Record Number of Visitors View Jack Vettriano Exhibition

24/02/2014

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Over 132,000 people have viewed the Jack Vettriano Retrospective at Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum, making it the most visited art exhibition ever to go on display at the museum. The figure surpasses the previous record held by The Glasgow Boys exhibition in 2010.

Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum staged the most comprehensive exhibition ever devoted to Scottish artist, Jack Vettriano. It opened to the public on Saturday 21 September and closed on Sunday 23 February. The decision to host the first major retrospective of the popular Scottish artist’s work was very well received, with some 11,054 visitors during the opening ten days. Since then an average of 5,500 people per week have taken in the exhibition throughout its 23 week run.

The Glasgow Boys exhibition was an incredible success. Pioneering Painters: The Glasgow Boys 1880–1900 was a collection of more than 140 works and is considered to be the definitive retrospective of artists such as Joseph Crawhall, Sir John Lavery, Sir James Guthrie, George Henry and Edward Atkinson Hornel. From 9 April to 27 September 2010 it attracted 123,289 visitors. Previous to The Glasgow Boys, the highest recorded number of visitors to an art exhibition at Kelvingrove Museum and Art Gallery had stood since 1948, when the Van Gogh exhibition welcomed 103,000 people.

Jack Vettriano said: “I was astonished and very flattered to find out that my Retrospective exhibition has received a record-breaking number of visitors. From the very outset, I have been treated with enormous warmth and appreciation by the management and staff of Kelvingrove Art Gallery and I am deeply touched to hear that their enthusiasm has been echoed by so many of the visitors to my exhibition, during its five month run.

“I am also hugely indebted to the collectors of my work, who so generously loaned their paintings for this Retrospective. Exhibiting in such majestic surroundings as Kelvingrove has been a great honour.”

Chair of Glasgow Life, Councillor Archie Graham, said; “From the beginning we knew the Jack Vettriano Retrospective was going to be popular. The response has been nothing short of phenomenal and confirms the public's affection for the artist and his works. We were delighted to have the opportunity to host this exhibition and to bring together the biggest collection of Jack’s works ever seen.”

The Retrospective includes such key paintings as The Singing Butler, Mad Dogs, Long Time Gone, Bluebird at Bonneville and The Billy Boys. Alongside these classic, romantically themed paintings for which Vettriano is perhaps best known, this exhibition also features powerfully erotic works such as Game On, The Parlour of Temptation , An Imperfect Past , Fetish and Night Geometry. All the paintings featured in this exhibition are on loan from private collections and many are being shown in public for the first time in close to 20 years.

Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum is one of Scotland’s most popular visitor attractions. Entry to the museum, like all the museums and galleries operated on behalf of the city by Glasgow Life is free. It is home to more than 8000 objects from Glasgow’s collection of 1.4 million items. ​