This vibrant new exhibition, opening on Saturday 29th October, will give light to some of the Russell-Cotes’ most popular early 20th century paintings, collected by the first curators, after Annie and Merton Russell-Cotes’ deaths in the 1920s.
During the 1920s and 30s the Russell-Cotes collected some wonderful work, and from the 1930s tirelessly encouraged contemporary art in the area. The curators focussed particularly on paintings by local artists when the local art scene, led by the Bournemouth Arts Club, was particularly vibrant and active, as well as national names through the Contemporary Arts Society and the War Artists’ Advisory Committee.
The exhibition is themed into portraits including work by William Rothenstein, Henry Lamb, John Minton, Laura Knight and Charles Goldie, scenes of modern life – William Roberts, Evelyn Dunbar, Richard Eurich, landscapes by Graham Sutherland, Stephen Bone, Harry van der Weyden and Edward Frampton and spiritual life as depicted in the work of Joseph Southall, CRW Nevinson and Eric Gill.
A particular focus will be works in tempera, a medium championed by the Curator Norman Sylvester which will sit alongside fantastic Dorset landscapes by locally based artists Henry Lamb, Leslie Moffatt Ward, Bernard Gribble and Eustace Nash. Meanwhile paintings donated by the War Artists’ Advisory Committee such as Albert Richards, Edward Bawden and Walter Monnington will also be displayed.
20thcentury sculptures, ceramics and miniatures also appear in “Meeting Modernism”.
Sarah Newman, Programmes Officer at The Russell-Cotes comments, “This fascinating new exhibition is an idiosyncratic perspective on 20thcentury art in the best tradition of the Russell-Cotes, contrasting modernity against continuity, and asks the visitor to consider the choices the curators made in the 20thcentury.”
Step back to the 1930s and ’40s and judge for yourself how well early curators chose Modernist works to complement and respond to the themes in the Victorian collection.
This exhibition runs until 24 April 2017.
Bournemouth’s Russell-Cotes Art Gallery and Museum is situated on the East Cliff with fantastic views of the coastline. It is open from 10am to 5pm, Tuesday-Sunday and Bank Holiday Mondays.
Attached: Spray, c.1940, oil on canvas, by Harold Sandys Williamson (1892-1978)
