LONDON.- The National Gallery, London, today announced the appointment of Patrick Elliott as its Curator of Modern Paintings.

Dr Elliott joins the National Gallery after 36 years at the National Galleries of Scotland (NGS) in Edinburgh, where he has worked as Chief Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art.

The Curator of Modern Paintings is a new position created as part of the Gallery’s recently announced Project Domani. The project includes the Gallery’s move to extend its historic collection beyond 1900, making Trafalgar Square the one place in the world that presents the complete history of Western painting from Giotto to our own times.

As part of his remit, Elliott will develop the collection of post-1900 painting through acquisitions, institutional exchanges (particularly with Tate), gifts and long-term loans. He will take up the position at the end of March.

While at NGS, Elliott led on retrospective exhibitions of artists such as Alberto Giacometti, René Magritte, Maurits Cornelis Escher and Salvador Dalí, as well as exhibitions of works by contemporary artists such as Tracey Emin, Grayson Perry, Raqib Shaw, Mona Hatoum and Rachel Whiteread. His most recent exhibition, Andy Goldsworthy: Fifty Years received 5-star reviews from the Guardian, Daily Telegraph and Herald. He also organised innovative thematic shows including Cut and Paste: 400 Years of Collage (2019) and True to Life (2017), the first ever survey show of British Realist painting of the 1920s and 1930s.

Elliott has also played a major role in acquisitions at NGS, including assisting with the acquisition of two major collections of Surrealist art in 1995 (the Keiller Bequest and the Penrose Collection purchase), as well as with the acquisition of a rare early Cubist collage by Pablo Picasso, a white version of Dalí’s celebrated Lobster Telephone (1938), and major works by women Surrealists such as Dorothea Tanning, Toyen, Leonora Carrington and Remedios Varo. The works by Varo and Toyen are the first paintings by these artists to enter a public collection in the UK. He has also acquired works by contemporary artists such as Wangechi Mutu, Jenny Saville, Damien Hirst and Peter Doig.

Patrick Elliott says: 'It’s an honour and a privilege to be offered this position. I’ve visited the National Gallery hundreds of times. I love Old Master painting, so this is hallowed ground to me, the one gallery I always return to. I am very conscious of the need to collect the very best: modern paintings that can hold their own in a gallery full of Rembrandts and Titians. It’s an exciting challenge.'

Sir Gabriele Finaldi, Director of the National Gallery, says: 'Patrick Elliott brings a wealth of experience, networks and knowledge to the position of Curator of Modern Painting at the National Gallery. I look forward to working with him in this new chapter in the history of the Gallery.'