I’ve previously written a bit about the art gallery Mostyn but this was my first time actually going inside of the building to see one of the exhibitions. Lady Henrietta Augusta Mostyn, of the Llandudno land owning family, was a patron of the arts and an artist herself and lent her name and support to the creation of the gallery. The building was designed by G A Humphreys and officially opened in 1902.
The Llandudno Museum and Gallery is another place we missed out on visiting on our previous trip to the town so I made sure to explore it this time around. The museum has six permanent galleries that tell the history of Llandudno from its very earliest beginnings up to the modern day. Adult tickets are £6.
I have to admit I’d never heard of Sophie Ryder before but I am on the mailing list for Lakeside Arts which covers Djanogly Gallery (based on the University of Nottingham campus) and I was intrigued by the photos of her work so I made a mental note to go visit and as is often the case with these things didn’t actually get around to it until it was in its last week (it closed on 12 March).
Back in May I went to the Wallace Collection to visit the Inspiring Walt Disney: The Animation of French Decorative Arts exhibition. In collaboration with New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art this exhibition, which finished recently, focused on how 18th century French art influenced Disney animators, particularly for the original Cinderella and Beauty and the Beast. I enjoyed the exhibit, particularly the hand drawings of the transformation of Cinderella’s dress from rags, and the audioguide which was included in the £14 for adults admission price was really well done. Somewhat inevitably photography wasn’t allowed in the exhibition. Photography is allowed however in the Wallace Collection itself, which is free to enter.
MOSTYN Art Gallery – the building on the right in the below picture – is a contemporary art gallery in Llandudno, Wales. The history of the gallery begins in 1895 in Conwy with the Gwynedd Ladies’ Art Society. They asked the philanthropist and photographer Lady Augusta Mostyn to secure new premises for them and this building became the home of the society from 1901 to 1903. Women were not permitted in the male artist’s societies so this is possibly the first art gallery dedicated to exclusively exhibiting work by female artists in the world. Interestingly that wasn’t the original intention of Lady Augusta who wanted it to be a space for local people to use (many of the Society members were actually based elsewhere in the UK) and eventually the Society was asked to leave.
On until 28 August this exhibition by Nottingham based architectural photographer Martine Hamilton Knight features buildings from around Nottinghamshire, part of the newly updated Pevsner guide by historian Clare Hartnell. Nikolaus Pevsner came to England from Germany in 1933 and created the Buildings of England series of county guides, still an important go to guide for architectural insights – I often refer to them when I’m researching architectural posts. I always think taking photos of photos is a bit redundant but I did take some at the exhibition, a couple of which are places that I’d like to see in person. The first is from St Mary’s Church in Clifton.
On until 19th June this free exhibition at the Djanogly Gallery on the University of Nottingham campus is on tour from the British Museum. It’s aim is to highlight the challenges of protecting Iraq’s cultural heritage following decades of conflict. It had some very interesting objects on display such as this statue of Gudea who was the king of Girsu, one of Ancient Iraq’s earliest cities. Gudea had the statue of himself placed in one of the city’s temples as evidence that he worshipped the gods.
Just by the Leadenhall Building in London were a series of sculptures of heads. Made of aluminium they are the sculptor’s exploration of Greek, Roman and Egyptian traditions for the 21st century. They were part of the Sculpture in the City programme, an annual sculpture park that uses London streets as its gallery. You can learn more about the programme and this year’s sculptures here. The heads are currently on display at Hauser & Wirth Gallery in Somerset.
The main reason I wanted to visit Glasgow last October was to go to the Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum and it turned out to be an even better experience than I’d been expecting, in fact I ended up spending most of the day there. The building itself is beautiful inside and out, designed in a Spanish Baroque style in red sandstone by John W. Simpson and E. J. Milner Allen and opened in 1901.
I’m not a big fan of modern art as regular readers will know but Glasgow’s Gallery of Modern Art is free to explore and I was intrigued by the history of the building itself. The gallery was opened in 1966 but the building dates from 1778 when it was the townhouse of William Cunninghame a tobacco merchant and slave trader.
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