Emeritus Professor and prolific poet Edwin Morgan has donated his personal collection of 70 paintings, mostly by well known Scottish artists, as an outright gift to the University of Glasgow.

To celebrate this very generous gift, the Hunterian Art Gallery has organised an exhibition centered around Morgan's art collection. It includes a selection of paintings, drawings and prints, and examples of his own literary output acquired by the Special Collections department of Glasgow University Library over recent years. The exhibition opens on Monday 15 November. Most of the artist he has known personally throughout his career and some of them have not previously exhibited their work at the Hunterian, such as Peter Howson (see picture). The works themselves have been kept in Morgan's flat in the West end of the city, having not been on display publicly around galleries around Glasgow for some 20 to 30 years.

'As a graduate of the University himself, Morgan has felt a tremendous amount of loyalty to the University, its staff and students and the surrounding area of the city of Glasgow,' explained Dr Alan Riach, head of Scottish Literature at the University.

'It was no surprised that as a young graduate offered a place to undertake research at prestigious Oxford University, that he turned down this offer in favour of a lecturing post at his department in Glasgow. This gift therefore exemplifies his strong bond with the University.'

Morgan himself explains:

'I enjoyed looking at my paintings for many years but now they have become a part of me and I don't need to have them. I don't regret giving then away at all. I want other people to have a look at them and enjoy them.'

Mungo Campbell, Deputy Director of the Hunterian Art Gallery comments:

'The Hunterian has, since its foundation, depended greatly for the development of its outstanding collections on the generosity of private individuals. Gifts of this range and quality are rare; Edwin Morgan's collection is the more to be treasured, reflecting as it does so clearly half a century at the centre of creative life in Glasgow and in Scotland.'

The display includes:

John Byrne, Boy with Paper Snake, watercolour

Steven Campbell, Devil and Boat, 1993, gouache

James Cowie, Tanagra and Lanscape, watercolour

Peter Howson, Barking, 2002, hand coloured etching from underground Series (pictured left)

John Wyndham Lewis, Couple, watercolour, c.1920

John Duncan Fergusson, Girl by Flower Stall, oil on panel, c. 1900

A selection of his collection will be on display at the Hunterian at the end of this week.

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For more details please contact Mike Findlay the University Press Officer on 0141 330-3535.

First published: 9 November 2004