Glasgow's Dali painting to go on loan

Image source, CSG CIC Glasgow Museums Collection

One of Scotland's most famous paintings - Salvador Dali's Christ Of St John Of The Cross - is to go on loan.

The painting, which hangs in Glasgow's Kelvingrove Art Gallery, is to be moved to London's Royal Academy of Arts in September.

It is to be one of the main attractions of a Dali/Duchamp exhibition.

The piece will return to the Kelvingrove in summer 2018, before going to Auckland Castle, County Durham, in autumn 2019.

The painting, which was bought by the City of Glasgow for 拢8,200 in 1952, will then return to Kelvingrove in spring 2020.

'Bolster reputation'

The Dali/Duchamp aims to throw light on the relationship between the father of conceptual art, Marcel Duchamp, and Surrealist Salvador Dali.

The exhibition, which will bring together more than 60 works, is to travel to The Dali Museum in St Petersburg, Florida from February to May 2018.

Head of Glasgow Museums Duncan Dornan said it would provide a new perspective on an "inventive and intelligent man".

He said: "Glasgow's art collection is considered one of the finest in Europe and loaning key pieces increases access to the works so that people across the country and indeed the world can enjoy them, bolstering our reputation."

Tim Marlow, artistic director at the Royal Academy of Arts, said: "Showing Dali's Christ of St John of the Cross together with seminal works by Duchamp will be one of the undoubted highlights of the Royal Academy's forthcoming Dali/Duchamp exhibition."

It is the first time Christ of St John of the Cross has been on loan since 2010.

It featured in Salvador Dali: The Late Work, an important exhibition focusing on Dali's later career at the High Museum of Art in Atlanta, USA.

In a reciprocal loan agreement with the Royal Academy, Kelvingrove is to exhibit Henry Raeburn's Boy and Rabbit to from September 2017 until May 2018.