Turner watercolour, lost from public view for 100 years, brought home to Brighton

BRIGHTON.- A painting of Brighton by JMW Turner which was lost from public view for 100 years has found a home at the city’s Royal Pavilion thanks to an Art Fund grant. Jenny Lund, Curator of Fine Art at the Royal Pavilion and Museums, said: “The watercolour The Chain Pier at Brighton will be a tremendous asset for the Royal Pavilion and Museums and its fine art collection.” The painting Painted around 1824-5, The Chain Pier at Brighton is the only picture Turner [...]

National Maritime Museum in London Opens New £35 Million Sammy Ofer Wing

LONDON.- This July the National Maritime Museum opens the Sammy Ofer Wing, a transformative £35m capital project which sets a new strategic direction for the Museum. Opening 14 July 2011, the £35m wing is the largest development in the National Maritime Museum’s history and a catalyst for the organisation to change completely the way it presents its galleries, exhibitions and events. This major new project has been made possible through a generous donation of £20m from international shipping magnate and philanthropist Sammy Ofer [...]

Ashmolean Receives 1 Million Visitors to the New Museum Since It Reopened

OXFORD.- On Tuesday, 21 September 2010, at 4.23pm, Mrs. Diane Thomas, a primary school teacher from Gerrards Cross, Buckinghamshire, became the 1 millionth visitor to the Ashmolean Museum since it reopened to the public on 7 November 2009. Mrs. Thomas came to the Ashmolean with her daughter, Laura Rolf, to see the new exhibition The Pre-Raphaelites and Italy. She was welcomed at the main entrance by the Museum’s Director, Christopher Brown, who presented her with some gifts, including 1 year’s [...]

Powerful New Art Funded Works Added to The Herbert’s Collection

COVENTRY.- The Herbert has purchased two artworks for its permanent collection, Bloodlines by Iftikhar Dadi and Nalini Malani and Belsen Head by Raymond Mason. We gave the Herbert £11,500 and £12,500 for the two works respectively. Funding also came in from the Heritage Lottery Fund Collecting Cultures Programme and the MLA/V&A Purchase Grant Fund. These two striking works form part of the Herbert’s Peace and Reconciliation collection, for which the Herbert is currently working on enhancing through an HLF funded [...]

Comprehensive Survey of Surrealist Art Opens at the Dean Gallery

EDINBURGH.- A comprehensive survey of Surrealist art, which brings together masterpieces by Salvador Dalí, René Magritte, Pablo Picasso, Alberto Giacometti and Joan Miró, is the major summer exhibition at the Dean Gallery in 2010. Another World, which is the centrepiece of the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art’s 50th anniversary celebrations, offers a fascinating overview of arguably the most important art movement of the twentieth century. The exhibition includes major loans from public and private collections and offers visitors the [...]

Gallery Launches Appeal to Secure First British Portrait of a Black African Muslim

LONDON.- The National Portrait Gallery today launches, with the support of the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) and the Art Fund, an appeal to acquire for the nation the earliest known British oil painting of a freed slave, and the first portrait that honours a named African subject as an individual and an equal. Never before seen in public, and currently on temporary display at the Gallery, this portrait of Ayuba Suleiman Diallo (c.1701-73) (known when he was in England as [...]

Sir Michael Caine Opens the New Galleries of Modern London

LONDON.- On Friday 28 May 2010 the Museum of London unveiled the Galleries of Modern London, a spectacular £20 million redevelopment of the Museum’s galleries, which will tell the story of London and its inhabitants from the Great Fire of London in 1666 to the present day. Supported by an £11.5 million Heritage Lottery Fund grant, the new galleries provide an inspiring vision of the world’s greatest city, and place the Museum at the heart of London ahead of the [...]

Sargent Portrait of Falmouth Artist Gathers Charity Support

LONDON.- Falmouth Art Gallery is now even closer to achieving its ambitious aim of bringing home an internationally significant masterpiece by John Singer Sargent. The gallery has been awarded a grant of £62,000 from The Art Fund, the UK’s leading independent art charity, towards the purchase of Portrait of Charles Napier Hemy, 1905 by celebrated American painter John Singer Sargent (1856-1925). The portrait depicts the Falmouth-born artist Charles Napier Hemy (1841–1917), who was a friend of the celebrated painter Sargent. [...]

National Galleries of Scotland Announce Overview of Surrealist Movement

EDINBURGH.- A comprehensive survey of Surrealist art, which will bring together masterpieces by Salvador Dalí, René Magritte, Pablo Picasso, Alberto Giacometti and Joan Miró, will be the major summer exhibition at the Dean Gallery in 2010. Another World, which will be the centrepiece of the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art’s 50th anniversary celebrations, will offer a fascinating overview of arguably the most important art movement of the twentieth century. The exhibition will include major loans from public and private [...]

Significant Watercolours and Shields Secured for Ayrshire

LONDON.- With help from The Art Fund and other funding bodies, East Ayrshire Council has successfully raised the £85,100 needed to buy a nationally significant set of watercolours which will go on display at Dean Castle, Kilmarnock, early next year. The Eglinton Watercolours by James Henry Nixon are considered to be of outstanding significance for the study of Scottish social history and of the Gothic Revival in 19th century Britain. The accompanying historic shields, which were used to furnish the [...]

New Medieval and Renaissance Galleries Open at the Victoria & Albert Museum

LONDON.- The V&A’s new Medieval and Renaissance Galleries opened, housing one of the world’s most remarkable collections of treasures from the period, including the Becket Casket, Gothic altarpieces and the notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci. There will also be an outstanding collection of Renaissance sculpture by Italian masters such as Donatello and Giambologna. Ten galleries, occupying an entire wing of the Museum, will for the first time present the collections in continuous displays to tell the story of European art [...]