The National Galleries of Scotland Director-General, Sir John Leighton, said: “John Bellany will be celebrated as one of Scotland’s greatest artists of the modern era. From his early, heroic depictions of fisherfolk on the Scottish coast to the vibrant, passionate images of his later years, he gave visual form to the big themes and narratives of human life.”
Tate director Sir Nicholas Serota said: “John Bellany brought a distinctive voice to British Art. Unusually for a British painter, his roots lay in the traditions of northern European expressionism rather than in the School of Paris, that is to say in Munch and Beckmann, rather than Picasso and Matisse.”
A painter whose life was as deep as the seas he painted.
Ian Rankin, Author
He was ambitious but not in a crass, materialist way. What he aimed to do was test his talent to the limit, to leave nothing undone. He’d heard too many paintings talked out of execution in pubs or abandoned because of some perceived imperfection. Like Bob Dylan, he didn’t seem to mind if everything was not quite right. What he wanted to do was simply to paint as well as he could when the urge took him.
Alan Taylor.
“We have lost a great artist, a great Scot and a great human being”.
The President of the Royal Scottish Academy, Arthur Watson
John Bellany is from the old fishing village of Port Seton and his paintings are full of colourful fishing boats anchored in calm harbours; boats fighting for survival between menacing skies and tumultuous waves; the unspoken fears of women left onshore; and the lamentations of women widowed by the sea. These dark and wonderful sea paintings are the ones I love most, they remind me of home, they speak of the sea and the people who depend on it for a livelihood, and as works of art are there to be felt rather than discussed. Bellany draws out our own tales and connects with our emotions.
Kevin Williamson
Professor Christopher Breward, principal of Edinburgh College of Art, where Bellany studied, said: “His legacy is a powerful one. We are very proud of the years he spent as a student here and of his enduring contribution to painting.”
We were fortunate to have had such a magnificent exhibition of John’s life’s work here in Edinburgh last winter. (National Gallery) All of the different phases of his painting were laid out before us… the early student masterworks…. the dark night of the soul following his visit to Buchenwald….the wild, wild period…recovery and redemption after his liver transplant …colour and a new veneration for life… the glorious Italian landscapes…. all the way through the ups and downs of his life until the last self portrait, painted on the day of his 70th birthday… surely one of the greatest paintings of human vulnerability ever made.
Alexander Moffat
Bellany’s paintings exploded with emotion and imagination and are amongst the most confrontational, humanistic works produced in Britain in recent history. His life’s work unveils insight and wisdom into the human condition.
Paul Huxley
His work from Addenbrooke’s Hospital, in Cambridge, is some of his most searing, a self-portrait from that time, now in the National Galleries of Scotland, he believed was among his best work. The hospital etchings are “in the class of Michelangelo”, according to Peter Howson, “It looks like his hands were guided by a force greater than himself.”
“Being Scottish has always mattered enormously …
John Bellany
I carry Scotland in my soul….and wherever I go, my roots are there.”
“John was a wonderful man and a great artist. He has gone out on a very good note, being recognised and celebrated by his peers in his own country. He was a great hero.”
John Byrne, Artist and writer.
A Pure Scottish gift to the art world.
Timothy Hudson, Lord of Birtles
Bellany was a phenomenon. He was a one-off.
Richard Demarco, art impressario.
He lead an extraordinary life as one of Scoitland’s finest artists and as an outstanding person.
First Minister of Scotland, Alex Salmond