National Museums Liverpool Blog - british art

A divine Clarice Cliff 'tea for two' set from Age of Jazz.

It's an eclectic selection and there are some great books, my personal favourites being 'When Time Began to Rant and Rage...' which is a fab book of Irish figurative work and totally worth a fiver,  Age of Jazz: British Arts Deco Ceramics as I'm a sucker for a deco teaset, and British Watercolours and Drawings from the Lady Lever's collection.

If you've still not got a John Moores catalogue then now is the time to buy one as they're reduced to £7.50. And if you buy it from the Walker shop you get the John Moores China version for free.

Image courtesy of Liverpool Daily Post & Echo

In the early 1950s we spent our holidays at Llandonna, Anglesey, and locals would describe seeing Liverpool burning 50 miles away across the sea during the Blitz.

Whenever I look at this spectacular painting I am reminded of the vivid stories and how even distant communities felt involved.

The Liverpool Blitz brought the Battle of the Atlantic home to everyone when German bombing raids cost thousands of lives and brought huge amounts of destruction.

Although the docks were the main targets, enormous damage was caused to city and residential areas on both sides of the River Mersey. Four thousand people were killed and a similar number seriously injured.

Ten thousand homes were completely destroyed and 184,000 damaged – some 70,000 people were made homeless.

The Luftwaffe launched more than 68 bombing raids on Merseyside between July 1940 and January 1942. The worst occurred during the May Blitz of 1941 when very heavy raids took place on each of the first seven days of the month.

Merseyside Maritime Museum’s Battle of the Atlantic gallery features a dramatic illuminated display based on The Enemy Raid May 3rd 1941 painted by George Grainger Smith, with lights mimicking falling bombs.

The view shows Liverpool ablaze during a night raid, huge flames flickering behind the silhouettes of waterfront buildings. Smith painted the view from his Wallasey home and brilliantly captures the enormity of the devastation. The original painting is in the Walker Art Gallery collection.

A Luftwaffe aerial reconnaissance photograph and briefing sheet, both dated September 1939 at the start of the war, were for a raid on Liverpool’s north docks.

The intended target was Canada Dry Dock, considered by the Germans to be large enough for an aircraft carrier or heavy cruiser – Fur Flug zeug-trager u. schwere Kreuzer, as the briefing sheet says.

Canada Dry Dock escaped destruction and remains an important facility in the Port of Liverpool. In the past it accommodated some of the great Cunarders such as the Mauretania and the ill-fated Lusitania.

The dock was used for constructing pontoons for the new Liverpool Cruise Liner Terminal. More recently the Royal fleet Auxiliary vessel and Falklands War veteran Sir Percivale was scrapped there.

A live German 250 kg bomb lay in a Liverpool suburb for half a century before it was discovered and made safe. This was one of thousands of high-explosive bombs dropped on Merseyside by German aircraft.

The bomb was found by workmen laying sewers 20 ft underground at the junction of Queens Drive and Stanley Park Avenue, Walton, in February 1990.
A British bomb of a similar size and type is on display.

A new Maritime Tale by Stephen Guy appears every Saturday in the Liverpool Echo.

Have you ever been worried about taking your little one to a gallery or museum in case they make noise? Well the Prams and pushchairs talk at the Walker Art Gallery could be for you.

Join our curator on Wednesday 25 May at 11am and explore our new gallery British Art 1880 to 1950 and bring your little one with you, because we know children make noise!

Parents and children can enjoy the Walker Art Gallery together.

Places are limited so book your free place by calling 0151 478 4788.

Our guest blogger Bethan Mackenzie visited the Walker Art Gallery recently to take a look at the newly opened permanent gallery of British art 1880-1950.

Are you a total art beginner and don’t know where to start? Do you have an interest in the subject and want to know more? Well the British Art 1880-1950 permanent exhibition is the place to be. Opened March 25th the new interactive gallery has something for everyone. I am that beginner, and I loved it.

The gallery tells a story how local artist’s adapted their styles in response to the time. The dramatic and eventful period of history which shaped a significant group of British artists are displayed and explained in the Walker Art Gallery. The exhibition features many paintings from Liverpool born artists including, Albert Richards (born 1919) and George Herbert Tyson Smith (born 1883).

Walking around the gallery every painting or sculpture has a brief description on the artist and a more specific explanation of the style. The exhibition covers a whole range of styles, from Art Deco to Cubism, Fauvism to Abstract. There are a number of objects to touch to increase understanding of the display, including canvas which illustrates the difference between thick and thin paint textures.

The gallery also has a large touch screen which enlightens the user of the specific historical events in relation to the artwork produced. It is enjoyably displayed and incredibly easy to use.

My favourite piece in the exhibition was Nightfall, Luxor, painted in 1910 by Sir David Young Cameron.  Technology greatly improved transport in the late 19th century allowing artists like Cameron to visit faraway countries. He spent the winter of 1908 in Egypt. The painting shows the dark silhouette of the ancient Egyptian temples at Luxor. The symmetrical design makes a dramatic landscape. A small figure is painting in the centre, symbolising the vastness of the night sky. Magical.

'Amity' by Fleetwood-Walker one of the paintings on display in the new gallery © The Estate of the late Peggy Fleetwood-Walker (detail)

It's a very exciting week this week as the newly refurbished room at the Walker Art Gallery, 'British art 1880-1950', is opening again on Friday. It will showcase pieces from our collections including works by LS Lowry and Lucian Freud, plus many works which have never been on display before!

I had a chat with our curator of British art, Laura MacCulloch, who told me more about what you can expect to see there:

Tell me about the different types of works which are being brought together in this room?
 
This work brings together paintings, sculptures and works on paper with furniture and ceramics all made between 1880 and 1950.  It's a really exciting period to explore as artists begin to break away from the traditional, Victorian ideas about art and experiment with styles, colours and techniques. It's great to be able to show fine and decoratvie arts together because it shows how artists working in all media experimented.
 
How does this room differ from the more 'standard' rooms of paintings in the Walker?
 
We are aiming to give our visitors more of the context surrounding the art. Between 1880 and 1950 there were huge political and social upheavals brought on by two world wars and increasing industrialisation. We have created an interactive timeline which includes lots of information and images relating to key historical and art historical events. There is more information on the timeline than we could ever fit on a label.

Get your hands on a jigsaw version of this painting by Ceri Richards in the new British art 1880-1950 room

We also wanted visitors to experience the works of art in new ways. We've included tiles you can touch to feel different glazing techniques, paintings that you can touch to feel different ways artists liked to apply paint and two sculptures which have been specially coated so people can touch them without causing any damage to the works. 

We also created a soundscape to go with Stanhope Forbes' painting 'Off to the Fishing Grounds' so that visitors can take a short trip to Newlyn in Cornwall without having to leave Liverpool!
 
There's also a jigsaw of Ceri Richards radical scuplture/painting 'Mother and child' which allows you to experience its pleasing curves and the feel of the wood with your hands and well as with your eyes. 

Are there any works that you are excited about bringing out of storage and finally having on display?

There are so many that have not been on display for a long time which I am really excited about getting on display. I am particularly happy about having special draws so that we can show works on paper by war artists for the first time.  Usually works on paper can not be shown alongside paintings as they are damaged by too much light, but the draws stop the light falling on them so we will be able to have a lot more on display.  We have so many works on paper relating to World War Two that we are going to rotate them.

You can see some sneak preview photos of the new room before it opens in our Flickr set here.