The cultural benefits of the £45 million V&A at Dundee project are already being felt four years before the venue is due to open.
An exhibition of portraits of the Queen by photographer Cecil Beaton has opened at the McManus.
It marks the first time the V&A has opened one of its exhibitions outside London and is part of the pre-opening programme for the V&A at Dundee.
There are over 60 images depicting landmark points in the Queen’s life including wartime photographs, the Coronation as well as official portraits.
Leisure and culture convener Councillor Bob Duncan said: “I am delighted this exhibition is being staged in Dundee. It will act as an additional attraction to the McManus, which is a hugely popular destination in the city.
“People of Dundee and further afield are excited at the prospect of the V&A at Dundee, and this exhibition shows how the partnership is already delivering benefits.”
Philip Long, director of the V&A at Dundee, was quick to recognise the importance of such a high-profile exhibition.
“It is great to see the first of the V&A exhibitions now in place and it is a real coup for Dundee, and for Scotland, that we are seeing this particular exhibition first, before it goes on show at the V&A in London,” he said.See Saturday’s Courier for a full feature on the exhibitionMcManus curator Anna Robertson said visitors can expect similar high-profile exhibitions in future.
“There will be a series of exhibitions one a year held in Dundee until the new V&A opens in 2015,” she said. “We hope that the current exhibition will have a wide appeal and I think it will because you see a side of the Queen not often on display.”
Cecil Beaton was a celebrated photographer, designer and avid diarist who launched his career as a ‘society’ photographer in 1926 with an exhibition in London which won him an immediate contract with Vogue, where he worked for 30 years.
His royal portraits were among the most widely published photographs of last century.
The exhibition explores Beaton’s long relationship with the Queen, who was a teenage princess when she first sat for him in 1942. The exhibition is arranged in five sections which span the 1930s to the 1960s, charting the shift in Beaton’s photographic style.
It runs until January 8 before moving to the V&A in London.For more information visit www.themcmanus-dundee.gov.uk