- 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.
