Victoria Gallery into 2005

Jon Benington, Curator

9 December 2004

The speaker emphasised that the Gallery was funded by B&NES and therefore was dependant on per capita attendances. He said that in the last seven years he had been curator, the number of visitors had increased by 50%. Another problem was improving wheelchair access; in addition they were planning a ground floor kiosk with large screen virtual reality tour of upper gallery for the disabled, as there was no lift. He pointed out that anyone interested in research could use their reading room and study the reserve collection.

He first showed J.M.W.Turner’s watercolour of ‘The West Front of Bath Abbey’ (1796) and commented on the reduction in scale of the adjoining houses to make the Abbey look larger.

West Front of Bath Abbey, JMW Turner c.1793
© Victoria Art Gallery, Bath

He next showed the work of Ana Maria Pacheco, to be shown from Jan-April 2005. She was a Brazilian who moved to Britain in the 1970s and studied at the Slade School. Her over life size carved wooden figures compelled the onlooker to confront the darker side of human nature in its exercise of power and domination.

He next showed lithographs based on Henri Matisse’s ‘Drawings with Scissors’ cut out of paper when he was confined to bed. These included ‘The Snail’ and ‘Nu Bleu’ from the touring exhibition of The Arts Council.

Later in 2005 forthcoming exhibitions include, ‘Bath in War’ with paintings by John Piper commissioned by The War Artists Advisory Commission to record the bombing of Bath by the Germans in WWII in retaliation for bombing Rostock and Lubeck. In spite of the Admiralty stationed here there were no defences. He showed the Crescent and Somerset Place by Piper, and also a painting by a lesser-known artist of the incendiary bomb fires over Bath.

An exhibition of David Jones, illustrator and friend of Eric Gill is planned for 2005-6.

He then described the Permanent Collection. This included paintings by William Scott who had taught at the Bath Academy, Peter Lanyon and Walter Sickert including his portrait of Celia Brunel granddaughter of Isambard Kingdom Brunel, and of Bath itself in lighter tones than the work for which he was mainly known.

The speaker mentioned ‘the annual exhibition of the Bath Society of Artists. There was an ‘adopt a picture’ scheme similar to BRLSI ‘adopt a book’ scheme. In view of this the trustees thought it might be worth reviewing the paintings belonging to the BRLSI at present stored by the Victoria Gallery.