Home to Scotland’s outstanding national collection of modern and contemporary art, the Modern Art Galleries include the Gallery of Modern Art and the nearby Dean Gallery.

Both Galleries are set in extensive parkland, where visitors can discover sculpture works by important artists like Ian Hamilton Finlay, Henry Moore, Rachel Whiteread and Barbara Hepworth. The lawn to the front of the Gallery of Modern Art was re-landscaped in 2002 to a design by Charles Jencks. This dramatic work, or ‘landform’, comprises a stepped, serpentine mound reflected in three crescent-shaped pools of water.

The Gallery of Modern Art shows special exhibitions and works from c.1900 to the present day, while the Dean Gallery shows works from the Gallery’s internationally renowned Dada and Surrealist collection alongside pieces by Eduardo Paolozzi.

The Collection

Gallery of Modern Art
The first floor is most often used for special exhibitions and smaller, temporary displays. Works from the Gallery’s collection, augmented by special loans, are presented on the second floor. The early part of the collection features French and Russian art from the beginning of the twentieth century, Cubist paintings and superb holdings of Expressionist and modern British art. Special highlights include paintings by Matisse and Picasso.

The Gallery also has an outstanding collection of international post-war work and the most important and extensive collection of modern Scottish art. The post-war collection features art by Francis Bacon, David Hockney, Andy Warhol and Lucian Freud, with more recent works by artists including Antony Gormley, Gilbert & George, Damien Hirst and Tracey Emin.

Dean Gallery
The Dean Gallery’s world-class collection of Dada and Surrealism is shown in the Roland Penrose Gallery and Gabrielle Keiller Library. Their outstanding collections were in large part acquired by the Gallery in the 1990s and feature important works by Dalí, Miró, Ernst, Magritte and Picasso.

Special Exhibitions
The ground floor of the Gallery of Modern Art and the top floor of the Dean Gallery are devoted to special exhibitions. Current exhibitions are listed in the What’s On calendar.

Research Resources
The Dean Gallery has a remarkable library and archive and artists' book collection, covering the whole of the twentieth- and twenty-first-century art, but relating in particular to the Dada and Surrealist movements and Scottish Art. It is open to students and researchers by prior appointment only. The Gallery of Modern Art has a print room, consisting of over 4,000 works on paper, open to all by prior appointment.

Both galleries have shops and cafés.