page_title: Scotland in the modern era
section_title: Modern art
hierarchical_section_title: Scotland in the modern era / Postwar 1946–present / Modern art
caption_attribution_description: English: "The Big Heids" Travellers along the M8/A8 will recognise this sculpture by David Mach. It is a tribute to the Steel Industry which once existed in Lanarkshire
context_page_description: Scotland in the modern era, from the end of the Jacobite risings and beginnings of industrialisation in the 18th century to the present day, has played a major part in the economic, military and political history of the United Kingdom, British Empire and Europe, while recurring issues over the status of Scotland, its status and identity have dominated political debate.
  Scotland made a major contribution to the intellectual life of Europe, particularly in the Enlightenment, producing major figures including the economist Adam Smith, philosophers Francis Hutcheson and David Hume, and scientists William Cullen, Joseph Black and James Hutton. In the 19th century major figures included James Watt, James Clerk Maxwell, Lord Kelvin and Sir Walter Scott. Scotland's economic contribution to the Empire and the industrial revolution included its banking system and the development of cotton, coal mining, shipbuilding and an extensive railway network.
context_section_description: Important post-war artists included Anne Redpath (1895–1965), most famous for her two dimensional depictions of everyday objects, Alan Davie (1920–), influenced by jazz and Zen Buddhism, who moved further into abstract expressionism and sculptor and artist Eduardo Paolozzi (1924–2005), who was a pioneer of pop art and in a varied career produced many works that examined juxtapositions between fantasy and the modern world. John Bellany (1942–), mainly focusing on the coastal communities of his birth and Alexander Moffat (1943–), who concentrated on portraiture, both grouped under the description of "Scottish realism", were among the leading Scottish intellectuals from the 1960s. The artists associated with Moffat and the Glasgow School of Art are sometimes known as the "new Glasgow Boys", or "Glasgow pups" and include Steven Campbell (1953–2007), Peter Howson (1958–), Ken Currie (1960–) and Adrian Wisniewski (1958–). Their figurative work has a comic book like quality and puts an emphasis on social commentary. Since the 1990s, the most commercially successful artist has been Jack Vettriano, whose work usually consists of figure composition, with his most famous painting The Singing Butler (1992), often cited as the best selling print in Britain. However, he has received little acclaim from critics. Contemporary artists emerging from the Glasgow include Douglas Gordon (1966–), working in the medium of installation art, Susan Philipsz who works in sound installations, Richard Wright, noted for his intricate wall paintings and Lucy McKenzie (1977–), whose painting is often sexually explicit.
caption: David Mach's Big Heids, Lanarkshire, a tribute to the steel industry
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