JACK VETTRIANO: A RETROSPECTIVE
Portrait of Jack Vettriano by Francesco Guidicini, London 2013
Portraits of Jack Vettriano by Fredi Marcarini, London 2009
JACK VETTRIANO: A RETROSPECTIVE
KELVINGROVE ART GALLERY AND MUSEUM 2013
This exhibition catalogue is dedicated to W Gordon Smith
PREFACE Dr Ellen McAdam 7
ARTIST’S ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 9
FOREWORD A. L.. Kennedy 11
INTRODUCTION Tom Rawstorne 15
AFTER HOURS Rowan Pelling 19
THE PAINTINGS 23
LIST OF WORKS 184
EXHIBITIONS 194
BIBLIOGRAPHY 195
AFTERWORD Sir Tim Rice 196
PRE FAC E
Since 1901, Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum has been a source of learning, inspiration and enjoyment for countless millions of visitors. Among them was a young amateur artist who fabricated excuses for leaving his workplace to visit Kelvingrove and admire its great art: Old Masters, French Impressionists, the Glasgow Boys and Scottish Colourists, and of course Dali’s Christ of St John of the Cross, once controversial and now Scotland’s favourite painting. That young artist is now a global phenomenon. In 2013 Jack Vettriano celebrates his twenty-first year as a professional artist. His work is collected internationally, and many of his images have passed into the collective consciousness. For the first time, his work has been gathered together from private collectors around the world for this major retrospective exhibition of over 100 paintings, covering the full breadth of his career to date. Some of these have never been exhibited in public before. It is entirely fitting that this exhibition should take place in Kelvingrove. The citizens of Glasgow feel an unusual degree of ownership of their Art Gallery, and Glasgow Museums is committed to making its magnificent collection and building accessible to the widest possible audience. To tempt new visitors across the threshold our temporary exhibition programme has ranged from Doctor Who and Scottish football to Ancient Egypt and Italian art. It is our hope that these new visitors are converted into regulars who appreciate our permanent displays. In welcoming this exhibition on the work of Jack Vettriano we anticipate that new audiences will come to Kelvingrove, not only to enjoy his art but to see the rest of the collection that once inspired him. Our warm thanks go to all of the lenders, the contributors to this publication and the entire team whose hard work has brought this exhibition to Glasgow and to Kelvingrove.
Dr Ellen McAdam Head of Museums and Collections Glasgow Life
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ARTI S T’ S AC KNOW LE D G E ME N T S
There are many people I have met who have enriched this journey I am on; some have helped me creatively, some have shared my pleasure and my pain and some have saved me.
Thanks to:
W Gordon Smith Nathalie Martin Tom Hewlett Jim Heggie Laura Brudenell Team JV @ Heartbreak AL Kennedy Ian Rankin Rowan Pelling Bob Bee Fredi Marcarini Francesca Pini Dr Neil Ballantyne and all the staff at Glasgow Museums Carolyn Osborne Siobhan McKay John & Karen Swan Rt Hon Alex Salmond MP MSP, First Minister of Scotland
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FORE WORD A. L. KENNEDY
I first met Jack Vettriano in 1994. He looked worried. At
Jack actually had given away his modern clothes, stepped
that time he sported black glossy hair, worn artistically
back in time and into his work. He’d taken his mother’s
long and slightly wild. The lived-in voice and lived-in face
last name – Vettriano being more romantic than Hoggan
suggested late nights and cigarettes, to say the least. He
– and become a man visibly devoted to painting and
was dressed in a carefully composed ensemble that spoke
painting women in particular. I remember him telling me
of other times, Saturday matinee elegance and control:
how much he wished people would dress more carefully,
sharp creases to the trousers, heavy leather shoes, neat
more beautifully, and make the best of themselves. His
jacket and waistcoat, white shirt. In a way, the man and
pose as a dandy, it seemed, was less a sign of ego and more
the work and the work and the man were all there at the
an attempt to make the best of what he felt was a very bad
first glance: the very Scottish and very energetic tension
lot – a kind of low self-esteem flirtation with the world.
between ecstasy and restraint, the devotion to faded romance, the productive insecurity, the huge desire to be
That launch party was small and not exactly A-List, but
visually expressed.
Jack’s reputation as an artist was rising fast. His work was already hugely popular with – apparently – everyone but
He blinked down at me and joked, with a kind of
the Scottish Art Establishment. Soon canvasses would be
flinch, ‘You’ve been reading my mail.’ He seemed both
bought by movie stars, would be priced using six figures
pleased and horrified to have found a new way to be
– and would continue to be hated by the Scottish Art
uncomfortable at an event intended to celebrate his talent.
Establishment.
We were launching Fallen Angels, W. Gordon Smith’s book which brought together reproductions of over forty
Jack is a ‘self-taught’ artist. This has been both a burden
Vettriano paintings with writing from Scottish authors,
and a selling point. Some have claimed the frankly sexual
past and present. I contributed a story to accompany
content of pieces like Game On and Fetish is somehow
The Administration of Justice, his broodingly lovely and
inartistic, or sexist. The authoritative sensuality of Jack’s
ambivalent depiction of ritualistic fixation, of a clothed
women in paintings like Shades of Scarlet, or the passion
man and a naked woman. The piece had immediately
of Long Time Gone is presented as contrasting badly
caught my eye and somehow suggested the story of a
with traditional female nudes, perhaps displayed with
man who fell in love, gave away all of his clothes and
clothed men at a picnic in the grass, perhaps laid out
became someone else, someone devoted. Jack’s images
nicely on a chaise, or emerging from a seashell – passive,
do that, they suggest stories, dark and hot happenings,
vulnerable, safe. Jack’s echoes of popular culture are called
complicated pasts and futures. They resonate beyond
stylistically immature, or even perverse, as if the turn of
their burning moment. When I wrote, I hadn’t known that
another century hadn’t produced portraits of barmaids
11
Portrait of Jack Vettriano by John Swannell, London 1994
and prostitutes now held to be high art, as if his years of
lay bare eccentricities, poses and propositions. Jack shows
practice and a life time’s love of drawing hadn’t enabled
us the dynamics of desire, the honesty and dishonesty
Jack to make choices about what he puts on canvas. There
of men and women caught out of time, lost in strangely
have been times when the same newspapers that sell
heightened surroundings and in the terrible longings
stories using sex and glamour have tried to box Vettriano
they discover. Couples and solitary figures surrender
into a one-man salon des refusés. There have been times
themselves to scenes from movies partly conjured by the
when Jack’s life has imitated his art in a way the tabloids
artist and partly invented by the observer as they enter
have found irresistible.
into the atmospheres Jack creates. Be careful when you look at a Vettriano – you will see what you want to see.
Vettriano’s supporters have perhaps sometimes over-
The pictures will tell you as much about yourself as they
emphasised the working class Fife boy makes good angle, the
do about the artist and his figures, all of them dressed and
exotic fact that he used to work down a mine. His unaltered
undressed as truly and passionately as Jack intended, the
East Coast accent and occasional shyness at public events
artist helping them to look their best.
may sometimes have been taken as an indication of Godgiven talent shining out from somewhere otherwise
Time has moved on since that first meeting. Jack’s hair
slightly dim. But Jack is certainly no fool and has handled
is short and grey, he doesn’t insist on the costume any
those most toxic commodities – fame and wealth – with
more, but the melancholy and the tension, the craft and
considerable generosity and business acumen. And
stories remain. And now Glasgow – city of maverick,
whatever talent he was born with has been trained in
internationalist artists – is celebrating Jack’s work. I hope
hour after hour of experiment and practice. Like Van
Jack can enjoy this celebration. I know Glasgow will.
Gogh, Vettriano recreated an atelier training from scratch, far away from any artistic community, or hopes of an audience. The gifts of art materials from his grandfather when he was a boy, paints from a girlfriend when he was
A.L. Kennedy is a Scottish writer of novels, short stories
twenty-one, the faces and forms of women he needed to
and non-fiction.
paint, the lights, colours and angles of admirable glamour, poetic relationships – they have allowed him to combine all manner of passions and affections on canvas, to create a whole dictionary of little worlds. Many of his paintings celebrate the dark, use it to form a backdrop for startling colour and startling acts. Amongst shadows and velvety blacks we find glimmering reds, the warm light of flames, the energy of more and less successful liaisons, night terrors and obsessions. Or else there are seafronts and beaches, salt flats, the sunbleached and wind-swept antidotes to claustrophobia that
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Photograph of Jack Vettriano’s studio (detail) by John Swannell, 2004
I NTROD UC TION TOM RAWSTORNE
At the time of this 2013 Retrospective, twenty-one years
And then I was given this second chance. Those first five
have passed since Jack Vettriano’s first solo exhibition.
years were magical. It was a taste of true liberation – the
Since then, he estimates that he has produced around
chance to do what I loved, complete freedom and the
1,000 paintings. In the early days, such was his drive that
money to live a hedonistic lifestyle.’
he would work around the clock, falling into a wearied sleep on the floor of his studio. Today, the work ethic
Vettriano’s work has become known to a global audience
instilled in him by his father, Bill, is still very evident,
through reproduction as posters and prints, which have
even if, with age (he is now sixty-one), his output has
sold in their millions around the world since the mid-
slowed down. ‘When I started I was producing easily four
1990s.
paintings a week whereas now, it’s more sporadic,’ he says.
posters of The Singing Butler have sold worldwide, making
‘But when I am working, my routine is still the same. I
it Vettriano’s most famous painting. It sits amongst a core
will be up by 6am and won’t put my brushes down until
group of works that have become classics and known to
I’ve finished. It’s just the way I am and the way I like to
several generations. They permeate our subconsciousness
work.’ As for any thoughts of retirement, forget it. ‘I don’t
wherever we are. Barely a day goes by on daytime
think actors, writers or artists retire, they just slow down.’
television without one of the many property programmes
he says. ‘I don’t want to go as far as Renoir did – taping
featuring a home whose walls are adorned by a Vettriano.
brushes to his arthritic fingers – but I know that when I
Leaf through Alexander McCall Smith’s bestselling 44
cease to be able to paint, I will cease to view life in the
Scotland Street and you will find a reference to Vettriano
same way. I have a fear that nothing will be able to replace
embedded in the storyline. And every self-respecting fan
it: visual pleasure is only there for me if I am able to paint
of Radio 4’s The Archers will know that Matt Crawford and
it.’
his partner Lilian Bellamy, took great pains to secrete his
It is modestly estimated that over 10 million
beloved Vettriano painting away from the clutches of his For Vettriano, being reunited with some of his early
ex-wife.
works, gathered together for the first time for this Retrospective, reminds him of the excitement of those
Of course, it would be wrong to focus too much attention
early years - a time when he was able to turn his back on
on the famous early works because gathered together for
a succession of unfulfilling white-collar jobs to take up
this Retrospective of Vettriano’s work are more than one
painting professionally. ‘It was an extraordinary time for
hundred paintings, ranging in date from 1992–2013. And
me,’ he says. ‘I had been destined for a life of lower-middle
through them we are offered an insight into both Vettriano
management – I wasn’t ever going to be any better than
the man and the artist.
that. I was thirty-nine years old, but slipping into old age.
15
The son of a miner, Jack Hoggan (as he then was) was
Of course, the women. They, and the scenes which they
born in 1951 in St Andrews, Scotland and spent his early
inhabit, are often inspired by the era and the place in
childhood in Methilhill. The second of four children,
which he grew up as well as by his love of film and music.
home was a mid-terrace National Coal Board house in
And having experienced at first hand the reality of life at
what is known as a ‘Miner’s Row’ – each comprising two
the bottom of a coalmine, it was ‘glamour not grit’ that he
bedrooms, a sitting room, kitchen and bathroom. He left
wanted to depict.
school at fifteen without qualifications, trained as a mining engineer and didn’t take up painting until he was twenty-
At the age of ten, Vettriano and his family had moved the
one when a girlfriend gave him a set of watercolours.
short distance from Methilhill to Leven, which sits on the coast of the Firth of Forth. Then a popular holiday
Art school was not an option and so he taught himself
destination, it would burst into life in the summer as
the basics by copying the work of artists he admired;
day-trippers poured into the town. The young Vettriano
everything from Dali to Caravaggio to Monet. The free
watched and observed, drinking in the atmosphere. The
admission policies of Kelvingrove and Kirkcaldy Art
men were men – sharp-suited and smooth. As for the
Gallery & Museums were instrumental in granting him
women, they would put on their summer dresses and
access to the work of the Glasgow Boys and the Scottish
stockings and make their promenade. These influences
Colourists at a crucial stage in the development of his
are there for all to see in Vettriano’s beach paintings of the
interest and his craft.
early 1990s – The Pier, Mad Dogs and A Very Dangerous Beach to name but a few. ‘I used to think that romance
It was only in his mid-thirties, after various jobs – including
only took place in bedrooms and bars,’ he says, ‘and then I
one in the personnel department of a management
realized it happens everywhere there is human interaction.
consultancy – that he started to take his art seriously.
Wherever the sun shines, women put on their party frocks
His big breakthrough came in 1989 when he had two
and things happen.’
paintings accepted by the Royal Scottish Academy for its summer show. They sold on the first day and immediately
As he entered his teenage years, the artist’s focus shifted
he received letters from three galleries offering to
away from the beach and to the local dancehalls. The
represent him. By then, Vettriano (he adopted the name
women (all red lipstick, beehive hair, smouldering
as a variant of the surname of his maternal grandfather,
cigarettes) and the sexual tension soaked into Vettriano’s
Pasquale Vettraino) had long moved on from copying
psyche to be recalled years later in paintings such as
the Masters and was creating his own, original works.
Working the Lounge, Girls’ Night and The Main Attraction.
‘When I first became a painter, I just copied paintings because I didn’t have any ideas of my own,’ he says. ‘But
In much the same way that imagery from the dancehalls
a professional artist has to have integrity; the work has to
of his youth would return to fill his canvases, so too
come from the heart. And then I realized that the things
would the music of his early manhood provide a rich vein
that moved me had been in front of me all my life – and
of inspiration. He has long been a big fan of the likes of
they are called women.’
Joni Mitchell, Leonard Cohen and Bob Dylan, attracted
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by the depth of lyric and the often melancholic air that surrounds them. Later in life, Vettriano would be similarly influenced by film. Again, a single scene or even frame may capture his imagination. And, as with music, the movies that he finds most inspirational are those that are full of edge. David Lynch’s Blue Velvet is a favourite, and equally significant were Goodfellas, by Martin Scorsese, Bad Lieutenant by Abel Ferrara and the Peter Greenaway film The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her Lover. In Vettriano’s more recent paintings one other influence is evident – the south of France. In 2004 he purchased a beautiful Art Deco apartment in Nice, a stone’s throw from the promenade and the beach. While somewhat sunnier than his old stomping ground of Leven, it is the seaside’s potential for romance and for intrigue that really attracted him. In Blue Blue, one of his most recently completed works, the influences that first fired his imagination all those years ago are centre-stage once again. ‘Blue Blue is as good a painting as I have done,’ he says. ‘I still get great pleasure from producing a painting like that, I really do.’ ‘And,’ he adds, ‘if I’m honest, I can’t see the day coming when I’ll lose that sense of pleasure. Because when I think of where I came from and how this all started, when I think of that first exhibition back in 1992, I still get a wee tingle up my spine. Because it’s not arriving that matters, it’s the getting there.’ And in this Retrospective exhibition at Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum, the twists and turns of Vettriano’s magnificent journey are there for all to see.
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The Red Room
A FTE R HOURS ROWAN PELLING
When I was the editor of The Erotic Review magazine
force and only the strong and the happy are able to resist
people often asked me how erotica differed from
it.’ This sense that the dogged pursuit of sexual appetite
pornography. I could only offer a personal definition:
can only bring unhappiness is key to his work. The men
it has always seemed to me that pornography offers a
and women in Vettriano’s art are driven by desires that
narrow transaction, because it solely concerns the exact
cannot be sated. Everyone in these couplings wants
bang you get for your buck. There is no mystery involved,
something, but is fearful of the weakness that accompanies
or wider context. The best erotica, on the other hand,
supplication and – perhaps more importantly – what they
evokes a narrative far wider than the frame, or page, or reel
stand to lose in exchange. Appetite is weakness; it brings
on which it is ostensibly contained. You are left pondering
you to your knees, like a cowering beast.
the relationship between writer and protagonist, artist and model, filmmaker and actor. There is a discomforting
Vettriano’s most sexually charged works evoke one
complicity, what you might call an edge-of-seat quality,
cinematic genre in particular, that of film noir. This is a
to your involvement with the creative work in question.
shadow world of dark desires and dead-end alleys, where
The onlooker is teased and taunted and set on a path
males are taciturn, brutish and moody and wear the
of enquiry into someone else’s secret life, without the
fedoras of 1940s gangsters – yet the female is invariably
certainty of a satisfactory ending. Some effort is required
the deadlier of the species. Ah, those broads, those
of an audience as they decipher the erotic and its covert
vixens, those dames and sirens (for Vettriano’s women
narrative, which gives the viewing contract proper value.
are anything but ladies), how can we not talk about them? Every one of them seems to have emerged fully formed
Nowhere is my definition truer than in the work of Jack
from Femme Fatale School: almost without exception
Vettriano, whose work is almost synonymous with the
they are dark brunettes, with a slash of red lipstick applied
adjectives ‘erotic’ and ‘cinematic.’ To look at one of
to generous, sensual mouths. These are women who look
his canvases is to feel you’ve just walked in on a movie,
at you through narrowed eyes: as if assessing exactly your
momentarily paused. Inevitable questions arise: ‘What
degree of usefulness, or rivalry. They are not wives, but
has just happened?’ and the even more tantalising, ‘What
temptresses – the active agents of adultery. Nor do they
will happen next?’ There’s barely a Vettriano painting that
have any interest in becoming friends with men: the
doesn’t convey some kind of sexual frisson – even his
divide between the genders is impassable except in bed.
pictures of racing cars speak of a lust for living dangerously. The artist is refreshingly candid about his interest in sex:
These veterans of the great sexual war dangle cigarettes
‘I just happen to think it’s pretty fundamental, everybody
as smoke-screens (each casual puff allows them to
everywhere is driven by the urge to do it. It is a powerful
reconnoitre the terrain) and don heels, stockings and
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Scarlet Ribbons
corsets as combat gear. They would sooner give up the
the supposed victim’s legs are crossed suggests she is in
game of passion than be seen in pantyhose or slacks.
control and has invited this brutality. Even the wound-
Some details of the paintings may suggest a contemporary
red hue of her silk slip (her captors are drab in black
milieu, witness a distinctly modern wine glass or a pair of
and white) reveals she is queen of this fantasy. In Scarlet
90s’ shades, but the prevailing aesthetic is dream-like and
Ribbons a slender supplicant clad only in a tightly laced
detached from real time. If anything, it salutes Hollywood’s
waspie with red ribbons tumbling like blood to the floor,
golden age of glamour. The woman in Vettriano’s The Red
sits on a hard bench, waiting for a debonair man and his
Room might as well be Ava Gardner in The Killers, Gene
jaded lover in a slinky crimson gown to decide her fate.
Tierney in Laura, or, more recently, Linda Fiorentino in
This couple seem in calm control, yet the masochist has
The Last Seduction. The unambiguous message remains
willingly placed herself there and controls the level of her
‘this woman will be your undoing.’ As the artist has said,
own humiliation.
‘in this game of love, women have immense power… much more power than we do. The aim is to show the way
Few people understand the power of sexual triangulation
they can really tie us up in knots.’
the way Vettriano does. The artist knows that for some cast of character, lust is only fully realised when reflected
For the woman viewer contemplating a Vettriano artwork
in the eyes of a third party and that fierce stabs of jealousy
there’s a visceral thrill in the way he salutes female
(‘Is she more desirable than me?’, ‘Is he a better lover?’)
experience and a particular brand of sly knowingness.
intensify the pain and pleasure of transgression. What is
‘Why would you want a woman who doesn’t know
a sexual encounter without a voyeur to witness it? The
what she’s about in bed?’ he seems to ask. By contrast,
men and women in these paintings are numb to passion,
contemporary visual culture is tilted towards portraying
unless they live in fear of being robbed of it. Witness the
women as beautiful blank canvases on to which any
repeat pairings of male competitors, advancing on a sole
fantasy can be attached. Vettriano’s women, however,
defiant woman: a scenario seen in Beautiful Losers, Games
arrive with their past and desires defiantly on display: they
of Power and The Assessors. The men appear to be partners
challenge the viewer to embrace them or flee. The artist
in debauchery, but there is no equality in games of lust
has said, ‘I enjoy women being overt in their sexuality,
and all three players know it. To gamble and lose seems
and that goes way back to the first time I saw prostitutes
to be the ruling motif of all participants: they have eaten
around the dock area – I was about eleven.’
forbidden fruit and there’s no turning back from their inevitable Fall.
Vettriano never flinches from the darker side of sex. His is a morally ambiguous world, as evinced by the painting
‘I choose to paint the moments before or after sex, not the
title We Can’t Tell Right From Wrong. Sadomasochistic
act itself,’ declares Vettriano. Like life itself, the greatest
power games form the central motif of several canvases.
voltage crackles in the scenes pre-consummation. One of
In Setting New Standards a fully clothed man and woman
the artist’s simplest canvases is amongst his most erotic.
hold a manacled, lingerie-clad female captive in a chair; her
In Game On a man pins a woman in a short, black chemise
head held roughly back to expose her throat. Something
up against a wall. He holds her arms above her head, while
violent will undoubtedly unfold and yet the elegant way
he leans in to her white neck. Like Rodin’s great erotic
21
sculpture The Kiss you can’t see the lovers’ faces, they exist in a bubble of their own breathless lust. The man’s hand is thrust between the woman’s legs and she’s raised one stocking-clad thigh to accommodate him. It is an image so visceral and immediate – so much ruder than any scene of copulation – that you catch your breath and fight the urge to turn away. This is Vettriano’s great triumph: that he takes the onlooker unawares and unsettles them with scenes of unabashed sexuality. He turns all of us into voyeurs. It is a forceful form of seduction: too strong for everyone’s palate. It is also highly unusual in our post-modern world with its constant side-helping of irony. No living, breathing being feels the animal tug of lust ironically: the emotion controls you, not the other way around. Which is why most contemporary art has failed eroticism. Just look at ‘Brit Art’ with its unmade beds, fried eggs as boobs and penises sprouting from the noses of mannequins. All that’s on offer is a self-conscious, squirming, repudiation of the notion that erotic desire is the strongest force known to mankind. Happily for observers of human frailty, Jack Vettriano tells a truer, older, darker story. Everyone has their own Parlour of Temptation and rare is the individual who lacks the capacity to be derailed by their desires.
Rowan Pelling is a British journalist and broadcaster and was formerly the editor of monthly literary/erotic magazine, the Erotic Review.
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THE PAINTINGS
Please note, this is a preview version of the exhibition catalogue and features only a small selection of the images that are in the full printed catalogue, which features 117 images in total of paintings ranging in date from 1992 to 2013
23
1. The Singing Butler
4. The Billy Boys
7. Dance Me to the End of Love
11. Portrait of the Artist
12. Amateur Philosophers
13. The Star Café
24. Drifters
25. The Man in the Navy Suit
33. Suddenly One Summer
35. Bluebird at Bonneville
36. Pendine Beach
39. A Kind of Loving
45. Singin’ the Blues
46. The Longing
47. One Moment in Time
48. The Parlour of Temptation
49. Playing the Party Game
55. Dancer for Money
59. Along Came A Spider
60. Black Friday
63. The Sparrow and the Hawk II
67. Night Geometry II
68. Fetish
69. The Opening Gambit
74. Night in the City II
75. His Favourite Girl
85. Only the Deepest Red II
95. Riviera Retro
96. The Tourist
97. The Temptress
98. Her Secret Life
99. Days of Wine and Roses
103. Below Deck
104. Masthead
108. Blue Blue
110. Just Another Day
111. Brave New World
112. Long Time Gone
114. Portrait in Black and Pearl
L I S T O F WORKS 1
The Singing Butler, 1992 Oil on canvas 28 x 36 inches (71.1 x 91.4 cms) Private Collection
11 Portrait of the Artist, 1994 Oil on canvas 32 x 28 inches (81.3 x 71.1 cms) Collection of Mr & Mrs Michael Barron
2
The Picnic Party, 1992 Oil on canvas 28 x 32 inches (71.1 x 81.3 cms) Private Collection, UK
12 Amateur Philosophers, 1992 Oil on canvas 28 x 32 inches (71.1 x 81.3 cms) Private Collection, UK
3
Elegy for the Dead Admiral, 1994 Oil on canvas 20 x 24 inches (50.8 x 61 cms) Private Collection, UK
13 The Star Café, 1992 Oil on canvas 32 x 28 inches (81.3 x 71.1 cms) Private Collection, UK
4
The Billy Boys, 1994 Oil on canvas 24 x 30 inches (61 x 76.2 cms) Collection of Sir Tim Rice
14 Evening Racing, 1992 Oil on canvas 30 x 24 inches (76.2 x 61 cms) Private Collection, Scotland
5
Mad Dogs…, 1992 Oil on canvas 24 x 30 inches (61 x 76.2 cms) Collection of Denise Coates and Richard Smith
15 Busted Flush, 1992 * Oil on canvas 32 x 28 inches (81.3 x 71.1 cms) Private Collection, Scotland
6
Waltzers, 1992 * Oil on canvas 30 x 24 inches (76.2 x 61 cms) Private Collection, Scotland
16 How the Web is Woven, 1992 Oil on canvas 32 x 28 inches (81.3 x 71.1 cms) Private Collection, Scotland
7
Dance Me to the End of Love, 1998 Oil on canvas 28 x 32 inches (71.1 x 81.3 cms) Private Collection, UK
17 The Drifter, 1994 Oil on canvas 28 x 32 inches (71.1 x 81.3 cms) Collection of Denise Coates and Richard Smith
8
The Missing Man, 1997 * Oil on canvas 24 x 30 inches (61 x 76.2 cms) Private Collection, Scotland
18 Brief Encounter, 1993 Oil on canvas 20 x 24 inches (50.8 x 61 cms) Private Collection, Chicago
9
The Pier, 1992 Oil on canvas 24 x 30 inches (61 x 76.2 cms) Collection of Michael Vintiner
19 After the Thrill is Gone, 1994 Oil on canvas 24 x 30 inches (61 x 76.2 cms) Private Collection, UK
10 Dancer in Emerald, 1992 Oil on canvas 24 x 20 inches (61 x 50.8 cms) Private Collection, UK
20 Yesterday’s Dreams, 1994 Oil on canvas 24 x 20 inches (61 x 50.8 cms) Collection of Denise Coates and Richard Smith
188
21 Back to Basics, 1996 Oil on canvas 20 x 24 inches (50.8 x 61 cms) Collection of Mr and Mrs P Davis
31 Beach Babes, 1996 Oil on canvas 18 x 16 inches (45.7 x 40.6 cms) Collection of Jack Nicholson
22 Edith and the Kingpin, 1996 Oil on canvas 32 x 28 inches (81.3 x 71.1 cms) Private Collection, UK
32 The Duellists, 1993 Oil on canvas 20 x 24 inches (50.8 x 61 cms) Collection of Mr Kayu Poostchi
23 The Defenders of Virtue, 1994 Oil on canvas 32 x 28 inches (81.3 x 71.1 cms) Collection of Sir Tim Rice
33 Suddenly One Summer, 2000 Oil on canvas 32 x 28 inches (81.3 x 71.1 cms) Private Collection, USA
24 Drifters, 2001 Oil on canvas 30 x 34 inches (76.2 x 86.4 cms) Collection of Denise Coates and Richard Smith
34 Birth of a Dream, 1996 * Oil on canvas 20 x 20 inches (50.8 x 50.8 cms) Private Collection, UK
25 The Man in the Navy Suit, 1997 Oil on canvas 20 x 24 inches (50.8 x 61 cms) Collection of Ian McCartney
35 Bluebird at Bonnville, 1996 Oil on canvas 25 x 40 inches (63.5 x 101.6 cms) Collection of Dolly Pullum
26 The Direct Approach, 1993 Oil on canvas 24 x 20 inches (61 x 50.8 cms) Private Collection, Scotland
36 Pendine Beach, 1996 Oil on canvas 28 x 55 inches (71.1 x 139.7 cms) Collection of Mr Andy Holt
27 A Date With Fate, 1995 Oil on canvas 20 x 24 inches (50.8 x 61 cms) Private Collection, Scotland
37 The British are Coming, 1996 * Oil on canvas 20 x 20 inches (50.8 x 50.8 cms) Private Collection, UK
28 Sweet Bird of Youth, Study, 1996 Oil on canvas 15 x 12 inches (38.1 x 30.5 cms) Private Collection, UK
38 301.129, 1996 * Oil on canvas 22 x 18 inches (55.9 x 45.7 cms) Private Collection, UK
29 Bad Boy Blues, 1996 Oil on canvas 20 x 24 inches (50.8 x 61 cms) Private Collection UK
39 A Kind of Loving, 1992 Oil on canvas 28 x 36 inches (71.1 x 91.4 cms) Private Collection, UK
30 Bird on the Wire, 1998 Oil on canvas 38 x 30 inches (96.5 x 76.2 cms) Private Collection, UK
40 Working the Lounge, 1992 Oil on canvas 20 x 16 inches (50.8 x 40.6 cms) Private Collection, Scotland
189
41 The Main Attraction, 1993 Oil on canvas 18 x 14 inches (45.7 x 35.6 cms) Private Collection, Scotland
51 Shades of Scarlet, 1996 Oil on canvas 32 x 28 inches (81.3 x 71.1 cms) Private Collection, London
42 Another Saturday Night, 1993 Oil on canvas 38 x 44 inches (96.5 x 111.8 cms) Private Collection, UK
52 Cocktails and Broken Hearts, 1998 Oil on canvas 32 x 28 inches (81.3 x 71.1 cms) Private Collection, UK
43 Another Sunday Morning, 1993 Oil on canvas 20 x 24 inches (50.8 x 61 cms) Private Collection, UK
53 Girls’ Night, 1998 Oil on canvas 24 x 20 inches (61 x 50.8 cms) Private Collection UK
44 And Waiting, Still, 1994 Oil on canvas 30 x 24 inches (76.2 x 61 cms) Collection of Mr & Mrs Iain Wotherspoon
54 Words of Wisdom, 1996 Oil on canvas 24 x 20 inches (61 x 50.8 cms) Private Collection, Scotland
45 Singin’ the Blues, 1997 Oil on canvas 24 x 20 inches (61 x 50.8 cms) Collection of James Davidson OBE
55 Dancer for Money, 1996 Oil on canvas 24 x 20 inches (61 x 50.8 cms) Collection of Jack Nicholson
46 The Longing, 1997 Oil on canvas 24 x 20 inches (61 x 50.8 cms) Collection of James Davidson OBE
56 The Purple Cat, 1998 * Oil on canvas 32 x 28 inches (81.3 x 71.1 cms) Private Collection, London
47 One Moment in Time, 1996 Oil on canvas 30 x 24 inches (76.2 x 61 cms) Collection of Joseph and Ann Hughes
57 Beautiful Losers, 1999 Oil on canvas 34 x 40 inches (86.4 x 101.6 cms) Private Collection, UK
48 The Parlour of Temptation, 1996 Oil on canvas 24 x 20 inches (61 x 50.8 cms) Private Collection, UK
58 The Devoted Dressmaker, 2010 Oil on canvas 24 x 20 inches (61 x 50.8 cms) Private Collection, UK
49 Playing the Party Game, 1996 Oil on canvas 24 x 20 inches (61 x 50.8 cms) Private Collection, Scotland
59 Along Came a Spider, 2004 Oil on canvas 24 x 20 inches (61 x 50.8 cms) Private Collection, UK
50 The Drawing Room, 1996 Oil on canvas 15 x 12 inches (38.1 x 30.5 cms) Collection of Jack Nicholson
60 Black Friday, 1998 Oil on canvas 40 x 18 inches (101.6 x 45.7 cms) Private Collection, UK
190
61 The Cigar Divan, 2000 Oil on canvas 24 x 20 inches (61 x 50.8 cms) Private Collection, Scotland
71 Pincer Movement, 2004 * Oil on canvas 34 x 20 inches (86.4 x 50.8 cms) Private Collection, UK
62 Heatwave, 2000 Oil on canvas 15 x 12 inches (38.1 x 30.5 cms) Private Collection UK
72 Private Dancer, 1996 * Oil on canvas 24 x 20 inches (61 x 50.8 cms) Private Collection, UK
63 The Sparrow and the Hawk II, 1999 Oil on canvas 24 x 30 inches (61 x 76.2 cms) Collection of Philip & Leigh Bird
73 The Great Poet, 2004 Oil on canvas 24 x 20 inches (61 x 50.8 cms) Private Collection, UK
64 Welcome to My World, 1998 Oil on canvas 32 x 28 inches (81.3 x 71.1 cms) Private Collection, UK
74 Night in The City II, 1998 Oil on canvas 24 x 20 inches (61 x 50.8 cms) Private Collection, UK
65 An Imperfect Past, 2000 Oil on canvas 40 x 32 inches (101.6 x 81.3 cms) Private Collection, UK
75 His Favourite Girl, 2004 Oil on canvas 30 x 24 inches (76.2 x 61 cms) Collection of Doug and Emma Barrowman
66 On Parade, 2006 Oil on canvas 30 x 24 inches (76.2 x 61 cms) Private Collection, UK
76 Game On, 1999 Oil on canvas 30 x 24 inches (76.2 x 61 cms) Private Collection UK
67 Night Geometry II, 1996 Oil on canvas 24 x 20 inches (61 x 50.8 cms) Collection of Jack Nicholson
77 Devotion II, 2004 * Oil on canvas 15 x 12 inches (38.1 x 30.5 cms) Private Collection, UK
68 Fetish, 1998 Oil on canvas 20 x 24 inches (50.8 x 61 cms) Collection of Brian and Doreen Winterflood
78 Surrender, 2004 * Oil on canvas 24 x 20 inches (61 x 50.8 cms) Private Collection, UK
69 The Opening Gambit, 1994 Oil on canvas 24 x 20 inches (61 x 50.8 cms) Private Collection, Scotland
79 Heaven or Hell: The Sweetest Choice, 1995 Oil on canvas 24 x 20 inches (61 x 50.8 cms) Private Collection, Scotland
70 Just the Way It Is, 1997 Oil on canvas 24 x 20 inches (61 x 50.8 cms) Private Collection, UK
80 A Strange and Tender Magic II, 2000 * Oil on canvas 30 x 24 inches (76.2 x 61 cms) Private Collection, UK
191
81 Mirror Mirror, 1996 * Oil on canvas 24 x 20 inches (61 x 50.8 cms) Private Collection, South Africa
91 Lucky Seven, 2004 * Oil on canvas 24 x 20 inches (61 x 50.8 cms) Collection of Joseph and Ann Hughes
82 Feeding Frenzy, 2000 * Oil on canvas 40 x 34 inches (101.6 x 86.4 cms) Courtesy of the Artist
92 Queen of the Waltzer, 2000 Oil on canvas 24 x 20 inches (61 x 50.8 cms) Collection of Mr & Mrs Alan Yarrow
83 Homage to Fontana?, 1999 Oil on canvas 30 x 24 inches (76.2 x 61 cms) Private Collection, UK
93 Birdy, 2000 Oil on canvas 20 x 16 inches (50.8 x 40.6 cms) Collection of Peigi and Andy Muir
84 Baby, Bye Bye, 2004 Oil on canvas 30 x 24 inches (76.2 x 61 cms) Private Collection, UK
94 Self Portrait, 2000 Oil on canvas 20 x 16 inches (50.8 x 40.6 cms) Private Collection, UK
85 Only the Deepest Red II, 2001 Oil on canvas 15 x 12 inches (38.1 x 30.5 cms) Collection of Mr & Mrs M Cane-Soothill
95 Riviera Retro, 2006 Oil on canvas 20 x 16 inches (50.8 x 40.6 cms) Private Collection, UK
86 In Thoughts of You, 1997 Oil on canvas 24 x 30 inches (61 x 76.2 cms) Private Collection, Switzerland
96 The Tourist, 2002 Oil on canvas 20 x 16 inches (50.8 x 40.6 cms) Collection of Mike Parsons
87 Winter Light and Lavender, 1996 Oil on canvas 24 x 30 inches (61 x 76.2 cms) Private Collection UK
97 The Temptress, 2006 Oil on canvas 20 x 16 inches (50.8 x 40.6 cms) Collection of Dominic and Aloise Price, Singapore
88 Beautiful Dreamer, 2001 Oil on canvas 24 x 20 inches (61 x 50.8 cms) Private Collection, Switzerland
98 Her Secret Life, 2006 Oil on canvas 20 x 16 inches (50.8 x 40.6 cms) Private Collection, Sweden
89 Union Jack II, 2000 Oil on canvas 36 x 30 inches (91.4 x 76.2 cms) Collection of James Curson - Gask
99 Days of Wine and Roses, 2010 Oil on canvas 24 x 20 inches (61 x 50.8 cms) Private Collection, Cape Town
90 Model in White, 1997 * Oil on canvas 24 x 20 inches (61 x 50.8 cms) Private Collection, UK
100 Man of Mystery, 2009 Oil on canvas 20 x 16 inches (50.8 x 40.6 cms) Collection of Mike and Maria Loggie
192
101 Ship of Dreams, 2009 Oil on canvas 24 x 20 inches (61 x 50.8 cms) Private Collection, Cape Town
111 Brave New World, 2002 Oil on canvas 15 x 12 inches (38.1 x 30.5 cms) Collection of Paul and Fiona Munn
102 Sunshine and Champagne, 2010 Oil on canvas 20 x 24 inches (50.8 x 61 cms) Private Collection, Cape Town
112 Long Time Gone, 2006 Oil on canvas 24 x 20 inches (61 x 50.8 cms) Private Collection, UK
103 Below Deck, 2009 Oil on canvas 24 x 20 inches (61 x 50.8 cms) Private Collection, Monaco
113 The Weight, 2009 Oil on canvas 24 x 20 inches (61 x 50.8 cms) Private Collection, Gibraltar
104 Masthead, 2009 Oil on canvas 24 x 20 inches (61 x 50.8 cms) Private Collection, Monaco
114 Portrait in Black and Pearl, 2010 Oil on canvas 20 x 16 inches (50.8 x 40.6 cms) Private Collection, UK
105 The Look of Love?, 2010 Oil on canvas 24 x 20 inches (61 x 50.8 cms) Collection of Mr & Mrs Nick Dent
115 Let’s Twist Again, 2010 * Oil on canvas 15 x 12 inches (38.1 x 30.5 cms) Collection of Mike and Maria Loggie
106 The Last Great Romantics, 2010 Oil on canvas 24 x 20 inches (61 x 50.8 cms) Collection of J and V Goetstouwers, Malta
116 Love Story, 2011 Oil on canvas 24 x 20 inches (61 x 50.8 cms) Collection of James & Louise Duncan
107 Anniversary Waltz, 2011 Oil on canvas 24 x 20 inches (61 x 50.8 cms) Private Collection, UK
117 For My Lover, 2013 Oil on canvas 20 x 16 inches (50.8 x 40.6 cms) Courtesy of the Artist
108 Blue Blue, 2012 Oil on canvas 20 x 16 inches (50.8 x 40.6 cms) Collection of Oscar and Jessica Irvine
* indicates a painting illustrated in the catalogue but not featured in the exhibition itself.
109 Scorched, 2011 Oil on canvas 22 x 20 inches (55.9 x 50.8 cms) Courtesy of the Artist 110 Just Another Day, 2004 Oil on canvas 30 x 24 inches (76.2 x 61 cms) Private Collection, UK
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S OLO E X H I B I TIONS 1992 Tales of Love and Other Stories
Edinburgh Gallery, Edinburgh
1993 Fallen Angels
Catto Gallery, London
1993 Summers Remembered
Corrymella Scott Gallery, Newcastle-upon-Tyne
1994 Chimes at Midnight
Portland Gallery, London
1994 After Midnight
Everard Read Gallery, Johannesburg
1995 A Date with Fate
Corrymella Scott Gallery, Heriot Row, Edinburgh
1996 The Passion and the Pain
Portland Gallery, London
1996 Halfway to Paradise
Portland Gallery, Hong Kong
1997 Small Paintings & Studies
Portland Gallery at Edinburgh Festival
1998 Between Darkness and Dawn
Portland Gallery, London & Kirkcaldy Museum & Art Gallery, Fife
1999 International 20th Century Art Fair
Portland at the Armoury, New York
2000 Lovers and Other Strangers
Portland Gallery, London & Kirkcaldy Museum & Art Gallery, Fife
2001 International 20th Century Art Fair
Portland Gallery, London
2002 Paintings 1994 – 2002
Portland Gallery at Art London
2004 Affairs of the Heart
Portland Gallery, London
2006 Love Devotion and Surrender
Portland Gallery, London
2009 Homage ĂĄ Tuiga
Yacht Club de Monaco, Monaco
2010 Days of Wine & Roses
Kirkcaldy Museum & Art Gallery, Fife & Heartbreak Gallery, London
2011 The Ballroom Spy
Heartbreak Gallery, London & Royal West of England Academy, Bristol
2013 Jack Vettriano: A Retrospective
Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum, Glasgow
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B IB L I OG RA PH Y Fallen Angels, Edited by W. Gordon Smith, Pavilion Books. Published October 1994 Lovers and Other Strangers by Anthony Quinn, Pavilion Books. Published June 2000 Jack Vettriano: A Life by Anthony Quinn, Pavilion Books. Published October 2004 Jack Vettriano: Studio Life by Tom Rawstorne, Pavilion Books. Published March 2008 A Man’s World, Pavilion Books. Published May 2009 Women in Love, Pavilion Books. Published May 2009
195
A FTE RWORD SIR TIM RICE
Jack Vettriano has the ability to make you feel nostalgic
As the 20th century faded in to the new millennium,
for things you never actually experienced in the first place.
Vettriano moved into the front rank of contemporary
He takes you to a mood and time that you know so well
artists. Others there (but by no means all) may have
although you were never there. When you first look at one
matched his technical skills but he has the much rarer gifts
of his paintings you are an outsider, illicitly observing a
of realism and humour. Human failings and foibles are not
cool, sharp world of edgy romance and sexual tension.
portrayed in the easy way, through squalor and loathing
The men are tougher than those you know, the women
of his subjects, but subtly. His men and women may win
are unavailable. After a while you can see behind the
through, may come to a sticky end, but either way they
confident poses and languid come-ons; these are people
will do so with glamour and style. There is hope in even
no more in control of their destinies than you are of yours.
his seediest settings, which is why he has accessibility
Maybe you have been where Vettriano’s subjects are – it’s
without compromise.
just that the lighting and the suitcases, beaches and party frocks are different. You are an insider. Maybe the time is here and now. Jack Vettriano’s paintings make you wonder what will happen next; none are static. Every picture is an episode – in a romance that is about to explode, or in a conquest that is about to be consummated, although who will conquer whom is never clear. He evokes an era of Hollywood but no film of that town’s heyday was made with Vettriano’s burning colour; those great movies remain of their time, these paintings are of many times – the clothes and backdrops are beautiful ornaments that could pinpoint a year, but the faces are universal, of any, or of every, of the past fifty years.
196
Published and produced by Heartbreak Publishing Ltd with Glasgow Museums Heartbreak Publishing Ltd, 17 Bulstrode Street, London, W1U 2JH www.heartbreakpublishing.com | info@heartbreakpublishing.com Glasgow Museums | www.glasgowmuseums.com | editorial@glasgowlife.org.uk First published in 2013 to accompany the exhibition Jack Vettriano: A Retrospective, Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum, 21 September 2013 – 23 February 2014. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior permission of the copyright holder. ISBN: 978 1 908638 04 5 Images of all paintings © Jack Vettriano Photographs by Andrew Fletcher © Andrew Fletcher Photographs by John Swannell © John Swannell Photographs by Francesco Guidicini © Francesco Guidicini Photographs by Fredi Marcarini © Fredi Marcarini Design and layout © Heartbreak Publishing Designed by Ingrid Freeman Printed and bound by J.Thomson Colour Printers, Glasgow.
JACK VETTRIANO: A RETROSPECTIVE Jack Vettriano is one of the most popular artists working in Britain today. Born in St Andrews, Fife, in 1951, Vettriano started his working life as an apprentice mining engineer at the age of 16. Famously self-taught, Vettriano began painting full-time in 1991 at the age of 40, encouraged by the wave of interest in his work that followed his successful submission of paintings to the Royal Scottish Academy’s Annual Exhibition in 1989 and the Royal Academy’s Summer Exhibition in 1990. This book accompanies his first retrospective exhibition in the UK, at Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum in Glasgow and brings together over 100 of the artist’s paintings, including his best-loved works. With contributions from W. Gordon Smith, A.L. Kennedy, Rowan Pelling and Sir Tim Rice.
KELVINGROVE ART GALLERY AND MUSEUM
£15.99 ISBN 978 1 908638 04 5
9 781908 638045