Thursday, April 24, 2008

THE EXPLORATIONS SERIES


The Explorations series
explores the permanent collections of the Newport Museum and Art Gallery. Each project showcases rarely seen works belonging to the permanent collections of the Newport Museum and Art Gallery, and provides
an opportunity for enjoyment, reflection and further conversation.

Each project in the Explorations series has been produced by John Wilson as Guest Curator, in collaboration with Roger Cucksey, Keeper of Art, Newport Museum and Art Gallery.



The Newport collections: Artists, genre, and the history of art

The Explorations series provides a frame to explore the permanent collections of the Newport Museum and Art Gallery, and address particular themes across the diverse range of artists, genre and moments in the history of art.





















Commencing with THE POETICS OF PLACE, we collated art works representing the South Wales urban-industrial scene. The iconography of the coalfield was the hallmark of a populist cultural formation in the immediate post-45 period. This phase of painting of the Welsh industrial landscape stands as a counterpart to the earlier cultural achievement of the Welsh industrial novel.

THE ART OF COLLECTING provides a public airing of works by some of the better known artists in the Newport Museum and Art Gallery's collections, and an opportunity to reflect upon the formation of the Newport collections and the future of collecting in a changing world of art.

THE ART OF THE NUDE frames the artistic genre of the nude and provides a fascinating thread through the history of art. The study of the nude formed the basis of the post-Renaissance academic tradition of "Western Art", whilst the departures of modernism and the avant garde likewise saw a peristence of the nude as a vital genre for the artist's exploration. Whither the nude in today's world of CGI and the Internet?

In this process of art historical enquiry we may engage cultural critic Raymond Williams' revisionist challenge, When Was Modernism, to provide a historical redress to "the neglected works left in the wide margin of the century". We also engage the challenge of culture and the public sphere, to open up wider conversation around works in the permanent collections of the Newport Museum and Art Gallery. With a continued dis-articulation of the civic context and the art college as an institution at present, we seek to open up a wider public discourse. We also note the opportunity for a public art strategy to emerge in response to the City of Newport's current regeneration agenda, as well as talk of a Newport riverside locus for a Welsh Institute of Modern Art.


chartistnewport.org

chartistnewport.org - a place for recording Chartist commemoration activities in Newport and South Wales. | John Wilson, 2008

Chartist Calendar 2008

- What's on in South Wales - Chartist conferences, lectures, workshops & walks

Sign the DEMOCRACY DAY PETITION here

DEMOCRACY DAY PETITION | 10 DOWNING STREET

We advocate an annual Democracy Day public holiday on the Monday nearest to the 4th of November, in commemoration of the Newport Chartist Rising of 4th November 1839 when more than 20 men were killed whilst demanding the right to vote.





Our proposed date recalls three pioneering movements in the development of British democracy:

  • The 'Putney Debates' of 28th October to 9th November 1647, when the case for male suffrage was publicly formulated for the first time in British history.
  • The demands of the People's Charter of 1838 which have become the foundation of parliamentary democracy in Britain.
  • The cause of the Women's Suffrage Movement is remembered with the foundation of the Women's Social and Political Union in October 1903, and the events of Black Friday in November 1910 when suffragettes demonstrating outside Parliament were attacked and arrested by the authorities.

As outlined in the Early Day Motion Number 8 that was laid before Parliament on 6th November 2007, we call for this additional public holiday to remember the courage and vision of past generations and the challenge of building democracy today.

THE ART OF THE NUDE

THE ART OF THE NUDE


ARTISTS EXPLORE THE HUMAN FORM

An exhibition of drawings, prints, painting and sculpture

John Wilson and Roger Cucksey, Guest Curators

Newport Museum and Art Gallery | 2008


THE ART OF THE NUDE frames the artistic genre of the nude and provides a public airing of rarely seen works belonging to the permanent collections of the Newport Museum and Art Gallery.

"Art can never exist without naked beauty displayed" - William Blake

"The body always expresses the spirit whose envelope it is. And for him who can see, the nude offers the richest meaning" - Auguste Rodin

"I was trained as a painter. I'm very familiar with the nude body, masculine and feminine. I do, I suppose have a soapbox position, and I want to be certain that the human body is in the center of the frame." - Peter Greenaway, Film-maker


THE ART OF THE NUDE frames the artistic genre of the nude and provides a fascinating thread through the history of art. The study of the nude formed the basis of the post-Renaissance academic tradition of "Western Art", whilst the departures of modernism and the avant garde likewise saw a peristence of the nude as a vital genre for the artist's exploration. Whither the nude in today's world of CGI and the Internet?


Our selection brings together a diverse body of works with a lively conception of the subject of the nude. The large-scale exhibition of 85 works - 28 drawings, 12 prints, 39 paintings and 6 works of sculpture - includes the following prominent artists: Auguste Rodin, Henry Gaudier-Brzeska, William Blake, Sir Edward J. Poynter, Sir Gerald Kelly, Sir William Russell Flint R.A, Peter Blake, Allen Jones, Sir William Goscombe John R.A. , Ceri Richards, Merlyn Evans, Thomas Rathmell, Harry Holland, Angelica Kauffman R.A, Dame Laura Knight R.A. , Elinor Bellingham-Smith and Gerda Roper.

We may reflect upon:

  • the central place of the nude in the history of art

  • the nude as a highly productive genre for the artist's exploration

  • the sometimes controversial role of the nude as a mediator of aesthetic taste and cultural mores across the generations


THE ART OF THE NUDE is the third project in the Explorations series, which provides a frame to explore the diverse range of artists, genre and art historical periods represented in the Newport Museum and Art Gallery collections.

ONLINE RESOURCES

  • video clip - the exhibition selection process



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