Small is beautiful at Colourists event

• Francis Campbell Boileau Cadell: Iona Croft. Picture: Complimentary

The works by the four artists from the early 20th century are part of a rolling rehang of the gallery rooms in its 50th anniversary this year.

Ranging from the First World War sketches of soldiers on leave by FCB Cadell, to outdoor scenes such as SJ Peploe's Veules-les-Roses, the works in The Intimate Colourist promise a "revolutionary insight" into their art.

The Colourist works are just one of eight new displays at the SNGMA as part of the changing anniversary exhibitions, titled What You See Is Where You're At.

Other displays open from 27 March range from works by three young Glasgow painters to Sailing Dinghy by the late Ian Hamilton Finlay, who is considered one of the greatest Scottish artists of his generation.

A real sailing boat with rudder and sails, sitting land-locked on the gallery floor, Sailing Dinghy is part of the Artists Rooms collection, assembled by the art dealer Anthony d'Offay. It has never been seen in Scotland.

Late last year, when the first phase of the SNGMA revamp was unveiled, there were complaints that only four of 131 works by the Scottish Colourists – Cadell, Peploe, George Leslie Hunter and JD Fergusson – were on show.

"We had always planned this second display," said Simon Groom, the National Galleries of Scotland director of modern and contemporary art.

"We are aware that the Scottish Colourists are incredibly popular," he added. "It will give people a completely revolutionary insight into what they did."

Dating from 1900-1930, the pictures were painted on wood, paper and board. They have been bequeathed, donated, or bought for the national collection over decades, but have seldom been on public display.

The smaller works lay at the heart of the Colourists' art, he said. "They're small because they are quick, swift and loosely laid down to build up a scene."

Showing in the first long corridor that greets visitors to the gallery, "they are like little windows puncturing the walls into a beautiful other world", he said.

The new exhibition also includes works chosen by Douglas Hall, the keeper of the SNGMA from 1961 to 1986, from the many he helped acquire for the gallery during his long tenure there. They include works by Fernand Lger and Joan Eardley, and LS Lowry's Canal and Factories.

"The great thing about Douglas was precisely that he was buying things for their quality, regardless of whether people in the wider art world considered them of merit or not," Mr Groom said.

He bought the work by LS Lowry at a time when the artistic establishment was still "sniffy" about the massively popular artist, famous for his mournful stick-like figures and industrial scenes.

Work by three young Glaswegian painters, Alex Dordoy, Sophie Macfall, and Alan Stanners, all in their mid-20s, will also be shown.

"A national gallery has to be about what's happening now and bringing things to attention that we think are of interest," said Mr Groom, calling the artists' work "really exciting".

Five paintings by the Austrian expressionist Oskar Kokoschka include his portrait of the 14th Duke of Hamilton with his wife, the Duchess of Hamilton, on loan from the Scottish National Portrait Gallery, while it is undergoing its refit.

A film by Fiona Tan, the contemporary artist and film-maker who represented Holland at the Venice Biennale last year, will also feature – the first time her work has been shown in Scotland.

Her film Downside Up depicts a public square in full sunlight and the people walking across it. By the simple trick of turning the film upside down, Tan's work suggests to the eye that the shadows are real figures, and the people the shadows. "That 180-degree turn just makes it all feel so different," Mr Groom said.