It is fitting that Duncan Shanks, in his eightieth year and one of Scotland’s most original and distinguished painters, should have the main gallery for our anniversary month of May. Shanks has been a consistent exhibitor with The Scottish Gallery since the seventies and his commitment to painting, the rigour of his intellect and the inexhaustible energy of his mark-making single him out. This new exhibition is thematically rich and includes self-portraiture as a poignant ingredient in a narrative of movement of time (season) and place which for the artist is a metaphor of the existential quest.

Duncan Shanks

Born: 1937

Place of Birth: Airdrie

Duncan Shanks was born in Airdrie in 1937 and studied at Glasgow School of Art from 1955 to 1960. During his Post Diploma year he was awarded a travelling scholarship which enabled a visit to Italy. On his return to Glasgow he joined the Art School staff where he lectured until 1979, before leaving to concentrate on painting full-time. Duncan’s first solo exhibition was hosted by Stirling University in 1974. Since then he has exhibited worldwide with notable public exhibitions including Falling Water at Talbot Rice Gallery, Edinburgh in 1988, Patterns of Flight at Wrexham Art Centre in 1991 and Poetry of Place at the Hunterian Museum and Art Gallery in Glasgow, which coincided with the bequest of the entirety of his sketchbooks to their collection in 2013. Shanks is a member of the Royal Scottish Academy, the Royal Glasgow Institute and Royal Society of Painters in Watercolour. He has been the subject of twelve solo exhibitions at The Scottish Gallery; his most recent, The Riverbank, was the Edinburgh Art Festival exhibition for 2022.

Winter Journey

Duncan Shanks

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