A MAJOR painting by a Scottish artist has been acquired by the National Galleries of Scotland.
At the Edge of Town by Scottish painter Peter Doig, will be displayed in the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art.
The painting was offered to the galleries in memory of Doig’s first wife, Bonnie Kennedy.
The painting showcases Doig’s inventive style and represent Doig’s signature style of mood painting – based on personal experience and memories.
Doig and his family members arranged for Scotland’s national collection to be the beneficiary of the Government‘s Acceptance-in-Lieu scheme.
The scheme allows those who have a bill to Inheritance Tax to pay the tax by transferring important cultural, scientific or historic objects and archives to the nation.
Director of Modern and Contemporary Art at the Galleries, Simon Groom, said: “Peter Doig is one of the most highly-regarded painters working anywhere in the world, and whose prices put him well beyond the budget of any public institution.
“At the Edge of Town is a painting any major museum in the world would love to have, and it is only through the help of the Acceptance in Lieu scheme that we are able to acquire the painting for the nation.”
Doig was born in Edinburgh in 1959, before moving to Trinidad at the age of two.
The contemporary artist grew up in Canada before moving to London to study at the Wimbledon School of Art.
Groom continued: “As an Edinburgh-born artist, this work by Doig fills one of the greatest gaps in our contemporary collection. We are enormously grateful to Peter Doig and his family for making it possible for us to acquire this important painting.
“We are thrilled to accept the work, which can be seen in our current exhibition, New Arrivals: From Salvador Dalí to Jenny Saville, at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art.”
Peter Doig commented: “I am greatly honoured to have this early and pivotal work in Scotland’s national collection, and on display in Edinburgh, the city of my birth and some of my earliest memories.”
