Britain's
Museums New Digital Reach Out
Led
by Neil MacGregor, the British Museum's unique Director, the new year
has heralded a gallimaufry of exciting (the only appropriate
adjective) and certainly unprecedented digital initiatives by UK
museums and galleries to positively encourage and involve the public
in their work.
A History of the World in 100 Objects is a joint project by the BBC and the British Museum. Written and narrated by Mr MacGregor this lengthy BBC radio series is devoted to doing the seemingly impossible – using the power of word only to describe and discuss an immense range of objects from pre-historic times to the present day to illuminate, no other word will do, human history. All the objects have been chosen from the Museum's collections by the Director and his Curators with the aim of “focusing on a particular period in world history through a specific object.” It is an extraordinary undertaking which if you doubt its viability then find the website, listen to the programmes, and add your own suggestions. www.bbc.co.uk/ahistoryoftheworld
These days where would any of us be without the online riches of Wikipedia? Yet curiously, if on reflection unsurprisingly, that giant and unique resource has little in the way of illustrations from the colossal range of objects held by UK museums: individually and collectively of considerable cultural importance, not least for the light that they throw on our past history and origins. Britain Loves Wikipedia is a collaboration between the Museum's Libraries and Archives Council (MLA), Collections Trust and Culture 24, and Wikimedia UK. It aims to encourage members of the public, cameras in hand, to visit participating museums throughout February in England, Scotland and Wales, to seek out treasures and to upload them on www.britainloveswikipedia.org
“Does the art of the past say anything about the world of today?” “Should the public have a say in what goes into museums?” And even more provocatively perhaps: “Is British art a British fantasy?” Three good questions among many others no doubt that have inspired The Great British Art Debate. This four-year programme aims to “stimulate debate about the impact of British art of the public's perception of Britishness.” This is quite a challenge and the partners in the project, Tate Britain, Tyne and Wear Museums, Norfolk Museums, and Museums Sheffield, have created four flavourful exhibitions which over the next two years each will present in different ways. The first, Watercolour in Britain: Travelling with Colour has just opened at Norwich Castle Museum. The others also have interesting and unusual themes of Relative Values, Restless Times and a solo show devoted to the amazing 19th century British artist John Martin. The public is invited to take full part in the debate online www.greatbritishartdebate.org
Saving
The Staffordshire Hoard for England's West Midlands
Back
in the “Dark Ages” so called because of the lack of contemporary
written sources, a person or persons unknown buried
a huge hoard of gold and silver, lost until their chance discovery in
a field in the English West Midlands in July 2009 by metal
detectorist Terry Herbert. With a generous sense of responsibility,
Mr Herbert reported his find to the local officer of the National
Portable Antiquities Scheme whereupon all hell broke out – in a
strictly archaeological sense, and a team was immediately sent by
English Heritage to further excavate the find-area, which proved to
be barren.
The now-called “The Staffordshire Hoard” comprises an astonishing number of items from the Anglo-Saxon era, more than 1,500 in total, most are gold (in total weighing approx. 5 kg) some are silver (approx 1.3 kg) and many are decorated with precious gems. They all appear to date from the 7th century AD, a tumultuous period with the local tribal kingdoms generally if not constantly at war – a situation echoed by the contents of hoard which are more or less exclusively martial, notably including many pommel caps and sword hilt collars, all of the finest craftsmanship and all highly decorated.
At a local inquest the coroner declared the find to be Treasure, whereupon it became the property of the Crown. Subsequently a formal valuation of £3.3 million was obtained, statutorily the full market value, entitling the finder and the landowner to divide the reward between them, the money to be found by the 17th April. The discovery of the Staffordshire Hoard engendered so much local interest and excitement that the decision was made to purchase the Hoard for display in Birmingham and Stoke-on-Trent, whose museums are closest to the find-site. For a nationally important treasure this is a spectacular notion supported with his customary élan by the historian Dr David Starkey who declared “The Staffordshire Hoard is the largest and most valuable collection of Anglo-Saxon gold ever... But break it up or move it and its meaning would be lost. It must stay here, together and intact, to be studied and displayed in the West Midlands, the foundation of whose history it will now become.”
It fell to Dr. Kevin Leahy, National Finds Adviser of the Portable Antiquities Scheme to catalogue the hoard. His comments are rather more measured, suggesting that “the discovery of this hoard in Staffordshire should cause no surprise. It is in the heartland of the Anglo-Saxon Kingdom of Mercia which was “militarily aggressive and expansionist during the seventh century.” The material could have been collected, he says, by any of several kings “during their wars with Northumbria and East Anglia or by someone whose name is lost to history.” Dr. Leahy's remarks imply a possible Royal origin for the hoard which is uniformly of “consummate craftsmanship... the very best that Anglo-Saxon metalworkers could do, and they were very good.” The only items in the whole hoard that are clearly non-martial are two or three crosses, of which the “largest may have been an altar or processional cross.” Romantically only, these crosses might serve to remind some of us of the saintly monk Chad, Bishop of Mercia in the late 7th century, whose see was at Lichfield nearby.
The Art Fund charity is spearheading the campaign to save the Staffordshire Hoard by the 17th April deadline. It has made an initial grant of £300,000 to the Appeal for £3.3 million which has been supported also with initial grants of £100,000 from both Birmingham and Stoke-on-Trent city councils. www.artfund.org/hoard
New Galleries at the Prado,
Madrid
All of us who love the Prado
in Madrid will be more than pleased to learn that last Autumn twelve
new galleries were opened to display its 19th century collections.
From now on, visitors can enjoy for the first time “a complete,
uninterrupted overview of the historical development of Spanish art
from the Romanesque to the modern masters of the 19th century.”
Nearly 200 additional works are now on permanent public display,
including a number never previously shown, in a series of
thematically arranged galleries from Goya to Sorolla. Other paintings
by Meissonier, Alma-Tadema and David Roberts add an international
element, as do sculptures by Antonio Canova and Bertel
Thorwaldsen.
Museo
Nacional del Prado, Paseo del Prado, 28014, Madrid, Spain. Tel. +34
91 330 28 00 (Open Tues – Sun). www.museodelprado.es
Seaton Delaval Hall Passes
to the Public
Seaton Delaval Hall,
in the north east of England, is an immense turreted house designed
in his most powerful Baroque style by Sir John Vanburgh, the
architect responsible for Blenheim Palace and Castle Howard. Built
between 1718 and 1728 the Hall was gutted by fire in 1822, partially
restored in the 1860s and again in the 1950s, it remained unoccupied
until the 1980s when it became the home of a direct family
descendent, Edward Astley, 22nd Baron Hastings. Although living in
only a single wing of what was a essentially a huge though
magnificent built shell, Lord Hastings and his wife brought the house
to life once again, remade the gardens and opened the Hall and its
spectacular stables to the public. Lord Hastings died in 2007 and the
onset of death duties brought the prospect of the sale of the
property and the dispersal of its contents.
Holding its largest-ever public consultation, The National Trust found huge local support in Northumbria for making practical use of the house and its grounds. This positive interest gave the charity the confidence to consider taking the Hall into its ownership and in this way to help drive forward the regeneration of a former now deprived coal-mining area.
Public enthusiasm and expert excitement brought the
Government into the picture which agreed to exercise its right to
Accept in Lieu of inheritance tax the whole property. This met a tax
bill of £4.9 million - £1.7m for the Hall and land and £3.2m for
the contents of the house and the garden statuary. The Government has
given the Hall to the National Trust which has pledged £6.9 million
to create an endowment fund of which more than £3 million has been
raised by public appeal.
Seaton Delaval
Hall, Seaton Sluice, Whitley Bay, Northumberland NE26 4QR. Tel. +44
0191 237 1493.
Off The Leash
in Trafalgar Square
Nothing
if not cheerfully notorious, surely, Michael Landy is the new
Roostein Hopkins Foundation Associate Artist at London's National
Gallery. He first came to public attention in 2001 when he was given
use of an empty department store in London's Oxford Street where, in
full view of the customary whirl of shoppers and tourists, he
carefully and systematically destroyed all his possessions. Entitled
Break Down
this extraordinary and never to be
forgotten work was an Artangel commission. Then in 2004, Michael
Landy made another, differently amazing, equally waggish work:
Semi-Detached
a full-size replica of his parent's
house that stretched across the Duveen Galleries at the Tate Britain.
In between he creates, we're told, obsessively “meticulous drawings
and collages.” What he makes of his two year's residency should be
interesting – in the extreme.
The Vauxhall
Collective 2009
New
to me anyhow, the Vauxhall Collective is an intriguing and
imaginative as well as original form of sponsorship by the huge car
company Vauxhall. The Collective's most recent series of commissions
are fascinatingly varied. Studio Glithero, an Anglo-Dutch
partnership, have been inspired by the Collective's current theme
“Reinventing British Classics” to use the idea of the
photographic blueprint to create a new range of ceramics – the
Blueware
Collection. Working
with master ceramicists in Stoke-on-Trent, the ancient centre of
Britain's ceramics industry, Studio Glithero have invented a process
which brings up to date the original 1840 invention by the chemist
and botanist John Hershell. White ceramic vases and tiles were
embedded with light-reacting chemicals; on these were arranged
botanical specimens, some from the Herbarium at Kew Gardens, others
from social housing projects throughout the UK. Everything was then
exposed to ultraviolet light. The final results being a series of
white floral silhouettes on a dark blue background.
There are three other differently interesting Vauxhall commissions for 2009: Scottish artist Katie Paterson has been inspired by the British Seaside town to create Streetlight Storm. She plans an installation using a series of lights that will be strung along a pier (her chosen location is still to be announced) which will flicker in harmony with storm patterns throughout the world. Theatre practitioner Duncan Speakman aims to take to the streets (of three major UK cities) his “subtle mobs” an idea that combines cinematic style soundtracks and narrative on downloadable MP3 tracks. Argentinian-born (and former illegal immigrant to Europe) photographer Seba Kurtis has in fact just completed his commission The Promised Land in which he set out to explore both his pre-conceptions of British people as well as what it means to be British in our modern multi-cultural society. For full details: www.vauxhallcollective.co.uk
Magna Carta:
“Memory of the World”
Back
in July last year (my apologies for the unconscionable delay in
mentioning it) Magna Carta was awarded 'Memory of the World' status
by UNESCO (the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural
Organization). Magna Carta, the Great Charter, dates from 1215 when
King John was confronted by the English Barons and forced to accede
to a number of rights for individuals notably that “no free man
should be imprisoned without the lawful judgement of his equals.”
Thus Magna Carta was to become a foundation for democracy, for human
rights and the rule of law.
There are in fact four surviving copies of Magna Carta. Two are held by the British Library and one each by Salisbury and Lincoln cathedrals. UNESCO's Memory of the World Register “is a catalogue of documentary heritage of global significance and outstanding universal value” which aims to help preserve and promote access to its riches. Magna Carta now joins a list an international list that includes the pre-Columbian Aztec Codices in Mexico and Guttenberg's Bible printed in Germany. The copies in the British Library are displayed in a dedicated interpretative gallery there and on its website: www.bl.uk
Export Bars Can
Work
In
2009 (ArtNewsLetter no. 162, October/November) I reported on the
export threat facing a set of twenty immensely important and very
rare watercolours of The Eglinton Tournament, a
Gothic extravaganza mounted by the wealthy and romantically inclined
Earl of Eglinton at his Scottish castle in 1839. These pictures by
James Henry Nixon provided a unique contemporary record of the event
and were the subject of a temporary export bar by the UK's Culture
Minister. They were on offer with, some very interesting shields,
historic relics in themselves, that had been used to furnish the
knight's tents. With major contributions from the Heritage Lottery
Fund and the Art Fund charity, the purchase was successfully
completed and a funding package assembled sufficient to mean that
this spring the watercolours and shields will go display to the
public in East Ayrshire at Dean Castle, Kilmarnock.
It seems that the Culture Minister also exercised her powers last year to put an export bar for the first time on some dresses. To be more accurate, on nine gowns designed by the French couturier Madeleine Vionnet (1876 – 1975). Aided by the Art Fund, three institutions, each with important fashion collections, joined forces to purchase the gowns: the Victoria and Albert Museum, London (four dresses); The Bowes Museum, Barnard Castle (three); and the Fashion Museum, Bath (two).
Please check opening times and days before travelling any distance.
www.artnewsletter.com
February/March
2010