Overview
Marking the opening of the exhibition John Bellany: A Life in Self-Portraiture at the City Art Centre, Edinburgh, we are delighted to present a selection of key paintings by John Bellany RA CBE (1942-2013), spanning three decades of his practice. A pioneering figure in modern Scottish painting, Bellany was deeply influenced by his maritime heritage, breaking from traditional Scottish landscape painting to develop a bold, expressive practice in which he often depicted himself and his family as different characters, resisting simple interpretation.
Born in Port Seton, on the coast of East Lothian near Edinburgh, John Bellany's family were fishermen and boat builders within a close-knit, strict Protestant community with seafaring heritage. Bellany drew boats from a young age, depicting what he described as 'the hustle and bustle of activity, that was the core of my life.’ His connection to the sea, his family, and his roots infused his practice with rich personal symbolism, with the harbour itself a subject revisited frequently throughout his career, including in his complex pictorial narratives.
John Bellany: A Life in Self-Portraiture runs 31 May - 28 September 2025 at the City Art Cente, Edinburgh, bringing together over 80 autobiographical drawings, paintings, prints and sketchbooks, spanning from the early 1960s until the artist’s death in 2013.
1970s
Bellany’s painting in the 1970s featured maritime imagery of his Scottish fishing heritage — sea creatures, fishermen, and religious emblems — in a raw, iconically structured visual language alluding to human suffering, existential struggle, and sexual and spiritual unease. These works were not literal depictions, but symbolic narratives reflecting on tradition and trauma, and were pictorially more restrained than Bellany's later practice.
1980s
During his near-fatal illness preceding a life-saving liver transplant in 1988, Bellany's paintings became more intimate, often confronting the fragility of the body and death. His brushwork grew looser, with colour softer yet more unflinching as he reflected on himself and others.
