All staff and students are welcome to a preview of 'Painting Dundee' exhibition on Monday 1st July at 5pm in the Tower Foyer and Lamb Galleries.
Twenty-seven paintings on loan from the Fleming Collection, widely regarded as one of the greatest private collections of Scottish art, will be "coming home" when they are exhibited at the University of Dundee this summer.
Painting in Dundee features the works of 21 artists who were born, worked or trained in Dundee, including John Duncan, David McLure and James McIntosh Patrick. The collection gets its name from another of Dundee's famous sons, financier Robert Fleming.
The Fleming Collection consists of works by many of Scotland's most prominent artists, from 1770 to the present day, including works by early nineteenth century artists, the Glasgow Boys, the Scottish Colourists, the Edinburgh School and many contemporary Scottish names.
The collection takes its name from "Scotland's Dick Whittington" Robert Fleming, a Dundonian who became an international financier in London in the later 1800s after establishing the famous Fleming's merchant bank. One of the bank's directors, David Donald, began the collection in the bank's London offices in 1968.
An exhibition illustrating Robert Fleming's life story will be exhibited alongside Painting in Dundee. As a young man, Fleming was instrumental in establishing Scotland's first investment trust. Later he became an expert in financing and restructuring railway companies in America, Mexico and Cuba. He is the grandfather of James Bond creator Ian Fleming.
Bill Smith, a trustee of The Fleming-Wyfold Art Foundation, which now owns the collection, said," I am delighted that works from the collection are being shown in Dundee, the birthplace of Robert Fleming, a benefactor both of the city and of the University who was honoured as a Freeman in 1929."
Matthew Jarron, the University of Dundee's curator of museum services said, " The Fleming Collection is probably the best collection of Scottish art south of the border and its new London gallery should do a great deal to help the work of Scotland's great artists reach a wider audience.
"We're enormously privileged to have this exhibition on loan - it shows that Dundee has long been a home for artistic talent, as well as demonstrating what a central role Duncan of Jordanstone College - now part of the Univeristy - has played in recent times. "There are many excellent works in the exhibition by Art College staff and students, including Alberto Morrocco, Richard Hunter and of course McIntosh Patrick. My favourite painting is the small but stunning "Turn of the Tide" by the Celtic Revivalist artist John Duncan. Duncan's work was greatly inspired by our great Professor of Botany Patrick Geddes, so there's a real link between the art and the University itself."
Painting in Dundee opens in the Foyer and Lamb Galleries, Tower Building, University of Dundee with a private viewing on Monday July 1. The exhibition is open to the public from July 2 until September 7, Monday to Friday 9.30am to 8.30pm and 9.30am to 4.30pm on Saturdays.
Note to Editors:
Following the announcement of the sale of Fleming's investment bank, the
Fleming Collection was sold in April 2000 to a new charitable foundation,
endowed by the Fleming family, called The Fleming-Wyfold Art Foundation.
The Foundation acquired premises in Berkeley Street, London where it
converted an empty retail space into a gallery named The Fleming
Collection. The gallery opened to the public in January 2002 and has so
far received more than 30,000 visitors. The gallery holds regular public
displays of selected works from the collection exploring different aspects
of Scottish art.
For more information on the Fleming Collection, visit www.flemingcollection.co.uk