Pop and Prosperity Art Snap 10

Pop and Prosperity exploring the post war changes in the sixties might be something you'd think would be easy to access, however not the case to the untrained person, however Katie opened my eyes to these three works she discussed, especially the Richard Hamilton, loved by so many people.
I have postcards of this work, and used to hesitate to send them to Friends with messages on the back, but no longer! This is what the information with the Artsnap says:
'This episode of Art Snaps looks at three pieces in Swindon Museum and Art Gallery's exhibition 'Pop and Prosperity'. Following on from Episode Two about abstract painting on show, Katie looks at Pop Art and Conceptualism, through works by Richard Hamilton, Michael Craig-Martin and Tom Phillips.'
Here are photos of the pieces, taken form the computer screen, so not of the best quality.

Above is a poorly reproduced 'Interior Study A' by Richard Hamilton which depicts a collaged living room wonderfully explained by Katie Ackrill in the Artsnap, a link to which appears at the end of the photos. I will just say that the glamorous woman in the picture was apparently originally looking at a washing machine in an advertisement.

A great favourite, especially with children is 'The Box that Never Closes' by Michael Craig-Martin in 1967.
And thirdly this piece by Tom Phillips with a very long title. I find this harder to appreciate.

But to find out lots more about these three pieces, please click on the link below:

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P38YHtvqDOQ

Art on Tour: The Story of Swindon's Modern Art Collection

You will be aware that Swindon's Spring Festival became a Virtual Festival due to Covid-19 restrictions. What you might not be aware of, is the fact that you can still watch the whole festival online, buy clicking on here
Art On Tours, Katie Ackrill gave an excellent account of Swindon's Modern Art Collection on  Saturday 16 May at 11am, and you can watch the whole video here.
The introductory information on the Spring Festival site says:
'People are often surprised to hear that Swindon owns one of the best collections of Modern British Art in the UK, with artworks by both nationally known and local artists. This vibrant talk for the Swindon Spring Festival will tell the story of Swindon’s art collection, through 12 fascinating artworks. Katie will reveal stories interwoven with these pieces, and reveal how they came to be in Swindon This talk will be available, free of charge, via Swindon Museum and Art Gallery’s YouTube Channel, and Swindon Spring Festival’s YouTube Channel.
Wiltshire-based exhibitions coordinator Katie Ackrill works out of the Swindon Museum and Art Gallery.'
Katie gives a great account of the fascinating stories behind the acquisition of the collection in true festival style. I will include here a few of the works Katie talked about.

This is 'Composition in Black and White' by Ben Nicholson

 and the Patrick Hayman's 'Captain James Cook in New Zealand'

and also 'Port of Bristol' by Paul Methuen

But do click on the link above to hear the whole talk
If this has whetted your appetite for more, quite a few of the works in the collection are listed on the ArtUK website, why not have a look?

The Great British Art Quiz.

The Guardian newspaper is featuring different place each day during lockdown, and it was the turn of Swindon Museum and Art Gallery to be featured today, you can find the quiz here:
https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2020/jun/04/great-british-art-quiz-swindon-museum-art-gallery?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=facebook&fbclid=IwAR3hJ_V2p_2g0iAg5zwkiUzlL1ZUFIfhzcudxqpjPEQIK5F3-XgEennLHp4 
 It's great publicity for Swindon and we're thrilled.
This is how they describe it:
'A daily quiz set by museums, galleries and heritage sites around the UK, which are closed due to coronavirus. It is brought to you in collaboration with Art UK, the online home for the UK’s public art collections, showing art from more than 3,000 venues and by 45,000 artists'
Desmond Morris's 'A Girl Selling Flowers' was used to advertise today's quiz. I hope he's seen it as well.

To access the rest of the quizzes, please click on here:
https://www.theguardian.com/culture/series/the-great-british-art-quiz

Ceramics in Colour - Artsnap 9

For her ninth Artsnap, Katie Ackrill chose 6 items from the Ceramics Collection at Swindon Museum and Art Gallery. This was really great because we haven't got any online access to the ceramics collection, whereas at least we can look at some of the art on the ArtUK website.
Katie discussed the ceramic pieces, selected according to their colours as suggested by the title, she chose to discuss red, orange, yellow, blue and purple glazes. I took a few photos of the screen during her talk, so at least I would have some images of some of the pieces. It's well worth listening to the podcast, a link is found below.

 Above, this is a yellow dish made by Peter Holdworth of the Ramsbury Pottery

A largely blue jug made in the distinctive style of Kate Malone.

 Above a goblet made by Alain Caiger-Smith in 1969, and below a bowl with a red glaze inside made as you can see by Eddie Curtis.

And here's the link to the podcast for lots of information and more ceramic pieces:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6IrprOIpwlc