Magnificent Obsessions : The Artist as Collector at Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts 

Magnificent Obsessions: The Artist as Collector
12 September 2015 – 24 January 2016
£12/£10.50
An exhibition for adults and children alike!
An opportunity for East Anglian Collectors to reveal and share their own magnificent collecting obsessions!

In this exciting new exhibition, Magnificent Obsessions: The Artist as Collector at the Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts, the extraordinary, personal collections of 10 major internationally renowned post war and contemporary artists are shown juxtaposed with their individual art works.

Alongside outstanding art works by artists including Andy Warhol, Peter Blake, Damien Hirst, Howard Hodgkin and Edmund de Waal, the exhibition features wonderful, diverse objects such as cookie jars, model elephants, Punch & Judy puppets, glass eyes and graphic medical illustrations, Japanese netsuke (small carved toggles), stuffed birds, Soviet space dog memorabilia, vintage silk scarves, 20th Century British postcards, shop signs, musical scores and much, much more!

Another exciting, interactive dimension to the exhibition is the invitation for visitors to share their collections. The curatorial team at the Sainsbury Centre wishes to hear from collectors from all over East Anglia – however bizarre or ordinary, big or small their collections are!

Anyone interested in joining in the Magnificent Obsessions collecting buzz should post a picture and 50 words up on the Sainsbury Centre’s facebook page – facebook.com/SainsburyCentre or visit Sainsbury centre.co.uk for more details.

Magnificent Obsessions: The Artist as Collector is curated and organised by Barbican Centre, London and has transferred to the Sainsbury for the Visual Arts.

Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts, University of East Anglia, Norwich, NR4 7TJ
www.scva.ac.uk, 01603 593199, [email protected]

A detailed press release on the exhibition is available and for more information and images please contact: Amanda Stücklin PR - Tel: + 44 (0)7789 007780 E-mail: [email protected]
or Penelope Lucas, Marketing & Communications Officer, Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts
Tel. +44 (0)1603 593649 E-mail [email protected],
Website www.scva.ac.uk

Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts
The Sainsbury Centre was established when Sir Robert and Lady Lisa Sainsbury generously gave their art collection to the University of East Anglia in 1973. The building was designed by Norman Foster and opened in 1978.

For over 40 years, Robert and Lisa Sainsbury collected works of art which ranged across time and place. They sought work both from major European artists, as well as art and antiquities from different periods and cultures around the world. The Sainsbury’s were equally radical in commissioning the young Norman Foster in 1974 as architect for the new building to house their works. Sir Robert saw Foster’s innovative building as the great jewel of the Sainsbury Collection. The Sainsbury Centre is one of the most prominent university art galleries in Britain, and a major national centre for the study and presentation of art. As well as housing the Sainsbury’s art collection, one of the few intact modernist collections of the twentieth century with many seminal works by artists such as Pablo Picasso, Edgar Degas, Francis Bacon, Jacob Epstein, Henry Moore, Alberto Giacometti, and Amedeo Modigliani, it also displays the Anderson Collection of Art Nouveau and the University’s Abstract and Constructivist Collection. Alongside these permanent collections, it hosts a range of temporary exhibitions in the new galleries, which provide the largest climate-controlled exhibition space in Eastern England.

Paul Greenhalgh, Director of the Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts, and himself a passionate collector of ceramic pots, said: “This fascinating and hugely thrilling exhibition gives a real insight into how these particular artists think. Their diverse collections not only inform their art but are direct and tangible expressions of their creativity.”

Claudia Milburn, curator says:  “We want to know what YOU collect and why? How did your collection start? Where did it all begin? Each week, a selection of YOUR collections will be displayed in our gallery and on our website.”

To submit your collections, go to the website www.scva.ac.uk