Art Exhibitions

Sea Fever: From Turner to Today
14 May – 5 September

This major exhibition explores the subject of sea in art from the 18th century through to the present day. For a city like Southampton, the sea is everything; the smell, the sounds the sites, the way it has carved and formed the local history and economy. Looking at Romanticism and Impressionism through to modern and contemporary works, the exhibition will explore themes of the sea, the docks, people, travel and Southampton as a port and place of departure.

Works in the exhibition will recognise the functional relationships we have with the sea, but will also explore the romantic view we hold; the gentle waves, the stillness and the setting sun.
Image credit: Fisherman upon a Lee-Shore in Squally Weather, oil on canvas, by JMW Turner, acquired in 1951.

This exhibition from the National Portrait Gallery celebrates some of Britain’s finest literary talents. Writers of Influence: Shakespeare to JK Rowling features many important British writers and lyricists including William Shakespeare, Geoffrey Chaucer, George Eliot, Charles Dickens, Lewis Carroll, Virginia Woolf, Agatha Christie, John Lennon and Jarvis Cocker. The exhibition includes artwork by Vanessa Bell, Bill Brandt, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Man Ray, Patrick Heron and Lord Snowdon.

One of the National Portrait Gallery’s most important possessions - the ‘Chandos’ portrait of William Shakespeare will be the centrepiece of the exhibition, displayed alongside 60 of the National Portrait Gallery’s most important literary portraits.

The exhibition’s learning activities have been developed with young people from Southampton City Art Gallery’s Youth Forum.

The exhibition is supported by the Department of Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS)/Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) Strategic Commissioning Programme.

Image credit: William Shakespeare, attributed to John Taylor, oil on canvas, c.1610. Copyright National Portrait Gallery, London

On display in gallery 6 is a video piece entitled Spill by Graham Gussin. The mood of the film is calm and gentle; yet the black and white footage presents a curious turn of events. Spill demonstrates the manner in which an artist’s intervention into an everyday location can inform the way that we contemplate architectural spaces.

Image credit: Spill, 1999 by Graham Gussin, b. 1960. Video artwork. Purchased by the Contemporary Art Society Special Collection Scheme with funds from the Arts Council Lottery Fund. Copyright the artist, 2010.

Main Hall: An opportunity to view a new selection of historical and modern British and European paintings from Southampton’s renowned art collection. Amongst the important artists on display are well-known names, such as Rodin, Tissot, and Sutherland.

Baring Room: Burne-Jones, Perseus series
Gallery 5: Renaissance paintings from the collection