Jack Vettriano: A Life: New edition

Description

Emerging from the unlikely background of the Scottish coalfields, unknown and untutored, Jack Vettriano has become Scotland's most successful and controversial contemporary artist. Appearing on posters and cards, mugs and umbrellas, prints of his work outsell van Gogh, Dali and Monet and his paintings have been acquired by celebrities around the world. Vettriano's images are a gateway to an alluring yet sinister world; a timeless place where past and present intertwine. Daylight scenes of heady optimism, painted against backdrops of beaches and racetracks, are counterbalanced by more disquieting canvases of complex night-time liaisons in bars, clubs, bedrooms and ballrooms. His powerful canvases are beautifully captured in this new edition of Jack Vettriano, which includes 15 more recent images, from exhibitions between 2006 and 2010.

Jack Vettriano was born in Scotland in 1954. He left school at fifteen, became an apprentice mechanical engineer the following year and worked for five years in the Fife coalfields. He began painting in his spare time at the age of 21. In 1989 he submitted two paintings to the Royal Scottish Academy annual exhibition: both pieces were accepted, hung and sold.