Click on the image to listen to an audio recording of Ken Currie discussing the paintings on display in his solo exhibition Tragic Forms with Christopher Baker, Director of the Scottish National Portrait Gallery.

Christopher Baker was appointed Director of the Scottish National Portrait Gallery in August 2012. Prior to taking up this post he was Deputy Director of the Scottish National Gallery from 2003. He was educated at the universities of York and Manchester and has previously held posts at the National Gallery, London, and Christ Church Picture Gallery, Oxford, where for seven years he steered the Gallery’s exhibition and conservation programmes. Christopher has lectured widely and published numerous articles and reviews, focusing on the history of collecting, British art and prints and drawings.

Since the early 1990s, Ken Currie has become known for his closely observed and often unsettling portrayal of the body, depicting the damage inflicted by illness and decay as a response to what he felt was the sickness of contemporary society.