Tag: free to visit

From dissection room to gallery wall Ken Currie and Professor Dame Sue Black lift the lid on the making of haunting portrait in new film

  • Portrait Stories free to watch on YouTube now
  • Unknown Man on display at National Galleries Scotland: Portrait
  • Free to visit

First in a new series of YouTube films by National Galleries of Scotland, artist Ken Currie and forensic anthropologist Professor Dame Sue Black  reunite to reflect on the story behind the haunting portrait Unknown Man.

From Currie witnessing his first dissection with Black and making life masks together, to the matter of who the real subject of the portrait actually is, the film lifts the lid on the relationship between sitter and artist.

Portrait Stories  brings together remarkable sitters and artists for an in-depth conversation about the creative process. The first film starring Ken Currie and Professor Dame Sue Black, is available to watch now on YouTube for free.

Having met for the first time during a live broadcast on BBC Radio 4 on a show called Art and Anatomy, Black invited Currie to come see his first dissection to understand how she worked.

Out of the experience emerged the nearly 3 metre painting, Unknown Man, on display at the National Galleries Scotland: Portrait in Edinburgh for free.

Recalling her first encounter with the portrait Black said: “I didn’t know how I was going to react, but I did tear up, there was no doubting that. I looked at it and I thought oh my word, this is incredible.”

In the early 1990s, Scottish artist, Ken Currie was much affected by political and humanitarian events in Eastern Europe, and he began to depict decaying and damaged bodies as a response to what he felt was the sickness of contemporary society.

Although still as socially aware as his earlier work, his style became less linear over time. From the mid-1990s, Currie’s paintings became simpler. He focused on individuals instead of crowds and painted in haunting, luminous colours.

Despite painting bodies in this way and with great accuracy, in the film Currie shares how he had never seen a dissection.

He said: “I think that like many Sue assumed because I went to art school I had seen a dissection because it was very much part of the old training. But I hadn’t.”

Attending his first ever dissection after being invited by Black live on air, Currie remembers: “I watched Sue there, standing over the body and of course I had never seen anything like that in my life before. It was really fascinating and then of course this germ of idea began to grow in my head [for the portrait]. Just Sue and the body”.

In 1999, Professor Black made her first tour to Kosovo, in order to identify the human remains of war crimes committed during the Balkan Wars, which deeply impacted her. So, for Black the portrait was an opportunity to give more of a story to the people whose bodies have been donated to science.

She said: “The people underneath these sheets are so important because these are people who in life choose to donate their body. They do it because they believe they want to pay something back.

“We talk about them being our silent teachers, because these cadavers will teach our students more than any living teacher could ever.”

From this came the name of the portrait Unknown Man challenging the viewer to look beyond the woman standing prominently in the portrait and think about the person who lies under the sheet. Black also hoped that in seeing the painting in the Portrait gallery in Edinburgh, it might inspire more young women to go into a field which is traditionally dominated by men.

As Black was unable to do multiple portrait sittings Currie made a life mask as a record of her appearance. A life mask is created by placing a mould over a person’s face to capture their features and requires that the subject doesn’t move while the moulding sets.

It allowed the Currie to create an accurate representation of how Black’s face may look in different lights. Currie was keen that that the portrait portrayed what Black may look like after a long and tiresome 12-hour shift.

In the Portrait Stories film, Black recounts how she has never done anything like this and the process required trust in the artist, which she gave completely.

She said: “I have to say the process for me was one I never expected. It was an honour, it was a privilege, but please don’t ask me it do it again. 

“I genuinely feel I have made a really dear friend in Ken. He treated me with great respect and he has a huge level of artistic talent. It is my honour to have been a sitter on something he created”.

Watch Ken Currie and Professor Sue Black chat more about the story behind this fascinating portrait on the National Galleries of Scotland YouTube.

The Portrait Stories series will continue with Scottish writer Ian Rankin and photographer Hamish Campbell, available on YouTube later in 2026.

National Galleries of Scotland acquires landmark collection of Modern Scottish art for the Nation

National Galleries Scotland: Modern One

Open now, Free to visit

A landmark collection of over 50 artworks has been acquired for the nation, adding major paintings and drawings by Scottish and British artists to Scotland’s national art collection.

Explore a selection of over 20 of these captivating works on display now and free to visit at National Galleries Scotland: Modern One.  The display spotlights pioneering artists who studied and taught at Scotland’s art schools in the early 20th Century, such as William McCance, James Cowie, Edward Baird and William Crosbie.

This major acquisition of 58 beautiful and compelling paintings and drawings, transforms the nation’s art collection, helping better represent the work of modern Scottish artists and demonstrating the important role of Scotland’s art schools.

Including works by several Aberdeen and Glasgow-trained artists, this significant collection tells stories about the creative communities around the country. The collection also features significant works by British artists such as Cecil Collins and John Tunnard, both of whom were associated with the surrealist movement.

Assembled over many years by private collector, Charlie Nairn, the artworks were generously allocated through the HM Government Acceptance in Lieu scheme, administered by Arts Council England. The initiative enables owners to transfer important works of art into public ownership in place of tax.

The selection on display at Modern One offers an exciting look at a variety of stylistic approaches, from the precise realism of James Cowie’s portraiture, the dream-like imagery of William McCance and William Crosbie’s exploration of modernist forms. Together, these works provide insights into the local and international contexts for Scottish art during the first decades of the 20th century.

Discover poignant portraits such as James Cowie’s The Reader. Painted in the early 1920s this is a rare surviving record of Cowie’s first wife, Nancy Buchanan. Friends remembered her as a quiet, gentle person, characteristics Cowie reflected in his tender portrayal. It shows Cowie’s earlier, more fluid painting style, before he honed a sharp, linear technique.

Cowie and Buchanan had married in 1918 and their daughter, Ruth, whose striking portrait by Cowie also hangs in the display, was born in 1923. Having studied at the Glasgow School of Art, Cowie was an admirer of the French painter Nicholas Poussin and Pre-Raphaelite painters and advocated classical values of self-restraint and objectivity. He developed a meticulous way of working and believed that art was a product of thought and reason.

The newly acquired artworks also explore the impact of Surrealism and other avant-garde movements, and the wider context of the mid-twentieth century, on British artists. In William Crosbie‘s Design for Life (Cats Cradle), 1944, the artist has portrayed himself balancing geometric forms suspended on strings. They spell ‘J M’, for the surrealist painter Joan Miró, whose work Crosbie greatly admired.

Crosbie later explained to Charlie Nairn that the painting explored the challenge of grasping for order amidst the chaos and tragedy of the Second World War. Crosbie found order – a ‘design for living’ – in the work of Miró, and in art in general.

After graduating from the Glasgow School of Art, Crosbie had spent two years studying art in Paris in the late 1930s. His mysterious Self-portrait as a Cello, also acquired through this important Acceptance in Lieu allocation, is also currently on show at Modern One on the upper floor, as part of a special display dedicated to Scotland’s surrealist art collection, alongside works by Joan Miró, Salvador Dalí and Dorothea Tanning.

Charlie Nairn, collector, said: ‘It’s a delight to know that these paintings and drawings, which I’ve known for so many years are now being looked after by the National Galleries of Scotland for the benefit of the public.

“My love of art began early and developed through encounters with some terrific artists and individuals, both abroad and here in Scotland. Although I’d originally been drawn to European modernism, I was encouraged to look at the work of those closer to home by the photographer Oscar Marzaroli, who I worked for as camera-assistant, and particularly his wife, the sculptor Anne Marzaroli, who taught at the Glasgow School of Art.

“Their enthusiastic championing of Scottish artists was instrumental in this group of works coming together. Seeing some of these drawings and paintings now on display at Modern One has been a great pleasure. I hope many people will have a chance to enjoy them, and will discover these important Scottish artists for themselves.’

Lucy Askew, Head of Modern & Contemporary art and Chief Curator at the National Galleries of Scotland said: ‘This extraordinary gift to the people of Scotland significantly enhances how we can show and share the work of an important group of artists.

“We are incredibly grateful to HM Government and to Charlie Nairn for enabling these wonderful works to join the national art collection here in Scotland where they can be enjoyed by visitors and contribute to further research into modern Scottish and British history of art.’

Dawn Airey, Chair, Arts Council England, said: ‘Giving back to the public through Acceptance in Lieu is one of the most valuable offers that can be made to the nation.

“This allocation includes decades of meticulously collected paintings and drawings which, taken together, trace the evolution of Scottish art and the international influences that shaped it.

“With more than 50 culturally important works now secured for the public to enjoy, this is a lasting legacy that Charlie Nairn can be proud to have created.’

Off the Wall: Art breaks free across Edinburgh!

National Galleries of Scotland surprised hillwalkers, tram travellers and tourists by taking replicas of popular art works out into Edinburgh yesterday.

Passers-by could discover art typically found in the National, Portrait and Modern galleries popping up at sites such as Salisbury Crags, Newhaven, The Meadows, Murrayfield and Leith.

The art works including The Monarch of the Glen by Sir Edwin Landseer, Edinburgh (from Salisbury Crags) by William Crozier, Doddie Weir by Gerard M Burns, Encounter by Remedios Varo, Callum by John Emms and Mary Queen of Scots are always free to visit at the National Galleries of Scotland’s three Edinburgh sites.