National Galleries of Scotland

15 December 2021
National Galleries of Scotland announce 2022 exhibitions programme  
Impressionist treasures, a major Barbara Hepworth retrospective and photographic views on Scottish identity among highlights

A world-first exhibition dedicated to sharing the remarkable story of Scotland’s key role in popularising modern French art is announced today (15 December) as one of several highlights of the National Galleries of Scotland’s 2022 programme.

A Taste for Impressionism at the Royal Scottish Academy will focus on the pioneering nineteenth-century Scottish collectors who had the foresight to invest in the avant-garde, with a stellar cast of artists represented including Monet, Gauguin and Van Gogh. While today a work by any of these names will fetch millions at auction, in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries these artists were pilloried by the press and the prices for their paintings were surprisingly low. Many collectors were ‘new money’; individuals who had made their fortune from industry and were keen to acquire edgy works by modern and contemporary artists. Among them were several Scots who collected pieces by Degas, Monet, Pissarro and Cézanne well before their English counterparts. As the market for Impressionism began to thrive, a more sinister side industry in ‘fakes’ took hold. A Taste for Impressionism will include a few of these counterfeit works, each of which will remain unidentified to test visitors’ powers of discernment. The exhibition will run from 13 July 2022 to 30 November 2022.

Barbara Hepworth: Art & Life at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art (Modern Two) will chart the development of the artist’s practice, her involvement with multiple avant-garde art movements, and the events in her personal life which shaped her work. This major, career-spanning retrospective will be the largest exhibition of the artist’s work in Scotland. On display will be some of her most celebrated works, including the modern abstract carvings that launched her career in the 1920s and 1930s, her iconic strung sculptures of the 1940s and 1950s, and later large-scale bronze and carved sculptures. Comprising more than 120 works including rarely seen drawings and paintings lent from public and private collections, the exhibition will bring insight to Hepworth’s wide-ranging interests, such as dance, theatre, music, religion, politics and science, showing how they infused her artistic practice. Running from 9 April 2022 to 2 October 2022, Barbara Hepworth: Art & Life is curated by Eleanor Clayton and organised by The Hepworth Wakefield in collaboration with the National Galleries of Scotland and Tate St Ives.

People, place and identity are the focus of two exhibitions at the Scottish National Portrait Gallery in 2022, each exploring aspects of life in present day Scotland for a diverse range of communities and individuals. Counted: Scotland’s Census 2022 will consider the varied make-up of past and present Scottish society. Running from 12 March 2022 to 25 September 2022 and drawing on the Galleries’ rich photographic collections, the exhibition will, in the year of Scotland’s Census, consider the complexities around the notion of identity, taking into account ethnicity, sexuality, occupation, and health. Works on show will range from portraits of individuals, single parent families, Pakistani and Polish communities, refugees living in Glasgow and people living in Eigg, the first Scottish island to become owned by the local community through a buyout. Several new acquisitions from thought-provoking projects by contemporary photographers working in Scotland such as Arpita Shah, Danny North and Kieran Dodds will be presented alongside arresting nineteenth-century works by Thomas Annan and Hill and Adamson, offering comparisons between the experiences of past and present generations of Scots.

You Are Here 2022, also showing at the Scottish National Portrait Gallery, will celebrate and share recent and ongoing collaborative projects between the Galleries and partner organisations across the country. They include place-based initiatives with groups of young people in former mining towns, and life-affirming public art schemes in North Ayrshire. Running from 5 February 2022 – March 2023, You Are Here 2022 will explore the various ways that people can engage with art to bring benefits to their health and wellbeing, and explore their sense of identity and belonging. Coproduced artworks and other forms of content will be displayed alongside works from the Galleries’ permanent collection to amplify new voices and offer fresh views on contemporary Scotland.

The final upcoming programme highlight is the return of a wonderful tradition: the opening of Turner in January, an exhibition of the outstanding collection of Turner watercolours bequeathed in 1900 by Henry Vaughan (1809-1899). Presented at the Scottish National Gallery, this much-loved annual display will open on New Year’s Day 2022 and run throughout the month of January. Once again it promises a special chance to experience the artist's genius through a range of works, from subtle and meticulous ‘Monro School’ watercolours of the 1790s, such as Rye, Sussex and Lake Albano, to the spectacular Venetian views of 1840, such as The Piazzetta, Venice and Venice from the Laguna, which capture the drama and explosive skies of late summer Adriatic storms.

Sir John Leighton, Director General of the National Galleries of Scotland said: “These highlights from our 2022 programme offer tantalising moments of discovery for everyone. Whether that means getting close to some of the greatest Impressionist paintings in the world, or enjoying the work of Barbara Hepworth, one of the most important British artists of the 20th century, there is so much to look forward to across our Galleries. As the country prepares to take part in the first Census for ten years, it feels apt to be focusing on Scotland's diverse communities through both our Census-themed photography and You Are Here exhibitions. We very much look forward to sharing this exciting programme with our visitors.”

Completing the 2022 programme are current exhibitions at Modern One and Modern Two respectively: New Arrivals: from Salvador Dalí to Jenny Saville, a fascinating showcase of modern and contemporary art acquisitions by artists such as Damien Hirst, Jenny Saville and Pablo Picasso; and the critically-acclaimed show Ray Harryhausen: Titan of Cinema celebrating the life, career and legacy of the late American filmmaker, which runs until 20 February.

ENDS.

Notes to Editors
A selection of free images and credit lines are available to download via Dropbox here.

Listings Information:

RAY HARRYHAUSEN: TITAN OF CINEMA
Open until 20 February 2022
Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art (Modern Two)
73 Belford Rd, Edinburgh EH4 3DS
0131 624 6200 | nationalgalleries.org
Tickets: £14-12 (concessions available)
Book online at nationalgalleries.org

NEW ARRIVALS: FROM SALVADOR DALÍ TO JENNY SAVILLE
Open until spring 2023 
Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art (Modern One)  
75 Belford Road, Edinburgh, EH4 3DR
0131 624 6200 | nationalgalleries.org
Admission free but advance booking recommended
Book online at nationalgalleries.org

TURNER IN JANUARY
1 January – 31 January 2022
Scottish National Gallery
The Mound, Edinburgh, EH2 2EL
0131 624 6200 | nationalgalleries.org
Admission free but advance booking required
Book online at nationalgalleries.org

YOU ARE HERE 2022
5 February 2022 – March 2023
Scottish National Portrait Gallery
1 Queen Street, Edinburgh, EH2 1J3D
0131 624 6200 | nationalgalleries.org
Admission free

COUNTED: SCOTLAND’S CENSUS 2022
12 March 2022 – 25 September 2022
Scottish National Portrait Gallery
1 Queen Street, Edinburgh, EH2 1J3D
0131 624 6200 | nationalgalleries.org
Admission free

BARBARA HEPWORTH: ART & LIFE
9 April 2022 – 2 October 2022
Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art (Modern Two)
73 Belford Road, Edinburgh, EH4 3DS
0131 624 6200 | nationalgalleries.org
Tickets: £12/10 Mon-Fri, £13/11 Sat-Sun and £15/13 August

A TASTE FOR IMPRESSIONISM: MODERN FRENCH ART FROM MILLET TO MATISSE
13 July 2022 — 30 November 2022 
Royal Scottish Academy
The Mound, Edinburgh, EH2 2EL
0131 624 6200 | nationalgalleries.org
Tickets: £12/10 Mon-Fri, £14/12 Sat-Sun and £15/13 August

18 November 2021
National Galleries of Scotland acquire rare late eighteenth-century watercolour of a black woman by a Scottish painter

Download images here via Dropbox

One of the earliest known images of a black person by a Scottish artist has been acquired by the National Galleries of Scotland.

Edinburgh Milkmaid with Butter Churn by David Allan (1744-1796) is a beautifully painted watercolour which is both exceptionally rare and striking. It depicts a black woman alone and centre stage at a time when black sitters more often appeared as marginal or subservient figures in group portraits.

Looking directly at the viewer, she is shown in working dress, going about her daily duties and set against the backdrop of an elegant Edinburgh street. Her name and life story is unknown, but it is likely that she was a servant, a milkmaid, as suggested by the large vessel or butter churn shown beside her.

Modest in scale, the image is dated to the mid-1780s to early 1790s, a period when Allan created evocative drawings of ordinary people going about their daily lives in Edinburgh, such as soldiers, coalmen, fishwives, sedan chair porters, firemen and officers of the city guard. These works, known as Allan’s ‘Edinburgh Characters’, suggest a background context for Edinburgh Milkmaid with Butter Churn, but they are generally sketched in a summary way, intended to capture character types, rather than specific personalities, and were often copied and duplicated.

The Edinburgh Milkmaid, however, is highly detailed, precisely painted and clearly a portrait of a specific person. It is hoped that further research may reveal more about the connection between the artist and the young woman and shed some light on her identity.

Director of European and Scottish Art at the National Galleries of Scotland, Christopher Baker, commented: “We are so pleased to bring this remarkable, rare and extraordinary watercolour into Scotland’s national collection. It is an incredibly striking and special work, one which we believe will be enjoyed by many and, we hope, lead to new research on its background and most importantly the story of the woman depicted.”

Born in Alloa, David Allan was arguably the first Scottish artist to take contemporary life and customs from across the social hierarchy as a subject worthy of art. With the support of his patrons, Lord and Lady Cathcart of Shaw Park, near Alloa, he travelled to Italy around 1767 and remained there for a decade, painting historical pictures and portraits. He became interested in drawing scenes of street life, inspired by the popular print tradition of depicting street criers who called out to advertise their produce or trades. He sketched street vendors, aristocrats on the Grand Tour, coffee house scenes, dances, carnivals and local costume in Rome and Naples and on a visit to the islands of Procida, Ischia and Minorca.

These experiences led Allan to take a similar approach after his return to Scotland in 1779. He drew his subject matter from contemporary life, ranging from specific events such as The Ceremony of Laying the Foundation Stone of the New College of Edinburgh (1789) to timeless traditions and customs, such as A Highland Dance and The Penny Wedding. In 1786 Allan was appointed to a teaching post as Master of the Trustees’ Academy and he settled permanently in Edinburgh. The city and its inhabitants became a particular focus for this work. From about 1788 he developed the series of over twenty drawings of workers and traders; often referred to as his ‘Edinburgh Characters’, they typically show an individual or pair of figures with the tools of their trade, set against a simple architectural or rural background.

Allan’s subjects range from higher status figures, such as a Highland officer in uniform and officers of the Town Guard, to those who did the city’s heavy labour, such as the coalmen, chimney sweeps, porters and water carriers. Female workers are represented by a fishwife, a salt vendor and a lacemaker. The figures are drawn with strong outlines in ink to enable them to be traced easily, as Allan made multiple versions of his character drawings, several of which are held in the National Galleries of Scotland collection. He also reproduced his Edinburgh characters on a smaller scale as the cast that populate his landscape views of the Royal Mile, such as High Street from the Netherbow, made in 1793. Seen as a group, Allan’s street characters give a broad and fascinating insight into late 1780s Edinburgh as a living, working city.

Edinburgh Milkmaid with Butter Churn is one of several notable acquisitions highlighted in the recently published NGS Annual Review, covering the years 2019-2021. The painting will go on display at a later date following some conservation work which is currently being prepared. With much still unknown about the painting, the Galleries would welcome information, comments or feedback about it.

ENDS.

Notes to Editors

Interview and image requests should be sent to [email protected]

11 November 2021
Two important French and Scottish paintings enter Scotland’s national collection  

Images and captions can be downloaded via Dropbox here.  

Two important works of French and Scottish art recently acquired by the National Galleries of Scotland (NGS) have gone on display at the Scottish National Gallery.  

The first is a powerful painting by the hugely influential French artist Jean-François Millet (1814 – 75). The Faggot Gatherers is a small work dating from 1850-1855 which depicts two women taking a rest from collecting branches to sell as firewood. The older woman’s hunched back shows the raw side of rural life and the physical impact of agricultural labour. As an exponent of Realism, Millet favoured truthful views of contemporary reality and the artist’s empathy with the predicament of the labourers is evident in this unsentimental work. He trained in Paris and rejected academic painting, instead developing his own style focused on countryside scenes rooted in the Normandy of his childhood. His work had a profound influence on Scottish collectors and artists in the second half of the 19^th century, such as the Glasgow Boys, who recorded female fieldworkers in Berwickshire. 

A painting of Rosslyn Chapel by the great Aberdeen-born artist William Dyce (1806 - 64) also now belongs permanently to the nation, having been on loan for several years. Situated around seven miles from Edinburgh, Rosslyn Chapel has been variously associated with the quest for the Holy Grail, the Knights Templar and the origins of Scottish Freemasonry. When Dyce produced this exquisite study in the 1830s, the chapel was already a popular tourist destination and a site of inspiration for artists such as J M W Turner and David Roberts. The painting is the first depiction in oil of the interior of the chapel to enter the national collection and a perfect complement to other works NGS holds by Dyce. He specialised chiefly in religious and medieval subjects, but had wide-ranging interests, including medicine, geology and art education. 

Commenting on the acquisition of these two paintings, both acquired via the Acceptance in Lieu (AIL) scheme, Edward Harley OBE, Chairman of the AIL Panel, said: “I am delighted that the National Galleries of Scotland has acquired these wonderful paintings by J. F. Millet and William Dyce through the Acceptance in Lieu Scheme. Millet movingly depicts two labourers, resting after work, in a theme he returned to many times in his career. The subject of Dyce’s painting is Rosslyn Chapel near the Scottish Borders, famed for its intricate stonework and for the writers who drew on it for inspiration, including Burns and Wordsworth. I hope this example will encourage others to use the scheme to enrich our public collections.” 

Christopher Baker, Director of European and Scottish Art and Portraiture at NGS, said: 

“These fascinating paintings enrich the narratives of French and Scottish art in the national collection. Dyce’s Rosslyn Chapel, South Aisle demonstrates his extraordinary subtlety as a painter of architecture: it is a mysterious painting that evokes the beauty of a site made world famous by Dan Brown’s ‘The Da Vinci Code’ (2003). While Millet’s The Faggot Gatherers, is the first oil painting by the artist to enter the collection; its arrival means we can demonstrate his enduring influence both on French and Scottish art of late 19^th century for the first time. The National Galleries of Scotland is immensely grateful to the AIL scheme and everyone who has supported it in making these two remarkable acquisitions possible. To mark the occasion, they have both been put on display in the Scottish National Gallery for the public to enjoy.”

Notes to Editors 

Details of the two works accepted in lieu of tax are as follows:

1. JEAN-FRANÇOIS MILLET (1814-1875)
   The Faggot Gatherers
   oil on panel
   30.4 x 18 cm
   Signed ‘J. F. Millet’ (bottom left)

   The Millet, accepted from the Craigmyle collection, settled £169,893 of tax.

    

2. William Dyce R.A., H.R.S.A. (1806-1864)
   Rosslyn Chapel, South Aisle
   oil on panel
   12 by 15 i. (30 by 38 cm.)

   The Dyce, accepted from the estate of Beatrix Cooper, settled £84,000. Its offer was negotiated by Christie’s.

About the Acceptance in Lieu (AIL) scheme

The Acceptance in Lieu scheme is administered by Arts Council England. The Acceptance in Lieu Panel, chaired by Edward Harley OBE, advises on whether property offered in lieu is of suitable importance and offered at a value which is fair to both nation and taxpayer. AIL allows those who have a bill to Inheritance Tax to pay the tax by transferring important cultural, scientific or historic objects to the nation. Material accepted under the scheme and related to Scotland is allocated to public collections by Scottish Ministers and is available for all. In the last decade this important government initiative has brought £423m worth of treasures into public ownership across the UK for the enjoyment of all - see more at: https://www.artscouncil.org.uk/tax-incentives/acceptance-lieu#section-1

About the Scottish National Gallery

Landmark exhibition spanning 110 years to open at Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art 

New Arrivals: From Salvador Dalí to Jenny Saville 

27 November 2021 – spring 2023 
Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art (Modern One)   
75 Belford Road, Edinburgh, EH4 3DR   
0131 624 6200
Admission free, but advance booking recommended
#OurNewArrivals
 
Press images and credit lines can be downloaded here

The latest and greatest modern and contemporary art additions to Scotland’s national collection will be celebrated in a free exhibition opening at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art (Modern One) on 27 November 2021.With more than 100 works on display, New Arrivals: from Salvador Dalí to Jenny Saville will present a stunning showcase taking up the entire ground floor of the Gallery.

A wide range of styles and movements spanning 110 years will be represented, from an early-twentieth-century Cubist collage by Pablo Picasso to recent time-based media works by leading contemporary artists. Works by famous names such as René Magritte will be shown alongside those by brilliant but less-celebrated figures such as Marie-Louise von Motesiczky and Benjamin Creme. New Arrivals will also change throughout its run, revealing several pieces which for now must remain under wraps.

Highlights of the exhibition will include striking and vibrant woodcuts by Alberta Whittle, who will represent Scotland at the 59th International Venice Biennale; a large-scale diptych by France-Lise McGurn, the Glasgow-based artist renowned for works paintings comprised of intuitive brushstrokes, and a painting by the acclaimed Scottish painter and printmaker Barbara Rae CBE RA RSA RE.

Many artworks will be on public display for the very first time since they arrived at the Galleries. They include: 

• The first work by the highly sought-after artist Marc Chagall to enter Scotland’s national collection. L’Écuyère [The Horse Rider] (1949 – 1953) is a stunning example of Chagall’s fixation with depicting female circus horse-riders.   

• Bows (about 1910), a painting by Frances Macdonald MacNair, a member of the celebrated ‘Glasgow Four’, which explores the theme of female sexuality in her distinctive Spook School style.

• Wangechi Mutu’s Histology of Different Classes of Uterine Tumors (2004 - 2005), a series of twelve politically resonant collages which challenge the cultural objectification of women of colour. These were purchased with help from the Heinz Fund and Art Fund.

• Intervals 2 (2019), a generous gift from the influential British painter Bridget Riley, which marked a new direction in her 70-year career.

• Seven unique prints by Ciara Phillips, an artist concerned with how printmaking can prompt discussions around current social and political concerns, purchased via the Iain Paul Fund.

• The first artwork by Jenny Saville to enter a UK public collection; Nude (Study for ‘Branded') (1992) presents a female figure in an uncompromising way, confronting notions about idealised beauty from a feminist perspective. It was acquired through the Henry and Sula Walton Fund, an independent charity established to assist NGS in purchasing major works of modern art. 

• Two exciting film and sound installations gifted by Outset Contemporary Art Fund: The Slave’s Lament (2015) by Graham Fagen, an evocative interpretation of the 200-year-old poem by Robert Burns; and Hanna Tuulikki’s SING-SIGN: a close duet (2015), which responds to the history and geography of the narrow closes that run from Edinburgh’s most famous street, the Royal Mile.

New Arrivals will also feature works by Natalia Goncharova, Glen Onwin, Frances Walker, John Bellany, Marie Harnett and Stephen Campbell.

The exhibition is the fruit of five years’ worth of acquisitions work, all made possible by the generosity of National Galleries of Scotland (NGS) supporters through gifts, bequests and grants. NGS is immensely indebted to the Arts Council’s Acceptance-in-Lieu and Cultural Gifts schemes, which enabled the acquisition of Damien Hirst’s life-size bronze sculpture Wretched War (2004); the first portrait Oskar Kokoschka painted in Britain after arriving as a refugee in 1939, and a remarkable set of twenty-one monotypes by the great Russian Constructivist artist Naum Gabo. More recently, NGS acquired an important line work by Fred Sandback; Untitled (1971) is the first sculpture by the artist to enter a UK public collection.

Art Fund has been instrumental in strengthening NGS’ Surrealist collection, which is now one of the best in the world. This includes Salvador Dalí’s iconic Lobster Telephone (1938), Leonora Carrington’s Portrait of Max Ernst (c. 1939) and Dorothea Tanning’s Tableau vivant [Living Picture] (1954). Tanning’s painting will be accompanied by a second acquisition of a work by the artist, a sculpture titled Primitive Seating (1982) made up of a re-upholstered chair with a long cat-like tail: it has been acquired with generous support from Alison Jacques.

The exhibition serves as a testament to the many individuals who have given works or helped NGS to buy them over the past five years. These include Iain Paul, an Edinburgh resident, who left his estate for the purchase of Scottish contemporary art, and several other generous private donors. NGS also extends its thanks to the late Drue Heinz and her Estate, Denise Coates CBE, Brian and Lesley Knox and the Patrons of NGS, among others.   

Commenting on the exhibition, Simon Groom, Director of Modern and Contemporary Art at the National Galleries of Scotland, said: 

“Acquisitions breathe new life into our collections. They allow us to reflect the latest developments in Scotland and beyond, reinforcing the strength of our existing collections and research. Thanks to gifts, bequests and support from charitable funds and private donors, the national collection continues to grow in exciting new directions. We are very pleased to be able to share these works with our visitors and encourage everyone to come and be inspired in the discovery of our new arrivals.” 

- ENDS –

Notes to editors

Information about press previews will be circulated in early November.

Interview and image requests should be sent to [email protected]. 

Booking details

• Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art (Modern One) is open 10am-5pm seven days a week. ;

• The café is open from 10am-5pm seven days a week.   

• Visitors are encouraged to book a free time slot for the visit at nationalgalleries.org.

• The car park is open.   

• A Changing Places facility is available.   

• The grounds and sculpture trail are open and free to visit. No booking is required.   

About the Acceptance in Lieu and Cultural Gifts Scheme 

The Acceptance in Lieu scheme enables taxpayers to transfer important works of art and other heritage objects into public ownership while paying Inheritance Tax. In this way, objects that might otherwise be sold on the open market and thus be potentially lost to the nation, remain in the public domain.

AIL is administered across the UK by the Arts Council, which also oversees the Cultural Gifts Scheme. This is a scheme for the gifting of cultural objects in exchange for tax reductions. Combined the two Schemes are capped, so can offset a total of £40m worth of tax per annum. Full details and guidance are available on the Arts Council’s website at: http://www.artscouncil.org.uk/what-we-do/supporting-museums/cultural-property/tax-incentives/ 

About Art Fund

Art Fund is the national fundraising charity for art. It provides millions of pounds every year to help museums to acquire and share works of art across the UK, further the professional development of their curators, and inspire more people to visit and enjoy their public programmes. In response to Covid-19 Art Fund has made £3.6 million in urgent funding available to support museums through reopening and beyond, including Respond and Reimagine grants to help meet immediate need and reimagine future ways of working. Art Fund is independently funded, supported by the 131,000 members who buy the National Art Pass, who enjoy free entry to over 240 museums, galleries and historic places, 50% off major exhibitions, and receive Art Quarterly magazine. Art Fund also supports museums through its annual prize, Art Fund Museum of the Year. The winner of Art Fund Museum of the Year 2021 is Firstsite in Colchester.

The Henry and Sula Walton Fund

Henry Walton (1924-2012) and Sula Walton (1924-2009) were prominent and highly-regarded figures in Edinburgh academia for more than fifty years. Married in 1958, they moved to Edinburgh in 1962. They worked in the field of psychiatry, Sula as a child psychiatrist at the Royal Hospital for Sick Children, Henry at the University of Edinburgh. Passionate about the arts, they left their art collection to the National Galleries of Scotland and also established a Fund to help support acquisitions made by the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art. Important works by Picasso, Toyen, Carrington, Dalí and Jenny Saville have been bought with help from the Walton Fund. 

29 July 2021
Thomas Joshua Cooper’s landmark project The World’s Edge comes to Scottish National Portrait Gallery

THOMAS JOSHUA COOPER: 
THE WORLD’S EDGE
31 July 2021 — 23 January 2022
Scottish National Portrait Gallery
1 Queen Street, Edinburgh, EH2 1JD
0131 624 6200 | nationalgalleries.org 
Admission free, but booking required
#ThomasJoshuaCooper

Our 2021 Exhibitions Programme has been generously supported by players of People’s Postcode Lottery.

A series of stunning photographs, made in some of the world’s most extreme and remote locations by one of the most celebrated living photographers, Thomas Joshua Cooper (b. 1946), will receive its first UK showing later this month.

Thomas Joshua Cooper: The World’s Edge will open at the Scottish National Portrait Gallery (SNPG) from 31 July and run until 23 January next year.

Over the course of the last three decades, the American-born photographer has travelled around the globe, making photographs of the most extreme points and locations surrounding the Atlantic Ocean.

The result is an episodic journey that covers five continents: Europe, Africa, North America, South America and Antarctica. Cooper has set foot on uncharted land masses through his work, contributing to cartography and earning him naming rights of previously unknown islands and archipelagos. The only artist to have ever made photographs of the two poles, Cooper refers to this body of work as The World’s Edge — The Atlas of Emptiness and Extremity.

The photographer, who was born in California but who has lived in Scotland for many years, having founded Glasgow School of Art’s Fine Art Photography Department in 1982, first exhibited The World’s Edge at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. His first monographic exhibition at the National Galleries of Scotland is based upon that presentation, with 35 pictures featuring in the Robert Mapplethorpe Gallery at the Portrait Gallery.

Christopher Baker, Director of European and Scottish Art & Portraiture at the National Galleries of Scotland, said: “For the last three decades, Thomas Joshua Cooper has been pushing boundaries, quite literally taking photography to places it has never been to before. His close affinity with Scotland has seen him play a key role in the development of Scottish contemporary photography, while working on The World’s Edge – an extraordinary project, resulting in works of great beauty with a global dimension. We are thrilled that the Portrait Gallery will soon host the fruits of his groundbreaking physical and artistic explorations”.

The artist Thomas Joshua Cooper said: "I have worked most of my life on this project and having an exhibition at the National Galleries of Scotland is the first time I have been able to show the work in my adopted homeland. I am hugely pleased and very grateful for this opportunity.”

Using a bulky large format camera that dates from 1898, Cooper makes only a single exposure at each location. He then develops the negative and prints by hand, back in his Glasgow darkroom. His photographs never feature human figures, instead focusing on elemental subjects such as rocks, ice, sea and sand. Yet the pictures provoke fundamental questions about the human condition. They address a need to engage with the unknown; in this case some of the world’s most inaccessible places.

Cooper’s seemingly empty views, often made looking out to the ocean from a precipice or icy shore, have a rare timeless quality. The reality, however, is more complicated, even devastating. Every single cardinal point he has recorded over the last three decades will be under water within 35 years due to the climate crisis. While Cooper did not set out to advocate for environmental activism, his work explores the conceptual notion of extremity — how far can we go? And at what cost? How much will we push ourselves to reach a goal or destination?

Inspired by explorers such as Ferdinand Magellan (1480-1521) and Sir Francis Drake (1540-96), who circumnavigated the globe, Cooper set out to chart the outer reaches of the Atlantic Basin. He did so without an entourage or expedition team; instead his quest consisted of himself, his beloved analogue camera and a small number of trusty guides and pilots.

Cooper, who does not swim, would often be kitted out in a survival suit and on several occasions risked life and limb to make his photographs. In an age when it seems that satellites can beam maps of the most remote parts of the world into smart devices in the palm of our hands, his large scale black and white photographs reveal places that are still designated ‘Uncharted Dangers’ in modern map making, such is their isolation and unknown state.

Cooper’s epic journey, supported throughout by the Lannan Foundation, was intended to be completed in seven years. Instead it took 32 years and resulted in more than 700 photographs, of which a carefully selected suite of pictures will be on display in Edinburgh through to January 2022.

Notes to Editors

A 192-page catalogue featuring an essay by Anne Lyden, Chief Curator of Photography at NGS, will accompany the exhibition and is available for purchase.

For the Scottish presentation, the exhibition will feature three original pieces of music by composer and instrumentalist, Andrew Wasylyk, who was commissioned by NGS to create music in response to the photographs. These will be available to stream online on our website.

Thomas Joshua Cooper has lived in Glasgow since 1982 and is Professor and Senior Researcher in Fine Art at the Glasgow School of Art. 

The exhibition is supported by a number of individuals and organisations, including Martin Adam and William Zachs, the Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation and the Peoples Postcode Lottery.  

The Robert Mapplethorpe Photography Gallery, named after the renowned American photographer, is supported by a very generous donation from The Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation. The Gallery is the first purpose-built photography space of its kind in a major museum in Scotland. 

The Lannan Foundation is a family foundation based in New Mexico, USA dedicated to cultural freedom, diversity and creativity through projects which support exceptional contemporary artists and writers, as well as inspired Native activists in rural indigenous communities.

The Foundation recognizes the profound and often unquantifiable value of the creative process and is willing to take risks and make substantial investments in ambitious and experimental thinking. Understanding that globalization threatens all cultures and ecosystems, the Foundation is particularly interested in projects that encourage freedom of inquiry, imagination, and expression.

People’s Postcode Lottery 

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Saturday 17 July 2021
Scottish National Portrait Gallery hosts first ever showing of new body of work by Alison Watt

ALISON WATT:
A PORTRAIT WITHOUT LIKENESS
17 July 2021 – 9 Jan 2022
Scottish National Portrait Gallery
1 Queen Street, Edinburgh EH2 1JD
0131 624 6200 | nationalgalleries.org 
(Thu-Sat from 1 July)
Admission Free | Advance booking required
#AlisonWatt

Press images for the exhibition can be downloaded here.

A significant new body of work by Alison Watt (b. 1965), widely regarded as one of the leading painters working in the UK today, is to be exhibited for the first time, at the Scottish National Portrait Gallery (SNPG) this July.

Watt, most known for her beautiful and intricate large-scale paintings of drapery and folds, will exhibit a series of new paintings made in response to the practice of the celebrated eighteenth-century portrait painter Allan Ramsay (1713-84) in Alison Watt: A Portrait without Likeness.

A Portrait without Likeness will explore Watt’s continuing fascination with Ramsay’s portraits, and is the fruit of a long period of study into paintings, in addition to drawings and sketchbooks from his extensive archive held by the National Galleries of Scotland (NGS).

Watt has long been an admirer of Ramsay’s portraits of women, in particular the intensely personal images of his first and second wives, Anne Bayne (c. 1739) and Margaret Lindsay of Evelick (c. 1726-82). Both portraits reside in Scotland’s national art collection and will be shown alongside Watt’s new work.

Watt has said, “Looking into an artist’s archive is to view the struggle that takes place to make a work of art. A painting is a visual record of the inside of the artist’s mind. A painting is something that takes place over time; it is not static. To look at a work of art is to engage with an idea, and that is not a one sided activity. It’s more of a conversation”. 

A Portrait without Likeness will be accompanied by a beautifully-illustrated publication featuring conversations between the artist and Chief Curator at the SNPG, Julie Lawson, who has curated the show, as well as contributions from Art Historian Dr Tom Normand and a new work of short fiction by Booker Prize-nominated novelist Andrew O’Hagan. Watt’s conversations with all three during the gestation period of this body of work, has been important to its creation.

The exhibition opens at the Portrait Gallery on 17 July and will run until 9 January next year. The exhibition will then travel to Inverness where it will be shown at Inverness Museum and Art Gallery from 29 January - 2 April 2022.

The artist Alison Watt said: “I’ve been looking at Ramsay’s portraits of his wives, Anne Bayne and Margaret Lindsay, for longer than I can remember. There is no doubt that these portraits are what first drew me to his work and I’ve looked at them intently over the years. It is not only exciting, but also a great privilege to show alongside his paintings at the Scottish National Portrait Gallery.” 

Christopher Baker, Director of European and Scottish Art and Portraiture at the National Galleries of Scotland, said: “This remarkable group of paintings take Alison’s work in a new direction. Hovering between the genres of still life and portraiture, these beautiful new works use aspects of Ramsay’s paintings for their starting point, but although they may have been inspired by the art of the past, this is a form of study that goes far beyond mere admiration or the modest hope, in her own words, ‘that some of the greatness might rub off on me’. In the Scottish National Portrait Gallery, Alison’s subtle responses to Ramsay’s work create an extraordinary conversation between two exceptional Scottish artists."

Born in Greenock, Alison Watt came to prominence in the late 1980s whilst still a student at Glasgow School of Art (GSoA), after winning the prestigious annual portrait competition of the National Portrait Gallery in London. She has since exhibited widely, both nationally and internationally.

In 2000, she became the youngest artist to be offered a solo show at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art (SNGMA) with her exhibition Shift. Watt later served for two years as the Associate Artist of the National Gallery in London, which resulted in her landmark exhibition Phantom in 2008. Her work resides in many significant collections, including the Uffizi Gallery, Florence; the National Portrait Gallery, London; the U.S. Embassy, London, the National Galleries of Scotland; the Gallery of Modern Art (GOMA) in Glasgow; the Arts Council Collection, Aberdeen Art Gallery and the British Council.

A Portrait without Likeness will also display several rarely seen drawings of Ramsay’s and one of his sketchbook archives. They will be exhibited alongside Watt’s responses, made after spending time exploring Ramsay’s archive of drawings and sketchbooks held at the Galleries.

In her works, Watt explores the idea of narratives forming around individual objects found in some of Ramsay’s portraits of women. Commenting on her process, she said, “I’ve been considering the nature of portraiture itself; how we view it and what our expectations are of it. Looking at Ramsay’s archive has acted as a conduit for that. I’ve become particularly interested in some of his portraits of women, and the different ways in which he has chosen to represent them; the objects they hold, their clothing and surroundings. And in particular, his use of lace, petals, ribbon and paper; small details which appear and reappear in his paintings. As the art historian Horace Walpole once said, “[Ramsay’s work] ...is all delicacy”.

“Since I first started looking at paintings, I’ve been interested in the objects of study of the great masters, both how they are portrayed and their significance. As a genre, the still life can be very intimate. It reflects us, so by its nature is linked to the portrait. It is in effect, a portrait without likeness”.

—ENDS—

Notes to Editors

The accompanying publication to Alison Watt: A Portrait without a Likeness, featuring conversations between Alison Watt and the exhibition’s curator Julie Lawson, as well as contributions from Art Historian Dr. Tom Normand and writer Andrew O’Hagan, can be purchased here.

25 June 2021
FANTASY CINEMA INSPIRES NEW PLACE FOR KIDS TO PLAY AT SCOTTISH NATIONAL GALLERY OF MODERN ART 

Kids have a fantastic new place to play for free this summer. A pop-up outdoor play area at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art (Modern One) in Edinburgh is full of weird creatures and mythical beasts from a bygone era when vintage special effects thrilled movie fans in their millions.  

Tying in with the Ray Harryhausen | Titan of Cinema exhibition, the Creature Feature Play Area lets kids slide down a dragon’s tail, clamber across a frightful bridge and peek into movie cameras to spy sneaky beasts on the Gallery. Eerie flying saucers beam down on a climbing wall, and there’s also a giant sea creature to dodge as it devours the Golden Gate Bridge. 

In a career spanning over three decades Ray Harryhausen created some of the most memorable and inspiring visual effects in the history of cinema. The exhibition at Modern Two, which includes a learning trail and is free to enter for kids under 12, has been created in close collaboration with The Ray and Diana Harryhausen Foundation. It celebrates his back catalogue and the influence he had on generations of famous film-makers. Harryhausen’s incredible legacy has now inspired a unique play area which is free for all kids and families to enjoy. 

As well as the play area, the beautiful grounds and sculpture park at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art are an ideal destination for children and families, especially for a picnic on a sunny day. The newly refurbished Café Modern One will be open daily, 10am-5pm alongside the horsebox across the road at Modern Two.   

The play area is generously supported by players of People’s Postcode Lottery, through the Postcode Culture Trust. Laura Chow, Head of Charities at People’s Postcode Lottery, said: “I’m pleased that thanks to player support, kids have an exciting and imaginative park to play in with their friends and family. The park is free and open to everyone, making it the perfect place to enjoy some fresh air and have fun.” 

The Creature Feature Play Area is open from 26 June until the 25 October and located in the grounds of Modern One. The play area will be open daily, 10am – 5pm, but may be closed if there are bad weather conditions. Designed and constructed by Old School Fabrications using movie graphics and bright bold colours, the play park includes sensory play and accessible elements for wheelchair users. It is free to enjoy with no need to book, but families are asked to be mindful of physical distancing and considering coming back if it is busy. Car parking and a Changing Places facility is available. Portaloo toilets for the play area and grounds will be open at the rear of Modern One seven days a week until the end of August.  

Notes to Editors: 

Ray Harryhausen | Titan of Cinema 
Until 20 February 2022  
Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art (Modern Two) 
75 Belford Road, Edinburgh, EH4 3DR 
0131 624 6200 | nationalgalleries.org 
£14-£12 concessions available 

Virtual Exhibition Experience 
Online at nationalgalleries.org 
£10 

Creature Feature Play Area 
26 June – 25 October 2021 
Open daily, 10am-5pm (may be closed if bad weather conditions), 
Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art (Modern One) 

Free admission 
#creaturefeature 

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- ENDS – 

24 June 2021
SCOTTISH HISTORY IN THE FRAME AT RADICAL NEW EXHIBITION BY YOUNG PEOPLE

The project has been supported by the National Lottery Heritage Fund and Scottish Government.

Key moments in Scottish history are the focus of an extraordinary exhibition involving more than 200 young people at the Scottish National Portrait Gallery (SNPG). 

Opening this Saturday (26 June 2021), Ruined: Re-inventing Scottish History is the result of the Image Liberation Force project which saw young Scots from Ayrshire, the Borders and Edinburgh radically reimagine the nation’s past through art over a four-year period.

Visitors to the Gallery will enter an immersive time-machine where multiple video projections flicker across a set of ruins showing shocking events and ghosts from Scotland’s past. Subjects covered include disputed territories, false heroes and heroines, wicked tyrants and bloodied martyrs. 

Historic paintings depicting epic events and powerful personalities are brought to life in new ways by the young people. Their story is also told by their very own ‘bard’, Edinburgh producer and rapper Mercurius MC, who delivers a visceral address to the nation, past and present.  

Shannon McLeish, a young person who worked on the exhibition, said: “The RUINED project allowed young artists to think more about Scottish history. It opened a door for us to make changes and create our own result. Some of us created worlds entirely new, others adapted historical events and made them their own. History for young people isn’t as important as it used to be. For us, we are the history. One day, people will look back at this time, and hopefully our art. We want to make today just as important as the great historical events. We want to control the narrative and do things our way. RUINED helped show us how that could be possible.”

Commenting on the display and the work behind it, Robin Baillie, Senior Outreach Officer, said: “The young people have fearlessly trusted their own interpretations of what they see in great Scottish paintings. They see that the stories we tell about the past are often more about how we want to see ourselves in the present. These creative and inspiring young people have made old works of art live again, using them to express their own views about the challenges facing young people in Scotland today.”  

As well as the exhibition in the SNPG, an online game inspired by the exhibition, Flashback: The Ruins will be available to play on the National Galleries of Scotland (NGS) website from Saturday 26 June 2021. Created in collaboration with the Tinderbox Collective Games Lab, it features characters and scenarios inspired by works of art from the NGS collection. Players are taken on a journey through six sets of ruins to explore identity in relation to Scottish history. 

Image Liberation Force is the result of a four-year project supported by the National Lottery Heritage Fund (NLHF) and The Scottish Government as part of Celebrating Scotland’s Art: The Scottish National Gallery Project.

—ENDS—

Covid-19 Measures at the National Galleries of Scotland 

In 2020, 96% of National Galleries of Scotland visitors surveyed deemed hygiene measures put in place to ensure visitor safety ‘excellent’ or ‘good’. 85% of visitors stated that visiting one of the Galleries had a positive impact on their mental health and wellbeing. 

All four  NGS sites will continue to operate with a one-way route and visitors will receive a link to download a printable map of the Gallery so they can easily find their way through. Some smaller rooms and spaces will remain closed to conform with safe physical-distancing measures. Visitors can also use the Smartify app to delve deeper into the artworks on display, with highlight tours revealing hidden details and stories about key works.

Site opening details 

Scottish National Portrait Gallery 

— The Scottish National Portrait Gallery is open from 10am-5pm seven days a week.

— From 1 July 2021 the Gallery will be open for three days a week (Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays).

— The café is open in line with Gallery opening hours.  

— The ground floor, including the Great Hall, ambulatory on the first floor and galleries 5-10 on the second floor are open. The Modern Portrait exhibition is open.

— The library (including the research consultation area) is closed. Rooms 1-4 on the top floor are closed.  

— The shop is closed.

— All visitors must book a free time slot for their visit at nationalgalleries.org/visit.

Scottish National Gallery Project

The vision for the Scottish National Gallery Project, which got underway in October 2018, has been driven by the National Galleries’ ambition to ensure that the widest number of people can enjoy our art and activities. The displays in the new galleries will be directly informed by extensive research into the needs of existing and potential audiences.

The scope of the new displays will encompass the work of early 20th-century artists such as Anne Redpath, Charles Rennie Mackintosh, Stanley Cursiter, Phyllis Mary Bone and the Scottish Colourists S J Peploe and F C B Cadell.

The project will create a beautiful new space in the heart of Edinburgh, which will be free for everyone to use and enjoy. A series of large windows, running the length of the new gardens-level façade, will fill the galleries with light and colour and offer spectacular views

A fly-through animation of the Scottish National Gallery Project is available to view here.

Read more on the Scottish National Gallery Project on our website here.

3 June 2021
CHAIR REAPPOINTED TO THE NATIONAL GALLERIES OF SCOTLAND BOARD

The Minister for Culture, Europe and International Development, Jenny Gilruth today announced the reappointment of Benny Higgins as Chair of the National Galleries of Scotland Board.

CHAIR
Benny Higgins began his career at Standard Life in 1983 where he joined as an actuarial student and went on to become a member of the Standard Life Group Executive Committee in 1996.  In 1997 he moved to the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) to become Chief Executive of Retail Banking.  He remained with RBS until 2005, during which time he led the successful integration of NatWest Retail Banking - one of the largest takeovers ever undertaken in banking.  He became Chief Executive, Retail HBOS in 2006 before joining Tesco Bank as Chief Executive in 2008, a position he held until February 2018.  In September 2017 Benny was asked by the Scottish Government to develop an implementation plan for the creation of a Scottish National Investment Bank. Subsequently he was appointed as Strategic Adviser to the First Minister on the building of the Scottish National Investment Bank and Chair of Scottish Government’s Advisory Group on Economic Recovery post COVID-19.

Benny is Executive Chair of the Buccleuch Group and holds a number of Chairmanships including Sistema Scotland, Markerstudy and The Fine Art Society (London & Edinburgh).  He is a Fellow of the Faculty of Actuaries, a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Bankers in Scotland, and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh.  He is an Honorary Professor at the University of Glasgow, Honorary Professor at Edinburgh University, Visiting Professor at Strathclyde University, Honorary Professor at Edinburgh Business School, Heriot-Watt University, Doctor of University, University of Glasgow and University of Glasgow, Court member of Finance Committee.

REAPPOINTMENT
This reappointment will be for four years and will run from 1 July 2021 to 30 June 2025.

This reappointment is regulated by the Ethical Standards Commissioner.

REMUNERATION
This reappointment is part-time for a time commitment of up to four days per month. Appointments to the National Galleries of Scotland Board are not remunerated.

OTHER MINISTERIAL APPOINTMENTS
Benny Higgins does not hold any other public appointments.

POLITICAL ACTIVITY
All appointments are made on merit and political activity plays no part in the selection process.  However, in accordance with the original Nolan recommendations, there is a requirement for appointees’ political activity within the last five years (if there is any to be declared) to be made public.   

Benny Higgins has had no political activity in the last five years.

BACKGROUND
The Organisation
NGS fulfils a statutory role as one of the nation’s most significant cultural organisations.  It operates within the context of the Scottish Government’s national outcomes and strategic objectives, including public service reform.

NGS is a vibrant organisation, employing around 390 staff at its three Edinburgh sites.  Its mission is to care for, develop, research and display the national collection of Scottish and international art.  This includes a lively and innovative programme of activities, exhibitions, education and publications, which aims to engage, inform and inspire the broadest possible public.

Today, NGS’s mission is based on the drive to make the greatest art available, free of charge, to a wide national and international public.  NGS is one of Scotland’s most popular cultural destinations, ranking within the top thirty most visited museums anywhere in the world. 

Core funded by the Scottish Government, like all public bodies, it operates within a challenging financial climate and must make the most of opportunities to collaborate with other key national and international institutions from a range of sectors and to generate income from a range of sources. 

The organisation is governed by a Board of Trustees which is accountable to the public through Ministers and the Scottish Parliament for the discharging of the functions defined in the National Heritage (Scotland) Act 1906 (as amended in 1985).http://origin-www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1985/16/contents

Find out more about the National Galleries at https://www.nationalgalleries.org/

1 June 2021
National Galleries of Scotland announce new 2021 exhibitions​

New contemporary painting, a UK and European premiere, and sublime photography are among the highlights 

2021 Exhibitions Programme is generously supported by players of People’s Postcode Lottery.

An exhibition revealing a significant body of new work by the celebrated painter Alison Watt leads a thrilling 2021 programme at the National Galleries of Scotland (NGS). Alison Watt: A Portrait without Likeness will present a selection of paintings made in response to the art and practice of 18th-century portrait artist Allan Ramsay, and open at the Scottish National Portrait Gallery in July. 

Visitors to the Galleries will be able to immerse themselves in a stunning exhibition of photographs by Thomas Joshua Cooper, made in some of the world’s most extreme and remote locations. They will be on display at the Scottish National Portrait Gallery (SNPG) from July. Also on show at the SNPG will be Ruined: Reinventing Scotland’s History, the fruits of a four year project which has seen 200 young people from communities across Scotland radically reimagine the nation’s past through art.  

Displayed at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art (Modern One) and in partnership with Edinburgh Art Festival, the UK and European premiere of Isaac Julien’s Lessons of the Hour will be a highlight of the 2021 Edinburgh Art Festival programme from 29 July to 29 August. The major ten-screen installation reflects on the life and times of visionary African American writer and prominent abolitionist Frederick Douglass, who spent two years in Edinburgh in the 1840s campaigning across Scotland, England and Ireland for freedom and social justice. 

The final new exhibition of the year, New Arrivals at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art (Modern One), will celebrate the latest and greatest modern and contemporary art additions to Scotland’s national art collection, offering an eclectic burst of winter wonder when it opens in November. More than 100 works by artists such as Salvador DalÍ, Gwen John, Marc Chagal, Damien Hirst, Jenny Saville and Dorothea Tanning will be featured in a diverse and stunning display. 

Completing the 2021 programme are current exhibitions at Modern Two and Modern One respectively: the critically-acclaimed show Ray Harryhausen: Titan of Cinema celebrating the life, career and legacy of the late American filmmaker; and Joan Eardley & Catterline, which marks the much-loved artist and her work in the centenary year of her birth. 

Sir John Leighton, Director-General of the National Galleries of Scotland, said: “With all our galleries now open again, we are thrilled to share our forthcoming exhibitions programme. As Scotland looks toward a period of recovery and renewal from the coronavirus pandemic, we are excited about giving our visitors the opportunity to engage with an inspiring offering across all our galleries. Whether that be through the work of Alison Watt, Isaac Julien, Thomas Joshua Cooper, Joan Eardley or the cinematic hits of Ray Harryhausen, there will be something special for everyone to discover.” 

Laura Chow, Head of Charities at People’s Postcode Lottery said: “We’re pleased to be supporting the National Galleries of Scotland to bring an exciting programme of exhibitions to Edinburgh. We hope they will provide visitors with an opportunity to make new discoveries as well as revisiting old favourites, and we invite everyone to plan a visit this year.” 

-ENDS- 

National Galleries of Scotland 2021 exhibition programme - full details 

RUINED: 
REINVENTING SCOTTISH HISTORY 
26 June - 14 November 2021 
Scottish National Portrait Gallery 
1 Queen Street, Edinburgh, EH2 1JD 
0131 624 6200 | nationalgalleries.org  
Admission free, but booking required 
#NGSRuined 

Our RUINED exhibition offers an alternative, illustrated history of Scotland through the eyes of 200 young Scots, who for the last four years have been imaginatively 'mashing-up' paintings from Scotland’s national art collection.  

Visitors will enter a time-machine in which multiple video projections flicker across a set of ruins, where the shocking events and ghosts from Scotland’s past appear before their eyes, covering subjects such as false heroes and heroines, wicked tyrants and bloodied martyrs, angry mobs, territories and religion. 

Youngsters from the Image Liberation Force project, which forms the basis for this exhibition, have found themselves in the ruins of the Scottish past, and historic paintings that depict epic events and powerful personalities, are brought to life by their imaginations. Their story is also told by their very own ‘bard’, Edinburgh producer and rapper Mercurius MC, who spares none in his visceral address to reshaping Scotland’s story. An online game inspired by on the exhibition, Flashback: The Ruins, will also be available to play on the Galleries’ website. 

Image Liberation Force is supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) as part of Celebrating Scotland’s Art: the Scottish National Gallery Project. 

ALISON WATT: 
A PORTRAIT WITHOUT LIKENESS 
17 July 2021 — 9 January 2022 
Scottish National Portrait Gallery 
1 Queen Street, Edinburgh, EH2 1JD 
0131 624 6200 | nationalgalleries.org  
Admission free, but booking required 
#AlisonWatt 

Alison Watt (b. 1965) is widely regarded as one of the leading painters working in the UK today. This July, she will show a significant body of new work at the Scottish National Portrait Gallery as paintings made in response to the practice of the celebrated 18-century portrait artist Allan Ramsay (1713-84) are exhibited for the very first time. 

Alison Watt: A Portrait without Likeness will explore the artist’s continuing fascination with Ramsay’s portraits. Watt, most known for her beautiful and intricate large-scale paintings of drapery and folds, has long been an admirer of Ramsay’s portraits of women, in particular the intensely personal images of his first and second wives, Margaret Lindsay of Evelick (c. 1726-82) and Anne Bayne (d. 1743). Both portraits reside in the NGS collection and will be shown alongside Watt’s new work. 

The exhibition is the fruit of a long period of study of Ramsay paintings, in addition to the drawings and sketchbooks from his extensive archive held by NGS. Watt has said, “Looking into an artist’s archive is to view the struggle that takes place to make a work of art. A painting is a visual record of the inside of the artist’s mind. A painting is something that takes place over time; it is not static. To look at a work of art is to engage with an idea, and that is not a one sided activity. It’s more of a conversation.” 

A Portrait Without Likeness is accompanied by a publication featuring conversations between the artist and Julie Lawson, the Chief Curator of European, Scottish Art & Portraiture at NGS, who has curated the exhibition, as well as an essay from art historian Dr Tom Normand and a new work of short fiction by Booker Prize-nominated novelist Andrew O’Hagan. 

ISAAC JULIEN: 
LESSONS OF THE HOUR 
29 July — 10 October 2021 
Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art (Modern One)  
75 Belford Road, Edinburgh EH4 3DR  
0131 624 6200 | nationalgalleries.org  
Admission free, but booking required    
#IsaacJulien 

Presented by Edinburgh Art Festival in partnership with the National Galleries of Scotland 

The UK and European premiere of a major new ten-screen film installation by celebrated British artist Isaac Julien, CBE, RA will be presented at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art (Modern One), in partnership with the Edinburgh Art Festival. 

Julien’s Lessons of the Hour offers a poetic meditation on the life and times of Frederick Douglass, the visionary African American writer, abolitionist and a freed slave, who spent two years in Edinburgh in the 1840s campaigning across Scotland, England and Ireland for freedom and social justice. 

Filmed at sites in Edinburgh and other locations in Scotland, London and at Douglass’ home in Washington DC, Julien’s film portrait is informed by some of the abolitionist's most important speeches, weaving historical scenes with footage from recent times to foreground the continued relevance and urgency of Douglass’ words in the present day. Lessons of the Hour will be on display at Modern One until 10 October, to coincide with Black History Month. 

Presented by Edinburgh Art Festival in partnership with National Galleries of Scotland. Supported by the Scottish Government’s Festivals Expo Fund and EventScotland, part of VisitScotland’s Events Directorate, with additional support from British Council Scotland and Pro Av. ‘Lessons of the Hour’ was commissioned and acquired by the Memorial Art Gallery of the University of Rochester with the partnership of the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, and with generous support from the University of California, Santa Cruz, Mark Falcone and Ellen Bruss, the Zell Family, Ford Foundation, VIA Art Fund, Lori Van Dusen, and Deborah Ronnen and Sherman Levey. 
 

THOMAS JOSHUA COOPER: 
THE WORLD’S EDGE 
31 July 2021 — 23 January 2022 
Scottish National Portrait Gallery 
1 Queen Street, Edinburgh, EH2 1JD 
0131 624 6200 | nationalgalleries.org  
Admission free, but booking required 
#ThomasJoshuaCooper 

Over the course of the last three decades, Thomas Joshua Cooper (American, b. 1946) has circumnavigated the globe making photographs of the most extreme points and locations surrounding the Atlantic Ocean.  

The result is an episodic journey that covers five continents (Europe, Africa, North America, South America, and Antarctica). He has set foot on uncharted land masses, contributing to cartography and earning him naming rights of previously unknown islands and archipelagos.  

The only artist to have ever made photographs of the two poles, Cooper refers to the body of work as The World’s Edge – The Atlas of Emptiness and Extremity. This exhibition, based on the 2019 presentation at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, will feature around 35 photographs in the Robert Mapplethorpe Photography Gallery at the Scottish National Portrait Gallery (SNPG). Cooper has lived in Glasgow since 1982 and is Professor and Senior Researcher in Fine Art at the Glasgow School of Art. 

NEW ARRIVALS:  
FROM SALVADOR DALI TO JENNY SAVILLE 
28 November 2021 — Spring 2023 
Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art (Modern One)  
75 Belford Road, Edinburgh, EH4 3DR  
0131 624 6200 | nationalgalleries.org  
Admission free, but booking required 
#OurNewArrivals 

This stunning exhibition will showcase nearly 100 acquisitions made over the past five years at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art. Filling the entire ground floor of Modern One, works on display in New Arrivals will include world-class Surrealist paintings and sculptures by the likes of Salvador DalÍ, Dorothea Tanning, Leonora Carrington and René Magritte.  

A broad range of styles and movements will be represented; from recent works of film art, to a rare early-twentieth-century Cubist collage by Picasso; and from famous names such as Gwen John and Marc Chagall, to brilliant but less-celebrated figures including Marie-Louise von Motesiczky and Benjamin Creme.  

Among the contemporary works on display will be a life-size bronze by Damien Hirst, an early work by Glasgow School of Art graduate Jenny Saville, and several extraordinary pieces by a range of artists which are still under wraps. The show will highlight the richness and diversity of the collection and pay homage to the incredible generosity of our supporters.  

JOAN EARDLEY & CATTERLINE 
Open now 
Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art (Modern One)  
75 Belford Road, Edinburgh EH4 3DR  
0131 624 6200 | nationalgalleries.org  
Admission free, but booking required    
#Eardley100   

An exhibition to celebrate the life and work of the artist Joan Eardley (1921-63) in the centenary year of her birth is now open at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art (SNGMA) (Modern One). Featuring nine oil paintings, 11 works on paper, and a selection of photographs and archival materials, Joan Eardley & Catterline display draws upon the permanent collection of Scotland’s national art collection.  

Eardley is one of Scotland's most popular twentieth-century artists. Inspired by her immediate surroundings, she made powerful and expressive paintings of everyday subjects, including the Scottish coastline and Glasgow's street children. During her lifetime she was considered a member of the post-war British avant-garde, who portrayed the realities of life in the mid-twentieth century. This celebratory display provides visitors with an insight into Eardley’s working practice and focusses on her works in Catterline, south of Aberdeen, where she worked from the early 1950s.

RAY HARRYHAUSEN:  
TITAN OF CINEMA 
Open until 20 February 2022 
Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art (Modern Two) 
73 Belford Rd, Edinburgh EH4 3DS 
0131 624 6200 | nationalgalleries.org 
Tickets: £14-12 (concessions available) 
Free for Our Friends 
#Harryhausen100 

This critically-acclaimed and immensely popular exhibition continues at the SNGMA (Modern Two). A thrilling and immersive experience, it focuses upon the life, career and legacy of American film and stop motion auteur Ray Harryhausen (1920-2013), whose movies shaped the face of modern cinema. 

Harryhausen elevated stop-motion animation to an art form between the 1950-80s, and his films — such as Jason and the Argonauts (1963) and The 7th Voyage of Sinbad (1958) — directly inspired a generation of the world’s greatest living filmmakers, among them Steven Spielberg and Sir Peter Jackson. 

The exhibition features the original models from Harryhausen’s classic movies. These miniature monuments to cinematic history join a treasure trove of drawings, storyboard illustrations, photographs, memorabilia and the art that inspired Harryhausen’s creatures and films, all taken from his remarkable collection, as well as an accompanying Smartify audio guide narrated by acclaimed film director John Landis. 

—ENDS— 

Covid-19 Measures at the National Galleries of Scotland  

In 2020, 96% of National Galleries of Scotland visitors surveyed deemed hygiene measures put in place to ensure visitor safety ‘excellent’ or ‘good’. 85% of visitors stated that visiting one of the Galleries had a positive impact on their mental health and wellbeing.  

All four NGS sites will continue to operate with a one-way route and visitors will receive a link to download a printable map of the Gallery so they can easily find their way through. Some smaller rooms and spaces will remain closed to conform with safe physical-distancing measures. Visitors can also use the Smartify app to delve deeper into the artworks on display, with highlight tours revealing hidden details and stories about key works. 

Site opening details  

Scottish National Portrait Gallery  

— The Scottish National Portrait Gallery is open from 10am-5pm seven days a week.  

— From 1 July 2021 the Gallery will be open for three days a week (Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays). 

— The café is open in line with Gallery opening hours.   

— The ground floor, including the Great Hall, ambulatory on the first floor and galleries 5-10 on the second floor are open. The Modern Portrait exhibition is open. 

— The library (including the research consultation area) is closed. Rooms 1-4 on the top floor are closed.   

— The shop is closed. 

— All visitors must book a free time slot for their visit at nationalgalleries.org/visit. 

Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art (Modern Two)   

— The Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art is open from 10am-5pm seven days a week with the exhibition Ray Harryhausen: Titan of Cinema. 

— All visitors must book a ticketed time slot for their visit at nationalgalleries.org/exhibition/ray-harryhausen-titan-cinema   

— The café Paolozzi's Kitchen is open in line with Gallery opening hours. 

— The horsebox pop-up café beside the entrance is open seven days a week.   

— The shop is open in line with Gallery opening hours. 

— The car park is open. 

Scottish National Gallery 

— The Scottish National Gallery is open from 10am-5pm on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays. It is closed from Sunday-Wednesday (inclusive).  

— From 1 July 2021 the Gallery will open from 10am-5pm seven days a week. 

— The Scottish Café and Restaurant is open 10am-5pm, from Tuesday to Sunday (closed Mondays). From 1 July 2021 it will be open for seven days a week. 

— The shop is open in line with Gallery opening hours.  

— All visitors must book a free time slot for their visit at nationalgalleries.org/visit. 

Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art (Modern One)   

— The Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art (Modern One) is open from 10am-5pm on Sundays, Mondays and Tuesday. It is closed from Wednesday-Saturday (inclusive).  

— From 29 July 2021 the Gallery will be open from 10am-5pm seven days a week. 

— The Gallery is currently showing an exhibition celebrating the life and work of the artist Joan Eardley in the centenary year of her birth.  

— All visitors must book a free time slot for their visit at nationalgalleries.org/visit.   

— The shop is currently closed but will be open from 29 July-31 August. 

— The café is open from 10am-5pm seven days a week.  

— The car park is open. 

— A Changing Places facility is available. 

— The grounds and sculpture trail are open and free to visit. No booking is required. 

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28 April 2021
Scottish National Portrait Gallery reopens with first view of striking new work by Ken Currie

A striking new painting by the celebrated Scottish artist Ken Currie, depicting the preeminent forensic anthropologist Professor Dame Sue Black, will go on public display for the very first time when the Scottish National Portrait Gallery (SNPG) reopens this coming Friday, 30 April 2021.

The large-scale portrait, arriving at the National Galleries of Scotland (NGS) on a long-term loan directly from the artist, will be shown alongside several other new works as part of The Modern Portrait exhibition. Visitors can book their free tickets now on the National Galleries of Scotland website.

Titled Unknown Man, Currie’s poignant, large-scale painting shows Professor Black in surgical robes standing behind the covered remains of a body. The idea for the portrait grew when Currie and Professor Black met during a BBC Radio 4 discussion programme on the relationship between art and anatomy. Currie later visited the Centre for Anatomy and Human Identification at the University of Dundee, where Professor Black then was Director. The artist was so moved by the work he encountered there that he asked Professor Black to sit for a portrait.

Currie regards Unknown Man as being connected to his popular SNPG commission Three Oncologists; the former representing a progression from his 2002 painting. With both works now on display in The Modern Portrait, visitors now have a very special opportunity to experience both in the same space. 

The artist Ken Currie said: “I am delighted to be able to loan the painting Unknown Man to the Scottish National Portrait Gallery. This will make the painting more accessible to a wider public and hopefully draw attention to the astonishing work that Sue Black has undertaken in her long career as an Anatomist and Forensic Anthropologist throughout the world. I’d like to thank both the Portrait Gallery for facilitating this loan and Sue Black herself for her patience and co-operation in the making of this painting”.

The Modern Portrait exhibition will also show dozens of much-admired portraits of famous Scottish figures, such as Billy Connolly, Annie Lennox and Doddie Weir, as well as several other works recently acquired by NGS.

They include David Eustace’s photograph Portrait of Crime Writers. Commissioned in 2019, it features nine luminaries of Scotland’s Tartan Noir scene, including Doug Johnstone, Chris Brookmyre, Marisa Haetzman, Denise Mina, Mandy Scott, M R Mackenzie, Douglas Skelton, Neil Broadfoot and Claire Askew. The image was captured at Stirling Castle during the Bloody Scotland International Crime Writing Festival which has taken place annually since 2012. 

Also going on display for the first time will be Chris Close’s 2017 portrait of the percussionist Dame Evelyn Glennie. Despite being profoundly deaf since the age of 12, Glennie has forged an award-winning career, collaborating with musicians and orchestras around the world. Close photographed Glennie when she appeared at the Edinburgh International Book Festival in 2017. 

Another new addition will be established portrait painter Clae Eastgate’s 2017 portrait of Scottish poet Dame Carol Ann Duffy. Titled Air and Light, the work was shortlisted for the National Portrait Gallery BP Award and toured the UK in 2017, the year in which Duffy became the UK’s first female Poet Laureate. The painting shows Duffy in dark robes resting on a chair and was acquired in 2019.

Christopher Baker, Director of European and Scottish Art and Portraiture at the National Galleries of Scotland, said: "Encounters between accomplished artists and subjects can have electrifying results and that is certainly the case with this powerful portrait of the distinguished forensic scientist Professor Dame Sue Black by Ken Currie. It has a confrontational quality and alludes to her important and revelatory work, with all the drama and intensity and careful calibration that are the hallmarks of the painter's career. We are proud to be able to show this extraordinary painting, which will be a key attraction in The Modern Portrait display, when the Scottish National Portrait Gallery re-opens to the public."

As well as getting to view The Modern Portrait, visitors will also be able to enjoy the SNPG’s magnificent Great Hall, ambulatory on the first floor and galleries on the second floor- all for free. Other exhibitions on show will include:

— Reformation to Revolution, The King’s Last Day: The Execution of Charles I 

— Art & Analysis: Two Netherlandish Painters working in Jacobean Scotland

— Imagining Power: The Visual Culture of the Jacobite Cause 

— Scots in Italy: Artists and Adventurers  

— The Remaking of Scotland: Nation, Migration, Globalisation 1760-1860

— Heroes and Heroines: The Victorian Age 

—ENDS—

Notes to Editors

Ken Currie

Ken Currie is one of the UK’s leading painters, renowned for his unsettling portrayal of the human figure. A Glasgow School of Art graduate, Currie forged his career in the 1980s as part of a generation of painters known as the "New Glasgow Boys”. His work is known for its dominant themes of mortality, the body, mysterious rituals and quasi-medical practices, often tackled through unnerving imagery. His work resides in collections worldwide, including Tate, London and the New York Public Library. Currie is well represented in Scotland’s national collection, with over 55 artworks.

Professor Dame Sue Black 

Professor Dame Sue Black commenced her anatomical studies at the University of Aberdeen. She has cited the job of a forensic anthropologist as being “to reunite the identity constructed during a life with what remains of the corporeal form in death”. She worked at the University of Dundee before becoming Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Engagement at Lancaster University. She regularly assists the police with specialist forensic work and is the current President of the Royal Anthropological Institute. 

Covid-19 Measures at the National Galleries of Scotland 

All four NGS sites will continue to operate with a one-way route and visitors will receive a link to download a printable map of the Gallery so they can easily find their way through. Some smaller rooms and spaces will remain closed to conform with safe physical-distancing measures. Visitors can also use the Smartify app to delve deeper into the artworks on display, with highlight tours revealing hidden details and stories about key works.

In 2020, 96% of National Galleries of Scotland visitors surveyed deemed hygiene measures put in place to ensure visitor safety ‘excellent’ or ‘good’. 85% of visitors stated that visiting one of the Galleries had a positive impact on their mental health and wellbeing. 

Site opening details 

Scottish National Portrait Gallery 

— The Scottish National Portrait Gallery will re-open on Friday 30 April 2021.
— The Gallery will be open seven days a week.
— The café will be open 10-5, seven days a week.  
— The ground floor, including the Great Hall, ambulatory on the first floor and galleries 5-10 on the second floor of the Portrait Gallery will be open. The Modern Portrait exhibition will be open.
— The library (including the research consultation area) will be closed. Rooms 1-4 on the top floor will also be closed.  
— The shop will be closed.
— All visitors must book a free time slot for their visit at nationalgalleries.org/visit.

Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art (Modern Two)  

— The Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art (Modern Two) re-opened on Monday 26 April 2021 with the exhibition Ray Harryhausen: Titan of Cinema.
— All visitors must book a ticketed time slot for their visit at nationalgalleries.org/exhibition/ray-harryhausen-titan-cinema  
— The Gallery is open seven days a week.
— The horsebox pop-up café beside the entrance to Modern Two is open seven days a week. Opening hours for Paolozzi's Kitchen will be confirmed soon.
— The shop is open 10-5, seven days a week.
— The car park is be open.

Scottish National Gallery

— The Scottish National Gallery will re-open on Thursday 6 May 2021.  
— The Gallery will open on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays, and be closed to visitors from Sunday-Wednesday (inclusive).  
— The Scottish Café and Restaurant will open 10-5, Thursday-Sunday from 6 May, moving to seven days a week from 17 May.  
— The shop will open 10-5, Thursday-Sunday from 6 May, moving to seven days a week from 17 May.  
— All visitors must book a free time slot for their visit at nationalgalleries.org/visit.

Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art (Modern One)  
— The Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art (Modern One) will re-open on Sunday 16 May 2021.
— The Gallery will open on Sundays, Mondays and Tuesday, and be closed to visitors from Wednesday-Saturday (inclusive).
— The Gallery will open with an exhibition celebrating the life and work of the artist Joan Eardley in the centenary year of her birth. More details to be announced. 
— The café will be open 10-5, seven days a week. — The car park will be open.
— The toilets at the rear of Modern One will be open seven days a week. A Changing Places facility will also be available.
— The grounds and sculpture trail will continue to be fully open and free to visit throughout the year. No booking is required. 
— The shop will be closed. 
— All visitors must book a free time slot for their visit at nationalgalleries.org/visit.  

20 April 2021
Display celebrating the life and work of Joan Eardley to open Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art (Modern One)
#Eardley100

An extraordinary display celebrating the life of one of Scotland's most popular twentieth-century artists, Joan Eardley, will lead the reopening of the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art (Modern One) on Sunday 16 May. The Gallery will initially open for three days a week (Sunday, Monday and Tuesday) and bookings to visit can be made now for free via the National Galleries of Scotland (NGS) website. 

The celebratory two-room display will mark 100 years since the birth of Eardley, who is widely regarded as one of the most influential painters of her generation. It will offer visitors an insight into her working practice and focus on her works in Catterline, the coastal village in Kincardineshire, where she worked from the early 1950s.  

All drawn from the NGS permanent collection, the display will feature nine oil paintings, 13 works on paper, and a selection of photographs and archival materials. It will include some of Eardley’s most iconic paintings, such as Catterline in Winter (1963), Summer Fields (1961) and Snow (1958). Maps of Catterline, marked with the locations where the artist stood to draw and paint her subjects will be presented in the galleries, allowing visitors to trace her movements.  

Inspired by her immediate surroundings, Eardley made powerful and expressive paintings of everyday subjects, including Scottish coastal scenes and children playing on the streets in Glasgow. During her lifetime she was considered a member of the post-war British avant-garde group of artists who portrayed the realities of life in the mid-twentieth century. 

Commenting on the display, Leila Riszko, NGS Curatorial Assistant said: “We want to transport visitors to mid-twentieth century Catterline, to tell the story of what it was about this remote coastal community that so captivated Joan Eardley, providing the ideal setting for her development as an artist. Whether she was depicting land or sea, she had a truly inimitable ability to translate her everyday surroundings into powerful, emotionally evocative drawings and paintings – and that is what makes her one of the most admired and influential artists of her generation. We are very fortunate to have particularly rich holdings of Eardley’s Catterline works in our collection and we are delighted to be able to celebrate her centenary year with this stunning display.” 

As part of the wider programme of Eardley centenary celebrations, NGS is also producing a series of podcasts in which broadcaster and artist Lachlan Goudie will be joined by figures from the art world and beyond to try to better understand the character of this ground-breaking artist. Each episode will be available for free on the NGS website and Soundcloud account from May. 

The Scottish Women and the Arts Research Network (SWARN) will also be exploring Eardley’s career and legacy. Their aim is to spotlight exhibitions and displays, support collections’ research projects, and present a wide-ranging programme of public workshops, talks and more. The programme will be delivered via a range of platforms both online and in real-time running from May 2021 – May 2022. Audiences can view the range of Eardley events by searching #Eardley100 on social media. 

Visitors to Modern One will also be able to experience the best of international modern art, including a major display devoted to its world-class Surrealist collection, featuring works by artists such as Dalí, Tanning, Magritte, Giacometti and Picasso. 

—ENDS— 

Notes to Editors 

Due to Covid-19 restrictions, a physical press view will not be held. However, photos of the exhibition will be distributed on Friday 13 May and will also be available upon request.  

Interview requests should be sent to [email protected].  

NGS reopening dates 

• The Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art (Modern Two) will re-open on Monday 26 April 2021. 

• The Scottish National Portrait Gallery will re-open on Friday 30 April 2021. 

• The Scottish National Gallery will re-open on Thursday 6 May 2021. 

• The Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art (Modern One) will re-open on Sunday 16 May 2021. 

Covid-19 Measures 

All four NGS sites will operate with a one-way route and visitors will receive a link to download a printable map of the Gallery so they can easily find their way through. Some smaller rooms and spaces will remain closed to conform with safe physical-distancing measures. Visitors can also use the Smartify app to delve deeper into the artworks on display, with highlight tours revealing hidden details and stories about key works.   

In 2020, 96% of National Galleries of Scotland visitors surveyed deemed hygiene measures put in place to ensure visitor safety ‘excellent’ or ‘good’. 85% of visitors stated that visiting one of the Galleries had a positive impact on their mental health and wellbeing. 

New Joan Eardley book 

To coincide with the centenary year of Eardley’s birth, a new book containing never previously published information and based on new research by Patrick Elliott (Chief Curator at NGS) will be published this summer. Joan Eardley: Land & Sea – A Life in Catterline (ISBN: 978-1-911054-29-0) will be available at the National Galleries of Scotland website.  

Podcast schedule 

• Episode one explores how Joan Eardley approached the sea as a subject and the importance of the village of Catterline in the artist's life. Presenter Lachlan Goudie will be joined by arts journalist Jan Patience, artist Dawnne McGeachy and former Catterline resident Ron Stephen. 

• In episode two, Lachlan considers Joan Eardley's choice of materials and technique with NGS conservator Lesley Stevenson and contextualises her work in relation to what was happening elsewhere in the art world at the time with artist Jock McFadyen. 

• In episode three Lachlan is joined by Joan’s niece Anne Morrison-Hudson, NGS Curatorial Assistant Leila Riszko and NGS Archivist Kirstie Meehan to consider what we know of Joan Eardley’s character. 

Each episode will be available for free on the NGS website and Soundcloud account from May. 

The Scottish Women and the Arts Research Network (SWARN) 

The University of Glasgow (including The Hunterian, Archives and Special Collections), The Glasgow School of Art, Paisley Museum and Art Gallery, Glasgow Women’s Library, National Galleries of Scotland and several other organisations have come together in SWARN to explore Eardley’s career and legacy from a number of different angles, to celebrate her contribution to Scottish art in the 20th century, and to give her the profile that she richly deserves. 

Their aim is to stage exhibitions and spotlight displays, support collections’ research projects, and present a wide-ranging programme of public workshops, talks and more. The programme will be delivered via a range of platforms both online and in real-time running from May 2021 – May 2022. 

SWARN’s website will be live next month, until then audiences can view the range of Eardley events by searching #Eardley100 on social media. 

Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art (Modern One) 

• The Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art (Modern One) will re-open on Sunday 16 May 2021.  

• The Gallery will open on Sundays, Mondays and Tuesdays, and be closed to visitors from Wednesday-Saturday (inclusive). 

• The café will be open 10-5, seven days a week.  

• The car park will be open.   

• The toilets at the rear of Modern One will be open seven days a week. A Changing Places facility will also be available.  

• The grounds and sculpture trail will continue to be fully open and free to visit throughout the year. No booking is required.    

• The shop will be closed.   

• All visitors must book a free time slot for their visit at nationalgalleries.org/visit.  

18 March 2021
National Galleries of Scotland announce reopening dates

The phased reopening of the National Galleries of Scotland (NGS) will begin on 26 April, starting with the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art (Modern Two) and its exhibition Ray Harryhausen: Titan of Cinema. Visitors can book their tickets now on the NGS website.  

Measures to ensure the health and safety of visitors and employees will be in place, including one-way routes around each Gallery and reduced capacities. This will enable people to be reassured during their visit while enjoying very personal encounters with their much-loved artworks. NGS has also secured the UK-wide industry standard ‘We’re Good to Go’ accreditation. 

Reopening on Monday 26 April, the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art (Modern Two) will welcome visitors back to experience the landmark exhibition, Ray Harryhausen: Titan of Cinema. Originally due to close in September 2021, the show has been extended to 20 February 2022 to allow as many people as possible to experience this thrilling and immersive exhibition. The Gallery will be open seven days a week.  

The Scottish National Portrait Gallery will reopen on Friday 30 April with The Modern Portrait exhibition on show for the first time since March 2020. Some of the most recognisable portraits from the national collection will be on display, featuring stars such as Billy Connolly, Annie Lennox and Doddie Weir. Visitors will also be able to enjoy the artworks on the ground floor, including the magnificent Great Hall and the ambulatory on the first floor. The Gallery will be open seven days a week. 

The Scottish National Gallery will reopen on Thursday 6 May with seven Impressionist and Post-Impressionist paintings newly moved to the ground floor to make these incredibly popular works accessible to visitors. They include Olive Trees by Vincent van Gogh, Haystacks by Claude Monet and Vision of the Sermon by Paul Gauguin. Visitors will also be able to reconnect with other masterpieces such as Diego Velázquez’s An Old Woman Cooking Eggs, Sir Edwin Landseer’s iconic Monarch of the Glen and Sir Henry Raeburn’s Reverend Robert Walker (1755 - 1808), famously known as the Skating Minister. The Gallery will initially open for three days a week (Thursday, Friday and Saturday). 

The Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art (Modern One) will reopen on Sunday 16 May with a new display celebrating the life and work of the artist Joan Eardley in the centenary year of her birth. Visitors will also be able to see the best of international modern art, including a major display devoted to its world-class collection of Surrealist art, including works by artists such as Dalí, Tanning, Magritte, Giacometti and Picasso. The Gallery will initially open for three days a week (Sunday, Monday and Tuesday). Café Modern One and a pop-up café beside the entrance of Modern Two will also be open.  

The outdoor sculpture trails, the grounds and car parks at Modern One and Two have been open throughout and will continue to be open. Visitors can  become avid art explorers by taking part in our free, newly-developed Walk, Talk, Make sculpture trails, aimed at all ages. Highlights from the trail include the stunning Landform (2001) by the late Charles Jencks, with its undulating hills and calming lake, Tracey Emin’s Roman Standard (2005) and the first figure of the six that constitute Antony Gormley’s much-loved 6 TIMES (2010), a series of sculptures beginning at Modern One and which are sited along the picturesque Water of Leith. 

Sir John Leighton, Director General of the National Galleries of Scotland said: “In what has been a challenging time for everyone, we know that visitors are keen to get back into our Galleries and reconnect with the art they love. We are delighted that we can now share our reopening dates so people can begin to plan their visits. Whether that’s to experience the incredible legacy of cinematic pioneer Ray Harryhausen or to enjoy spending time with their favourite works from the permanent collection, we look forward to welcoming people back in the weeks ahead.”

—ENDS—
Notes to Editors

Covid-19 Measures 

All four sites will continue to operate with a one-way route and visitors will receive a link to download a printable map of the Gallery so they can easily find their way through. Some smaller rooms and spaces will remain closed to conform with safe physical-distancing measures. Visitors can also use the Smartify app to delve deeper into the artworks on display, with highlight tours revealing hidden details and stories about key works. 

In 2020, 96% of National Galleries of Scotland visitors surveyed deemed hygiene measures put in place to ensure visitor safety ‘excellent’ or ‘good’. 85% of visitors stated that visiting one of the Galleries had a positive impact on their mental health and wellbeing.  

Click and collect for our online shop will resume from 5th April. 

Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art (Modern Two) 

— The Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art (Modern Two) will re-open on Monday 26 April 2021 with the exhibition Ray Harryhausen: Titan of Cinema.  

— All visitors must book a ticketed time slot for their visit at nationalgalleries.org/exhibition/ray-harryhausen-titan-cinema  

— The Gallery will be open seven days a week.   

— The horsebox pop-up café beside the entrance to Modern Two will be open seven days a week. Opening hours for Paolozzi's Kitchen will be confirmed soon.  

— The shop will be open 10-5, seven days a week.   

— The car park will be open.   

Scottish National Portrait Gallery 

— The Scottish National Portrait Gallery will re-open on Friday 30 April 2021. 

— The Gallery will be open seven days a week.   

— The café will be open 10-5, seven days a week.  

— The ground floor, including the Great Hall, ambulatory on the first floor and galleries 5-10 on the second floor of the Portrait Gallery will be open. The Modern Portrait exhibition will be open. 

— The library (including the research consultation area) will be closed. Rooms 1-4 on the top floor will also be closed.   

— The shop will be closed.  

— All visitors must book a free time slot for their visit at nationalgalleries.org/visit.   

Scottish National Gallery 

— The Scottish National Gallery will re-open on Thursday 6 May 2021.  

— The Gallery will open on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays, and be closed to visitors from Sunday-Wednesday (inclusive).  

— The Scottish Café and Restaurant will open 10-5, Thursday-Sunday from 6 May, moving to seven days a week from 17 May. 

— The shop will open 10-5, Thursday-Sunday from 6 May, moving to seven days a week from 17 May.  

— All visitors must book a free time slot for their visit at nationalgalleries.org/visit.   

Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art (Modern One) 

— The Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art (Modern One) will re-open on Sunday 16 May 2021.  

— The Gallery will open on Sundays, Mondays and Tuesday, and be closed to visitors from Wednesday-Saturday (inclusive). 

— The Gallery will open with an exhibition celebrating the life and work of the artist Joan Eardley in the centenary year of her birth. More details to be announced.  

— The café will be open 10-5, seven days a week.  

— The car park will be open.   

— The toilets at the rear of Modern One will be open seven days a week. A Changing Places facility will also be available.  

— The grounds and sculpture trail will continue to be fully open and free to visit throughout the year. No booking is required.    

— The shop will be closed.   

— All visitors must book a free time slot for their visit at nationalgalleries.org/visit.

15 March 2021
National Galleries of Scotland announce first Virtual Exhibition Experience, with Ray Harryhausen: Titan of Cinema
#Harryhausen100

The National Galleries of Scotland (NGS) and The Ray and Diana  Harryhausen Foundation are delighted to announce the launch of the Galleries’ first ever paid-for digital exhibition package, with a special virtual experience of our critically acclaimed show Ray Harryhausen: Titan of Cineama, available today via this link.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, restrictions and closures have affected people’s ability to travel to and enjoy the Galleries’ exhibition on the late legendary filmmaker Ray Harryhausen (1920-2013), whose exhilarating movies shaped the face of modern cinema.

However, we are thrilled to announce this new digital package which allows viewers to enjoy — from their computer, phone or tablet, anywhere across the world, at any time — a virtual experience of the show which BBC Arts cited as, “a preview of extraordinary objects, literally on legendary status, that charts the rise of Ray Harryhausen the student, son and friend, visionary, director and inventor: a true master of his craft”.

Simon Groom, Director of Modern and Contemporary Art at the National Galleries of Scotland, said: “We are only too aware of the huge number of visitors around the world who had hoped to see our landmark exhibition Titan of Cinema, but have unfortunately been unable to. So we are absolutely delighted to share, for the first time in the Galleries’ history, this landmark virtual exhibition experience which is available to anyone, anywhere, at any time, worldwide. Packed with information and insight, and with access to special live events, it is essential viewing for those who have seen the show – an amazing visual record of an unforgettable experience – as much as for those who won’t have the possibility to visit Edinburgh. The wonders of Ray Harryhausen’s imagination have beamed into homes across the world for many decades, and we are delighted to continue that tradition with our very first virtual exhibition.”

Our Ray Harryhausen: Titan of Cinema Virtual Exhibition Experience features a raft of content, including exclusive interviews, exhibition footage, film clips and specially created animation sequences which demonstrate Harryhausen’s innovative processes.

A one-time £10 purchase allows access to a stunning package of content, comprising of five newly-recorded short films, a plethora of Titan of Cinema exhibition materials including newly-digitised artworks, storyboards and movie memorabilia, as well as access to live Harryhausen events.

One film explores Harryhausen’s early years, of being awed and inspired by the movie King Kong at the cinema, then experimenting in his garage with amateur stop-motion models. Another offers an insight into animation techniques and the innovative Dynamation process which Harryhausen pioneered. Others reveal the secrets that went into making some of the filmmakers’ iconic models, such as the skeletons from Jason and the Argonauts or Pegasus from Clash of the Titans — from early sketches to first formations to featuring in classic cinematic sequences and being carefully restored to maintain their silver screen legacy. The first four films are available immediately and one other follow in the coming months.

Each film, hosted by a different narrator, explores a different section of the exhibition and introduces new material. The star cast of narrators include celebrated comic book writer Mark Millar (creator of Millarworld), Academy Award-winning special effects artist Randy Cook (of The Lord of the Rings trilogy), Ray Harryhausen’s daughter Vanessa Harryhausen, acclaimed actresses Martine Beswick and Caroline Munro, Academy Award-nominated animator Barry JC Purves (Screen Play, King Kong), BAFTA-nominated filmmaker John Walsh (My Life: Karate Kids, Ray Harryhausen: Movement Into Life) and BAFTA-winning animators Nina Gantz (Edmond) and Daisy Jacob (The Bigger Picture).

They are joined by animators Mark Caballero and Seamus Walsh (both Robot Chicken, Spongebob Squarepants The Movie, Celebrity Deathmatch) from animation collective Screen Novelties, and film critic Marshall Julius.

The package also features a raft of detailed information on the iconic models, drawings, storyboards and many other works on display in Titan of Cinema, and a video featuring a 3D model re-creation of a Harryhausen model — making this essential viewing for those who have seen the show, as much as for those who haven’t had the opportunity to view the exhibition in person.

The online experience also includes exclusive access to a series of related, live online events created in close collaboration with The Ray and Diana Harryhausen Foundation, with the first happening in May and more over the coming months. More details to follow soon. 

Our Harryhausen virtual experience also allows access to a number of Harryhausen-related live events which will become available over the coming months, with the first taking place in May 2021.

The digital package is available for everyone, wherever they are, whether they’ve had the chance to see the exhibition, or not.

Ray Harryhausen: Titan of Cinema opened at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art (Modern Two) in Edinburgh in October 2020 and had to close temporarily because of the pandemic. The exhibition will resume the Gallery reopens and is now scheduled to run until 20 February 2022.

Titan of Cinema has been organised in close collaboration with The Ray and Diana Harryhausen Foundation as part of the legendary trailblazer’s centenary celebrations last year. It is the largest and most comprehensive exhibition ever of the art of Harryhausen, who elevated stop-motion animation to an art form between the 1950s-1980s, and whose exhilarating movies inspired a generation of the world’s greatest living filmmakers, among them Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, Sir Peter Jackson and Guillermo del Toro.

The exhibition would not be possible without the generous support of players of People's Postcode Lottery.

John Walsh, filmmaker and Trustee of The Ray and Diana Harryhausen Foundation, said: “For generations of moviegoers, Ray Harryhausen is a giant of cinema creating worlds and creatures that come alive on the screen. This first-ever virtual exhibition experience is the ultimate journey into those thrilling worlds from the mind of the stop-motion animation genius who revolutionised Hollywood special effects.”

Laura Chow, Head of Charities at People’s Postcode Lottery said: “I’m so pleased that players are supporting NGS to bring the magic of Ray Harryhausen: Titan of Cinema to the homes of audiences across Britain and beyond. I hope this new digital experience will engage as many people as possible, no matter where they are!

—ENDS—

Notes to Editors

Our Ray Harryhausen: Titan of Cinema Virtual Exhibition Experience can be purchased from today via this link. 

You can read more on Ray Harryhausen on the National Galleries website here and here. 

For press requests relating to Titan of Cinema or the National Galleries of Scotland, please contact [email protected].

Find out more about The Ray and Diana Harryhausen Foundation and the #Harryhausen100 here (Charity No. SC001419): www.rayharryhausen.com

More information on John Walsh can be found here: https://www.johnwalshfilmmaker.com

Viewers can also enjoy additional Titan of Cinema digital content via the Smartify app, which includes an audioguide narrated by celebrated film director John Landis. It is now available for free download on Google Play and Apple’s App Store.

People’s Postcode Lottery 

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It costs £10 a month to play and winning postcodes are announced every day. The maximum amount a single ticket can win is 10% of the draw proceed. For details, please visit www.postcodelottery.co.uk/prizes 

New players can sign up to pay using direct debit by calling 0808 10 9 8 7 6 5. New players who sign up online at www.postcodelottery.co.uk can pay using direct debit, debit card or PayPal. 

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17 December 2020
Portrait of iconic singer-songwriter Horse McDonald to enter Scotland's national art collection

A bold, vibrant and captivating large-scale painting of Scottish music icon, Horse McDonald, will enter Scotland’s national collection and go on display at the heart of the Scottish National Portrait Gallery (SNPG) in the Great Hall. 

This compelling oil painting by artist Roxana Halls, captures Horse’s charismatic and enthralling performance style, beloved by her fans. As part of the creative process of the portrait sitting, Horse sang her best-loved song ‘Careful’, live and a capella for the artist in her London studio. This experimental session resulted in a portrait which, rather than depicting one specific pose, is an amalgam of all the live moments, mannerisms and movements Halls witnessed while Horse performed and which she felt best encapsulated her sitter. 

Horse McDonald, born in Newport-on-Tay in Fife, has been writing and performing for over thirty years, during which time she has built up a reputation as an iconic and unique singer-songwriter. She is one of Scotland’s most celebrated performers and has released nine albums; Q magazine described her as owning ‘one of the finest voices of modern times, soul and intelligence combined.’ She has opened for and toured with international artists including Tina Turner, BB King, Bryan Ferry and Burt Bacharach.  She changed her name over thirty-five years ago. The singer feels that her distinctive name reflects both strength and softness at the same time. 

Her critically acclaimed one-woman autobiographical play ‘Careful’ details stories from her life, including growing up gay in Lanark in the 1970s. It debuted at the 2016 Edinburgh Festival Fringe where it won a Voice Magazine Pick of the Fringe award and many five star reviews. In 2017, Horse was one of the inductees into the Saltire Society Outstanding Women of Scotland community. At the SSE Scottish Music Awards in 2017, she received the Reo Stakis /Nordoff Robbins award for her service to music. She was awarded the DIVA Magazine ‘Hall of Fame’ Award in 2018, in recognition of her life and work. She is a proud ambassador for the music charity Nordoff Robbins. This year marks the 30th anniversary of her first album ‘The Same Sky’. To celebrate this, there is a UK tour scheduled for Spring 2021.

Born in London, artist Roxana Halls (b. 1974) is drawn to investigate the meaning of cultural trends and invites the viewer to reflect on the interplay of gender, class, sexuality and identity. Her many solo exhibitions include Roxana Halls' Tingle-Tangle at the National Theatre, South Bank, London and she has been a multiple exhibitor in the BP Portrait Award, The Royal Society of Portrait Painters Annual Exhibition and the Ruth Borchard Self-Portrait Prize. Her work has been exhibited and commissioned widely and is held in numerous private and public collections in the UK and internationally. Halls has been the recipient of several awards, including the Villiers David Prize, The Discerning Eye Founder's Purchase Prize and The Derwent Special Prize and she recently contributed to the Portraits for NHS Heroes project.

Commenting on having her portrait painted and how she feels to be part of the National Galleries of Scotland collection, Horse said: ‘I was incredibly flattered and grateful to have my portrait painted by Roxana. We spent a lot of time talking and sharing our experiences, finding so much in common in our work and lives. The journey which brought us together and then, in turn, the fates that continued for the portrait to then be acquired for the SNPG, is nothing short of magical.  

“I was both shocked and thrilled when I saw the painting because not only has it captured the energy and the passion of the ‘me’ I feel inside, but it is very much a Roxana Halls painting. I cannot find the words to express my pride, honour and privilege to be on display amongst our nation’s peers and generations of dignitaries. This is something I could never, ever have envisaged. I am most humbled at the thought of children seeing my portrait in such a setting and finding inspiration and courage from it.” 

Artist Roxana Halls said about Horse: “I can hardly recall a time when I wasn't aware of her, not only as a much-admired vocalist and songwriter, but also as a lodestar for the LQBTQ community. When I finally had the opportunity to see her in concert I was struck by the combination of a fearlessness and charisma I had anticipated, with a rare tenderness, which I had not – a tension which I hoped to capture in this portrait”

Imogen Gibbon, Deputy Director and Chief Curator, Portraiture at the National Galleries of Scotland said: “I’m thrilled that the National Galleries of Scotland have acquired this portrait of Horse and truly excited for our audiences, and Horse’s fans, to experience this stunning portrait in the Great Hall at the Scottish National Portrait Gallery.” 

—ENDS—

Notes to Editors

Further information about the National Galleries is available at https://www.nationalgalleries.org/

1 December 2020
Scotland's national art collection acquires rare painting by Gwen John

Scotland’s national art collection has acquired a rare and stunning painting by the Welsh artist Gwen John (1876-1939) from her celebrated Portrait of a Girl in Grey series. The purchase has been made possible thanks to assistance from Art Fund and The Henry and Sula Walton Fund.

The other versions from the series of four works are held in major museum collections in north America. Made during the late 1910s to early 1920s, each shows a woman in a grey-blue cloak looking out to the left. One version belongs to the Yale Centre for British Art in New Haven, another to the Albright Knox Art Gallery in New York State, and another is in the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa.

Gwen John was born in Haverford West in Wales in 1876. Her younger brother, the artist Augustus John (1878-1961), arrived two years later. Following their mother’s early death, the family moved to Tenby. Augustus enrolled at the Slade School of Art in London in 1894 and Gwen joined him there the following year;d she remained there until 1898. By then Augustus was already celebrated as a prodigy, known for his outgoing, bohemian character and his brilliant draughtsmanship. Gwen, by contrast, was shy and introverted, or as one friend put it, ‘timid and fierce’.

Gwen moved to Paris in 1904, where she earned a living as an artist’s model and began posing for the great sculptor Auguste Rodin (1840-1917). They became lovers, and in 1911 she moved to an apartment in Meudon, near Paris, where Rodin lived.

In 1910 she began a correspondence with the American lawyer John Quinn, a pioneer collector of avant-garde art. He bought everything he could from her, eventually paying her a monthly stipend in return for any paintings she could send him. Dissatisfied with her work, she constantly avoided sending him pictures. Quinn assured her that, “if I had to make a choice between the painting by you and Picasso, I would cheerfully sacrifice the Picasso”.

Portrait of a Girl in Grey, also known as Girl in Grey with Rosary, is one of Gwen John's largest paintings. It has belonged to a private family collection for around 40 years and has been on long-term loan to the National Galleries of Scotland (NGS) for nearly 20 years. Although she made thousands of drawings and watercolours, her paintings are rare. The catalogue raisonné by Cecily Langdale lists fewer than 150 finished works, the majority of which are in public collections. They very rarely come up for sale.

Most of her oil paintings are of women in interiors. It is often noted that they are self-portraits of sorts. However, unlike the mood which pervades her paintings, Gwen John’s interior life was anything but serene and harmonious. 

The sitter in Portrait of a Girl in Grey is unknown, although she appeared in nearly fifty of Gwen John’s paintings –
almost half her paintings of women – between about 1915 and 1925. John mentioned her in letters on a few occasions, but did so dismissively, referring to her as ‘just a neighbour’. 

The four variants of this painting are almost identical apart from slight differences in the position of the hands and the folds of the blue cloak. It is not known which version came first and they may even have been in production simultaneously. John Quinn’s partner, Jeanne Robert Foster — who posed for John — gave something of the flavour of the artist’s obsessive and rigorous method: “She cannot endure having the pose changed by a hair’s breadth once she has arranged it.”  

The Yale version and the NGS work feature a rosary, held loosely in the woman's left hand. John was drawn to the Catholic faith late in life, probably converting in 1913. She became closely involved with the nuns of the Dominican Sisters of Charity, who ran an Orphanage in Meudon. NGS already owns one other painting by Gwen John, a portrait of one of the sisters, A Young Nun, bought in 1970.

This work will go on display next year as part of a new exhibition titled New Acquisitions: From Salvador Dali to Jenny Saville..

Jenny Waldman, Art Fund Director, said: “This exceptional painting, one of Gwen John’s best-known works, has been a highlight for many visiting National Galleries Scotland over the past 20 years. We are delighted to support the acquisition, which will ensure Portrait of a Girl in Grey enters the museum’s permanent collection, where it will captivate generations of visitors.

Simon Groom, Director of Modern and Contemporary Art at the National Galleries of Scotland, said: “Portrait of a Girl in Grey has hardly been off the gallery wall since we took it on loan over 20 years ago, so we are thrilled that such a popular, and important work, should now be part of the permanent collection. We are extremely grateful to the Art Fund, and the Henry and Sula Walton Fund, for their generosity in helping us to acquire the work, which we will be showing as part of our forthcoming exhibition, New Acquisitions: From Salvador Dali to Jenny Saville.”

—ENDS—

Notes to Editors

Portrait of a Girl in Grey was purchased for £175,000, which includes:

— £58,518 from the NGS Purchase grant.
— £58,518.50 from the Henry and Sula Walton Fund.
— £58,519 from Art Fund, 2020.

Art Fund
Art Fund is the national fundraising charity for art. It provides millions of pounds every year to help museums to acquire and share works of art across the UK, further the professional development of their curators, and inspire more people to visit and enjoy their public programmes. In response to Covid-19 Art Fund has made £2 million in adapted funding available to support museums through reopening and beyond, including Respond and Reimagine grants to help meet immediate need and reimagine future ways of working. Art Fund is independently funded, supported by the 159,000 members who buy the National Art Pass, who enjoy free entry to over 240 museums, galleries and historic places, 50% off major exhibitions, and receive Art Quarterly magazine. Art Fund also supports museums through its annual prize, Art Fund Museum of the Year. In a unique edition of the prize for 2020, Art Fund responded to the unprecedented challenges that all museums are facing by selecting five winners and increasing the prize money to £200,000. The winners are Aberdeen Art Gallery; Gairloch Museum; Science Museum; South London Gallery; and Towner Eastbourne.  www.artfund.org 

The Henry and Sula Walton Fund
Henry Walton (1924-2012) and Sula Walton (1924-2009) were prominent and highly-regarded figures in Edinburgh academia for more than fifty years. Married in 1958, they moved to Edinburgh in 1962. They worked in the field of psychiatry, Sula as a child psychiatrist at the Royal Hospital for Sick Children, Henry at the University of Edinburgh. Passionate about the arts, they left their art collection to the National Galleries of Scotland and also established a Fund to help support acquisitions made by the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art. Important works by Picasso, Toyen, Carrington, Dalí and Jenny Saville have been bought with help from the Walton Fund.

Further information about the National Galleries is available at https://www.nationalgalleries.org/

27 November 2020
Scotland's national art collection receives first artwork by Marc Chagall, one of the greatest masters of modern art​

An outstanding mid-career work on paper by Marc Chagall, one of the great masters of modern art, has become the first of Chagall’s artworks to enter Scotland’s national art collection. 

The Horse Rider (L’Écuyère), 1949–53 — a lively and yet elegiac gouache focusing on the equestrienne, or female horse rider — has never previously been published or travelled to exhibitions before, meaning its acquisition by the National Galleries of Scotland presents the first opportunity for the public to view and enjoy the artwork, since it was created approximately 70 years ago. 

 It will enter the National Galleries of Scotland collection thanks to the Acceptance in Lieu scheme which enables works of art to be presented to the nation and offset against inheritance tax. 

Fiona Hyslop, Scottish Government Cabinet Secretary for Economy, Fair Work and Culture, said: “I am pleased that the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art is now in possession of this remarkable painting by Marc Chagall for audiences to enjoy. The Cultural Gifts Scheme encourages people to gift pre-eminent works for the public to see, and I am pleased to have accepted this painting for the Gallery as the first Chagall to enter its collection. This will also provide the first opportunity for the public to view this wonderful artwork since it was created.”  

Speaking of the acquisition, Simon Groom, Director of Modern and Contemporary Art at the National Galleries of Scotland, said: “Marc Chagall is one of the great painters of the 20th Century, whose iconic and visionary works have entranced and delighted successive generations around the world. The Horse Rider is the first work by Chagall to enter a public collection in Scotland, and we are absolutely thrilled to be able to share this work with the public for the very first time as part of our forthcoming exhibition, New Acquisitions: From Salvador Dali to Jenny Saville in March 2021. We are extremely grateful to the Acceptance-in-Lieu Panel at Arts Council England, as well as to Christies”. 

 Edward Harley OBE, Chairman of the Acceptance in Lieu panel, commented further: “I’m delighted that the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art has acquired its first work by Marc Chagall through the Acceptance in Lieu Scheme. One of the artist’s well-known equestrian scenes, this gouache is painted in the vibrant colours with which he was closely associated. I hope this example will encourage others to use the scheme to enrich our public collections.”   

Marc Chagall (1887-1985) was born Moise Shagal near the Belarussian city of Vitebsk — then part of the Russian Empire — and died at his home in France at the age of 97. His remarkably long life and varied artistic career span almost the length of the twentieth century, his journey criss-crossing France, Germany, Russia and the United States. Chagall’s ceaseless creativity and commitment to exploring the emotional power of colour in its many manifestations led to works in a huge variety of mediums and materials, from his acclaimed public commissions in stained glass to ceramics, book illustrations, printmaking and tapestries.  

His many collaborations with ballet, opera and theatre companies across the world were inspired by his lifelong love of the theatre and particularly the circus, which flourished from his very first encounter as a young child with a travelling troupe of acrobats busking on the streets of Vitebsk. The circus and its cast of characters both human and animal would remain an enduring inspiration and subject matter for Chagall throughout the next eight decades. 

The equestrienne is a recurring subject of Chagall’s circus works from mid-1920s Paris onwards. One of the artist’s key supporters during this time was the legendary art dealer Ambroise Vollard. Starting in 1926, Chagall worked on an ambitious project proposed by Vollard to create a series based on the circus. They were regular visitors to the city’s historic Cirque d’Hiver Bouglione around this time, where Vollard made available his private box seats to Chagall and his young daughter Ida. Chagall completed the 19 gouaches collectively titled The Vollard Circus in 1927. He would return to this deep well of subject matter repeatedly during the remainder of his long career. 

The artist’s nuanced observation of the trusted relationship between the female rider and her steed forms the core of The Horse Rider’s power and dynamic sense of energy. The dark hair and pale features of this particular horse rider recall those of Chagall’s second wife, Valentina (Vava) Brodsky, a Kiev native who shared the artist’s Russian Jewish background, whom he met and married in 1952, during the making of this work. Alongside this protagonist, who seems to be leading her horse out of the circus, rather than riding it bareback, the work shows two further circus personages: a clown dressed in white ruff (recalling Pierrot) who is floating horizontally beside the horse, and a female acrobat whose trapeze suspends her from a great height. 

In a text that originally accompanied a set of 38 lithographs titled Le Cirque / The Circus (published by Tériade Éditions in 1967 and inspired by his original Vollard series forty years earlier), Chagall shared his deeply personal response to the circus as an arena of creativity and emotion:   

“For me a circus is a magic show that appears and disappears like a world. A circus is disturbing. It is profound. These clowns, bareback riders and acrobats have themselves at home in my visions. Why? Why am I so touched by their make-up and their grimaces? With them I can move toward new horizons. Lured by their colours and make-up, I can dream of painting new psychic distortions”.  

Suggesting the circus to be a metaphor for the challenging terrain of artistic life – for the path he had chosen despite its difficulties and repeated sacrifices – this important text confirms the utterly foundational role of the circus within Chagall’s imaginative worldview. Some scholars have proposed that the clown or acrobat represents the artist himself: a stand-in for Chagall on the stage of life. 

This gouache was made during a four-year period, 1949–53, which was an important time of change in Chagall’s personal and professional life. The artist’s return to France from America in 1948 represented an emotional journey back to his adopted home country after escaping seven years earlier during its Nazi occupation. In 1949, Chagall relocated temporarily to Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat on the Côte d'Azur, but by 1950 had moved to Les Collines, an estate that became his permanent home in nearby Saint-Paul-de-Vence. During the early 1950s, the area was seen as an artistic colony, with both Matisse and Picasso living nearby. It is around this time that gouache became a preferred medium for the artist, who focused on rich blues as a response to the beautiful sunlight in the south of France. 

 This gouache was acquired in 1954, the year following its completion, by a well-regarded collector from the Galerie Rosengart in Lucerne, Switzerland. Galerie Rosengart’s founders had a longstanding relationship with Chagall and exhibited his gouache and colour wash drawings on numerous occasions. This particular work has remained in the same family since 1954, being inherited by the collector’s grandchildren, three of whom is based in Edinburgh. The Galleries’ acquisition of this treasured family heirloom allows the public to view it for the first time. 

In the early 1950s, at the time of this work’s making, Pablo Picasso declared that: “When Matisse dies, Chagall will be the only painter left who understands what colour really is”. Blue is unquestionably the colour with which Chagall is most closely associated – from his paintings to his stained glass for cathedrals and synagogues. The intensely blue gouaches from this period are inspired by the sea and strong light of the south of France and have a well-regarded status within the artist’s output and, indeed, within the wider context of post-war French art. 

The National Galleries of Scotland are grateful to Christie’s London for their role in this acquisition.  

— ENDS —

Notes to Editors

Biography of Marc Chagall 
Born into an impoverished Hasidic Jewish shtetl community close to Vitebsk in the Pale of Settlement, Russian Empire (modern day Belarus) in 1887, Chagall quickly left his rural family life behind to study in St Petersburg from 1907 to 1910, partly in the class of Léon Bakst, designer for Diaghilev’s Ballet Russes, who introduced him to the work of Henri Matisse and the Fauves, and encouraged Chagall to follow him to Paris.  

Chagall did just that, arriving in Paris precisely when Cubism debuted at the infamous Salon des Indépendants of 1911. He was subsequently taught by some of the figures associated with Cubism including Henri Le Fauconnier and Jean Metzinger. His time in Paris from 1911–14 transformed the palette and composition of his paintings, which absorbed the prismatic colours of The City of Lights, as well as the Orphism of Robert Delaunay and Sonia Delaunay-Terk, with whom he became close. His graphic approach to storytelling and his cast of recurring characters was also influenced by the popular decorative and narrative style of Russian lubok prints that were commonplace in Vitebsk’s Hasidic community. 

Chagall rapidly became one of the most celebrated of Paris’ pre-war avant-garde figures, despite his refusal to adhere to any one style or movement. He returned to Russia in 1914, following the success of his first ever solo exhibition at the Galerie Sturm, Berlin. During his extended time in Russia following the outbreak of WWI, he married his childhood sweetheart Bella in 1915, before experiencing the October Revolution and the remaking of Russian society in both Petrograd and their home in Vitebsk. 

He subsequently became Vitebsk’s Commissar of Fine Arts (1918–20), a position from which he invited Suprematist artists El Lissitzky and Kazimir Malevich to teach at the city’s People's Art College. A period in Moscow followed, which led to a commission by critic and theatre director Abram Efros (co-author of the first monograph on Chagall’s work in 1918) to design murals for the interior of the city’s State Jewish Chamber Theatre, 1921–22. 

Chagall lived in France from 1923 until his decision to leave for America (1941–48) during the German occupation. His time in New York included a prestigious solo exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in 1946. He finally settled in Vence, in the south of France, upon his return to Europe. His commission to paint the ceiling of the Paris Opera (1963) was only the grandest of his many public works in the final decades of his life.   

Acceptance in Lieu 
The acceptance of this work settled £490,000 of tax. 

The Acceptance in Lieu scheme enables taxpayers to transfer important works of art and other heritage objects into public ownership while paying Inheritance Tax. In this way, objects that might otherwise be sold on the open market and thus be potentially lost to the nation, remain in the public domain. AIL is a reserved matter but “executive devolution” arrangements are in place to enable Scottish Ministers to deal with cases in which there is a Scottish Interest. 

AIL is administered across the UK by the Arts Council, which also oversees the Cultural Gifts Scheme.  Combined the two Schemes are capped, so can offset a total of £40m worth of tax per annum. The Acceptance in Lieu Panel, chaired by Edward Harley OBE, advises on whether property offered in lieu is of suitable importance and offered at a value which is fair to both nation and taxpayer. Full details and guidance are available on the Arts Council’s website at http://www.artscouncil.org.uk/what-we-do/supporting-museums/cultural-property/tax-incentives 

National Galleries of Scotland
National Galleries of Scotland looks after one of the world's finest collections of Western art, ranging from the Middle Ages to the present day, including masterpieces by Titian, Rembrandt, Monet, Van Gogh, Picasso and Magritte. These holdings include the national collection of Scottish art, which is displayed in an international context. Each year NGS welcomes visitors from Scotland and the rest of the world to our three Galleries in Edinburgh: the Scottish National Gallery, the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art and the Scottish National Portrait Gallery. 

The Scottish National Gallery is home to our collection of fine art from the early Renaissance to the end of the nineteenth century, including masterpieces by Botticelli, Raphael, Titian, Rembrandt, Vermeer, Constable, Turner, Monet, Van Gogh and Gauguin, amongst many others. The most comprehensive part of the collection covers the history of Scottish painting with all the major names represented, including Ramsay, Raeburn, Wilkie and McTaggart. 

The Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art comprises two buildings, Modern One and Modern Two, which house our outstanding collection of modern and contemporary art. The early part of the collection features French and Russian art from the beginning of the twentieth century, Cubist paintings and superb holdings of Expressionist, modern British and international post-war art. The gallery is a world-renowned centre for the study of Dada and Surrealism and home to the world's most important and extensive collection of modern and contemporary Scottish art. 

The Scottish National Portrait Gallery first opened to the public in 1889 as the world’s first purpose-built portrait gallery. Over the past century, its collection of portraits has grown to become one of the largest and finest in the world, comprising 3,000 paintings and sculptures, 25,000 prints and drawings. The Gallery tells the story of Scotland through the people who have shaped its history – past and present, famous or forgotten. This distinctive red sandstone building also houses the national collection of photography, with some 38,000 historic and modern photographs and film. 

For further information please go to nationalgalleries.org or call 0131 624 6200. Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter or Instagram.

25 November 2020
Revised completion date for the Scottish National Gallery Project

The Scottish National Gallery construction project is a transformative initiative to create a new space for the nation's renowned collection of Scottish art. In February 2020 we reported the discovery of unexpected defects within the 1970s building which sits beneath the original nineteenth-century National Gallery. These include damp penetration and inadequate drainage in and around the site. A commitment was made to address these issues to ensure the building is fully protected and safeguarded for the future.

The combined stopping of works due to the lockdown, along with the complex and changing nature of the construction requirements, have led us to revise the project timescales. Works are now expected to be completed and the new Gardens- Level Galleries open to the public by the end of 2022.  

Director-General of the National Galleries of Scotland, Sir John Leighton, said:  “We always knew that the Scottish National Gallery Project would be a complex endeavour, but that never diminished our desire to deliver the new space that our visitors deserve. Working underground on a World Heritage Site that comprises an iconic nineteenth-century building with modern additions from the 1970s located above one of Edinburgh’s busiest train tunnels is, of course, challenging. The COVID-19 pandemic has added a further layer of complexity, with the closure of the site during lockdown and now the introduction of measures to accommodate social distancing. Any associated additional costs are being worked through diligently. 

"While we recognise this delay may be disappointing, we also want to stress that the wait will be worth it. We will deliver a world-class facility for showing Scotland’s distinctive artistic heritage in a whole new light, and at a time when we all hope the COVID-19 pandemic will be receding. We intend for our new galleries to be a focal point for cultural renewal, a place to discover the joy and wonder that art can bring to us all.”  

The first phase of the Scottish National Gallery Project was completed successfully in 2019. This included a new entrance area in East Princes Street Gardens, a new café, refurbished restaurant and shop, an extensive sandstone terrace, and new landscaping and paths to improve access to the gardens and the Galleries.

— ENDS —

Notes to Editors

The Scottish National Gallery remains open to visitors, with many works of major international importance on show such as Diego Velázquez’s Old Woman Cooking Eggs, Sir Edwin Landseer’s Monarch of the Glen and Sir Henry Raeburn’s Reverend Robert Walker (1755 - 1808), famously known as the Skating Minister. New visitor offers include a free and specially created Smartify audio tour which focuses on collection highlights.  

The Gallery has secured the UK-wide industry standard ‘We’re Good to Go’ accreditation, which means businesses across the sector can demonstrate that they are adhering to the respective Government and public health guidance, have carried out a COVID-19 risk assessment and check they have the required processes in place.  

The vision for the Scottish National Gallery Project, which got underway in October 2018, has been driven by the National Galleries’ ambition to ensure that the widest number of people can enjoy our art and activities. The displays in the new galleries will be directly informed by extensive research into the needs of existing and potential audiences.  

For the first time in a generation, there will be new displays drawn from the Scottish and international collection. This fresh approach will allow us to say much more about Scotland’s art and to highlight the international significance of pioneering figures such as Allan Ramsay, Gavin Hamilton, Sir David Wilkie and Phoebe Anna Traquair.

The scope of the new displays will encompass the work of early 20th-century artists such as Anne Redpath, Charles Rennie Mackintosh, Stanley Cursiter, Phyllis Mary Bone and the Scottish Colourists S J Peploe and F C B Cadell.  

The project will create a beautiful new space in the heart of Edinburgh, which will be free for everyone to use and enjoy. A series of large windows, running the length of the new gardens-level façade, will fill the galleries with light and colour and offer spectacular views.  

A fly-through animation of the Scottish National Gallery Project is available to view here.

Read more on the Scottish National Gallery Project on our website here.

5 November 2020
Scotland's lockdown experience captured in new exhibition at Scottish National Portrait Gallery

A new exhibition dedicated to sharing the experiences of people in Scotland during the coronavirus pandemic will lead the reopening of the Scottish National Portrait Gallery (SNPG) this Sunday (8 November 2020). Over 200 public submissions will be presented in You Are Here 2020: Stories, Portraits, Visions. A rotating selection will be displayed alongside five artworks from the national collection, including a bronze bust of Scots Makar Jackie Kay (pictured above). Others include a bust of the pioneering surgeon Dr Elsie Inglis made by Ivan Meštrovic; a selection of works by photographer Iain Stewart from his series Tender for which he shadowed two Edinburgh GPs; a video work featuring Mercury Prize-winning Edinburgh band Young Fathers titled Man Up, and a new acquisition – a portrait of the singer-songwriter Emeli Sandé, painted by Samira Addo, winner of the Sky Arts Portrait Artist of the Year 2018 prize. Visitors can book their free ticket to attend on the National Galleries of Scotland (NGS) website.  

Acting as a portrait of the nation, You Are Here will provide a platform for visitors to reflect on the experience of lockdown and gain an insight into what people in Scotland have faced during the COVID-19 outbreak. Presented through art, photography and writing, recurring themes of friendship, kindness, heartbreak and resilience are strong throughout. Each submission offers a new point of view to visitors and allows for a deeper understanding of what individuals and communities have been going through, from stories of babies born during the pandemic to long-distance relationships and lockdown loneliness. Other pieces tell of sacrifices made to beat ‘an invisible enemy’, as described in one of the poems.
Nine submissions will be shown during the opening week of the exhibition, with examples such as photographs from socially distanced garden visits, family Zoom calls and home-school activities. The display will be updated every week and, for those who are unable to visit in person, all works shown will be shared on the NGS website and social media channels. In addition, people of all ages are being encouraged to continue submitting their work until 31 December 2020.
 

Learning and Engagement Outreach Officer, Richie Cumming, who devised the display, said: “It has been humbling and a privilege to receive these submissions. The project has given participants the opportunity to share intimate and moving stories and portraits that, when taken together, create a powerful portrait of human experience. I know it has been cathartic for many people who have taken part and I hope these stories give visitors renewed perspectives on their experiences too.”  
 

Alongside You Are Here, visitors to the SNPG will also be able to enjoy the magnificent Great Hall, the ambulatory on the first floor and the galleries on the second floor. The other exhibitions on show will include: 

• Reformation to Revolution, The King’s Last Day: The Execution of Charles I 
• Art & Analysis: Two Netherlandish Painters working in Jacobean Scotland 
• Imagining Power: The Visual Culture of the Jacobite Cause
• Scots in Italy: Artists and Adventurers 
• The Remaking of Scotland: Nation, Migration, Globalisation 1760-1860  
• Heroes and Heroines: The Victorian Age 

The first floor, where The Modern Portrait exhibition is usually held, will be temporarily closed, as will the library and research consultation area in order to maintain physical distancing requirements. Provisionally opening for three days a week due to the staffing levels required to ensure COVID-19 health and safety standards are met, the SNPG will be open every Sunday, Monday and Tuesday.  

—ENDS— 
NOTES TO EDITOR:  

You are Here: 

— Members of the public can upload their submissions via the NGS website, and the project is open to all.  

— The display will feature a selection of submissions and these will change on a rotational basis. The majority of all submissions will be displayed on the exhibition feature pages on the NGS website. 

Scottish National Portrait Gallery:  

 — Until 10 January 2021, the SNPG will open on Sundays, Mondays and Tuesdays of each week. It will be closed to visitors from Wednesday-Saturday (inclusive) each week. A decision on opening days beyond 10 January will be made in the coming months. 

— The café will be open Sunday-Tuesday in line with the Gallery opening days, 10am-5pm. Booking will not be required. 

— The shop will be closed. Products are available for home delivery or click and collect at www.nationalgalleries.org. — All visitors must book a time slot for their visit at nationalgalleries.org/visit  

— As part of NGS’s commitment to equality, we are undertaking a review of the national art collection in relation to colonialism and slavery and their legacies. This involves research into the previous ownership of artworks, their subject matter, sitters depicted, and existing interpretation. New content, in gallery and online, is being developed over the coming months in light of this research and will remain an ongoing project. We would be pleased to receive any information which supports this work. 

The Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art (Modern One): 

— Modern One has been open seven days a week since 24 August. 

— From 1 November 2020 it will open on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays, and be closed to visitors from Sunday-Wednesday (inclusive). 

— Now 6 is on display until 10 January. This exhibition focuses on the theme of time and highlights the work of Scottish artist Katie Paterson. Paterson’s work explores deep time, the cosmos, and the place of humans in relation to these phenomena – ideas that have been central to the artist’s work for more than a decade. Among the works featured are Paterson’s mesmerising installation Totality (2016), a large-scale mirror ball featuring almost all known images of solar eclipses captured by humankind, and Light Bulb to Simulate Moonlight (2008), held in National Galleries of Scotland’s collection, which provides a lifetime’s supply of moonlight. Time appears as both a subject and a process of making in works by three further artists: Darren Almond, Shona Macnaughton and Lucy Raven.  

— A decision on opening days beyond 10 January 2021 will be made in the coming months.  

— The New Acquisitions: From Salvador Dali to Jenny Saville exhibition opens on 27 March 2021.  

— The café will continue to be open 7 days a week, 10am-5pm. Booking is not required.   

— The shop will continue to be closed. Products are available for home delivery or click and collect at www.nationalgalleries.org/shop. 

— The toilets at the rear of Modern One will continue to be open 7 days a week, 10am-5pm.  

— The grounds and sculpture trail will continue to be fully open and free to visit throughout the year. No booking is required.  
 

— All visitors must book a time slot for their visit at nationalgalleries.org/visit. 

National Galleries of Scotland: 

NGS looks after one of the world's finest collections of Western art, ranging from the Middle Ages to the present day, including masterpieces by Titian, Rembrandt, Monet, Van Gogh, Picasso and Magritte. These holdings include the national collection of Scottish art, which is displayed in an international context. Each year NGS welcomes visitors from Scotland and the rest of the world to our three Galleries in Edinburgh: the Scottish National Gallery, the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art and the Scottish National Portrait Gallery. 

The Scottish National Gallery is home to our collection of fine art from the early Renaissance to the end of the nineteenth century, including masterpieces by Botticelli, Raphael, Titian, Rembrandt, Vermeer, Constable, Turner, Monet, Van Gogh and Gauguin, amongst many others. The most comprehensive part of the collection covers the history of Scottish painting with all the major names represented, including Ramsay, Raeburn, Wilkie and McTaggart. 

The Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art comprises two buildings, Modern One and Modern Two, which house our outstanding collection of modern and contemporary art. The early part of the collection features French and Russian art from the beginning of the twentieth century, Cubist paintings and superb holdings of Expressionist, modern British and international post-war art. The gallery is a world-renowned centre for the study of Dada and Surrealism and home to the world's most important and extensive collection of modern and contemporary Scottish art. 

The Scottish National Portrait Gallery first opened to the public in 1889 as the world’s first purpose-built portrait gallery. Over the past century, its collection of portraits has grown to become one of the largest and finest in the world, comprising 3,000 paintings and sculptures, 25,000 prints and drawings. The Gallery tells the story of Scotland through the people who have shaped its history – past and present, famous or forgotten. This distinctive red sandstone building also houses the national collection of photography, with some 38,000 historic and modern photographs and film. 

For further information please go to nationalgalleries.org or call 0131 624 6200. Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter or Instagram.

12 October 2020
New opening days announced for the Scottish National Portrait Gallery and the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art (Modern One)

Images can be downloaded via Dropbox here.

We are delighted to announce that the Scottish National Portrait Gallery will reopen on Sunday 8 November 2020 with a new exhibition You Are Here 2020: Stories, Portraits, Visions, which will showcase contributions from the public and well-known figures. This includes a new acquisition – a portrait of the international singer-songwriter Emeli Sandé, painted by Samira Addo, winner of Sky Arts Portrait Artist of the Year 2018.  Visitors are able to book their free ticket at www.nationalgalleries.org/visit. 

Due to the staffing levels required to ensure we adhere to COVID-19 health and safety standards, the Scottish National Portrait Gallery and Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art (Modern One) will each open for three days a week from early November 2020 - 10 January 2021. A decision on opening days beyond then will be made in coming months.

This is a temporary measure which, during this time, will see the Portrait Gallery open from Sunday-Tuesday (inclusive) and Modern One open from Thursday-Saturday (inclusive) each week. Note that Modern One will continue to open 7 days a week  throughout October; it will move to this new pattern from 5 November and will be closed from 1-4 November (inclusive). 

The Scottish National Gallery will continue to be open and free to visit 7 days a week.

The Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art (Modern Two) will reopen on 24 October with our new major exhibition: Ray Harryhausen: Titan of Cinema. It will be open 7 days a week. 

Ahead of visiting any Gallery, people must book a time slot at nationalgalleries.org/visit. 

Each Gallery requires higher than pre-Covid numbers of staff to work in front of house roles in order to manage entry, oversee Covid restrictions and support our visitors. Detailed analysis showed that there were not the numbers of staff required to open all four Galleries seven days a week.

When the Portrait Gallery reopens, visitors will be able to enjoy the artwork on the ground floor, including the magnificent Great Hall, the ambulatory on the first floor and the galleries on the second floor.

On the ground floor there will be a brand new exhibition: You Are Here 2020: Stories, Portraits, Visions. This will showcase submissions from people across Scotland representing stories from this year, portraits and visions for the future. As of early October, around 120 submissions have been received. A rotating selection of these submissions will be shown alongside five striking examples of portraiture from the national collection. The five works are: two bronze busts of influential women: Scots Makar Jackie Kay and the pioneering Dr Elsie Inglis; a photograph and display of work prints by Iain Stewart from his series, Tender, for which he shadowed two Edinburgh GPs; Man Up a video work featuring Mercury Prize-winning Edinburgh band Young Fathers and a new acquisition – a portrait of the international singer-songwriter Emeli Sandé, painted by Samira Addo, winner of Sky Arts Portrait Artist of the Year 2018. 

Reformation to Revolution, The King’s Last Day: The Execution of Charles I , Art & Analysis: Two Netherlandish Painters working in Jacobean Scotland, Imagining Power: The Visual Culture of the Jacobite Cause, Scots in Italy: Artists and Adventurers, The Remaking of Scotland: Nation, Migration, Globalisation 1760-1860 and Heroes and Heroines: The Victorian Age exhibitions on the second floor will re-open. 

The first floor, where The Modern Portrait exhibition is held, will be temporarily closed. The library (including the research consultation area) will also be closed. Due to the narrow spaces in these areas it would prove problematic to open them and ensure physical distancing.

Sir John Leighton, Director General of the National Galleries of Scotland said: “We are delighted to be opening the Scottish National Portrait Gallery again with an exhibition featuring people’s experiences of 2020. We have received many queries from the public asking when they can visit again, so I’m really pleased that we have found a way to manage this demand within the constraints that covid-19 has placed on us. This will mean that all four of the Gallery sites will once again be open and that once again we will be able to share the full breadth of our collection”.

“I am very grateful to all the colleagues at the National Galleries who have worked very hard to create a safe and engaging experience for our audiences and I am also grateful to our visitors for their loyal support. The Portrait Gallery has always been a place that helps us to recognise individuals, experiences and spark conversations so we hope that the public will once again enjoy the beautiful surroundings and artwork.”  

—ENDS—

Notes to Editors 

Scottish National Portrait Gallery  

— The Scottish National Portrait Gallery will re-open on Sunday 8 November November 2020.  

— Until 10 January 2021, the Portrait Gallery will open on Sundays, Mondays and Tuesdays of each week. It will be closed to visitors from Wednesday-Saturday (inclusive) each week. A decision on opening days beyond 10 January will be made in the coming months.

— The ground floor, including the Great Hall, ambulatory on the first floor and galleries on the second floor of the Portrait Gallery will be open. 

— The first floor, where The Modern Portrait permanent exhibition is held, will be temporarily closed. The library (including the research consultation area) will also be closed. 

— The café will be open Sunday-Tuesday in line with the Gallery opening days, 10-5. Booking will not be required.

— The shop will be closed. Products are available for home delivery or click and collect at www.nationalgalleries.org.  

— We will make a decision on opening days beyond 10 January 2021 in the coming months.  

— All visitors must book a time slot for their visit at nationalgalleries.org/visit 

The Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art (Modern One) 

— Modern One has been open 7 days a week since 24 August.

— From 1 November 2020 it will open on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays, and be closed to visitors from Sunday-Wednesday (inclusive). Note that this means that it will be closed from 1-4 November (inclusive).  

— Now 6 is currently on display until 10 January. This exhibition focuses on the theme of time and highlights the work of Scottish artist Katie Paterson. Paterson’s work explores deep time, the cosmos, and the place of humans in relation to these phenomena – ideas that have been central to the artist’s work for more than a decade. Among the works featured are Paterson’s mesmerising installation Totality (2016), a large-scale mirror ball featuring almost all known images of solar eclipses captured by humankind, and Light Bulb to Simulate Moonlight (2008), held in National Galleries of Scotland’s collection, which provides a lifetime’s supply of moonlight. Time appears as both a subject and a process of making in works by three further artists: Darren Almond, Shona Macnaughton and Lucy Raven. 

— A decision on opening days beyond 10 January 2021 will be made in the coming months. 

— The New Acquisitions: From Salvador Dali to Jenny Saville exhibition opens on 27 March 2021. 

— The café will continue to be open 7 days a week, 10-5. Booking is not required.  

— The shop will continue to be closed. Products are available for home delivery or click and collect at www.nationalgalleries.org/shop.

— The toilets at the rear of Modern One will continue to be open 7 days a week, 10-5. 

— The grounds and sculpture trail will continue to be fully open and free to visit throughout the year. No booking is required.  

— All visitors must book a time slot for their visit at nationalgalleries.org/visit.

10 September 2020
Arts face coverings gifted to local community by National Galleries of Scotland and North Edinburgh Arts

Five hundred specially crafted face coverings have been gifted to people in Edinburgh thanks to a partnership between National Galleries of Scotland (NGS) and North Edinburgh Arts (NEA). The coverings feature four stunning artworks from Scotland’s national collection, and they are being shared among seven local charities, including Granton Community Gardeners, Scran Academy, Fresh Start, North Edinburgh Arts café, Link Up, Pilton Community Health Project and A Stitch in Time. 

Inspired by a request for face coverings from a member of Edinburgh’s Covid-19 Food Share Group, NGS staff teamed up with local group at NEA, A Stitch in Time, to commission local volunteers and craft professionals to make the coverings. A special note was included with each one to let the recipient know who made their individual gift. NGS then delivered them to volunteers and residents of north Edinburgh. 

The designs were chosen by employees of NGS and NEA who took part in polls to whittle their selections down to four favourite works: 

• John Francis Campbell, Suilven with Rainbow (1848) 

• Samuel John Peploe, Tulips - The Blue Jug (about 1919)  

• Mabel Royds, Prickly Pear Cactus (1924) 

• Mabel Royds, The Waterfall (about 1938) 

As well as gifting 500 masks to the local community in north Edinburgh, NGS commissioned Francia Frank, a locally based couturier and designer, and one of the original makers, to make a second batch of 500 face coverings for its staff.    

Natalie Taylor, Community Development Officer at National Galleries of Scotland, said: “Having started my role with the National Galleries of Scotland in May, during the most intense part of lockdown, I was pre-occupied by the situation, as I think we all were. In the weeks before, I had been volunteering for Granton Community Gardeners by distributing food packages and some residents were asking us for fabric masks, but at that time non-PPE masks were few and far between.  

I could see there was great need for help, and that the National Galleries of Scotland could play a small part by engaging people in the collection to give them a lift and make them feel safe. Our masks are obviously a drop in the ocean in comparison to the sustained local effort of food distribution, but I hope that our contribution will help as we ease our way out of lockdown.” 

Designer and Machinist, Francia Frank, said: “It was such a pleasure working with the National Galleries of Scotland on this initiative. Between the first and the second commission, we have collectively made close to 1,000 face masks, and coordinating the last commission was such a joy. Together as a community here at North Edinburgh, we are pleased to have been part of this history.” 

Francia can also be seen encountering Samuel Peploe’s ‘Tulips - The Blue Jug’ (about 1919) for the first time at the Granton Art Centre, which features on her masks in a new film that NGS will share as part of Virtual Doors Open Day on 26 and 27 September.  

The makers who crafted each face covering worked from their homes to prepare the fabric, with volunteers later adding in elastic. The designs were printed on polyester fabric then layered with up-cycled cotton. A third disposable layer can also be placed inside. Each mask was made in line with W.H.O guidelines. 

—ENDS— 
Notes to Editors  

National Galleries of Scotland 
The National Galleries of Scotland (NGS) looks after one of the world's finest collections of Western art, ranging from the Middle Ages to the present day, including masterpieces by Titian, Rembrandt, Monet, Van Gogh, Picasso and Magritte. These holdings include the national collection of Scottish art, which is displayed in an international context. Each year NGS welcomes visitors from Scotland and the rest of the world to our three Galleries in Edinburgh: the Scottish National Gallery, the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art and the Scottish National Portrait Gallery. 

North Edinburgh Arts 
North Edinburgh Arts offers local residents a place to relax, explore, learn, meet, share, volunteer and have fun in. Last year over 40,000 visits were made to the venue that ‘floats like a bright bubble behind the Muirhouse shopping centre‘ (STV Local). NEA is based in the heart of Muirhouse and our venue incorporates two studios, a 96 seat theatre, recording studio, gallery, offices and the Pop In community café with children’s play area leading onto a large garden. NEA offers a safe, comfortable and creative space for people of all ages to develop within, in contrast to what can otherwise feel a harsh physical and social environment. 

Prior to the Covid-19 pandemic over 30 hours of creative workshops were on offer each week, most with a family focus, alongside a wide range of other events from singing groups to circus skills workshops, exhibitions, community theatre, film clubs, and festival events. The venue is also home to Muirhouse Link Up, Firstport Social Enterprise, North Edinburgh Drug and Alcohol Centre, and the Tinderbox Orchestra, all working to serve the most disadvantaged children, families and individuals in the North Edinburgh area. 

Covid-19 Food Share Group
Covid-19 Food Share Group was formed at the beginning of lockdown to support North Edinburgh residents during the pandemic. In total during the 13 weeks of lockdown, around 49,000 hot lunches, 53,000 packed lunches, and 16,000 food packs were distributed in the local area, providing vital emergency food to residents. 

21 August 2020
Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art’s Modern Two to reopen with landmark show on filmmaking icon Ray Harryhausen

RAY HARRYHAUSEN: 
TITAN OF CINEMA
24 October 2020 — 5 September 2021
73 Belford Road, Edinburgh, EH4 3DS
Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art (Modern Two)
0131 624 6200 | nationalgalleries.org
Tickets: £14-12 (concessions available)
Ticketed access available online from 2 September.
Free for Our Friends
#Harryhausen100

A thrilling and immersive exhibition on the pioneering and unparalleled work of Ray Harryhausen (1920-2013), the cinematic titan whose movies shaped the face of modern cinema, will be coming to the National Galleries of Scotland (NGS) this Autumn, as part of the late filmmaker’s centenary celebrations.

Working in close collaboration with The Ray and Diana Harryhausen Foundation, the National Galleries are proud to present Ray Harryhausen: Titan of Cinema, which will lead the reopening of Modern Two at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art from Saturday 24 October.

Titan of Cinema will be the largest and most comprehensive exhibition ever of the art of the legendary trailblazer Harryhausen, who elevated stop-motion animation to an art form between the 1950s-1980s, and whose exhilarating movies inspired a generation of the world’s greatest living filmmakers, among them Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, Sir Peter Jackson and Guillermo del Toro.

The exhibition was originally scheduled for May this year and was delayed due to current events, but we are delighted to share that it will now lead the reopening of Modern Two with an extended run from October until September 2021. Visitors can secure their tickets via our new online booking system, available from Wednesday. 2 September on our website. Visitors can book tickets up to 3 months in advance. 

Ray Harryhausen was responsible for some of cinema’s most magical moments. Titan of Cinema will showcase the original models that were miraculously brought to life on screen by Harryhausen’s mastery of stop-frame animation, such as the iconic skeletons from Jason and the Argonauts (1963), the Cyclops from his highly-influential Sinbad series, and his trademark UFOs from 1956’s Earth vs the Flying Saucers. The models shown will include those which would later inspire movies such as Lord of the Rings, Star Wars, Jurassic Park, Pan’s Labyrinth and Mars Attacks!

Also on display will be the young Harryhausen’s very first models, including a marionette inspired by the gorilla from King Kong, conceived by the film’s special effects supervisor Willis O’Brien, and artwork from Mighty Joe Young, the first film that Harryhausen and O’Brien worked on together, and the movie which effectively launched Harryhausen’s career.

These miniature monuments to cinematic history are joined by a treasure trove of posters, personal memorabilia, original photographs, storyboard illustrations and the drawings and art that inspired Harryhausen’s creatures and films, all taken from his remarkable collection.

The Academy Award-winning filmmaker’s life story, work and boundless imagination will be explored in an immersive presentation that will reveal new insights to dedicated Harryhausen fans, and open up a whole world of wonder to visitors of all ages and interests.

Visitors will have the opportunity to meet face-to-face the models and memorabilia from the films of their childhood. Younger visitors can learn all about Harryhausen’s pioneering movie-making process, and the great influence he’s had upon many of the movies and animations of today, including Wallace and Gromit. 

Californian-born Harryhausen was massively inspired by the work of Willis O’Brien after seeing King Kong at Grauman’s Chinese Theatre in Hollywood in 1933. As a teenage boy, he went to see the film 33 times. Soon after, he was experimenting with models and stop-motion animation in his backyard, and was later mentored by O’Brien.

Titan of Cinema tells the story of how this young boy became so enraptured by O’Brien’s special effects , he devoted his entire life to filmmaking, invented ingenious techniques, created unforgettable cinematic moments, became what Aardman Animations’ Peter Lord described as a, “one-man industry” and inspired many of the world’s greatest movie-makers.

It also explores Harryhausen’s love of art and the impact certain artists had upon him, including the spectacular illustrations and paintings of Gustav Doré (1832-1883), and Joseph Michael Gandy (1771-1843), whose epic painting Jupiter Pluvius will be concurrently shown at the Scottish National Gallery. The filmmaker said Gandy’s paintings taught him, “to think big and give my imagination free reign”.

The exhibition also traces Harryhausen’s unique connection to Scotland. Harryhausen’s wife Diana was the great-great granddaughter of the Scottish explorer David Livingstone, and both she and her husband developed a strong affinity for the country. One of Harryhausen’s final projects was to design a statue of the legendary missionary, which now stands in the town of Blantyre.

Ray Harryhausen: Titan of Cinema is presented in collaboration with The Ray and Diana Harryhausen Foundation (Charity No. SC001419) to celebrate what would have been his centenary birthday year. As part of a series of events and initiatives under the banner #Harryhausen100, the exhibition will be accompanied by a programme of events, bringing his creations to life once again and celebrating the legacy of the filmmaker who shaped cinema as we know it today. Titan of Cinema would not be possible without the generous support of players of People's Postcode Lottery.

We want all visitors to stay safe while visiting our buildings, and new measures have been implemented so that the health and safety of our visitors, employees and volunteers can be ensured. We have secured the UK-wide industry standard ‘We’re Good to Go’ accreditation, which means businesses across the sector can demonstrate that they are adhering to the respective Government and public health guidance, have carried out a COVID-19 risk assessment and check they have the required processes in place. 

Vanessa Harryhausen, daughter of Ray Harryhausen and a Trustee of The Ray and Dianna Harryhausen Foundation, said: “Our plans to celebrate Dad’s centenary at the National Galleries in Edinburgh are so exciting; if he was still around, he would be so enthused by all the centenary celebrations and plans! It’s wonderful that we are able to display so much of Dad’s collection: the space at the Galleries gives us great scope to display as many of his models and artworks as possible, as well as personal items which have never been exhibited before.”

“We at the Foundation are thrilled to work with the National Galleries on displaying Dad’s collection and celebrating his legacy. He established the Foundation in order to encourage future generations to enjoy stop-motion animation, and we hope the celebrations and activities in Edinburgh will encourage fans of all ages to be inspired by his creativity”.

Simon Groom, Director of Modern and Contemporary Art at the National Galleries of Scotland, said: “We are delighted to open Mod Two with the largest ever exhibition devoted to Ray Harryhausen. His creative vision, and ability to realise scenes of enduring dramatic and imaginative power, are as relevant now as they have ever been. The exhibition promises to transport all visitors, young and old, into the amazing world of one of the greatest innovators of special effects in the history of cinema.”

Stephanie Kerr, programmes advisor at People’s Postcode Lottery, said: “I’m delighted this exhibition, which has been supported with funding raised by our players, is now able to take place. It’s sure to be an inspiring experience for everyone who visits.”

—ENDS—

Notes to Editors

What to Expect

Titan of Cinema opens at Modern Two from 24 October. 
The exhibition is ticketed access only. You can book your tickets on our website from Wednesday 2 September, up to 3 months in advance. 
Stay safe while visiting and follow physical-distancing rules. 
As of writing, face-coverings are mandatory if over 5 years old.
Please use the hand-sanitisers inside Modern Two.
Car parking at both Modern One and Two is now open, 9.45am-5.30pm. 

You can read more on our Visitor frequently asked questions here.

More information on the exhibition

Raymond Frederick Harryhausen was born in 1920 in Los Angeles, California, to parents Martha L. and Frederick W. Harryhausen. As a young boy in 1933, Harryhausen attended a showing of King Kong at Grauman’s Chinese Theatre in Hollywood, whose special effects supervisor was Willis O’Brien.  

It was a seminal moment, changing the course of his life: “I’ve never forgotten it”, Harryhausen said in 2005. “The dinosaurs, and King Kong particularly…For its time it was unique”. Remarkably, a note in his diary in 1939 mentions he’d just spent another evening in the cinema, watching King Kong for the thirty-third time.

Soon after, the teenage Harryhausen was building model dinosaurs and experimenting with stop-motion in his back garden. He contacted O’Brien and was invited – model dinosaurs in tow – to O’Brien’s studio at MGM Studios. Despite remarking that the legs on Harryhausen’s dinosaurs – shown in the exhibition - looked like sausages, and suggesting that he go and study the anatomy of creatures he was building -  O’Brien would later become the budding filmmaker’s mentor, hiring him to work on Mighty Joe Young. Harryhausen would produce most of the movie’s accomplished animated scenes and the film’s massive success helped launched his career.

An original film poster of King Kong, a King Kong marionette made by a teenage Harryhausen in the 1930s, and an RKO original model gorilla from Mighty Joe Young, will be on display, alongside other early marionettes and sketches from both Harryhausen and O’Brien. Also on display are Harryhausen’s personal effects, and some of the many honours he was awarded in his lifetime. 

Starting with his work on Mighty Joe Young, the impact Harryhausen had on modern cinema cannot be overstated. He singlehandedly changed what was thought possible with animation and special effects. Spielberg, Lucas and Jackson directly cite his movies as the reason they became filmmakers – and especially for the influence they had on the making  of Jurassic Park, Star Wars and Lord of the Rings respectively – as do Del Toro, James Cameron, John Landis, Tim Burton and JJ Abrams to name but a few. Del Toro has said, “No one will ever compare to Ray Harryhausen. He was a true pioneer... He was designer, technician, sculptor, painter and cinematographer all at once. To my generation, and to every generation of monster lovers to come, he will stand above all. Forever”. Titan of Cinema’s visitors can view these original models that had such a formative influence on the next generation of movie giants.

As a stop-motion trailblazer, one of Harryhausen’s ingenious inventions – first demonstrated in The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms – was the creation of Dynamation. The phrase was coined by Harryhausen’s long-term friend, collaborator and producer Charles H. Schneer, to describe his unique process which successfully integrated animation and live action, and used perspective to portray scale and movement in ways that were both breathtaking and cost-efficient.

The larger stage sets of the past gave way to smaller models and inventive perspective techniques, freeing up budget for the taking of more exciting shots. Two-inch-tall figurines became towering, realistic monsters, and a  fleet of flying saucers seamlessly crossed the skies of Harryhausen’s in breathtaking scenes, from Earth vs the Flying Saucers (1956). Forty years later, Tim Burton paid homage in Mars Attacks! (1996), replicating both models and scenes in Harryhausen’s original film. These out-of-this-world UFO creations, still in pristine condition, will be shown, as will a full room revealing the Dynamation process.

Also on display will be a  models, posters, drawings and photographs from Harryhausen’s blockbusters, including his hugely influential Sinbad series, Jason and the Argonauts, and Clash of the Titans. A single viewing of The 7th Voyage of Sinbad made a young John Landis commit to becoming a filmmaker. Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger did the same for Sir Peter Jackson. The childhoods of millions of others were filled with Sinbad’s swashbuckling adventures. Storyboards, sheet music, the original model of the cyclops will be some of the material from the series on show.

Just as Harryhausen inspired countless artists and succeeding generations, so artists and writers inspired the filmmaker himself. Their influence is seen in the dramatic backdrops, scenes and creatures of his movies. Harryhausen was a great lifelong friend of the sci-fi writer Ray Bradbury with whom he worked closely, and absorbed inspiration from ancient Greek mythology, the work of HG Wells (1886-1946) and Jules Verne (1828-1905), and the art of John Martin (1718-1854), Gustave Doré (1832-1883), and Joseph Michael Gandy (1771-1843), whom he recognised as imaginative visionaries of their time. Harryhausen was to say that Gandy’s paintings taught him, “to think big and give my imagination free reign”. Harryhausen, an incredible draughtsman himself, would skilfully illustrate the storyboards which wove together stories and images of such power and depth that, even now in our digital age, make his films so iconic.

Book

Titan of Cinema will be accompanied by a new publication especially commissioned for the exhibition, written by Harryhausen’s daughter Vanessa, that provides a very personal insight into her father’s ground-breaking career, collection and life. This book, part-biography and part-exhibition catalogue, marks the first ever time Vanessa has spoken about her father’s work in such detail, and includes a personal biography of her father from the beginnings in the 1930s through to projects he was working on throughout his ‘retirement’, less than 10 years ago.

Exhibition 

Ray Harryhausen: Titan of Cinema will take place at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art (Modern Two) from Saturday 22 October. 

You can read more on Ray Harryhausen on the National Galleries website here and here. 

Find out more about The Ray and Diana Harryhausen Foundation and the #Harryhausen100 here (Charity No. SC001419): www.rayharryhausen.com

Vanessa Harryhausen and John Walsh, Trustees of The Ray and Diana Harryhausen Foundation, and Connor Heaney, Collections Manager of the Foundation, are available for interviews and will be present for the press view on Thursday 22 October 2020.

More information on John Walsh can be found here: https://www.johnwalshfilmmaker.com 

For press requests relating to The Ray and Diana Harryhausen Foundation and the #Harryhausen100 please contact [email protected]

For enquiries relating to Ray Harryhausen: Titan of Cinema at the Scottish National Galleries of Modern Art, please contact [email protected] or call 0207 292 7390.

For enquiries relating to the National Galleries of Scotland of the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, please contact [email protected] or call 0131 624 6247.

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People’s Postcode Lottery manages multiple society lotteries promoted by different charities and good causes. People play with their chosen postcodes for a chance to win cash prizes. A minimum of 32% from each subscription goes directly to charities and good causes across Great Britain and internationally -- players have raised £500 million so far. For details of the charities and good causes which are promoting and benefitting from the lottery draws, please visit https://www.postcodelottery.co.uk/good-causes/draw-calendar 

It costs £10 a month to play and winning postcodes are announced every day. The maximum amount a single ticket can win is 10% of the draw proceed. For details, please visit www.postcodelottery.co.uk/prizes 

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6 August 2020
Wonder awaits at the National Galleries of Scotland: first phase of reopening dates announced

The wonder of Scotland’s national art collection awaits visitors in-person as today the National Galleries of Scotland (NGS) can share the dates and details of the first phase of our gradual reopening. 

The Scottish National Gallery will reopen to the public on Monday 17 August, and the Modern One building at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art will reopen the following week, on Monday 24 August. 

Those visiting will be able to enjoy a very special encounter with the much-loved artworks of the nation’s exceptional art collection, as we will be limiting the number of visitors in each gallery at any one time, to ensure physical distancing.

Visitors can book free time-slots for the Scottish National Gallery and for Modern One via our new online booking system, available from 10am on 12 August on our website. Admission remains free, but tickets must be booked online in advance. Tickets can be booked up to 2 weeks ahead.

We are delighted to welcome visitors back to the Scottish National Gallery, where they can reconnect with masterpieces such as Diego Velázquez’s Old Woman Cooking Eggs, Sir Edwin Landseer’s iconic Monarch of the Glen and Sir Henry Raeburn’s Reverend Robert Walker (1755 - 1808), famously known as the Skating Minister. 

A treasure trove of modern art awaits visitors to Modern One, with works from Picasso to Jenny Saville via Francis Bacon, Scottish Colourist paintings and our world-class Surrealist collection featuring art from Salvador Dalí, René Magritte and others. 

Visitors can immerse themselves in our specially-created sculpture trails in the grounds outside, or be mesmerised indoors by Katie Paterson’s Totality — the stunning centrepiece of our contemporary art series NOW — which brings together over 10,000 images of almost every solar eclipse documented by humankind in one monumental glitter-ball.

Both buildings will be open from 10am-5pm and final admission is at 3.45pm. Visitors can print off tickets to bring with them, or simply show the email attachment from their mobile phone at the entrance of the gallery. 

We are implementing a one-way route around all our buildings. Those booking will receive a link to download a printable map of the Gallery so they can easily navigate each site. Some smaller rooms and spaces will remain closed so that we can conform with safe physical-distancing measures. Visitors can also use the Smartify app to delve deeper into the artworks on display, with our Smartify highlights tours revealing hidden details, stories and interpretations about key works.

We want all visitors to stay safe while visiting our buildings, and new measures have been implemented so that the health and safety of our visitors, employees and volunteers can be ensured. We have secured the UK-wide industry standard ‘We’re Good to Go’ accreditation, which means businesses across the sector can demonstrate that they are adhering to the respective Government and public health guidance, have carried out a COVID-19 risk assessment and check they have the required processes in place. 

As part of the gradual reopening, the Scottish National Portrait Gallery and Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art (Modern Two) will reopen in the Autumn. We are still finalising the specifics for both buildings and their exact reopening dates will be announced in due course. Ray Harryhausen: Titan of Cinema will be taking place at Modern Two when it reopens.  

Visitors can now wander through the serene grounds of the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art. Admission to the grounds is free and unticketed, and there are specially-created sculpture trails for visitors of all ages to enjoy. A pop-up cafe in front of the main entrance to Modern Two is now offering takeaway coffee and snacks. Our Sculpture Trails would not be possible without the generous support of players of the People's Postcode Lottery.

Look out for updates on our website, social media channels and sign up for our email newsletters. 

Sir John Leighton, Director-General of the National Galleries of Scotland, said: “We are delighted to now welcome visitors back to the Scottish National Gallery and Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art’s Modern One, as part of the first phase of our reopening. It’s been a challenging time for all, but our reopening offers the public the opportunity to reconnect with the national collection and to view their favourite works in a more intimate setting. Whether that’s to find comfort, calm or spark creativity, visitors will have their very own close encounters with art from across the centuries, be that Constable, the Colourists or Katie Paterson’s cosmos”. 

Stephanie Kerr, Programmes Advisor at People’s Postcode Lottery, said: “I’m so pleased the National Galleries of Scotland are able to safely re-open to the public, in particular the sculpture trails which are supported by our players and assessible for people of all ages. The fun trail is full of wonderful sculptures, and provide a great way for those who aren’t yet comfortable with going indoors to experience some of Edinburgh’s finest culture."

—ENDS— 

Notes to Editors 

Reopening Dates

Monday 17 August 
Scottish National Gallery reopens.

Monday 24 August 
Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art (Modern One) reopens.

Autumn (exact dates tbc) 
Scottish National Portrait Gallery reopens.
Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art (Modern Two) reopens. 

What to Expect

• Scottish National Gallery and Modern One open from 10am-5pm. 
• Book your free time-slot on our website from 12 August (max 6 tickets per person) 
• NGS Friends can book from 10am on 10 August, and will have a limited number of priority booking slots.
• An outdoor queuing system will be in place. 
• Stay safe while visiting and follow physical-distancing rules. 
• Face-coverings are mandatory if over 5 years old. 
• Please use the hand-sanitisers inside all our buildings.

You can read more on our Visitor frequently asked questions here.  

Parking
There is metered, on-street parking near Scottish National Gallery and both car parks at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art (One and Two) are open 9.45am-5.30pm.  

Toilets 
Toilets  at the Scottish National Gallery  are available at gallery level, but only for those with a ticket.  Public toilets and Changing Places facilities are open 10am-5pm  at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art (Modern One).  All facilities are cleaned regularly.  

Shops 
The Scottish National Gallery shop at the East Princes Street Gardens Entrance will be open from 10am-5pm. There is no direct access up to the Galleries from the Gardens Entrance.  

You can read more on our Shop frequently asked questions here. If the FAQ doesn’t help with your query then please email us on [email protected] or call us on 0131 624 6494 (international customers call 0044 131 624 6494). 

People’s Postcode Lottery 

People’s Postcode Lottery manages multiple society lotteries promoted by different charities and good causes. People play with their chosen postcodes for a chance to win cash prizes. A minimum of 32% from each subscription goes directly to charities and good causes across Great Britain and internationally -- players have raised £500 million so far. For details of the charities and good causes which are promoting and benefitting from the lottery draws, please visit https://www.postcodelottery.co.uk/good-causes/draw-calendar 

It costs £10 a month to play and winning postcodes are announced every day. The maximum amount a single ticket can win is 10% of the draw proceed. For details, please visit www.postcodelottery.co.uk/prizes 
New players can sign up to pay using direct debit by calling 0808 10 9 8 7 6 5. New players who sign up online at www.postcodelottery.co.uk can pay using direct debit, debit card or PayPal. 

Postcode Lottery Limited is regulated by the Gambling Commission under licence numbers: 000-000829-N-102511 and 000-000829-R-102513. Registered office: Titchfield House, 69/85 Tabernacle Street, London, EC2A 4BD 

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27 July 2020
Public appeal for stories, portraits and ideas to be displayed alongside the national collection
#youarehere2020

People across Scotland and beyond are being asked to submit stories, portraits and ideas about the future as part of a new display at the Scottish National Portrait Gallery. They will be shown alongside five striking examples of portraiture from the national collection in a display titled You Are Here| 2020: Stories, Portraits, Visions.

This display will explore the issues Scotland faces in 2020 by providing a platform for people to reflect on a year, which has seen the most unprecedented times in a generation.

People can respond to one or more of the three categories: stories, portraits and visions. The first, 2020 Stories is looking for a story about this year in 100 words or less which could be positive or negative, prose or poetry. The second, 2020 Portraits is a portrait that encapsulates something about this year. From the joyful to the tragic and everything in between; lockdown hair and extra time with family, social distancing to social isolation, PPE-clad shopping trips to food bank deliveries. Lastly 2020 Visions is asking for people’s thoughts on the future; what are the good things to come out of this year? What lessons have been learned that could be taken forward?

The public submissions will sit alongside artworks from the national collection, which were selected for their contemporary relevance. They speak of the health service, powerful cultural icons and under-represented demographics.  The five works are: two bronze busts of influential women - Scots Makar (the national poet for Scotland) Jackie Kay and the pioneering Dr Elsie Inglis; a photograph and display of work prints by Iain Stewart from his series, Tender, for which he shadowed two Edinburgh GPs; Man Up, a video work featuring Mercury Prize-winning Edinburgh band Young Fathers and a new acquisition – a portrait of the international singer-songwriter Emeli Sandé, painted by Samira Addo, winner of Sky Arts Portrait Artist of the Year 2018.  

Learning and Engagement Outreach Officer, Richie Cumming who has devised this display, said: ‘We are asking the questions; “How are you doing?” How has your year been? We want this installation to be a broad representation of 2020 and hope people will be inspired to participate and share this call to action with family, friends, neighbours and colleagues.  The combined results will act as a portrait of the nation, offering the opportunity for work from members of the public to be displayed alongside portraits of these exceptional people from the national collection and give brief insights into the range of experiences people have had over this bizarre and troubling year.’

Members of the public can upload their submissions via the National Galleries of Scotland (NGS) website and the project is open to all. As the project is based on 2020, works must have been created this year and should respond to the themes of stories, portraits, visions. The works to be displayed will be reviewed by a panel consisting of Learning and Engagement and Collection and Research staff from NGS. Each submission will be considered under the criteria of: creativity, originality, geographic spread and uniqueness of the submission.

The display will feature a selection of submissions and these will change on a rotational basis. The majority of all submissions will be displayed on the exhibition feature pages on the NGS website.

Notes to Editors

• Submissions are now open until the end of the year. 
   
• The display will open when the SNPG reopens (date tbc).
   
• Full terms and conditions for submissions can be found on the National Galleries of Scotland’s website.

National Galleries of Scotland

The National Galleries of Scotland (NGS) looks after one of the world's finest collections of Western art, ranging from the Middle Ages to the present day, including masterpieces by Titian, Rembrandt, Monet, Van Gogh, Picasso and Magritte. These holdings include the national collection of Scottish art, which is displayed in an international context. Each year NGS welcomes visitors from Scotland and the rest of the world to our three Galleries in Edinburgh: the Scottish National Gallery, the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art and the Scottish National Portrait Gallery.

The Scottish National Gallery is home to our collection of fine art from the early Renaissance to the end of the nineteenth century, including masterpieces by Botticelli, Raphael, Titian, Rembrandt, Vermeer, Constable, Turner, Monet, Van Gogh and Gauguin, amongst many others. The most comprehensive part of the collection covers the history of Scottish painting with all the major names represented, including Ramsay, Raeburn, Wilkie and McTaggart.

The Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art comprises two buildings, Modern One and Modern Two, which house our outstanding collection of modern and contemporary art. The early part of the collection features French and Russian art from the beginning of the twentieth century, Cubist paintings and superb holdings of Expressionist, modern British and international post-war art. The gallery is a world-renowned centre for the study of Dada and Surrealism and home to the world's most important and extensive collection of modern and contemporary Scottish art.

The Scottish National Portrait Gallery first opened to the public in 1889 as the world’s first purpose-built portrait gallery. Over the past century, its collection of portraits has grown to become one of the largest and finest in the world, comprising 3,000 paintings and sculptures, 25,000 prints and drawings. The Gallery tells the story of Scotland through the people who have shaped its history – past and present, famous or forgotten. This distinctive red sandstone building also houses the national collection of photography, with some 38,000 historic and modern photographs and film.

For further information please go to nationalgalleries.org or call 0131 624 6200. Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter or Instagram.

16 July 2020
A breath of fresh air awaits you in the serene grounds of the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art

The National Galleries of Scotland (NGS) are delighted to share that we will be welcoming visitors back to the grounds of the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art (SNGMA) from today, Wednesday 15 July.

Visitors and families can take in the beauty of both works of art and nature as they wander within the landscapes of Modern One and Two, enjoying world-class sculptures with coffee and cake from our new pop-up cafe.

Whilst the grounds have been open throughout lockdown, today we can officially welcome visitors back with some specially-created sculpture trails and newly-adapted facilities. Entrance to the grounds remains free of charge.

All our Gallery buildings are currently closed, and we are currently working hard on all the plans for their phased reopening from August.

For the meantime, visitors can simply wander or become avid art explorers by taking part in our free, newly-developed Walk, Talk, Make sculpture trails, aimed at all ages. Highlights from the trail include the stunning Landform (2001) by the late Charles Jencks, with its undulating hills and calming lake, Tracey Emin’s Roman Standard (2005) and the first figure of the six that constitute Antony Gormley’s much-loved 6 TIMES (2010), a series of sculptures beginning at Modern One and which are sited along the picturesque Water of Leith.

Through the online version of a printed trail, families can discover the artists and their artworks on outside display, and receive some prompts to make their own art amongst the trees. Or even just absorb the timely and reassuring message of the Martin Creed artwork on the front of Modern One: WORK: NO. 203: EVERYTHING IS GOING TO BE ALRIGHT.

The grounds and the car park will be open from 9.45am-5.30pm daily. Toilets and a Changing Places facility are both available at Modern One, from 10-5pm.

Those visiting can be kept energised by freshly brewed coffee, snacks and sweet treats from our pop-up outside cafe (open from Thursday 16 July — takeaway only) beside the front door of Modern Two. The pop-up cafe will be open from 10am-3pm each day. 

The gallery grounds at the SNGMA can be accessed via the gates on Belford Road, the Water of Leith and the Dean Graveyard.

We want all visitors to stay safe while visiting and follow physical distancing rules during their journeys around the two grounds. Your health and safety are important to us, and we look forward to welcoming you all back inside our galleries soon. 

We have also secured the UK-wide ‘We’re Good to Go’ accreditation. The ‘We’re Good To Go’ industry standard and supporting mark means businesses across the sector can demonstrate that they are adhering to the respective Government and public health guidance, have carried out a COVID-19 risk assessment and check they have the required processes in place.

Look out for updates on our website, social media channels and sign up for our email newsletters.

— ENDS —

Notes to Editors

What to expect:

• No need to book. Admission is free and unticketed.
• Access is via the gates on Belford Road, the Water of Leith and the Dean Graveyard.
• The grounds and car park are open from 9.45am-5.30pm daily.
• Toilets and a Changing Places facility are both available at Modern One from 10-5pm.
• Stay safe while visiting and follow physical distancing rules.

To find out more about the art in the Collection through the free mobile phone app Smartify. Download the app, scan the art, uncover the story.

Our Sculpture Trails would not be possible without the generous support of players of the People's Postcode Lottery. 

People’s Postcode Lottery

• People’s Postcode Lottery manages multiple society lotteries promoted by different charities and good causes. People play with their chosen postcodes for a chance to win cash prizes. A minimum of 32% from each subscription goes directly to charities and good causes across Great Britain and internationally -- players have raised £500 million so far. For details of the charities and good causes which are promoting and benefitting from the lottery draws, please visit https://www.postcodelottery.co.uk/good-causes/draw-calendar
   
• It costs £10 a month to play and winning postcodes are announced every day. The maximum amount a single ticket can win is 10% of the draw proceed. For details, please visit www.postcodelottery.co.uk/prizes
   
• New players can sign up to pay using direct debit by calling 0808 10 9 8 7 6 5. New players who sign up online at www.postcodelottery.co.uk can pay using direct debit, debit card or PayPal.
   
• Postcode Lottery Limited is regulated by the Gambling Commission under licence numbers: 000-000829-N-102511 and 000-000829-R-102513. Registered office: Titchfield House, 69/85 Tabernacle Street, London, EC2A 4BD
   
• Follow us @PostcodePress

9 July 2020
Statement on reopening from the National Galleries of Scotland

Earlier today, Museums Galleries Scotland shared the news that museums and galleries including the National Galleries of Scotland, National Museums Scotland, Glasgow Life, V&A Dundee and Industrial Museums Scotland are now looking ahead to the imminent reopening of our respective cultural sites. 

We can further share that we will be reopening our own gallery buildings through a phased manner from August.

We warmly welcome the Scottish Government’s announcement that museums and galleries can now be safely re-opened, and are very much looking forward to welcoming the public back.

We have been working hard on the plans for reopening, and the health and safety of our visitors, and the visitor experience, are at the very heart of this. The reopening of our sites requires complex logistical planning, and a gradual reopening allows us to prepare for and implement the appropriate measures that will ensure the health and safety of our visitors, volunteers and employees.

These measures will follow Government advice and include the implementation of physical distancing and PPE equipment, employee training and new temporary ticketing systems allowing visitors to book free timed slots to enjoy our sites and the national collection. We will also be working to securing the UK-wide ‘Good to Go’ accreditation.

The pandemic has been difficult and challenging for all, and we would like to express our gratitude to the public for their ongoing engagement and support through these testing times. 

Whilst we gradually reopen, we will continue to support and work closely with our cultural partners. We will also continue to share Scotland’s wonderful national art collection online.

Museums and galleries play an integral role in the health and well-being of all our lives, and with our reopening, we hope our cultural organisation and collection — and that of our cultural counterparts across the country — will continue to calm, comfort, educate, spark conversations and inspire creativity.

— ENDS —

4 June 2020
The public's most-asked art questions explored in new six-part National Galleries video series

* View some of the Questions about Art videos here *

What makes a painting iconic? Who decides what art is worth? Why can’t I touch artworks when in a gallery?

Six in-depth videos will explore these and other common musings on art in Questions about Art, a brand-new, informative and unprecedented insights video series from the National Galleries of Scotland (NGS). All are explored through filmed interviews of expert analysis, archive material and animations, and never-before-seen ‘behind the scenes’ footage from within the National Galleries. The videos aim to investigate, analyse and share comprehensive insights into these questions, rather than provide definitive answers.

One video in the series is What Makes an Artwork Iconic? — now available on YouTube here — explores Ray Lichtenstein’s seminal large-scale painting In The Car (1963). The video focuses on how In The Car has become ingrained within our collective consciousness, the significance of the painting to both its own era and to art history, and how it continues to spread throughout culture even today, influencing advertisements, Snapchat filters, TV shows and the fashion industry. We explore the painting’s shifting perception from the initial controversy when it first entered Scotland’s national collection in the 1980s, to now becoming one of the Collection’s most loved artworks, and one of the most widely-recognised artworks in the world. For the first time, viewers can get a behind-the-scenes look at the Galleries’ Granton storehouse, and close ups of the painting itself.

Another video, Why can’t I touch art?, which can be viewed here, analyses the complexities around artworks being touched and how current pioneering artists are challenging the idea that art cannot be touched by incorporating the sense into their multi-sensory creations. For the first time, viewers can see our Conservation Team in action with insights into the many intricacies of preserving paintings, drawings, watercolours and other creative forms. These include some surprising details, such as how the lifespan of paper has changed considerably since the fifteenth century, meaning that countless artworks painted or drawn several hundred years ago have a much greater expected lifespan than many of those made not only in the last century, but remarkably, made today.

Other videos explore the value of art, how art records history, why there’s so few female artists and whether or not art is beneficial to your well-being. They feature a range of experts — including specialists from across the Galleries, the Deputy Director of Sotheby’s in Edinburgh and art therapist Lucy Bell.

To inform the series, NGS asked visitors for their most-common art queries in late 2019. Questionnaires were placed within our galleries, audiences could share questions through the NGS Research panel, and digital visitors could submit their queries through a Pop-up box on our website or use the #AskACurator hashtag on social media. The Galleries also utilised AnswerThePublic.com (which employs Google’s autocorrect function) to identify commonly searched questions relating to key art words. Our Security and Visitor Services team also shared the most frequently-asked art queries they receive when working in gallery spaces.

An incredible 260 questions were received in response, which were whittled down to the six queries the public were most keen to know. The questions were then divided by theme and key ones were identified using a scoring system based on frequency (ie ‘how many times has it been asked?’) and whether or not they were asked by Galleries audiences directly (doing so scored higher than those accrued through Google’s autocorrect). Soon after, six videos were produced by the Galleries’ digital team.

This new series builds upon the popularity of What is…?, our series of videos exploring of the origins of and ideas behind key art terms, such as Surrealism, Expressionism and Pop Art. Both Questions about Art and What is…? are part of the National Galleries of Scotland’s overarching vision Art for Scotland: Inspiration for the World, which aims to make both art and Scotland’s national collection accessible to everyone. This digital aspect of this vision has been built around the complete overhaul of the National Galleries website, making it easier than ever to view, read and enjoy artworks and art. 

Sir John Leighton, Director-General of the National Galleries of Scotland, said: “Questions about Art is important to us not just in how these videos help make art more accessible to everyone, but in how the questions were initially collected. We wish to listen as much as we wish to inform, so we are delighted to share these fantastic insights into the public’s most sought-after queries. We hope the public absorb and engage with these videos and above all, continue to ask us questions about art and Scotland’s magnificent national art collection”.  

— ENDS — 

View some of the videos from Questions about Art video series on the Galleries’ YouTube channel here. 

28 May 2020 
Titian Announcement 

We regret to announce that the National Galleries of Scotland exhibition Titian: Love, Desire, Death will no longer take place in Edinburgh. This exhibition was due to open in the Royal Scottish Academy building in July this year as part of an international tour in partnership with the National Gallery, London, The Prado in Madrid and the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston.

The exhibition opened in London on 16 March but closed after only 3 days due to the current lockdown and closure of the National Gallery. We have worked with our partners to consider options for re-scheduling the exhibition in Edinburgh at a later date but we have decided that this is not a viable possibility and have withdrawn from the tour. However, the exhibition will reopen in London later in the year.

Sir John Leighton commented; ‘We worked very hard with our partners to realise this important and ambitious project so it is sad for us that this cannot now be enjoyed by our public in Edinburgh. This show was originally planned as one of the highlights of our summer programme at the busiest time of the year during the Edinburgh Festival but without that context, against a backdrop of uncertainty around scheduling and visitor numbers, this project was no longer a viable proposition for us. We are however pleased to support our partners with our loans to the remainder of this tour.’

We understand that many will be disappointed and we do apologise for this unfortunate cancellation.

We will be in touch with those who had pre-booked tickets.

We are still hoping to open Ray Harryhausen: Titan of Cinema at The Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art later this year, and an opening date will be decided in line with the re-opening plan for the galleries

-ENDS-

26 May 2020
National Galleries of Scotland appoints new Director of Collection and Research

The National Galleries of Scotland (NGS) is pleased to announce the appointment of Dr Line Clausen Pedersen as our new Director of Collection and Research.   

Dr Clausen Pedersen is an independent scholar and curator. From 2003 to 2019, she was employed in various curatorial roles at the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek (NCG) in Copenhagen, most recently as Head of the Modern Collection (from 2010). The NCG is one of Denmark’s leading museums and displays a world-renowned collection of 19th-century painting and sculpture as well as Greek, Roman, and Egyptian art.  In her new role at NGS, Dr Clausen Pedersen will be responsible for leading on all aspects of the development, interpretation, research and display of Scotland's national art collection. She takes over the role from Professor Christopher Breward who was recently appointed Director of the National Museum of Scotland.  

Educated in Copenhagen, London, and Florence, Dr Clausen Pedersen has been responsible for numerous international exhibitions and publications including, for example, exhibitions on Bonnard, Gauguin, Degas and Man Ray. As part of the Directorate at NCG she was responsible for leading curatorial strategic development and created innovative approaches to permanent collections, including extensive new installations and co-operation across departments. In addition, she was also responsible for several significant acquisitions, fundraising, and new international institutional collaborations. Pedersen is currently working on a Getty Research project involving technical art history and cross-disciplinary research, on Degas and reproduction. She is also a curatorial consultant for a Croatian/Italian exhibition project on treasures from a Venetian 16th-century shipwreck. 

Sir John Leighton, Director-General, commented: ‘We began the search for our next Director of Collection and Research last October and we are thrilled to have a new director with an international vision and reputation. Throughout her career, Line Clausen Pedersen has shown strong leadership in developing the museum craft to the highest international levels, connecting research, exhibitions, and permanent collections. We are delighted to welcome her to our Leadership Team.’ 

Pedersen commented: ‘The NGS is a magnificent institution that I am honoured and delighted to join. Art is a medium for our shared human condition: in times of crises such as today, being relevant is even more important. I look very much forward to working with the whole organisation to develop our shared museum craft. Building on the NGS’s strong academic, professional, and institutional credentials, I aim to enhance our visibility, locally and internationally, among the public as well as among our global peers.’ 

Dr Line Clausen Pedersen will take up the role of Director of Collection and Research at NGS from the 15th June.  

Monday 30 March 2020
Members appointed to the National Galleries of Scotland board

The Cabinet Secretary for the Economy, Fair Work and Culture, Ms Hyslop, today announced the appointments of Rucelle Soutar, Andrew Wilson, Lynn Richmond and Chris Sibbald as Members of the National Galleries of Scotland Board.

NEWLY APPOINTED MEMBERS

Rucelle Soutar is the Chief Operating Officer at The Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo.  She is a Chartered Accountant and was appointed Head of Finance at the Tattoo in 2014 before being appointed as COO in 2018.  She has also held other senior financial roles in the voluntary and private sector, including Edinburgh Zoo, Valvona & Crolla and ProjectScotland.  She has a breadth of commercial, audit and risk management experience, as well a keen interest in arts and culture.

Andrew Wilson is the founding Partner of strategic corporate advice company, Charlotte Street Partners.  He is an economist, business analyst and public policy specialist.  He is a Trustee of a number of charities, including the Edinburgh International Culture Summit, Sistema and the John Smith Centre for Public Service. 

Lynn Richmond is a Partner at BTO Solicitors LLP and specialises in intellectual property and technology, data protection, freedom of information and commercial dispute resolution, advising on both contentious and non-contentious matters. Lynn was appointed Director of the Scottish Society for Computers and Law in 2007.  She has a keen interest in the arts, advising and supporting not for profit arts organisations.

Chris Sibbald is a Managing Director at Finsbury, a global leader in Strategic Communications. Previously, Chris was Head of Communications at Tesco Bank and a member of the Tesco Group communications leadership team. Chris is a passionate advocate and supporter of organisations in the third sector, primarily The Prince’s Trust and The John Smith Trust Fellowship.

APPOINTMENTS

The appointments will be for four years.  Rucelle Soutar and Andrew Wilson’s appointments will run from 16 March 2020 to 15 March 2024.  Lynn Richmond and Chris Sibbald’s appointments will run from 1 November 2020 to 31 October 2024. 

The appointments are regulated by the Ethical Standards Commissioner.

REMUNERATION

The appointments are part-time with a time commitment of six days per annum and are not remunerated. 

OTHER MINISTERIAL APPOINTMENTS

Rucelle Soutar, Andrew Wilson, Lynn Richmond and Chris Sibbald do not hold any other public appointments.

POLITICAL ACTIVITY 

All appointments are made on merit and political activity plays no part in the selection process.  However, in accordance with the original Nolan recommendations, there is a requirement for appointees’ political activity within the last five years (if there is any to be declared) to be made public.

Andrew Wilson campaigns locally during elections for the SNP and is Chair of the SNP’s Sustainable Growth Commission.

Rucelle Soutar, Lynn Richmond and Chris Sibbald have had no political activity in the last five years.

BACKGROUND 

NGS is a vibrant organisation, employing around 300 staff at its three Edinburgh sites.  Its mission is to care for, develop, research and display the national collection of Scottish and international art.  This includes a lively and innovative programme of activities, exhibitions, education and publications, which aims to engage, inform and inspire the broadest possible public.

Today, its mission is based on the drive to make the greatest art available, free of charge, to a wide national and international public.  NGS is one of Scotland’s most popular cultural destinations, and in 2018-19, NGS welcomed over 2.7 million visitors across its gallery sites, a record figure, up on previous years.  It ranks within the top thirty most visited museums anywhere in the world.

Core funded by the Scottish Government, like all public bodies, it operates within a challenging financial climate and must make the most of opportunities to continue to collaborate with other key national and international institutions from a range of sectors and to generate income from a range of sources.  It operates within the context of the Scottish Government’s national outcomes and strategic objectives, including public service reform.

The organisation is governed by a Board of Trustees which is accountable to the public through Ministers and the Scottish Parliament for the discharging of the functions defined in the National Heritage (Scotland) Act 1906 (as amended in 1985) -.http://origin-www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1985/16/contents

17 March 2020
Galleries closed until further notice

Statement from Sir John Leighton, Director-General of the National Galleries of Scotland

'In order to help protect the health of our staff and visitors during this difficult time, we are closing all of our Galleries from 5pm this evening, 17 March 2020. This includes the Scottish National Gallery, Scottish National Portrait Gallery, Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art (Modern One and Modern Two). We are aware that some people have bought tickets for upcoming events and exhibitions and we will be in touch as quickly as we can with further information.

'We appreciate your support during this time and hope to see you in the not too distant future. We will post any further updates on our social media channels and website (www.nationalgalleries.org).'

Thursday 13 February 2020
MacKinnon Collection show extended due to popular demand and Scottish tour announced

Scotland’s Photograph Album: The MacKinnon Collection, the exhibition showcasing highlights of an exceptional collection of historic photographs which capture over a century of Scottish life, will see its opening time extended for another two months, due to its remarkable reception with the public.

The display, which features more than 250 photographs from the treasure trove of over 14,000 images that the BBC recently described as, “one of the most significant photography collections in decades”, has proved so immensely popular with visitors, it will now run at the Scottish National Portrait Gallery until Monday 13 April, extending well beyond its original end date of 16 February. Admission for visitors remains free throughout.

The National Library of Scotland’s concurrent MacKinnon display, At the Water’s Edge, will close as scheduled on 15 February 2020.

Further to this, the National Galleries of Scotland (NGS) and the National Library of Scotland are delighted to announce today that visitors from all across Scotland will get the chance to enjoy the MacKinnon Collection, with a national tour set to take place in three Scottish locations across the country from later this year.

Exhibitions showcasing these remarkable photographic documents of Scotland’s social and cultural history will commence in Kirkcudbright at Kirkcudbright Galleries before heading to Museum nan Eilean in Lews Castle in Stornoway on the Isle of Lewis, before culminating in Duff Hose in Banff in 2021. The nationwide tour starts in September 2020 and further information will be released in due course.

The MacKinnon Collection was jointly acquired by the National Galleries of Scotland (NGS) and the National Library of Scotland in 2018, with assistance from the National Lottery Heritage Fund, Scottish Government and Art Fund. The collection was slowly acquired by photography enthusiast Murray MacKinnon and began when he ran a successful chain of film-processing stores in the 1980s, starting from his pharmacy in Dyce, near Aberdeen. The images celebrate Scottish life and identity from the 1840s through to the 1940s and feature some of the earliest and most significant photographs not only in Scottish photography history, but in the history of photography itself.

Many of the first practitioners and visionaries who pushed the medium forward were based in Scotland or were inspired by Scottish subjects, and their works are on display in the exhibition. These include photographs by William Henry Fox Talbot, David Octavius Hill and Robert Adamson, Julia Margaret Cameron, Thomas Annan, Roger Fenton, George Washington Wilson, and others who created stunning images of Scotland’s people and places and established precedents for photographers worldwide.

In a recent review, The Scotsman’s art critic Duncan MacMillan hailed the MacKinnon Collection as, “an extraordinary record of Scotland’s past, from the beginnings of photography until around 1940s” and awarded five stars to both the National Galleries and National Library’s displays.

The MacKinnon Collection has begun to be digitised by both the Galleries and Library and digitisation of the entire trove of photographs will be completed in 2021.

Sir John Leighton, Director-General of the National Galleries of Scotland, said: “The MacKinnon Collection demonstrates the important role Scotland had in shaping the history of photography, and we are delighted it has proved so popular with the public. Our aim is to make these images accessible to all, so we’re equally thrilled to announce together with the National Library that the collection will be going on tour around Scotland. The MacKinnon collection is a huge resource and we will continue to digitise and share the many images from this wonderful photographic archive of Scottish life.”

Dr John Scally, National Librarian of Scotland, said: “We’ve been delighted to see the public’s interest in the MacKinnon Collection since it went on display last November at the National Library and the National Galleries of Scotland. The extended run will give even more people the opportunity to visit this absorbing show”.

Caroline Clark, Scotland Director of the National Lottery Heritage Fund, added: “These fascinating historical images, taken in the pioneering days of photography, allow us a first glimpse of our ancestors going about their daily lives. The fact that the exhibition is extending is a real testimony to the thirst people have for exploring and celebrating their heritage and I’m delighted that, with the help of funding from The National Lottery, even more people around the country will be able to explore these treasures.”

—ENDS—

Notes to Editors:

SCOTLAND’S PHOTOGRAPH ALBUM:
THE MACKINNON COLLECTION
Until 13 April 2020
Scottish National Portrait Gallery
1 Queen Street, Edinburgh, EH2 1JD
0131 624 6200 | nationalgalleries.org
Admission free

Acquired jointly with the National Library of Scotland with assistance from the National Lottery Heritage Fund, Scottish Government and Art Fund.

The National Library of Scotland

The National Library of Scotland is a major European research library and one of the world’s leading centres for the study of Scotland and the Scots – an information treasure trove for Scotland’s knowledge, history and culture.

The Library’s collections are of world-class importance. Key areas include rare books, manuscripts, photographs, maps, music, moving images, official publications, business information, science and technology, and modern and foreign collections.

The Library holds more than 30 million physical items dating back over 1000 years in addition to a growing library of e-books, e-journals and other digital material. Every week the Library collects around 5,000 new items. Most of these are received free of charge in terms of Legal Deposit legislation.

www.nls.uk / @natlibscot / facebook

National Lottery Heritage Fund

Using money raised by the National Lottery, we Inspire, lead and resource the UK’s heritage to create positive and lasting change for people and communities, now and in the future. www.heritagefund.org.uk.

Follow @HeritageFundUK on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram and use #NationalLotteryHeritageFund 

Art Fund

Art Fund is the national fundraising charity for art. In the past five years alone Art Fund has given £34 million to help museums and galleries acquire works of art for their collections. It also helps museums share their collections with wider audiences by supporting a range of tours and exhibitions, and makes additional grants to support the training and professional development of curators.

Art Fund is independently funded, with the core of its income provided by 151,000 members who receive the National Art Pass and enjoy free entry to over 240 museums, galleries and historic places across the UK, as well as 50% off entry to major exhibitions and subscription to Art Quarterly magazine. In addition to grant-giving, Art Fund’s support for museums includes Art Fund Museum of the Year (won by St Fagans National History Museum near Cardiff in 2019) and a range of digital platforms.

Find out more about Art Fund and the National Art Pass at www.artfund.org

7 February 2020

Construction is continuing on the Scottish National Gallery Project to create new, world-class galleries to house the national collection of historic Scottish art.

The first phase of the Scottish National Gallery Project was completed successfully in 2019. This included a new entrance area level with East Princes Street Gardens, a beautifully refurbished café, restaurant and shop, and new landscaping and paths in East Princes Street Gardens to improve access to the gardens and the Galleries.

Work is now on-going on the next phase, to convert areas originally built in the 1970s into the new suite of galleries, alongside newly created spaces.

Director-General of the National Galleries of Scotland, John Leighton, said:

“In the course of this work it has become apparent that there are some unexpected defects within the 1970s building which sits beneath the original nineteenth-century National Gallery. These include issues with damp penetration and inadequate drainage in and around the site. We are now addressing these issues to ensure that the building is fully protected and safeguarded for the future, so that it can better withstand any future extremes of weather.

In order to accommodate this extra work we have therefore revised our timescales for the project. We are now aiming to complete works on the new Gardens Level Galleries by the end of 2021, when we will be showcasing a brand new-space for our fantastic collection of Scottish art.

In the meantime, the Scottish National Gallery remains fully open to the public who can also enjoy the new restaurant, café and much larger shop. Disruption to visitors and the public during this construction phase will be kept to a minimum.

We look forward to unveiling our exciting new galleries which will be home to the world’s greatest collection of Scottish art, including some works that will be displayed for the very first time.”

Notes to Editors

The vision for the Scottish National Gallery Project, which got underway in October 2018, has been driven by the National Galleries’ ambition to ensure that the widest number of people can enjoy our art and activities. The displays in the new galleries will be directly informed by extensive research into the needs of existing and potential audiences.

For the first time in a generation, there will be new displays drawn from the Scottish and international collection. This fresh approach will allow us to say much more about Scotland’s art and to highlight the international significance of pioneering figures such as Allan Ramsay, Gavin Hamilton, Sir David Wilkie and Phoebe Anna Traquair.

The scope of the new displays will encompass the work of early 20^th-century artists such as Charles Rennie Mackintosh, Stanley Cursiter, Phyllis Mary Bone and the Scottish Colourists S J Peploe and F C B Cadell.

The project will create a beautiful new space in the heart of Edinburgh, which will be free for everyone to use and enjoy. A series of large windows, running the length of the new gardens-level façade, will fill the galleries with light and colour and offer spectacular views.

Specific activities on completion of the project include a dedicated family day one day a week, more volunteers in the galleries to connect visitors with our new offer and new audience-focused interpretation.

A fly-through animation of the Scottish National Gallery Project is available to view here

Read more on the Scottish National Gallery Project changes on our website here.

30 January 2020

An extraordinary painting of one of Scotland’s best-loved sporting icons, Doddie Weir, OBE, has gone on display at the Scottish National Portrait Gallery (SNPG) to mark the beginning of the Six Nations rugby championship this weekend. The portrait will be shown in the Great Hall for the duration of the rugby championship, after which it will feature in The Modern Portrait, an exhibition which includes portraits of notable Scottish figures such as Alan Cumming, Susie Wolff, Ewen Bremner and Tilda Swinton.

Standing at 6' 6", Weir is one of rugby’s most recognisable personalities, known for playing the position of lock for Stewart’s Melville RFC, Melrose RFC, Newcastle Falcons and the Border Reivers. He earned 61 caps for Scotland between 1990 and 2000, played in three World Cups and was selected for the British and Irish Lions tour of South Africa in 1997. He also played six times for the Barbarians and was famously described by the legendary commentator Bill McLaren whilst on a forward run for Scotland, as being ‘on the charge like a mad giraffe’.

Renowned for his extraordinary good humour and tartan suits he also became an acclaimed public speaker. Following his retirement from rugby, Weir remained a familiar face on TV as a commentator for his beloved sport.

In 2016 Weir was diagnosed with Motor Neuron Disease (MND). A year later he set up the My Name’5 Doddie Foundation, which raises funds to aid research into the causes of MND, investigate potential cures and make grants to individuals suffering from MND to enable them to live as fulfilled a life as possible. In its first two years, the Foundation has invested almost £4million into MND research projects and helped hundreds of families living with the disease. In 2018 The Doddie Weir Cup was established to bring awareness to the disease and is played for annually between Scotland and Wales rugby teams.

Born in Glasgow in 1961, the painter, Gerard M. Burns graduated from Glasgow School of Art in 1983 with a degree in Fine Art. Drawing and painting have been his passion since childhood. He shared this enthusiasm throughout his teaching career, later leaving a successful post as principal of art at St Aloysius College, Glasgow to pursue his painting full time. Since 1999 this commitment has resulted in his current standing as one of Scotland’s most respected artists.

In 2016, Burns’ portrait of author Denise Mina entered the National Galleries of Scotland (NGS) collection and is on display at SNPG as part of The Modern Portrait exhibition.

The portrait of Weir was auctioned in 2019 and raised over £80,000 for the Foundation and the buyers gifted it to them with a note saying: ‘To Doddie with love from your rugby friends in Hong Kong, to always remember the Daft Yin’s passion and inspiration in seeking a cure for MND’. The artwork will be accompanied by a plaque naming all those who made contributions during the auction of the painting.

On loan to the NGS from the Weir Family, the portrait by Gerard M Burns shows Weir in the Scottish Borders, where he grew up as part of a farming family, with the Eildon Hills behind him. In this portrait he wears one of his famous suits in the Doddie’5 tartan.

Doddie Weir, OBE, said: "It is a great honour to have Gerard's painting on display at the Scottish National Portrait Gallery, among so many notable and notorious Scots. I have had a great deal of fun in Hong Kong over the years and the support of the Scottish and rugby communities there has been incredible since I shared my diagnosis. I would like to thank everyone involved for their contribution and especially Gerard for doing such a fine job with the limited source material! And a big thank you to the National Galleries of Scotland for including the painting in their fine collection.”

John Leighton, Director-General at the NGS, said: “Doddie is an extraordinary person and an iconic figure in sporting history. The work that the My Name’5 Doddie Foundation is achieving is monumental and I am thrilled to have his portrait hanging in our Great Hall for the duration of the Six Nations rugby championship.”

Painter, Gerard M. Burns spoke about the portrait, saying: “I felt strongly from the very beginning that this painting should show some of Doddie’s inner strength, that to make something too trivial would have been completely wrong given the circumstances of his life at this point.”

—ENDS—

Notes to Editors

The portrait of Doddie Weir, OBE by Gerard M. Burns is on display in the Great Hall at the SNPG now. Following the Six Nations rugby championship (Saturday 1^st February – Saturday 14^th March) the portrait will feature in The Modern Portrait exhibition at the SNPG.

Weir's autobiography My Name'5 Doddie was published in 2018 and has been nominated for the Heineken rugby book of the year 2019: 'a brilliant, emotional and compelling read from one of Scotland’s best‑loved sporting icons’.

The BBC documentary Doddie Weir: One More Try was released in December 2019. It follows fellow Scottish rugby legend John Beattie who has followed Doddie and his family over the past two years, gaining a unique insight into the life and mission of the man behind the famous tartan suit. Watch it here: bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m000c2c6/doddie-weir-one-more-try

My Name’5 Doddie Foundation website can be found here: myname5doddie.co.uk/

Gerard M. Burns’s website can be found here: gerardmburns.com/

6 January 2020

DRINKING THE RAIN
Friday 10 January – Sunday 2 February 2020
Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art (Modern One)
75 Belford Road, Edinburgh, EH4 3DR
0131 624 6200 | nationalgalleries.org
Admission FREE
#ScotModern

After nearly six years, Pig Rock Bothy (the wooden structure alongside the path up to the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art One (SNGMA)) is moving on from the grounds in March 2020. It will eventually be relocated to Assynt in the North West Highlands of Scotland, the landscape that inspired its design and purpose.

The new and final exhibition will display material from recent Bothy Project residencies at Sweeney’s Bothy on the Island of Eigg and Inshriach Bothy in the Cairngorms National Park. Including work by: Siân Robinson Davies; This Way - Emily Macaulay and Felicity Rowley; Ashanti Harris; Lydia Honeybone; James N. Hutchinson and Sarah Rose.

Bothy Project was commissioned to create Pig Rock Bothy as part of GENERATION in 2014 – an exhibition celebrating 25 years of contemporary art in Scotland. It was made as a collaboration between artists, Bobby Niven and Laura Aldridge, and architect Iain MacLeod, in response to the landscape and community in Assynt. The structure was conceived as part of a network of residency bothies by Bothy Project, on the Island of Eigg and in the Cairngorms National Park. Pig Rock Bothy, at Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art One, acted as a temporary venue for talks, performances and events.

Since 2014 it has hosted an experimental and collaborative programme, including exhibitions with Torsten Lauschmann, Stacey Tyrell with Mother Tongue and David Faithfull; performances by Calvin Laing & Stephanie Mann and Rhubaba Choir; projects with Atlas Arts, Action for Children and Artlink; and residencies with creative arts courses including Edinburgh College, Edinburgh College of Art and The Glasgow School of Art. This year, Pig Rock Bothy hosted HappyHere, a participatory, immersive light installation, which used colour and light to visualise thoughts and feelings.

Simon Groom, Director of Modern and Contemporary Art at NGS, said: ‘We’ve loved being home to the Pig Rock Bothy – hand-built to a design by architect Iain MacLeod & artists Bobby Niven and Laura Aldridge - whose leaning end gable has become an iconic sight in its own right. It has given us the opportunity to showcase the creativity of organisations and individuals from across the whole of Scotland in a variety of different art forms. The initial plan was for it to stay with us for just a year and, given our commitment to continually evolve our art programme, it is timely for it to move onto the next stage in it journey.’

David Cook, Chair, Bothy Project board said: ‘Artists Bobby Niven and Laura Aldridge, and architect Iain MacLeod were delighted to work with the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art One to realise Pig Rock Bothy, bringing a sense of Assynt to Scotland’s central belt, and adding this ambitious structure, to the Bothy Project’s network of bothies on the Isle of Eigg and Cairngorms National Park. After nearly six years of activity Pig Rock Bothy at Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art One it will begin its journey to Assynt, the area that inspired it and where we are working with The Assynt Foundation.’

Thanks to Hope Scott Trust and William Grant Foundation for supporting residencies and MAP Magazine for publishing new writing.        

Notes to Editors

Saturday 18 January 2020 (2-5pm) – Take Yourself Out Of Your Usual Structure with Anna McLauchlan plus artists James N. Hutchinson and Sarah Rose, who will be exploring the themes of their Inshriach Bothy inspired writing. Find the event via this link.

Friday 31 January 2020 (5.30-7.30pm) – To See and Know More where writer Maria Fusco will present work in relation to her residency at Sweeney’s Bothy on Eigg. Find the event via this link. 

More information on The Bothy Project can be found via this link.

The exhibition page can be found via this link.

11 December 2019 

Experience the dazzling and fascinating life of King James VI & I

Bright Star: The Art and Life of King James VI & I
20 June 2020 – 21 November 2020
Scottish National Portrait Gallery 1 Queen Street, Edinburgh, EH2 1JD
0131 624 6200 | nationalgalleries.org Tickets: £14-£12
Supported by the Friends of the National Galleries of Scotland and Players of People’s Postcode Lottery.

A major exhibition exploring the extraordinary life of King James VI & I (1566-1625) will be one of the headline shows in the National Galleries of Scotland (NGS) summer 2020 programme.
This is the first exhibition in over 40 years devoted to the man who united the crowns of Scotland and England in 1603 and was the son of Mary Queen of Scots.

Bright Star: The Art and Life of King James VI & I will uncover a wealth of artistic and cultural riches of the Jacobean period. It will feature an extraordinary variety of artworks and objects such as paintings, dress and textiles, miniatures, drawings, books, manuscripts and jewellery. These include highlights from the famous Cheapside Hoard, an accumulation of jewellery from the late 16th and early 17th centuries, discovered in London in 1912, which have not been on display in Scotland for over 40 years. The exhibition will bring together outstanding works by artists such as Sir Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640), Nicholas Hilliard (1547-1619) and Inigo Jones (1573-1652), and will include significant loans from public and private collections, including the Victoria & Albert Museum, Tate, Blair Castle, the National Portrait Gallery, London and National Museums Scotland and works lent by Her Majesty The Queen from the Royal Collection.

James was the only son of Mary Queen of Scots (1542-1587), one of the most notorious and romantic figures in Scottish history. He was crowned when only a year old, during a period of great unrest and uncertainty which followed the death of his parents. The exhibition will begin by focussing on James’ turbulent childhood and youth, and will move through the defining moments of his life, including his coming of age; his marriage to Anna of Denmark (1574-1619), the birth (and deaths) of his children, the Union of the Crowns, when he proclaimed himself ‘King of Great Britain’; and the move of his family and court to London. The key moments presented within the exhibition provide a rich historical context for contemporary debate.

A prolific scholar and author, James was highly cultured and known for writing about many subjects, including government, witchcraft and tobacco. His court, both in Scotland and London, became a great centre for creative and artistic innovation and renowned as a centre for literature and entertainment.

Speaking about the exhibition, Christopher Baker, Director of European and Scottish Art and Portraiture at the NGS, said: “Visitors to this important exhibition will be immersed in the visually dazzling culture of the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries – a time when many questions we are now concerned with, such as what sort of government is legitimate, were being first asked. James’ court was sophisticated and European in outlook and ‘Bright Star: The Art and Life of King James’ will reveal its full splendour. ”

Kate Anderson, Senior Curator, European & Scottish Art and Portraiture said: “The objects in this exhibition not only shed light on the fascinating life of James VI & I, his family and members of his court, but are unique and exquisite works of art made by highly skilled artists and craftspeople. Highlights include a miniature portrait of Queen Anna of Denmark set in a diamond and enamel case made by the Edinburgh goldsmith George Heriot, and the brilliantly coloured drawings of costume for court masques designed by Inigo Jones.
When James arrived in London in May 1603 he was met by the lawyer and orator Richard Martin who proclaimed that James was the ‘Bright Star of the North’, alluding to both the King’s homeland of Scotland and the optimism associated with his future reign.”

-ENDS-
Notes to Editors:

The exhibition will be accompanied by a sumptuous and authoritative catalogue, Art & Court of James VI & I: Bright Star of the North, published by the NGS and available for £30.00. It includes contributions from a number of key scholars and features over 120 colour illustrations.

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11 December 2019 

National Galleries of Scotland announces a season of wonder with its 2020 summer programme

The National Galleries of Scotland (NGS) announced today a season of wonder with an extraordinary programme of ticketed and free exhibitions for its 2020 summer programme across all three gallery sites in Edinburgh.  

Highlights of the season include the first exhibition in over 40 years devoted to exploring the fascinating life of King James VI & I; the once-in-a-lifetime reunion of five of Titian’s greatest works, together for the first time since 1704; and a ground-breaking display celebrating the career of special effects superstar Ray Harryhausen in the largest and widest-ranging exhibition of his work ever seen. 

RAY HARRYHAUSEN: TITAN OF CINEMA
23 May 2020 – 25 Oct 2020
Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art (Modern Two)
73 Belford Road, Edinburgh, EH4 3DS
0131 624 6200 | nationalgalleries.org
Tickets: £14-12 (Concessions available)
Free for our Friends
#Harryhausen100

Next summer, the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art (SNGMA) will host the largest and widest-ranging exhibition ever seen of the work of cinema titan Ray Harryhausen (1920-2013).

In collaboration with The Ray and Diana Harryhausen Foundation, the NGS will unveil iconic original models and the matchless archive of the pioneering legend, who elevated stop-motion animation to an art form during the 1950s to 1980s. Harryhausen’s movies, such as Clash of the Titans and Mighty Joe Young, inspired a whole generation of the world’s greatest moviemakers, including Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, Peter Jackson and Guillermo del Toro, and his impact on modern cinema is without parallel. Spielberg, Lucas and Jackson credit Harryhausen’s art as the direct inspiration for their careers, and for the creation of Jurassic Park, Star Wars and Lord of the Rings respectively.

Newly-restored models from movies such as Jason and the Argonauts and his Sinbad series, as well as previously unseen material from Harryhausen’s all-encompassing collection, will go on display in an immersive exhibition quite unlike anything the Gallery has ever hosted before, from 23 May 2020.

ARRIVALS | NEW ACQUISITIONS FROM PABLO PICASSO TO JENNY SAVILLE 
Summer 2020
Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art (Modern One)
75 Belford Road, Edinburgh EH4 3DR
0131 624 6200 | nationalgalleries.org
Admission Free
#OurNewArrivals

Next year will bring a fascinating showcase of our most recent acquisitions to the SNGMA. This exhibition will offer a stunning range of modern and contemporary work including painting, sculptures, films and more by artists such as Damien Hirst, Jenny Saville and Pablo Picasso. Take a look at the latest additions to the national collection in a unique and stunning display.

BRIGHT STAR: THE ART AND LIFE OF KING JAMES VI AND I
20 June 2020 – 21 November 2020
Scottish National Portrait Gallery
1 Queen Street, Edinburgh, EH2 1JD
0131 624 6200 | nationalgalleries.org
Tickets: £14-£12 (Concessions available)
 #JamesBrightStar

A major exhibition exploring the extraordinary life of King James VI & I (1566-1625) will be the first exhibition in over 40 years devoted to the man who united the crowns of Scotland and England in 1603 and who was the son of Mary, Queen of Scots.

Bright Star: The Art and Life of King James VI & I will uncover a wealth of artistic and cultural riches of the Jacobean period. It will feature an extraordinary variety of artworks and objects such as paintings, dress and textiles, miniatures, drawings, books, manuscripts and jewellery. These include highlights from the famous Cheapside Hoard, an accumulation of jewellery from the late 16^th and early 17^th centuries, discovered in London in 1912, which have not been on display in Scotland for over 40 years.

The exhibition will bring together outstanding works by artists such as Sir Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640), Nicholas Hilliard (1547-1619) and Inigo Jones (1573-1652), and will include significant loans from public and private collections, including the Victoria & Albert Museum, Tate, Blair Castle, the National Portrait Gallery, London and National Museums Scotland and works lent by Her Majesty The Queen from the Royal Collection.

TITIAN: LOVE, DESIRE, DEATH
11 July 2020 – 27 September 2020
Royal Scottish Academy
The Mound, Edinburgh, EH2 2EL
0131 624 6200 | nationalgalleries.org
Tickets: £15-£10 (Concessions available)
#LoveTitian

Five of the greatest paintings in the world, from Titian’s epic series of large-scale mythological paintings known as the ‘poesie’, will be brought together for the first time in over 300 years in an exhibition jointly organized by the National Gallery in London, the NGS, the Museo Nacional del Prado in Madrid and the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston.

Titian’s poesie is one of most significant groups of paintings of the high Renaissance. Painted between 1551-62 at the request of Philip II of Spain, these rich, exquisite paintings are among the most original visual interpretations of Classical myths and are key works in the history of European painting.

Titian: Love, Desire, Death will reunite Danaë (1551–3, The Wellington Collection, Apsley House); Venus and Adonis (1554, Prado, Madrid); Diana and Actaeon (1556-9) and Diana and Callisto (1556-9), jointly owned by the National Gallery and the National Galleries of Scotland; and the newly conserved Rape of Europa (1562) from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston.

The history and significance of Titian’s ‘poetry in painting’ will be conveyed through exciting interpretations and unique exploratory insights on the Venetian master’s technique, and will be accompanied by both portraits and translations of Ovid’s Metamorphosis, the book which Titian based most of the works upon.

This once-in-a-lifetime exhibition will first be shown in London, then travelling to the Royal Scottish Academy for the summer, before leaving for Spain in late 2020. The worldwide tour will culminate in Boston in February 2021.

TEMPLES TO TENEMENTS: PHOTOGRAPHS OF ARCHITECTURE
25 July 2020 – 10 January 2021
Scottish National Portrait Gallery
1 Queen Street, Edinburgh, EH2 1JD
0131 624 6200 | nationalgalleries.org
Admission Free
#TemplesToTenements

Following the successful launch of Scotland’s Photograph Album: The MacKinnon Collection this winter, NGS will continue to explore the rich history of photography in a new exhibition dedicated to architecture. Temples to Tenements: Photographs of Architecture, which opens in July 2020 at the Scottish National Portrait Gallery, will be the fourth instalment of a popular series of free exhibitions which use a central theme in the history of photography to explore the richness of the NGS collection.

Architecture is a record of human life past, present and predicted future. From early photographic experiments to the manipulation of digital images, the built environment is one of the most enduring themes in the story of photography. Temples to Tenements explores the world around us through the work of photographers as diverse as David Octavius Hill & Robert Adamson, Thomas Annan, Andreas Gursky and Chris Leslie.

—ENDS—

Notes to Editors:

People’s Postcode Lottery

• People’s Postcode Lottery manages multiple society lotteries promoted by different charities and good causes. People play with their chosen postcodes for a chance to win cash prizes. A minimum of 32% from each subscription goes directly to charities and good causes across Great Britain and internationally -- players have raised £500 million so far. For details of the charities and good causes which are promoting and benefitting from the lottery draws, please visit https://www.postcodelottery.co.uk/good-causes/draw-calendar
   
• It costs £10 a month to play and winning postcodes are announced every day. The maximum amount a single ticket can win is 10% of the draw proceed. For details, please visit www.postcodelottery.co.uk/prizes
   
• New players can sign up to pay using direct debit by calling 0808 10 9 8 7 6 5. New players who sign up online at www.postcodelottery.co.uk can pay using direct debit, debit card or PayPal.
   
• Postcode Lottery Limited is regulated by the Gambling Commission under licence numbers: 000-000829-N-102511 and 000-000829-R-102513. Registered office: Titchfield House, 69/85 Tabernacle Street, London, EC2A 4BD
   
• Follow us @PostcodePress