1) Aquarium; 2) Untitled (Aquarium); 3) Acrobat; 4)15-1958
William Turnbull, 1949–1958

The Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art has acquired four works spanning ten years of Turnbull's career, each reflecting a key moment in the development of his style. The 1949 works Aquarium and Untitled (Aquarium), respectively a sculpture and a painting, were created during Turnbull's two-year stay in Paris between 1948 and the autumn of 1950. Created in the early months of Turnbull's involvement with the newly formed Institute of Contemporary Arts, Acrobat was Turnbull's largest work to date when it was completed in 1951, standing just over a metre tall. 15-1958 was the fifteenth and greatest painting Turnbull created in 1958, the first year after he embraced abstraction, and references Turnbull's contemporaries Rothko and Barnett Newman in its use of intense colour and expressive brushwork.
More information
Title of artwork, date
1) Aquarium; 2) Untitled (Aquarium); 3) Acrobat; 4)15-1958, 1949–1958
Date supported
2014
Medium and material
1) bronze; 2) oil on canvas; 3) bronze on stone base; 4) oil on canvas
Dimensions
1) 28 x 38 x 50.8 cm; 2) 71 x 91 cm; 3) 111.1 x 81.2 x 55.9 cm; 4)152.4 x 142.4 cm
Grant
47500
Total cost
197500

Get a National Art Pass and explore National Galleries Scotland: Modern
You'll see more art and your membership will help museums across the UK
National Art Pass offers available at National Galleries Scotland: Modern
Art Funded by you FAQs
Contact us
If you have a question about a work of art in our archive, please contact the Programmes team. We’ll be happy to answer your enquiry.