Manchester and Whitworth Gallery
On a day out, we visited Whitworth Gallery, along with Manchester Gallery. The Whitworth Art Gallery contains about 55,000 items in its collection. The museum is located in Whitworth Park south of the Oxford Road campus of the University of Manchester. Manchester Art Gallery, formerly Manchester City Art Gallery, is a publicly owned art museum on Mosley Street in Manchester city centre. I took several pictures around Manchester and a few inside the galleries too, especially of artwork that I found inspiring and beautiful.
Whitworth Gallery
'Vox Uccelli' 1971- Pen and ink on paper.
This work stems from a chance visit on a misty november to Winchester Cathedral. The organ had been dismantled and the metallic pipes propped in the nave, creating a bizarre architectural counterpoint. The drawing's narrative combines varied viewpoints and system of perspective as the interior elements converge with a wintry landscape.
'The Concrete Armada' 1978- Pen and ink on paper in 5 panels.
This battle-piece explores the coastal gun emplacements of Hitler's Atlantic Wall on one side of the Channel during World War II and the naval sea-forts on stilts protecting Britain. The drawing was in my artist in-residence studio in Manchester, 1982, during the Falklands War. It followed an earlier long-battle drawing using the imagery of historical fortifications.
Michael Craig-Martin 'Innocence and Experience' (Flashlight) 1996 Acrylic paint on canvas.
Sophie De Stempel b.1960 'The Ramparts' (After Othello) 1992-1993 Oil paint on board.
'Skulls' 1976, Andy Warhol. Acrylic Paint and silkscreen on 6 canvases.
'Gun' 1981, Andy Warhol. Acrylic paint and silkscreen on 2 canvases.
'Camouflage' 1986, Andy Warhol. Acrylic paint and silkscreen on 4 canvases.
Modern camouflage was invented by artists for military use in the First World War. The development of aerial warfare in particular meant that soldiers, their camps and equipment needed to be obscured from sight. In 1986 Warhol began to use camouflage designs for his paintings which clearly refer to the pattern's military origin. In the same year he also used camouflage fabric as the background of a series of silkscreened self. In addition to the visual correspondence between the mottled repeating patterns of camouflage and his own pocked and mottled skin, Warhol was preoccupied with hiding his true self. This manifested both in the wigs and makeup that he wore. Similarly he also refused to elaborate on his thinking, substituting one-word or one-sentence statements for any kind of insight into his work.
'Map of Eastern U.S.S.R. Missile Bases' c.1985-1986
Acrylic Paint and silkscreen on canvas.
Manchester Gallery
'Herstmonceux Castle' Sussex, about 1835. Anthony Van Dyke Copley Fielding, 1787-1855, Oil on panel.
Fielding evokes medieval feudal society in this view of a castle surrounded by a benign pastoral landscape. However, the castle is tiny and it is the landscape and atmosphere that dominate the composition. It is significant that this rural landscape touched by human presence. The early 1800s was a period of rapid industrialisation and urbanisation which created nostalgia for rural life. Fielding's view expresses this sense of loss in the natural elements. The fading light of a setting sun and the dark shadows east by the clouds allude to the passing of an ordered and stable way of life.
I like the way the landscape takes majority of the painting, it's a good way to represent the comparison of human presence and nature.
'Edinburgh from Leith Roads' 1854, Samuel Bough 1822-1878, Oil on canvas.
This painting is a characteristic Bough work; its expressive sky and turbulent sea convey the grandeur of nature using a limited, grey-tones palette and freely handled paint. Bough likes to allude to the bravery and courage of people who relied on the sea for their livelihoods. Here floating wreckage in the foreground reminds us of the power of the sea and the precarious life of sailors and fisherman. Leith Roads is the stretch of the Firth of Forth that runs parallel to Leith, Edinburgh's port town. The town is bathed in sunlight in the distance, giving hope of a safe return for the vessels and men. I really like this painting shows how dangerous the sea can be, I love that the scene is clearly still, but from the painting you can feel the tense and ferocious movement of the sea.
'December' 1905, Samuel John Lamorna Birch 1869-1965, Oil on canvas.
Born at Egremont, on the Cheshire bank of the Mersey, Birch moved to Manchester and later to Halton, Lancashire, working at mills and factories before becoming an artist. Self-taught, his mother encourage him to be a painter, after he exhibited here at Manchester City Art Gallery in his teens. Greatly interested in the French Impressionists, especially Alfred Sisley and Claude Monet, Birch spent 7 months painting in France in 1896. He settles in the Cornish Village if Lamorna in 1902. Birch worked mainly outdoors, even in wintry conditions. His snow scenes were often painted near his studio, from where his daughter brought him coffee and buns, while he worked in plus fours, woollen socks and gloves. I feel this painting is a beautiful way to portray winter, the calming sky and the settled snow makes this environment seem peaceful.
Masanori Umeda, Manufactured by Edra, 'Rose Chair' 1991.
Velvet and polyurethane foam, wood, aluminium. One of Japan's best known designers, Masanori Umeda is renowned for his poetic furniture pieces, many of which are inspired by nature. Umeda worked for a long period in Italy and produced playful, post-modern designs for the Memphis Group in the 1980s. He later chose to work with floral forms, traditional motifs in Japanese culture. Each of the velvet 'petals' in Rose Chair are filled individually by hand and layered to give the impression of a flower in full bloom.
Sergio Larrain, 1933-2012, Chile.
Self-taught Chilean photographer Larrain bought his first camera in the United States in 1949. He spent four months in London during the Winter of 1958 to 1959 courtesy of a grant from the British Council. His take on London was a spontaneous response to a city that was undergoing dramatic change in the post-War era and was marked by unusual vantage points and blurred images that capture the dynamism of the city. His angled perspectives, abrupt framing, double exposures, ground-level viewpoints, and swiftly taken, blurred impressions were intrinsic to his experimental framing of the world, one he had first honed on the streets of Santiago. He also had a strong connection with the Latin American artistic vanguard which brought a distinctive Surrealist charge to his photography. Infused with a sense of poetry, Larrain's expressive photographs portray top-hatted gentlemen, nannies in Hyde Park, the growing popularity of privately owned cars, multiculturalism, pubs, gambling and the weary tread of downcast commuters.
Manchester Central Convention Complex (commonly known as Manchester Central)
A selection of pictures of Manchester.