Masterpieces: Art in East Anglia exhibition at the Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts opens
The Masterpieces: Art in East Anglia exhibition at the Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts opens to the public on Saturday 14 September. Curated by Ian Collins and the Sainsbury Centre team, it is a celebration of art and artefacts connected with the region, many of which have been dispersed across the globe for centuries. For the first time, many of the connections Having had a preview this week, I can say that it is a stunning exhibition in a stunning space. The exhibition galleries have been moved downstairs while the permanent collection remains in the Living Area of the Norman Foster-designed building. Foster's practice is still involved with the Sainsbury Centre and worked very closely on the architectural and spatial changes to the building. The big glass wall at the west end has been opened up for the first time in many years. The reserve collection and ceramics by Hans Coper and Lucie Rie have also been moved upstairs and into the light and airy spaces of the ground floor. The shop is also upstairs in a giant 'polo' arrangement, where you are also welcomed by gallery attendants and guides, overlooked by a huge work by Ana Maria Pacheco, a boat with figures sculpted in her very distinctive style (picture below). A Brazilian-born artist, Ana was head of Fine Art at the Norwich School of Art (now NUA) in 1985-89.
Downstairs, the luxuriant and newly refurbished spaces, really make a difference to the feel of the building, and the way work can be displayed. I don't want to spoil all the surprises before you get there but walking down the spiral staircase and into what used to be the shop is breath-taking in impact. They have also opened the ceiling of that space so that it is almost like an open-air space. It is rich and luxuriant, and appropriate to the work with a theme of precious metal running through the lower galleries displaying the work of masters such as Munnings, Gainsborough, Cotman, Constable, Stubbs as well as more contemporary work by artists such as Self, Fritsch, Moore, , Hepworth, Nicholson, Frink, Hambling and many more. this is in addition to the permanent collection of Francis Bacon portraits, Picasso drawings, the Anderson Art Nouveau collection and the collection of World Art objects which we are used to seeing but are shown in a different context.
Within the Masterpieces exhibition, there are also many artefacts which are interestingly displayed - a flint hand-axe dating from around 700,000BC which is the oldest object in the exhibition is shown with a piece by Henry Moore, Reclining Figure which was carved from an Ironstone pebble found on exactly the same beach at Happisburgh in Norfolk - they have not been linked in this way before. Other objects such as a Norwich Shawl, once the epitome of fashion and desirability in London and coloured with local madder dye (made in Madder Market), and the King John Cup - bejewelled and enamelled and crafted from silver and gold, dating from 1325. This is only scratching the surface of an enormous exhibition - I can't remember all of the things of which I thought 'I must come back and look at this properly'. I was particularly impressed by the Despenser Retable which is a painting dating from the late 14th century which was turned upside down and used as a table top for centuries before being rediscovered, presumably when someone dropped a fork!
You really must go, be prepared to spend a day and if you live locally, the low entry price of £8 means that you can go back as I will have to do as the preview only enabled me to take a glimpse at a few of the hundreds of treasures (250 more precisely) in this exhibition which runs until 24 February. Furthermore, the Sainsbury Centre will be opening to 8pm every day to enable people to visit after work and to park when the rest of UEA is not so busy as it is during the day. Details for booking and opening times etc are on the website www.scva.ac.uk and below are details of the talks programme associated with the exhibition. There is a mammoth catalogue designed by Norwich-based East Publishing which you can buy int he shop for £25 - a feast of bedtime reading for many months to come. The exhibition runs till 24 February 2014
Downstairs, the luxuriant and newly refurbished spaces, really make a difference to the feel of the building, and the way work can be displayed. I don't want to spoil all the surprises before you get there but walking down the spiral staircase and into what used to be the shop is breath-taking in impact. They have also opened the ceiling of that space so that it is almost like an open-air space. It is rich and luxuriant, and appropriate to the work with a theme of precious metal running through the lower galleries displaying the work of masters such as Munnings, Gainsborough, Cotman, Constable, Stubbs as well as more contemporary work by artists such as Self, Fritsch, Moore, , Hepworth, Nicholson, Frink, Hambling and many more. this is in addition to the permanent collection of Francis Bacon portraits, Picasso drawings, the Anderson Art Nouveau collection and the collection of World Art objects which we are used to seeing but are shown in a different context.
Within the Masterpieces exhibition, there are also many artefacts which are interestingly displayed - a flint hand-axe dating from around 700,000BC which is the oldest object in the exhibition is shown with a piece by Henry Moore, Reclining Figure which was carved from an Ironstone pebble found on exactly the same beach at Happisburgh in Norfolk - they have not been linked in this way before. Other objects such as a Norwich Shawl, once the epitome of fashion and desirability in London and coloured with local madder dye (made in Madder Market), and the King John Cup - bejewelled and enamelled and crafted from silver and gold, dating from 1325. This is only scratching the surface of an enormous exhibition - I can't remember all of the things of which I thought 'I must come back and look at this properly'. I was particularly impressed by the Despenser Retable which is a painting dating from the late 14th century which was turned upside down and used as a table top for centuries before being rediscovered, presumably when someone dropped a fork!
You really must go, be prepared to spend a day and if you live locally, the low entry price of £8 means that you can go back as I will have to do as the preview only enabled me to take a glimpse at a few of the hundreds of treasures (250 more precisely) in this exhibition which runs until 24 February. Furthermore, the Sainsbury Centre will be opening to 8pm every day to enable people to visit after work and to park when the rest of UEA is not so busy as it is during the day. Details for booking and opening times etc are on the website www.scva.ac.uk and below are details of the talks programme associated with the exhibition. There is a mammoth catalogue designed by Norwich-based East Publishing which you can buy int he shop for £25 - a feast of bedtime reading for many months to come. The exhibition runs till 24 February 2014
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Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts: Masterpieces Inaugural event and lecture series
On 14 September, the Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts will unveil its newly refurbished galleries by Foster + Partners with a major exhibition displaying the best art of Norfolk and Suffolk throughout history. Masterpieces: Art and East Anglia, 14 September 2013 to 24 February 2014, will celebrate the rich and distinctive artistic heritage of the region, with works ranging from archaeological finds to contemporary design. Comprising over 250 objects loaned from more than fifty major public and private collections including the Royal Collection, the exhibition will showcase the array of masterworks the area has inspired, produced and collected, as well as treasures that have been long associated with East Anglia, and demonstrate its importance in a national and international context. The most ambitious exhibition ever staged in the region, it is a major feature of the celebrations for the 50th anniversary of the University of East Anglia.
An Inaugural Event and Lecture Series complement this landmark exhibition:
13 September 2013 – Inaugural Event with Maggi Hambling
Maggi Hambling will be in conversation with the exhibition’s guest curator Ian Collins. Born in Sudbury, Suffolk, Hambling is a British contemporary artist whose best-known public works are the sculpture for Oscar Wilde in central London and Scallop, a 4-metre-high steel sculpture on Aldeburgh beach dedicated to Benjamin Britten.
19 September 2013 – International Association of Art Critics (AICA) panel: Marjorie Allthorpe-Guyton, Judy Collins, Charles Pickstone and JJ Charlesworth, with Sainsbury Centre Director Paul Greenhalgh responding
What makes a Masterpiece?
A work of art that is singled out as a masterpiece has a special place in the world: it may have a powerful emotional impact on the viewer while for the critic and the art historian it will be a work which is the pinnacle of the artist’s achievement. Such works give great pleasure but are also daunting and demand all the critical faculties to the extent that the critic Adrian Searle, when writing about the Royal Academy exhibition of the Russian art from the Hermitage, talked wearily of ‘one damned masterpiece after another’. The idea of the ‘master’ and the ‘masterwork’ persists in the contemporary world, Frieze Masters opens alongside the Frieze Contemporary Art Fair, but the works of women ‘masters’ now hold centre stage. Masterpieces: Art and East Anglia offers a rich array of ‘masterworks’ of all ages and media and raises questions of value, aesthetic and culture. The panel explores how we look at the masterpiece and what this means for understanding the art of our time.
26 September 2013 – Elizabeth Fritsch
Fritsch on Fritsch
One of our greatest living studio potters, Elizabeth Fritsch, will give an illustrated talk on her life in ceramics. Fritsch’s work has featured on postage stamps, together with that of Hans Coper (her tutor and mentor), Lucie Rie and Bernard Leach. She works with slow precision on complex pieces which reflect her love of music, literature, abstract art and optical illusion. Her talk will offer rare insights into her method and motivation.
3 October 2013 – Colin Self and Simon Martin
Portrait of a Norfolk Pop Artist
Colin Self will be in conversation with Simon Martin, Head of Collections and Exhibitions at Pallant House Gallery. Self was the only member of the Pop Art movement on both sides of the Atlantic to address Cold War issues, and he has held fast to an original line in his wide-ranging and hard-hitting art ever since. Returning early on to his native county – when Hockney left for Los Angeles – he has remained a great champion of East Anglian art.
10 October 2013 – John Davies
The Land of Boudica
This illustrated talk will look at the earliest objects featured in the Masterpieces exhibition, covering the period from the arrival of the very first humans in this part of Europe through to the end of Roman Britain in 410 AD. The significance of these magnificent items will be considered and will serve to illustrate some of the great events and developments in society over time.
17 October 2013 – Charlotte Crawley
Turner, Cotman and the Sea
Turner and Cotman loved boats and both lived part of their lives by the sea – Turner at Margate and Cotman at Great Yarmouth. Their marine paintings reflect Britain’s reliance on the sea, especially during the Napoleonic Wars. In the stormy scene – Lifeboat and Manby Apparatus Going Off to a Stranded Vessel Making Signal (Blue Lights) of Distress (a detail of which is the Masterpieces catalogue cover), Turner pays homage to Norfolk’s Captain Manby, who tried to stem the tide of drownings off our British coast.
24 October 2013 – Fiona MacCarthy
Bauhaus comes to Hampstead: Jack Pritchard, Walter Gropius and Isokon
Jack Pritchard was a rare modernist entrepreneur in 1930s Britain. He and his wife Molly commissioned Lawn Road Flats from the radical architect Wells Coates. This now iconic Hampstead building opened in 1934. In that same year Walter Gropius, a refugee from Nazi Germany, was offered hospitality by Pritchard at Lawn Road. He was followed by Marcel Breuer. Both these ex-Bauhaus maestros designed for Isokon, Pritchard’s experimental isometric building and furnishing company. Fiona MacCarthy knew Jack Pritchard well and helped him write his autobiography View from a Long Chair. The Pritchard Papers are now at UEA and examples of Isokon design from the University’s collection are included in the Masterpieces exhibition.
31 October 2013 – Andrew Motion
The Custom House
Andrew Motion, former Poet Laureate and current President of the Council for the Protection of Rural England, will talk about and read from his new book of mysterious elegies, thoughtful ballads and tender love poems. The Custom House is a three-part collection opening with a sequence of war poems drawing on soldiers’ experiences from the First World War to Afghanistan. Talk to be followed by book-signing.
7 November 2013 – Christopher Hartop
Silver in East Anglia: Celebration and Ceremony
Since the earliest times, silver has been essential not only as a symbol of status but also for its fine aesthetic appeal. In addition, silver’s antiseptic properties have meant that it has always been popular for vessels for food and drink. Silverwork made in East Anglia is among the finest, for large communities of gold- and silversmiths worked in Norwich, Ipswich and other towns during the Middle Ages and, from the 16th century onwards, it is possible to identify works by individuals thanks to their marks. This lecture explores the significance of iconic pieces included in the Masterpieces exhibition such as the medieval King John Cup, c. 1325, Borough Council of King's Lynn and West Norfolk, and the Reade Salt, c. 1568-69, from the Norwich Civic Regalia Collection, as well as the wealth of church silver across the region.
14 November 2013 – Ronald Blythe and David Holt
The Time by the Sea
Ronald Blythe is the leading literary voice of East Anglia thanks to a long line of books spanning almost sixty years. His classic portrait of a Suffolk village, Akenfield, and the ensuing film by Sir Peter Hall, are celebrated in the Masterpieces exhibition. In this talk he will discuss his latest book, The Time by the Sea, which recalls his first days as a novelist in the 1950s when he also assisted Benjamin Britten in organising the Aldeburgh Festival. Extracts from the memoir will be read by the actor and playwright David Holt. Talk to be followed by book-signing.
21 November 2013 – Frances Spalding
‘Between the fish and the laundry’: Benjamin Britten’s Collaboration with John and Myfanwy Piper
Benjamin Britten, an admirer of Charles Dickens, became a great musical dramatist. In the making of his operas he placed great importance on collaboration – between composer, designer, librettist and producer – in order to achieve unity. He is also famous for moving on, abandoning his associates in the search for new talent. However, John Piper, once he came on board in 1946, thereafter designed the sets for all Britten’s major operas, aside from the TV version of Owen Wingrave, while Myfanwy Piper devised three libretti for Britten, for operas that were perhaps closest to his own personal concerns. How did this collaboration come about and what did it achieve? This illustrated talk also contains short film clips.
28 November 2013 – Claire Harman
Facing the Public: Fanny Burney's Struggle with Fame
Edward Francesco Burney's portrait of his cousin Frances at the height of her celebrity in 1785 was intended to honour her achievement as the author of the runaway bestseller, Evelina, but what else does it reveal? Fanny had dreamed of literary fame since girlhood, but felt very differently when it arrived. Claire Harman will talk about Burney's strange tussle with celebrity and the complexity of her feelings about being acknowledged as a 'scribbler'. The success of Evelina brought her money, influence and dazzling new friendships with the leading writers of the age but also a whole set of artistic inhibitions which she spent the rest of her lifetime trying to resolve.
5 December 2013 – Sandy Heslop and Sarah Salih
Art, Revelation and Empathy in England c. 1400: Julian of Norwich and the Berger Crucifixion
As she lay dying in 1373, the woman we now know as Julian of Norwich summoned up the last of her strength to gaze at the crucifix the priest held before her, and saw it bleed. That encounter with devotional art was the starting point of a night of visionary experiences from which she awoke, recovered to health, and to which she dedicated the rest of her life to understanding. Julian’s revelations were intensely visual, drawing upon East Anglia’s rich resources of devotional art: her writings allow us to explore art, affect and spirituality in late medieval culture.
12 December 2013 – Julia Blackburn
John Craske misses the Sea
When the Norfolk fisherman John Craske (1881-1943) became too ill to go to sea, he started making the exquisite paintings and embroideries of the element he missed so much and his work became the delicate thread that kept him going against all odds. Julia Blackburn, who is writing a biography of Craske, will talk about his life.
19 December 2013 – Christopher Wood
From Etheldreda to Erasmus: Aspects of Medieval Pilgrimage in East Anglia
Throughout the Medieval period, East Anglia was not only one of the wealthiest parts of the country, but it was also one of the holiest. Ancient pilgrim sites such as Etheldreda’s tomb at Ely were already established and sites such as Bromholme and Walsingham became places of national importance. Saints ranging from the heroic King Edmund to the obscure Walstan became the interest of pious pilgrims and religious tourists. Christopher Wood will take us on a journey around holy places of East Anglia and investigate the development of interest, meaning and understanding of diverse aspects of pilgrimage in this era.
All the above will take place in the Elizabeth Fry Lecture Theatre, UEA, from 7pm to 8.30pm except for the Inaugural Event with Maggi Hambling which will be from 5pm to 6.30pm.
Ticket: £8.00; concessions (retired, unwaged, young people in full-time education, students): £6.00
SCVA Friends / National Art Pass Holders / UEA Staff / UEA Students / John Innes Centre: £4.00
To book, please contact 01603 593199.
An Inaugural Event and Lecture Series complement this landmark exhibition:
13 September 2013 – Inaugural Event with Maggi Hambling
Maggi Hambling will be in conversation with the exhibition’s guest curator Ian Collins. Born in Sudbury, Suffolk, Hambling is a British contemporary artist whose best-known public works are the sculpture for Oscar Wilde in central London and Scallop, a 4-metre-high steel sculpture on Aldeburgh beach dedicated to Benjamin Britten.
19 September 2013 – International Association of Art Critics (AICA) panel: Marjorie Allthorpe-Guyton, Judy Collins, Charles Pickstone and JJ Charlesworth, with Sainsbury Centre Director Paul Greenhalgh responding
What makes a Masterpiece?
A work of art that is singled out as a masterpiece has a special place in the world: it may have a powerful emotional impact on the viewer while for the critic and the art historian it will be a work which is the pinnacle of the artist’s achievement. Such works give great pleasure but are also daunting and demand all the critical faculties to the extent that the critic Adrian Searle, when writing about the Royal Academy exhibition of the Russian art from the Hermitage, talked wearily of ‘one damned masterpiece after another’. The idea of the ‘master’ and the ‘masterwork’ persists in the contemporary world, Frieze Masters opens alongside the Frieze Contemporary Art Fair, but the works of women ‘masters’ now hold centre stage. Masterpieces: Art and East Anglia offers a rich array of ‘masterworks’ of all ages and media and raises questions of value, aesthetic and culture. The panel explores how we look at the masterpiece and what this means for understanding the art of our time.
26 September 2013 – Elizabeth Fritsch
Fritsch on Fritsch
One of our greatest living studio potters, Elizabeth Fritsch, will give an illustrated talk on her life in ceramics. Fritsch’s work has featured on postage stamps, together with that of Hans Coper (her tutor and mentor), Lucie Rie and Bernard Leach. She works with slow precision on complex pieces which reflect her love of music, literature, abstract art and optical illusion. Her talk will offer rare insights into her method and motivation.
3 October 2013 – Colin Self and Simon Martin
Portrait of a Norfolk Pop Artist
Colin Self will be in conversation with Simon Martin, Head of Collections and Exhibitions at Pallant House Gallery. Self was the only member of the Pop Art movement on both sides of the Atlantic to address Cold War issues, and he has held fast to an original line in his wide-ranging and hard-hitting art ever since. Returning early on to his native county – when Hockney left for Los Angeles – he has remained a great champion of East Anglian art.
10 October 2013 – John Davies
The Land of Boudica
This illustrated talk will look at the earliest objects featured in the Masterpieces exhibition, covering the period from the arrival of the very first humans in this part of Europe through to the end of Roman Britain in 410 AD. The significance of these magnificent items will be considered and will serve to illustrate some of the great events and developments in society over time.
17 October 2013 – Charlotte Crawley
Turner, Cotman and the Sea
Turner and Cotman loved boats and both lived part of their lives by the sea – Turner at Margate and Cotman at Great Yarmouth. Their marine paintings reflect Britain’s reliance on the sea, especially during the Napoleonic Wars. In the stormy scene – Lifeboat and Manby Apparatus Going Off to a Stranded Vessel Making Signal (Blue Lights) of Distress (a detail of which is the Masterpieces catalogue cover), Turner pays homage to Norfolk’s Captain Manby, who tried to stem the tide of drownings off our British coast.
24 October 2013 – Fiona MacCarthy
Bauhaus comes to Hampstead: Jack Pritchard, Walter Gropius and Isokon
Jack Pritchard was a rare modernist entrepreneur in 1930s Britain. He and his wife Molly commissioned Lawn Road Flats from the radical architect Wells Coates. This now iconic Hampstead building opened in 1934. In that same year Walter Gropius, a refugee from Nazi Germany, was offered hospitality by Pritchard at Lawn Road. He was followed by Marcel Breuer. Both these ex-Bauhaus maestros designed for Isokon, Pritchard’s experimental isometric building and furnishing company. Fiona MacCarthy knew Jack Pritchard well and helped him write his autobiography View from a Long Chair. The Pritchard Papers are now at UEA and examples of Isokon design from the University’s collection are included in the Masterpieces exhibition.
31 October 2013 – Andrew Motion
The Custom House
Andrew Motion, former Poet Laureate and current President of the Council for the Protection of Rural England, will talk about and read from his new book of mysterious elegies, thoughtful ballads and tender love poems. The Custom House is a three-part collection opening with a sequence of war poems drawing on soldiers’ experiences from the First World War to Afghanistan. Talk to be followed by book-signing.
7 November 2013 – Christopher Hartop
Silver in East Anglia: Celebration and Ceremony
Since the earliest times, silver has been essential not only as a symbol of status but also for its fine aesthetic appeal. In addition, silver’s antiseptic properties have meant that it has always been popular for vessels for food and drink. Silverwork made in East Anglia is among the finest, for large communities of gold- and silversmiths worked in Norwich, Ipswich and other towns during the Middle Ages and, from the 16th century onwards, it is possible to identify works by individuals thanks to their marks. This lecture explores the significance of iconic pieces included in the Masterpieces exhibition such as the medieval King John Cup, c. 1325, Borough Council of King's Lynn and West Norfolk, and the Reade Salt, c. 1568-69, from the Norwich Civic Regalia Collection, as well as the wealth of church silver across the region.
14 November 2013 – Ronald Blythe and David Holt
The Time by the Sea
Ronald Blythe is the leading literary voice of East Anglia thanks to a long line of books spanning almost sixty years. His classic portrait of a Suffolk village, Akenfield, and the ensuing film by Sir Peter Hall, are celebrated in the Masterpieces exhibition. In this talk he will discuss his latest book, The Time by the Sea, which recalls his first days as a novelist in the 1950s when he also assisted Benjamin Britten in organising the Aldeburgh Festival. Extracts from the memoir will be read by the actor and playwright David Holt. Talk to be followed by book-signing.
21 November 2013 – Frances Spalding
‘Between the fish and the laundry’: Benjamin Britten’s Collaboration with John and Myfanwy Piper
Benjamin Britten, an admirer of Charles Dickens, became a great musical dramatist. In the making of his operas he placed great importance on collaboration – between composer, designer, librettist and producer – in order to achieve unity. He is also famous for moving on, abandoning his associates in the search for new talent. However, John Piper, once he came on board in 1946, thereafter designed the sets for all Britten’s major operas, aside from the TV version of Owen Wingrave, while Myfanwy Piper devised three libretti for Britten, for operas that were perhaps closest to his own personal concerns. How did this collaboration come about and what did it achieve? This illustrated talk also contains short film clips.
28 November 2013 – Claire Harman
Facing the Public: Fanny Burney's Struggle with Fame
Edward Francesco Burney's portrait of his cousin Frances at the height of her celebrity in 1785 was intended to honour her achievement as the author of the runaway bestseller, Evelina, but what else does it reveal? Fanny had dreamed of literary fame since girlhood, but felt very differently when it arrived. Claire Harman will talk about Burney's strange tussle with celebrity and the complexity of her feelings about being acknowledged as a 'scribbler'. The success of Evelina brought her money, influence and dazzling new friendships with the leading writers of the age but also a whole set of artistic inhibitions which she spent the rest of her lifetime trying to resolve.
5 December 2013 – Sandy Heslop and Sarah Salih
Art, Revelation and Empathy in England c. 1400: Julian of Norwich and the Berger Crucifixion
As she lay dying in 1373, the woman we now know as Julian of Norwich summoned up the last of her strength to gaze at the crucifix the priest held before her, and saw it bleed. That encounter with devotional art was the starting point of a night of visionary experiences from which she awoke, recovered to health, and to which she dedicated the rest of her life to understanding. Julian’s revelations were intensely visual, drawing upon East Anglia’s rich resources of devotional art: her writings allow us to explore art, affect and spirituality in late medieval culture.
12 December 2013 – Julia Blackburn
John Craske misses the Sea
When the Norfolk fisherman John Craske (1881-1943) became too ill to go to sea, he started making the exquisite paintings and embroideries of the element he missed so much and his work became the delicate thread that kept him going against all odds. Julia Blackburn, who is writing a biography of Craske, will talk about his life.
19 December 2013 – Christopher Wood
From Etheldreda to Erasmus: Aspects of Medieval Pilgrimage in East Anglia
Throughout the Medieval period, East Anglia was not only one of the wealthiest parts of the country, but it was also one of the holiest. Ancient pilgrim sites such as Etheldreda’s tomb at Ely were already established and sites such as Bromholme and Walsingham became places of national importance. Saints ranging from the heroic King Edmund to the obscure Walstan became the interest of pious pilgrims and religious tourists. Christopher Wood will take us on a journey around holy places of East Anglia and investigate the development of interest, meaning and understanding of diverse aspects of pilgrimage in this era.
All the above will take place in the Elizabeth Fry Lecture Theatre, UEA, from 7pm to 8.30pm except for the Inaugural Event with Maggi Hambling which will be from 5pm to 6.30pm.
Ticket: £8.00; concessions (retired, unwaged, young people in full-time education, students): £6.00
SCVA Friends / National Art Pass Holders / UEA Staff / UEA Students / John Innes Centre: £4.00
To book, please contact 01603 593199.