GLASGOW is to make its biggest outlay for art works in several years, spending hundreds of thousands on a collection by the artist from the city to win the Turner Prize.

 

The city council is expected to this week agree to release £250,000 towards acquiring the most significant works by Douglas Gordon, credited with helping propel Glasgow to the forefront of the contemporary art world.

The Turner Prize winner in 1996, Gordon is one of the world's leading contemporary visual artists and is one of the catalysts for what has been dubbed the "Glasgow Miracle".

He has agreed to sell a growing compilation of works to the city for £250,000 less than the market rate, having made the offer after his role the cultural programme surrounding the Commonwealth Games last year.

It will go on display at the city's museums.

The city will help pay for the collection from its £7million arts acquisition fund. Sources say it has been several years since it has made such a significant outlay.

Pretty Much Every Film and Video Work From About 1992 Until Now", from £450,000. The rest will be made up from the national fundraising charity for art and the trust which runs Glasgow's museums and galleries.

Councillors are also expected to give the green light for £50,000 to be released to acquire works by Steven Campbell, one of the most well-known Scottish artists of his time.

Campbell, who died in 2007, rose to fame after making an extraordinary impression on the New York art scene in the early 1980s, helping to place Scottish art in an international context.

He returned to Glasgow and helped pave the way for the next generation of Scottish artists led by Douglas Gordon to establish their international careers from their home country.

A council spokesman said: "Douglas Gordon enjoys worldwide recognition and is represented in major public collections internationally. His success is an amazing and powerful story for Glasgow.

"However, we lack any significant holding of his work in our collection. We are unable to tell the story of his success, his global influence on contemporary art practice, how he contributed to Glasgow's fame in the contemporary art world and continues to do so.

"To date, his works have valued far in excess of funding levels normally available to us for acquisition. However, having worked directly with Douglas Gordon on Glasgow's centrepiece exhibition for the Culture 2014 programme

Generation, Glasgow City Council now has a unique opportunity to acquire his most significant work at a greatly discounted price.

"This acquisition will simultaneously bring this story back home, as well as underline the international strength and quality of our collection to the world."

Gordon trained at The Glasgow School of Art from 1984 to 1988 and at the Slade School of Art, London from 1988 to 1990.

He won the Turner Prize in 1996, the Premio 2000 at the 47th Venice Biennale in 1997, the Hugo Boss Prize in 1998 and the Kathe Kollwitz Prize in 2012.

He teaches in Frankfurt and lives and works in Berlin and Glasgow. Included in the overall acquisition cost for Glasgow are all regular updates of future films by the artist which will be added to the piece.

If acquired by Glasgow Museums, it will mean the city becomes home for the single largest collection of his work in the UK.