31 May – 28 September 2025
- Tickets are now on sale for John Bellany: A Life in Self Portraiture
- Exciting programme of events accompanies the exhibition including exclusive tours, talks and workshops with those closest to the artist
- Exhibition features sketchbooks that have never been seen in public before
Tickets are now on sale for John Bellany: A Life in Self-Portraiture. Opening Saturday 31 May, the exhibition offers the public a rare opportunity to view over 80 works by one of Scotland’s most celebrated artists. Many of these works, including a selection of Bellany’s private sketchbooks, will be displayed publicly for the first time.
Curated by Bellany’s close friends and colleagues, Bill Hare and Sandy Moffat, the exhibition spans five decades of the artist’s prolific career from the 1960s until 2013. Over two floors of the City Art Centre, this captivating exhibition invites visitors into Bellany’s world through the lens of his own self-exploration.
John Bellany was one of the most prolific and fearless self-portraitists in history, obsessively documenting his own image throughout his lifetime. From his early student studies in the 1960s to the epic pictorial narratives of his later years, Bellany’s works reveal the artist’s complex relationship with himself, his identity, and the world around him.
A particularly special element of the show is the inclusion of Bellany’s sketchbooks, personal visual diaries kept throughout his life, now generously loaned by his family. This is the first time they will be on public view.
Curator Sandy Moffat, said :
The exhibition will feature a number of works which have never been shown before including sketch books, drawings from his student days and his last self portraits…. offering a unique opportunity to see these works for the very first time.
Culture and Communities Convener Cllr Margaret Graham said:
This exhibition promises to be real highlight of the year. It is a great privilege to bring such a collection together and for many of the works to be brought into the public eye for the first time. It will offer visitors a fresh perspective on a much-acclaimed giant in Scottish art who was born in East Lothian.
The exhibition is accompanied by a publication featuring a foreword by Helen Bellany and essays by curators Bill Hare and Sandy Moffat.
In addition to the exhibition, a rich programme of events has been developed to offer deeper insights into the artist’s work, his personal life, and his ongoing legacy.
