70 years of art showcased at Birmingham museum
A MAJOR exhibition showcasing the work of renowned British artists from the last seven decades is coming to Birmingham from this weekend.
In celebration of the Arts Council Collection’s 70th anniversary, curator of the exhibition and leading artist Ryan Gander has created a display of modern and contemporary artwork.
From Saturday, Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery’s Gas Hall will be open for visitors to the Night at the Museum exhibition, offering an insight into the secret lives of figurative sculptures.
For the exhibition, Ryan has coupled human sculptures with various other forms of artwork, echoing the idea that the figures have come to life to spectate the art and wander freely around the gallery.
Ryan said: “I paired two works together to become a duo, a couple that would have new meaning as the two things were pushed together. No matter how realistic, figurative or abstract it is – the sculptures are all human forms and all have a gaze, so they have the ability to become a spectator like any other visitor who enters the museum.”
The pairings show figurative works by artists such as Henry Moore and Kerry Stewart interacting with artworks by artists such as Liam Gillick and Birmingham-born artist Roger Hiorns.
The artworks chosen range from geometric form and colour-field painting to abstracts and high modernist works and include artworks by Sean Scully and Patrick Caulfield. ‘Dancer at Rest’, an original bronze ballerina by Edgar Degas is also on display at the exhibition.
Unlike BMAG’s other exhibitions, Night at the Museum has deliberately avoided interpretation labels on the wall so that visitors can make up their own mind about the exhibition and its meaning.
Ryan said: “It’s not DisneyWorld or the cinema, it’s the museum and I want to encourage people to voice an opinion. Which is why I set up an exhibition that’s funny, easily accessible and you don’t feel like you’re being watched because you’re watching other things watching things.
“Good art ends up in a million different places because each person that comes to look at the art is from a different background, different country, different morals, different age, and they all have different life experiences that they bring to the art.”
The exhibition marks the start of a three-year National Parternship Programme which will see Birmingham Museums Trust bring the Arts Council Collection to a wider audience in the city.
Ryan added: “All public collections are important, but I think this one’s important because the panel that decide what is bought has artists on it, and they don’t just collect popular trendy stuff that other museums want they really take their time to identify works that will have significant historical place.
“It’s hard to get people to understand this but the art that’s in this exhibition, that’s in this room, is theirs. Its categorically belongs to them, it’s a public collection and it was paid for with donations but also tax payers money, through the Arts Council and that’s really significant because everyone who lives in this city or lives in Britain, it belongs to them.”
