A major exhibition of the work of Scottish artist Jack Vettriano opens at Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum in Glasgow, bringing together more than 100 of his works from private collections across the world.
This is the first major retrospective of the work of Fife-born Vettriano, 61, who became a full-time painter at the age of 40.
It spans the years 1992 to the present and includes a number of his most famous paintings such as The Singing Butler, Dancer in Emerald, The Billy Boys and Elegy for A Dead Admiral.
Many works have not appeared in public before while others have been hidden away in private collections for close to 20 years.
More than 70 lenders from eight countries have made the exhibition possible. The show runs until February next year.
Controversially shunned by Scotland’s arts establishment, the self-taught artist’s figurative work quickly caught the imagination of the public, but it wasn’t until 2011 that Scotland’s National Galleries displayed one of his works, which was on loan.
He counts Sir Alex Ferguson and actor Jack Nicholson among his high-profile collectors and four works owned by Nicholson are on display in the show.
Vettriano has always enjoyed strong support in his native Fife. There have been three exhibitions of his work at the recently refurbished Kirkcaldy Museum and Art Gallery, where he famously spent hours studying the collections.
The Kelvingrove retrospective marks another significant milestone in his artistic career.
Interview footage is interspersed with 101 paintings in the gallery and sees Vettriano discussing a range of subjects such as why he dropped his surname Hoggan in favour of his mother’s maiden name and how he felt when he was criticised for copying figures from a drawing book to compose works such as The Singing Butler which sold at auction in 2004 for £744,500.
Vettriano has expressed his gratitude to Kelvingrove for staging the retrospective.
He said: “I am breathless with the sheer warmth of the city, and the comments by the people who have seen the exhibition so far have really touched me.”
It has also been an emotional experience for the artist, who has not seen many of the works for more than 15 years.
“If I had gone into that exhibition for the first time on my own I would have cried but I was with people, and I couldn’t,” he said.
Born in St Andrews in 1951, Vettriano grew up in Methilhill and started his working life as a mining engineer at the age of 16, following in the footsteps of his father and grandfather.
He went on to have a range of jobs including a chef, a shoe shop manger and a barman.
A girlfriend gave him a set of water-colours for his 21st birthday to encourage him to take his hobby for sketching further, but it would be a further 19 years until he pursued it as a full-time career.
He said: “When I think back to myself at 40 years old, my only aim was to make a living painting, that’s all and see what it’s turned into.
“My wife and I had separated, I had moved to Edinburgh and I had a small mortgage. I thought if I could service the mortgage, have a girlfriend and go to the pictures a couple of times a week then that would do me fine. I have never made any claims about myself. I have been asked if I am a great artist and I say no, I’m not a great artist but I think what I have managed to do is to touch the public psyche and I think that’s the key to my success people look at my work and identify with it.”
The foreword to Vettriano’s catalogue has been written by Dundee-born author A. L. Kennedy.
He will appear at Glasgow Film Theatre on Sunday evening to introduce a screening of the David Lynch film Blue Velvet, which has been a major influence on his work.