Scottish National Portrait Gallery – photographic portraits

Some of Scotland’s most famous faces from Sir Sean Connery to David Tennant are to appear in a new collection of photographic portraits which will be unveiled in the refurbished Scottish National Portrait Gallery when it opens on Thursday 1 December.

Hot Scots, a display of 18 works, recently acquired for the national collection will feature well known Scottish names from TV, film and music including current Hollywood stars James McAvoy and Gerard Butler. Among the other new portraits on show will be images of Dr Who actor Karen Gillan, writer Armando Iannucci, singer Paolo Nutini, Michelin star chef Tom Kitchin and artist and playwright John Byrne. The portraits have been taken by celebrated photographers from Eva Vermandel to Albert Watson.

Award winning Scottish photographer Albert Watson’s first photograph to be added to the National Galleries of Scotland’s permanent collection is Watson’s iconic 2003 portrait of Sir Sean Connery. Donations to Hot Scots also include David Eustace’s 2010 portraits of artist and playwright John Byrne and Ken Dundas’ 2011 portrait of actor Robert Carlyle.

The new Scottish National Portrait Gallery will, for the first time, include a major space dedicated to showcasing the Gallery’s unparalleled holdings of Scottish and international photography, as well as newly commissioned work by contemporary photographers. Alongside Hot Scots the significance of photography is highlighted throughout the Scottish National Portrait Gallery in Romantic Camera: Scottish Photography and the Modern World, Migration Stories: Pakistan and Close Encounters: Thomas Annan’s Glasgow.

Hot Scots will be shown in the new Contemporary Gallery on the ground floor. Home to special loan exhibitions and a series of displays from the Gallery’s collection of contemporary portraits, the new exhibition space will also feature commissions from some of Scotland’s most celebrated contemporary artists. The opening displays include Missing, a video installation by Graham Fagen, commissioned as part of a unique partnership between the Portrait Gallery and the National Theatre of Scotland.

James Holloway, Director of the Scottish National Portrait Gallery said:

“It is absolutely right that faces as familiar as David Tennant and Karen Gillan should be on show in the new Portrait Gallery. The Gallery is about Scotland today as well as Scotland of old.”