In 2024 FLAG and Museum Development West Midlands jointly
funded a project to enable Leamington Spa AG&M to work with Proud Youth
Leamington, a community group established by Warwickshire Pride, to produce a
zine.
A display in the hammam area, entitled Queertopia,
told the story of the project, showing artwork from the zine alongside museum
items and a film created by Willowmann Productions in 2017, which celebrated
LGBTQ+ stories from the local community.
This project has now been entered in Museum Development
Midlands' the Power of Place: Midlands Museum Award in the category of
Inclusive Impact Award. The winner will be announced in a ceremony on 12
November at Thinktank in Birmingham.
We have the Camoufleurs talk on 14th October - 7.30pm Dormer Place, but thought you might like advance warning about this one coming your way on 18th November!
Congratulations all FLAG members!!! 🙌🙌🙌The total given by you for conservation and some reframing of the Dutch paintings in LSAG's collection has now reached £7,300. Take a bow, you've helped to preserve our heritage!😍😍😍Amazing, well done. If you're not a member already, please consider joining (£15 yearly) to help us conserve and acquire artworks for the future.
Click here to join or click on the link in the left sidebar. You can also pick up a form from the foyer in the Pump Rooms, and on our Facebook page.
(Leamington Spa AG&M have an internationally recognised collection of Dutch paintings. In 2011 these were in need of conservation and some reframing. The Curators came to FLAG asking if we would take on the funding of this project over several years. We agreed to this and gave £1,000 in 2011 to begin the project. We gave £500 in 2012 then rather a gap until 2023 and the Going Dutch exhibition. Our funding of £5,000 in 2023 covered the majority of the necessary work and we have just given a further £800 which concludes this project. Thanks are due to all our members who have helped secure this important collection for the future).
Leamington Spa AG&M have an internationally recognised collection of
Dutch paintings which, in 2011, were in need of conservation and some
reframing. FLAG agreed to take on the funding of this project over
several years.
The majority of this work was completed
for the Going Dutch exhibition in 2023 while the remaining work will be
carried out over the next months. FLAG have been delighted to support
this project which will secure this important collection for the future.
Yesterday I attended a symposium tied to A Different View, the exhibition currently at Leamington Spa Art Gallery & Museum (open until 5 October).
The exhibition brings together over fifty women painters, sculptors,
and photographers from the gallery’s own collection to explore how women
artists have shaped British art through history.
The gallery describes it as:
“The
first survey of women artists in the collection, A Different View
engages with the historic absence of women in academic narratives and
shines a light on those artists who have shaped British art practice and
culture.”
The exhibition places historical,
modern, and contemporary works side by side, tracing what was possible
for women artists from the Victorian period onwards, and how difficult
it often was to carve out a career in a male-dominated art world.
Women at the Royal Academy
It wasn’t until 1860
that women could be admitted to the Royal Academy Schools — the first
being Laura Herford, who submitted work signed only with her initials.
When it was revealed that she was female, the Academy found no rule to
exclude her.
Even so, women were still denied access to the
life-drawing classes that were considered essential for academic
training. Life drawing especially from nude models was thought to be the
foundation of an artist’s education: it develops observational skill, a
grasp of anatomy and proportion, and the ability to translate
three-dimensional form and movement into two dimensions. Working from
photographs simply doesn’t give the same experience or vitality.
In my own practice (The Life Series
of quilts), I relied exclusively on live models. It was the only way to
capture sometimes odd poses with accuracy and energy. All of these works have been exhibited at the gallery in the last few years. You can see the full series on my website.
The Symposium
The
half-day event brought together artists, researchers, and curators to
discuss the representation of women in British art collections. It
coincided with the exhibition’s final week and featured contributions
from Dr Richenda Roberts (University of Warwick), Dr Sophie Hatchwell
and Dr Rebecca Savage (both University of Birmingham), as well as a
panel of exhibiting artists Lou Blakeway, Julie de Bastion, and Mary
Riley.
Dr Richenda Roberts opened with a historical perspective, focusing on figures such as Evelyn De Morgan.
(Yes “wife of” William De Morgan, the potter and novelist, though she
was a professional artist in her own right.) Associated with the later
phase of the Pre-Raphaelite Movement, she also worked within
Aestheticism and Symbolism. Her figural paintings explored spiritual,
mythological, and allegorical themes, often using the female body. She
was a well-known professional artist in her lifetime and her paintings
sold well; we learned that on two occasions she bailed out her husband’s
struggling pottery business with her earnings.
Dr Sophie
Hatchwell and Dr Rebecca Savage then shared research into women artists
represented in the Derbyshire collections, linking them to works in
Leamington’s collections. Their work is uncovering overlooked
contributions and offering new contexts for how these women fit into
British art history, including a lot of discussion about the works for
schools in the 50’s onwards.
The day ended with a panel of four
artists reflecting on the realities of sustaining a practice while
managing family life, caring responsibilities for children and older
parents, and the domestic load; from making work at the kitchen table to
finding space for creativity both physically and mentally. Much of what they said resonated
with me. Despite progress, art remains a heavily male-dominated
profession. I’ll leave you with this thought, out of the National
Gallery’s collection of over 2,300 paintings, just 21 are by women -
that’s around 1%
Rugby Art Gallery
was hosting two exhibitions focusing on the landscape and natural materials.
‘Woven from the field’ showcased both practical baskets woven from willow by
Sue Kirk and more abstract willow forms. Alongside them were textile artist
Rosalind Stoddart’s handwoven pieces made with alpaca fleece dyed with natural
plant dyes. Not only are the alpacas her own, she also grows a wide range of
plants to use as dyes.
‘Found in the fields’ features
prints by Carry Akroyd, inspired by the poet John Clare. Across a wide range of
printmaking techniques and based on close observation of the landscape, flora
and fauna, Carry’s work often quotes words and phrases from Clare, whose poems
were reproduced below.
Both exhibitions are on until
15th November, and well worth a visit.
We also visited Ashby Manor
House, which dates back to the Norman Conquest. A mellow stone building,
it's set alongside the Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary and St
Leodegarius (Ledger) and other stone buildings around a wide courtyard. It was
the home of Robert Catesby and he and his fellow conspirators may have formed
the Gunpowder Plot in an upstairs room of a small half-timbered house close by.
The Manor House itself has had various modernisations and extensions but the
most significant was by Sir Edwin Lutyens, who spent over thirty years on the
house and its gardens.
