitions/edvard-munch 2012-02-08 00:00:00 http://www.nationalgalleries.org/media/4/munchpreposter.jpg National Galleries of Scotland http://www.nationalgalleries.org/whatson/exhibitions/giovanni-battista-lusieri <p><img src='http://www.nationalgalleries.org/media/4/lusieripreposter.jpg' /></p> This exhibition will be the first ever devoted exclusively to the impressive and stunningly beautiful work of this little known artist. Giovanni Battista Lusieri was born in Rome in 1754 and died in Athens in 1821.  He was active principally as a landscape watercolourist, specializing in broad panoramas and cityscapes, and ancient buildings and monuments. Lusieri was considered by many of his contemporaries to be the most skilful topographical artist of his day and he was greatly admired for his breathtaking ability to render light, texture and mood of ancient sites across the Mediterranean. His career falls neatly into two halves – the Italian period (up to 1799), when he worked in Rome, Naples and Sicily, and the Greek period (1800-1821), when he was employed as Lord Elgin’s resident artist and agent in Athens. He was closely involved in the removal, packing and shipping of the Elgin Marbles. An important group of Lusieri’s works is still in the collection of the Elgin family, and the present Earl is giving the exhibition his full support. http://www.nationalgalleries.org/whatson/exhibitions/giovanni-battista-lusieri 2011-10-27 00:00:00 http://www.nationalgalleries.org/media/4/lusieripreposter.jpg National Galleries of Scotland http://www.nationalgalleries.org/whatson/exhibitions/van-gogh-to-kandinsky-symbolist-landscape-in-europe-1880-1910 <p><img src='http://www.nationalgalleries.org/media/4/vangoghkandinskypreposter_1.jpg' /></p> This exhibition is a collaboration between the National Galleries of Scotland, the Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam and the Ateneum Museum, Helsinki. This will be the first exhibition dedicated to Symbolist Landscape in Europe, the movement that developed after Impressionism as artists all over Europe developed a more imaginative, emotional, and often Romantic approach to landscape painting - a route which takes them from the naturalism of Impressionism to Expressionism, and the edges of Abstraction. The exhibition will present a wide range of poetic and suggestive paintings of nature from about 1880-1910. It will focus on major artists of the avant-garde such as Paul Gauguin, Vincent Van Gogh and Edvard Munch but will also introduce you to a group of less well know artists from Scandinavia and elsewhere in Europe. http://www.nationalgalleries.org/whatson/exhibitions/van-gogh-to-kandinsky-symbolist-landscape-in-europe-1880-1910 2011-11-09 00:00:00 http://www.nationalgalleries.org/media/4/vangoghkandinskypreposter_1.jpg National Galleries of Scotland http://www.nationalgalleries.org/whatson/exhibitions/picasso-and-modern-british-art <p><img src='http://www.nationalgalleries.org/media/4/picassopreposter.jpg' /></p> The first exhibition to explore Pablo Picasso’s lifelong connections with Britain will be the highlight of the summer season at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art in 2012. Picasso and Modern British Art will examine Picasso’s evolving critical reputation here and British artists’ responses to his work. Originating at Tate Britain, this pioneering show marks the first time that the two organisations have collaborated on a major exhibition. The exhibition will comprise over 150 works from major public and private collections around the world, including over 60 paintings by Picasso. Highlights will include masterpieces from all periods of his career such as his great 1925 painting, The Three Dancers, which the Tate acquired from the artist following his 1960 exhibition, and major cubist paintings from the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Among the British artists for whom Picasso proved an important stimulus, and whose work will be included in the show, are Duncan Grant, Wyndham Lewis, Ben Nicholson, Henry Moore and Francis Bacon. http://www.nationalgalleries.org/whatson/exhibitions/picasso-and-modern-british-art 2011-10-27 00:00:00 http://www.nationalgalleries.org/media/4/picassopreposter.jpg National Galleries of Scotland http://www.nationalgalleries.org/whatson/exhibitions/the-scottish-colourist-series-sj-peploe <p><img src='http://www.nationalgalleries.org/media/4/peploepreposter.jpg' /></p> The autumn of 2012 will see the second in the Scottish Colourist Series of exhibitions with a retrospective of the work of SJ Peploe. Samuel John Peploe (1871-1935) was the eldest of the four artists popularly known as ‘The Scottish Colourists’, the others being FCB Cadell, JD Fergusson and GL Hunter. Peploe was the first of the Colourists to receive recognition from the Scottish establishment when he was elected to the Royal Scottish Academy in 1927, eight years before his death in Edinburgh in 1935. The Scottish Colourist Series: SJ Peploe will consist of approximately 70 paintings from both public and private collections, covering his entire career, including many which have rarely, if ever, been exhibited before. The exhibition will be accompanied by a catalogue, based on new research, which will be the first major monograph on the artist to be written in over a decade. http://www.nationalgalleries.org/whatson/exhibitions/the-scottish-colourist-series-sj-peploe 2011-10-27 00:00:00 http://www.nationalgalleries.org/media/4/peploepreposter.jpg National Galleries of Scotland http://www.nationalgalleries.org/whatson/exhibitions/john-bellany-a-passion-for-life <p><img src='http://www.nationalgalleries.org/media/4/bellanypreposter.jpg' /></p> This exhibition marking John Bellany’s 70th birthday will contain paintings, watercolours, drawings and prints from all the key periods of the artist’s career. Beginning with the celebrated large-scale paintings of fisherfolk and their boats that Bellany hung on the railings outside the Royal Scottish Academy building in the mid-1960s; through the darker, even harrowing pictures of the early 1970s that show the impact of Bellany’s visit to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in Germany; the wild, expressionist paintings of the late 1970s and early 1980s, that seem to explode and disintegrate as Bellany battled with his inner demons; the remarkably honest and courageous watercolours and drawings that Bellany made about his liver transplant and near miraculous recovery; to the richly coloured allegorical paintings that the artist has produced since then reflecting a renewed vigour and optimism as he travelled the world and set down roots in Italy, England and, of course Scotland. This will be the largest and most comprehensive exhibition of John Bellany’s work since the National Galleries organised the retrospective in 1986. (Image: John Bellany, My Father, Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art © the Artist / Bridgeman Art Library. All rights reserved.) http://www.nationalgalleries.org/whatson/exhibitions/john-bellany-a-passion-for-life 2011-10-27 00:00:00 http://www.nationalgalleries.org/media/4/bellanypreposter.jpg