LONDON.- This year marks the 150th anniversary of the birth of John Duncan Fergusson (1874-1961), the longest-lived and most international of the pioneering group of artists known as the Scottish Colourists. To mark the occasion, fine art auctioneers Lyon & Turnbull is presenting a touring exhibition of Fergusson’s paintings and sculptures, in partnership with the London-based Fleming Collection.

All the works to be shown have been lent from private collections and by the Fleming Art Foundation, owner of the renowned Fleming Collection, considered the finest collection of Scottish art, from the seventeenth century to the present day, outside public institutions. The exhibition opened at Lyon & Turnbull's headquarters at 22 Connaught Street in central London on Saturday 19 February. It then travels to Scotland, where it will open in Glasgow at Lyon & Turnbull's Bath Street showroom, on Monday 11 March. Featuring more than 20 works by Fergusson, the exhibition has been co-curated by Lyon & Turnbull's Senior Specialist in Modern & Contemporary Art, Alice Strang, and James McNaught, Head of Business Development with Lyon & Turnbull.

In her previous role as a Senior Curator at the National Galleries of Scotland, Alice Strang curated its acclaimed Fergusson retrospective in 2013-14 and edited the accompanying publication.

This landmark year in celebrating Fergusson’s legacy will also be marked by Culture Perth & Kinross, custodians of the largest and most important holding of his work. The artist’s family had close links with Perthshire and the cultural body was presented with the collection by the J. D. Fergusson Art Foundation in 1991.

A display devoted to Fergusson and his partner, dance pioneer Margaret Morris (1891-1980), will be installed in a new space dedicated to their joint creative achievements in the redeveloped Perth Art Gallery, following the opening of the new Perth Museum on 30 March 2024.

Born in 1874 in Leith, near Edinburgh, J.D. Fergusson is one of the four artists, along with fellow Colourists F. C. B. Cadell, G. L. Hunter and S. J. Peploe, who are revered as the masters of modern Scottish art.

Co-curator Alice Strang said: "Fergusson was born at the height of the Victorian era and died as the decade known as the 'Swinging Sixties' was getting underway. More than any other British artist, he was involved in the very birth of modern Western art in pre-World War One Paris and his international career included three solo exhibitions in America.

"He spent long periods living in Paris and London and played an important role in the Scottish art world after World War Two from his base in Glasgow.

"The works on display follow Fergusson’s emergence as an artist of sophistication in Edwardian Edinburgh, to his role in the development of modern art in Paris, to the inspiration he found in the Scottish Highlands and the joy of portraying the pupils of Morris's dance Summer Schools held in France from the 1920s to the 1950s.

"A selection of sculptures reveal Fergusson's lesser-known talents as the only sculptor amongst the Colourists, led by the celebrated Eástre (Hymn to the Sun) of 1924."

James Knox, director of The Fleming Collection, added: "The Fleming Collection is not short of brilliant paintings, but without doubt our Scottish Colourists are the most dazzling, as our recent hugely successful touring exhibition proves. It has now been seen by over 75,000 visitors across eight regional galleries in the UK.

"Our three Fergussons in the exhibition display his sensitivity to the zeitgeist, summoning up 1890s international swagger as well as 1920s geometric modernity, with all the technical assurance and originality of an artist, who knows his worth.”

THE FLEMING COLLECTION

The Fleming Collection dates back to 1968, when the Scottish family banking dynasty started to collect museum quality work for their London office. Following the sale of the bank in 2000, the collection was vested in the Fleming-Wyfold Art Foundation, which furthers an understanding and awareness of Scottish art and creativity through exhibitions, events, publishing and education. Its Museum without Walls strategy, established in 2015, tours themed exhibitions such as the Scottish Colourists and Scottish Women Artists, which have been seen by over 190,000 visitors across the UK.