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Showing posts with label 60 years On. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 60 years On. Show all posts

Friday, 1 November 2019

Lunchtime talk- Touring the Swindon Collection, 60 Years On

Curator Sophie Cummings gave another really insightful lunchtime talk on Friday 18 October on this wonderful exhibition which reminds us how truly fabulous some of the paintings donated by
In 1959, the Swindon Collection of Modern British art began a tour of 16 towns and cities of the United Kingdom.
'From Falmouth to Sunderland, Southend-on-Sea to Bolton, thousands of museum visitors were introduced to paintings by Paul Nash, LS Lowry, Gwen John and Graham Sutherland. This new exhibition celebrates the sixtieth anniversary of this tour, which introduced the people of Britain to Swindon’s remarkable art and established the reputation of the ‘Swindon Collection’.
This exhibition brings together the 44 works of art sent ‘on tour’ in 1959 and presents them alongside some of the most important acquisitions we have made in the decades since. The exhibition explores the history of the collection and the ambitions and challenges of touring so many pictures to so many places'.
There were at least 20 of us assembled to hear the talk. There's always something new to learn about the collection and Sophie always brings it to life with anecdotes and stories. For example there was one painting that didn't return from the tour. There's a photograph on the wall at the far end of the gallery showing what it looked like, it depicts the platform at Swindon station, and as Sophie remarked, considering the quality of the work on tour, that painting would have been the least covetable.
 Here's Sophie talking about Ben Nicholson's 'Composition in Black and White' painted in 1933 and gifted by H.J.P.Bomford in 1946. The photo I have taken is a bit full of reflections. I'll find a substitute soon. I had never before really appreciated this painting, but Sophie's explanation of its qualities made me really look again, and I saw much more in it.
Another Bomford gift is a big favourite with many visitors, seen below, 'Winter in Pendelbury', 1943 is a beautifully captured and composed snowy scene.
What I hadn't noticed before was the pub sign seen below, have a look next time you look at the painting.
The current ceramics exhibition is called 'Time for Tea' and has lots of tea related pieces. I hadn't seen this beautiful jug before, it's by Glyn Colledge, stoneware with painted glazes, purchased in 2014.
The next lunchtime talks are:
22 November - about Time for Tea Ceramics exhibition
20 December - Hit Repeat, Prints from the Swindon Collection

Thursday, 22 August 2019

Lunchtime talk about Touring the Swindon Collection: 60 years on

The lunchtime talks which accompany exhibitions are usually given by curator Sophie Cummings and give a wonderful insight into the thinking behind the title, and the reason for bringing together these particular works and displaying them in a certain way. This exhibition brings together 44 works which toured the country in 1959, along with some more recent acquisitions. There are more information panels than is often the case because visitors have said they very much enjoy finding out more about the history of paintings.
Here's the 'title wall'
and Sophie just visible above and below talking to about 20 of us
Two shipyard paintings,  John Nash, Dredgers, Bristol Harbour, 1924 on the right
This is a dated looking watercolour by Leslie Kent, 'Home before the Storm', a watercolour painted c 1950, purchased 1951. I've included it because it's so atypical of the Swindon Collection.
Below, another watercolour by Philip Wilson Steer, 'Boats in Harbour' painted in 1920, and presented by the Contemporary Arts Society in 1946.
Below one of the H.J.P.Bomford gifted works by Henry Moore, entitled 'Three Women and a Child', 1944, donated 1946
And last but by no means least, another of the Bomford gifted works in 1946, by Jankel Adler, 'Composition' produced in 1943
There's a lot of reflection so it's difficult to see, but do go and look at the exhibition if you can. There's an information panel on Jankel Adler, and various other artists.