Art coups for city galleries

It may look like plumbing gone wrong but in fact it's the work of one of Britain's top sculptors.

The entire ground floor of the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art is to be given over to stunning sculptures by Liverpool-born artist Tony Cragg for three months next year in what will be his first major show in Britain for more than a decade.

His previous works have consisted of discarded plastic, broken bits of rubbish and massively enlarged stainless steel engineering instruments.

The gallery's programme for next year, announced today, also includes a major exhibition of work by acclaimed artist Dame Elizabeth Blackadder in celebration of her 80th birthday.

The Dean Gallery will host a retrospective of the work of Francis Campbell Boileau Cadell - one of the four artists popularly known as the Scottish Colourists - in autumn 2011.

Meanwhile, the city will also play host to works by controversial American artist Jeff Koons, and August Sander, described as "the most important German portrait photographer of the early 20th century", as part of the Artist Rooms series.

The exhibition of work by Tony Cragg, which will run from July 30 to November 6, is expected to be hugely popular.

Cragg has a huge following in Europe, and is one of the most celebrated sculptors working today, but his work is less well-known in Britain.

The gallery's major summer exhibition will be devoted to the work of city-based Dame Elizabeth, a native of Falkirk and a student at Edinburgh University and Edinburgh College of Art, who held her first exhibition at the 57 Gallery in Edinburgh in 1959.

She has since become celebrated for her paintings, watercolours and drawings, and was the first female artist to be elected to both the Royal Academy and the Royal Scottish Academy.

A spokeswoman for the gallery called the exhibition "a rare chance to experience a retrospective of work by one of this country's best loved and most active artists".

It will be held at the National Gallery Complex from July 2 to October 23 next year,

In October next year the Dean Gallery will mount the first public retrospective of the work of FCB Cadell, who was born in Edinburgh in 1883, in what will be the first of its Scottish Colourists Series.

The exhibition will feature some of his renowned paintings of New Town interiors.

At this morning's launch of next year's programme, it was also revealed that the Artist Rooms series had been given funding for a 2011 tour.Among the shows coming to the Capital as part of this tour will be an exhibition at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art next February of Jeff Koons' work.

The same month, the Dean Gallery will host an exhibition of pieces by August Sander.

John Leighton, director-general, National Galleries of Scotland, said: "The Artist Rooms tours are making a significant difference to the accessibility and presentation of contemporary art across the UK.

"The strong and diverse programme for 2011 is intended to build on this success."