Edinburgh Napier University

  McManus Museum and Art Gallery Leisure and Culture Dundee’s fine art collection is a Recognised Collection of National Significance and particularly strong in Scottish fine art photography. A grant from The National Fund for Acquisitions supported the acquisition of two photographs by Ron O’Donnell whose colourful, exuberant work is full of contemporary references.
Liberty Leading the People, 2014, is a digitally constructed work which explores the Scottish Independence referendum with reference to Eugene Delacroix’s (1798–1863) iconic image of French nationhood. Delacroix’s painting had a powerful impact as a statement of nationalism when it was first exhibited in Paris in 1831 and O’Donnell gives full rein to his trademark subversive humour, posing himself as every figure, wielding a series of ineffectual plastic weapons and even crossing the barricade as Liberty herself.

Photograph, Liberty Leading the People, 2014, by Ron O’Donnell, acquired by Leisure and Culture Dundee.
© The Artist http://www.ronodonnell.com/