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Born in
Scotland in 1951, Vettriano left school at sixteen to become a mining
engineer in the local coalfields. For his twenty-first birthday a
girlfriend gave him a set of watercolour paints and, from then on, he
spent much of his spare time teaching himself to paint. The local art
gallery, The Kirkcaldy Museum and Art Gallery, with its renowned
collection of 19th and 20th century Scottish paintings, was particularly
inspirational.
It was fourteen years before Vettriano felt ready to show any of his
work in public. In 1989 he offered two works to the Royal Scottish
Academy’s annual exhibition; both were accepted and sold on the first
day. The following year, an equally enthusiastic reaction greeted the
three paintings, which he entered for the prestigious Summer Exhibition
at London’s Royal Academy.
In the last nine years interest in, and desire for his work, has grown
rapidly. There have been sell-out solo exhibitions in Edinburgh, London,
Hong Kong and Johannesburg. In November 1999, Vettriano’s work was shown
for the first time in New York, when twenty paintings were displayed at
The International 20th Century Arts Fair at The Armory. Fifty collectors
from the UK flew out for the opening night of the Fair and all twenty
paintings were sold out within an hour of the opening.
In March 2000 BBC Scotland produced a half-hour documentary about
Vettriano for their Arts Series EX-S; aired initially in Scotland only,
the documentary is likely to be aired nationally later this year.
Aside from his exhibitions, Vettriano has acquired a vast following of
fans through the posters and prints of his paintings that are
distributed worldwide. This year the two best selling art posters in
Britain are both Vettriano images. To date, more than 500,000 posters of
Vettriano’s paintings have sold worldwide.
Paintings by Jack Vettriano can be found in private, corporate and
public collections worldwide.
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