This display of works from the Gallery of Modern Art's permanent collection concentrates on four Scottish artists of the post-Second World War period: Wilhelmina Barns-Graham, John Bellany, Alan Davie and Anne Redpath. All four painters have had a significant impact on the art of their own and following generations.
Wilhelmina Barns-Graham pioneered an abstraction derived in natural forms. She moved to St Ives in 1940, becoming a key figure in the post-war artistic scene centred on the Cornish fishing village, whilst maintaining a studio in her home town of St Andrews.
John Bellany's expressionist paintings of his personal experiences, often informed by his upbringing in a Scottish fishing village, have received widespread acclaim. Bellany moved to England in 1965, but frequently works in his Edinburgh studio.
The intuitive abstraction of Alan Davie owes much to his Zen Buddhism and jazz musicianship, and contains a vocabulary of symbolism based on sources as varied as aboriginal art and American Indian pottery. Davie has been based in Hertfordshire since 1949 and had a major retrospective exhibition at the Gallery of Modern Art in 2000.
Anne Redpath's renowned standing was built on sensuously painted interiors and landscapes. She raised a family in France before returning to Scotland in 1934 and becoming the first woman painter to be elected to the Royal Scottish Academy.
