NATIONAL GALLERIES
OF SCOTLAND ANNOUNCE OPENING
DISPLAYS IN ARTIST ROOMS on Tour with The Art Fund supported by
The Scottish
Government
Hirst,
Celmins, Gallagher, Katz, Woodman, Warhol
SCOTTISH
NATIONAL GALLERY OF MODERN ART, Belford Road, Edinburgh, EH4
14
March - 8 November 2009
Admission
free
Throughout 2009, 18 museums and galleries across the UK will be showing over 30 ARTIST
ROOMS from the collection created by the dealer and collector, Anthony d'Offay,
and acquired by the nation in February 2008. This is the first time a national
collection has been shared and shown simultaneously across the UK, and has only been made possible
through the exceptional generosity of independent charity The Art Fund and, in Scotland, of the Scottish Government.
Anthony d'Offay's guiding principle for the creation
of ARTIST ROOMS was the concept of individual rooms devoted to particular
artists. ARTIST ROOMS on Tour with The Art Fund supported by The Scottish
Government has been devised to take those displays beyond the collection's
owners, Tate and National Galleries of Scotland, and to reach and inspire new
audiences across the country, particularly of young people.
ARTIST ROOMS is jointly owned and managed by National
Galleries of Scotland and Tate on behalf of the nation.
It has materially strengthened Tate's ability to represent some of the most
important art of the latter half of the twentieth century, and helps establish Scotland as a world-class destination for
contemporary art.
The opening displays at the Scottish National Gallery
of Modern Art in Edinburgh this Spring will include the work of Damien
Hirst, Vija Celmins, Ellen Gallagher, Alex Katz, Francesca Woodman and Andy
Warhol. Highlights will include Celmins' beautiful, delicate images of
seas, deserts and the night sky, a complete series of landscape and portrait
paintings by the American painter Alex Katz and Francesca Woodman's intimate,
surrealist-influenced photographs. Damien Hirst, the most prominent British
artist of today, will feature in an expanded display across several rooms. This
will bring together works from ARTIST ROOMS - such as the iconic Away from
the Flock (an early example of Hirst's animals in formaldehyde) and a
recent butterfly painting - with additional loans from further
collections. Later in 2009 the SNGMA will be showing another ARTIST ROOM
display, featuring the work of the American painter Agnes Martin, from 6 August
until 8 November.
The opening tour of ARTIST ROOMS in
Scotland will also include displays at Tramway in Glasgow; Inverness Museum and Art Gallery; the
Pier Arts Centre, Stromness, Orkney; and Aberdeen Art Gallery &
Museum. Comprehensive information on displays from the collection, and on
its depth and range will be available on a specially developed section of the
National Galleries of Scotland's website: www.nationalgalleries.org/artistrooms
The collection of
725 works, representing one of the most important holdings of post-war and
contemporary international art in private hands, was assembled by Anthony
d'Offay, whose London galleries played a key role in the promotion and understanding of
twentieth-century art in the UK over a period of more than 30
years.
The Art Fund is
giving £250,000 per year to help Tate and National Galleries of Scotland to work with 13 regional partners
in 2009 and more thereafter. In 2009 ARTIST ROOMS will be shown at Scottish
National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh; Tate Britain, Tate Liverpool, Tate
Modern and Tate St Ives; Wolverhampton Art Gallery; Tramway, Glasgow Museums;
Inverness Museum and Art Gallery; Ulster
Museum, Botanic Gardens, Belfast; National Museum Cardiff; Pier Arts Centre,
Stromness, Orkney; Aberdeen Art Gallery; De La Warr Pavilion,
Bexhill; New Art Gallery, Walsall; Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art;
Graves Gallery, Museums Sheffield; The Lightbox, Woking; and firstsite,
Colchester.
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