Midlands Art Papers 2 (2018/19)

In October 2018 the Barber Institute of Fine Arts opened a loan exhibition, ‘Maman: Vuillard and Madame Vuillard’, featuring the art of the French post-Impressionist Édouard Vuillard (1868–1940). Curator Francesca Berry explains the feminist ideas motivating the exhibition.

Museum Learning Officer Brian Scholes and Lecturer in Art History Sophie Hatchwell discuss the similarities and differences between art interpretation in the public gallery and in the lecture room, focusing on pieces from the collection of the Herbert Art Gallery & Museum.

How can sculpture perform a feminist occupation of space? Cai Lyons explores the role of gender binaries in Yazmin Boyle’s 2018 RBSA exhibition.

Faith Whitehouse explores the tension between ‘modern’ and traditional painting at the RBSA in the 1950s.

How did artists respond to the racial politics of 1980s Britain? Greg Salter explores the provocative intertwining of histories of racism, colonialism and sexuality in Donald Rodney’s 1989 drawing.

Matthew Geary explores an unlikely friendship between sculptor Jacob Epstein and poet T.S. Eliot, and the sculpture in The New Art Gallery Walsall from which this relationship developed.

Rodin’s famous sculpture The Age of Bronze is displayed at the Barber Institute of Fine Arts in an unusual way. Curator Helen Cobby reveals the history of its reception, acquisition and display.

How can a painting document de-industrialisation and its social consequences? Mimi Buchanan examines Andrew Tift’s study of Black Country steelworkers.

Rebecca Savage argues that we need to understand the ‘childlike’ paintings produced by the fisherman-turned-artist Alfred Wallis in relation to wider developments in modern British art.

Kate Nichols explores debates around the Victorian nude – past and present – and sets out new information about Collier’s iconic Godiva painting

What can we learn about human-animal relationships from art works? Sam Shaw discusses 1930s paintings of people and animals in zoos