Aberdeen Art Gallery. Aberdeen Art Gallery is the main visual arts exhibition space in the city of Aberdeen, Scotland. It was founded in 1884, in a building designed by Alexander Marshall Mackenzie, with a sculpture court added in 1905. In 1900 it received the art collection of Alexander Macdonald, a local granite merchant. The gallery is noted for its fine collection of modern Scottish and international art, including works by Ken Currie, Gilbert & George, Ivor Abrahams, Bridget Riley and Bruce McLean. The permanent collection includes 18th-century works by Henry Raeburn, William Hogarth, Allan Ramsay and Joshua Reynolds, and 20th-century works by Paul Nash and Francis Bacon, the Post-Impressionists and the Scottish Colourists, as well as applied arts and crafts. The central hall is supported by granite columns in a variety of colours, derived from different quarries in the local area and far beyond. At the western end of the building, with a room inside and a monument outside, is a major war memorial. The Memorial Court court has a display of several books of remembrance and rolls of honour, commemorating the fallen of World War I, World War II, the Merchant Navy and Fishing Fleets in World War II, and from conflicts after 1945. The Gallery was closed for a programme of renovations commencing in 2015.