Future exhibitions
A Countryman in Town: Robert Bevan and the Cumberland Market Group, September 26, – December 14, 2008
Robert Bevan was one of 16 founder members of the Camden Town Group, the most important British Post-Impressionist movement. It held its inaugural exhibition in 1911, but by the start of the First World War it had disbanded. Southampton holds one of the finest collections of Camden Town Group work outside the Tate in the world. This exhibition will consider Bevan’s artistic development and key influences and his most familiar subject, the horse, will be prominent through examples of his cab-yard and Camden horse sale paintings. The Cumberland Market Group (an offshoot of the Camden Town Group) has never been investigated through an exhibition in terms of achievement or impact on its member’s art practice. The exhibition will seek to affirm Bevan (there has been no solo exhibition since the 1960s) as a prime-mover of the British Post-Impressionist movement and central to that fascinating fusion of French Modernist aspiration with the quintessential Englishness of subject matter that the Camden Town Group uniquely embodied.Image credit: A Sale at Tattersalls, 1911 by Robert Bevan, oil on canvas. Copyright Southampton City Art Gallery.
Black History Month Exhibition
October 1, – November 2
Black History Month 2008 will be launched at Southampton City Art Gallery on Wednesday, October 1 by the Mayor of the City. Following the successful exhibition in December 2007 "Spirit of Survival", the launch is the prelude to a month long exposition of displays and events highlighting the presence of black people in Southampton from the 16th century to now. This includes an opportunity to view a classic "West Indian Front Room", an exhibition looking at brief moments in time of notable moments relating to the black presence and Southampton and a photographic exhibition amongst other showings.
Further details: Don John 02380 832274
The key objectives of Black History Month are to:
• Promote knowledge of black history and experience
• Disseminate information on positive black contributions
• Heighten confidence and awareness of black people in their cultural heritage.
(if there is space also insert the image by Augusta Taylor of a New Year’s Day party for the children of Walter Taylor’s workers – which shows a black servant and child)
Students’ Choice – Park Avenue
October 24 – December 7
Gallery 8
This exhibition is curated by a group of prominent graduates from Winchester School of Art and features their artworks placed alongside those from the City’s renowned art collection to create an exciting new exhibition. Artists include Stephen Cooper, Anna Barriball, Christian Ward, Richard Wathen, Danny Rolph and Katie Pratt.
Unpopular Culture, January 16 – March 15, 2009
Grayson Perry selects from the Arts Council Collection. Grayson Perry was catapulted into the public consciousness in 2003 when he won the Turner prize, accepting his award dressed as a transvestite alter ego, Clare. A unique figure in the international art scene, Perry is best known for his ceramic pots which he adorns with subject matter ranging from his childhood in rural Essex, his transvestism, and his reflections on British art and society. It is perhaps his desire to reinterpret the past that informs Perry’s recent interest in curating exhibitions from public collections. The exhibition will highlight this emerging aspect of Perry’s practise and offer a unique and personal view of the Arts Council Collection. For over a year Perry has researched the Arts Council Collection’s holdings, painstakingly scouring acquisition catalogues and considering works in the stores. Unsurprisingly for an artist who has always positioned himself on the margins of the art world, he has found himself drawn to art made” before British art became fashionable”, including such work that conveys a sense of tradition, restraint and quiet accomplishment. His selection will feature modern British paintings, sculpture and photographs that embody a certain nostalgia, while exploring notions of place and environment, issues of identity and class and ideas about form. Rather than retreat into a world of rose-tinted romanticism, Perry presents an alternative view of British art, one that reassesses the relationship between past and present and questions the boundaries between the radical, the conservative, and the radically conservative.Olympic Posters from the Victoria and Albert Museum, March 27 - May 31, 2009
This vibrant new exhibition will explore the fascinating representation of the Olympics through the intensely visual medium of the poster. Timed to coincide with the build-up to the London Olympics 2012, the exhibition will examine the function and significance of the Olympic poster, spotlighting the icons and evolving symbols of the Modern Games. Exhibits will be drawn from the V and A’s rich collections of posters and Olympic ephemera; approximately one hundred framed Olympic posters, diverse in content and striking in style, will present the chronology of the games. World-renowned artists represented will include David Hockney, R.B. Kitaj, Victor Vasarely and Roy Lichtenstein.Last updated: 17 July 2008
