Scottish National Portrait Gallery Reference Section
The Scottish National Portrait Gallery’s Reference Section includes over twenty
archival collections relating to Scottish portraiture. The main component of
the Gallery’s Reference Section is the Portrait Archive which has two
sections - the Sitters’ Files and the Artists’ Files. The former consists of
26,000 reproductions of portraits in private and public collections,
representing over 11,500 Scots. The latter comprises 30,000 photographs of
portraits by Scottish artists. These are part of the Scottish National
Portrait Gallery Papers (PG A19) but are not catalogued as individual records.
Please contact us if you wish to access this part of the Reference Section.
With its emphasis on Scottish sitters and artists, the Reference Section archival
collections are a unique resource for those studying Scottish history,
portraiture and iconography. As new collections are acquired the catalogue
will be updated.
Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art Archive and Special Books Collection
The Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art Archive contains over 120 holdings relating to 20th and 21st century artists, collectors and art organisations, including the Gallery’s own papers. These comprise files of
papers, drawings, sketchbooks, photographs, textiles, diaries, newscuttings
and other printed ephemera.
The
archive holds a world-class resource of material relating to Dada and
Surrealism, the largest part being the archive and book collections of Roland
Penrose and Gabrielle Keiller. The Archive is also particularly rich in
papers relating to art and artists in Scotland.
The Special
Books Collection consists of over 2,500 artist books and limited-edition
livres d’artiste covering the period from 1897 to the present day. The main
focus is on Dada and Surrealism, but the collection also contains many of the
most significant books by artists of the twentieth century. These range from
Oskar Kokoschka’s Die Träumenden Knaben (1917) and Henri Matisse’s Jazz
(1947), to a near complete collection of artist’s books by Ed Ruscha, from
Various Small Fires and Milk (1964) to Then & Now: Hollywood Boulevard
1973 – 2004 (2005). New works are added each year.