National Museums Liverpool Blog - Tuesday, September 19, 2006

Sunday's Observer included a feature on 'The best-kept arts secrets in Britain'.

DJ Rob Da Bank nominated 'Another Place' ('amazing to look at and you don't pay to get in'), whilst 'the second most intelligent man in Britain', Stephen Bayley, chose the Walker Art Gallery's 'Christ Discovered in the Temple' by Simone Martini.

'Not exactly a secret, but certainly a surprise, is Simone Martini's Christ Discovered in the Temple in Liverpool's Walker Art Gallery. I knew this exquisite little picture as a child, long before I ever visited Siena. Martini was one of that magnificent city's greatest painters, working at the fascinating moment when Gothic simplicity became Renaissance sophistication. There's the effulgence of tooled gold, the lapis, the vermilion, but there's also subtle psychology: a superb object and a brilliant image.

Marvellous how this gorgeous southern picture found its way, through proud merchants and shippers, to the gloom of 19th-century Merseyside. It hangs now in Lancashire as a strange and haunting refugee from faraway Tuscany, a sudden jolt of Renaissance beauty enjoyed to the distant noise of buses.'

A moment of peace in a hectic weekend

I feel I should apologise for the lack of new blog entries over the last couple of days. This is partly because, after weeks of feverish activity preparing for the Biennial opening weekend, we've now been unchained from our keyboards and allowed out to enjoy the Biennial in all its glory.

And what a weekend it has been. I've walked around so much I'm sure my legs must be at least an inch shorter and I've still only scratched the surface of what's on offer. Over the last few days I've heard Tracey Emin go meow (have a listen on the podcast of the John Moores 24 opening speeches), stroked the paw of a caged lion and seen more art than I could shake a very large stick at. 

I spent Friday afternoon exploring the Greenland Street galleries, including the Bloomberg New Contemporaries 2006 in the Coach Shed. If you go there on a sunny day then head up to the roof of the adjacent Blade Factory building, the light shining through the enclosure there is stunning, these photos really don't do it justice. Then after being dazzled by the light I found a very dark room downstairs with rather beautiful 'silent music'. I could have stayed there all day quite happily.

Martin Greenland is the first prizewinner for John Moores 24 with his painting 'Before Vermeer's Clouds'. A full online catalogue is available, showing all 52 paintings with artists' statements and biographies.

The exhibition opens to the public this Saturday, 16 September 2006, at the Walker Art Gallery, running until the end of the Biennial, 26 November 2006.

The other prizewinners announced are Matthew Burrows ('Baptism'), Graham Crowley ('Red Reflection'), Vincent Hawkins ('After Paul Nash'), James White ('In the Basement (Kit 10)').

Cape Farewell: Art and Climate Change opens this Saturday, 16 September 2006, continuing as part of Liverpool Biennial until 26 November 2006.

The exhibition is spread across several venues. Of our venues, the Walker and the Conservation Centre are participating, displaying works by Heather Ackroyd & Dan Harvey, Alex Hartley, David Buckland, Gautier Deblonde, Gary Hume and Nick Edwards.

Other works are in the Anglican Cathedral, Albert Dock and the Liverpool School of Art and Design, Hope Street (map).

To my shame I admit I have never been to Hope Street Festival, which this year takes place on Sunday 17 Sept. Reading the run down it's really hard not to be impressed. It's a free festival - and it's all in one street.

Mmmm.....food. Liverpool Real Ale Festival. Massage. Cartoons at the Phil. Jigs and reels. Jewellery. Trinkets to buy. Farmers' market. Mexican BBQ. That's me sold. See you Sunday - 11am till 5pm.  

Gareth Kemp has been a very busy man. By day he works in the National Museums Liverpool handling team, who have had their work cut out preparing the John Moores 24 and Cape Farewell exhibitions for the Biennial. In his spare time not only has he organised a series of exhibitions around the grand hallways of the Albany Building in Old Hall Street for the Independents section of the Biennial, he has also painted a fair few of the artworks on display himself.

Gaerth is pictured, relaxing at last, in the Soup versus Gazpacho exhibition upstairs in the Albany Building. The show features work by Tate Liverpool staff on the Soup side facing work by National Museums Liverpool staff on the Gazpacho side. Contributors include information assistants, technical services staff, gallery attendants, admin staff, photographers and curators who work with some of the nation's great collections every day. Has this inspired them to produce great works of art themselves? Well I was impressed. If you're in the area why not have a look to see what you think. The exhibition is open from 10.30am to 4.30pm every day until 19 November 2006.

Pulling together major exhibitions like John Moores 24 can be an eventful experience for those responsible. Here are Curator of Fine Art at the Walker Ann Bukantas' last-minute comments on the exhibition which opens this weekend.
 
'Since 1957. 24th exhibition. 2,300 paintings. Liverpool. Dark room. Five jurors. Four days. Five personalities. Five viewpoints. 3,450 slides. Practice session. Criteria, democratic decisions. Confidentiality. Anonymity maintained. Personal taste. Discussion. Professional knowledge. Careers, reputations, merit. Titled, untitled. Details. White sheets, artists’ gardens. Cats, cosmic, taupe. Yes. No. Maybe. Coffee, biscuits, late nights, alcohol. Slide dreams. Press calls. Bonding. Gallows humour. 268 shortlisted. Liverpool. Warehouse. Re-aquainted. Three days. Big sofa. Handlers. Painting parade. Issues arise, resolve. Is it knowing? Yes. No. Maybe. 52 selected. Favourites listed. Votes cast. Re-cast. Prizewinners. £25,000. Roof party. Napkin hats. Catalogue. Exhibition. Results announced. Visit the show. See our winner. Debate. Vote for yours.'

Curator of Continental European Art Xanthe Brooke's picture of the month talk at the Walker Art Gallery for September was on Rembrandt van Rijn's 'Self-portrait as a young man'. A recording of the talk is now available online (mp3/transcript/links).

The painting was in the news earlier this year when the Rembrandt Research Project, suggested that it was painted by a studio assistant, Isack Jouderville, rather than Rembrandt. Xanthe's talk explains why curators and conservators at National Museums Liverpool don't believe it is possible to make such a firm judgement at this time.

Xanthe discusses the Rembrandt Research Project, the missing 'd' in the Walker painting's signature, the use of UV lights for looking at disturbances in the paint surface, Jan Lievens and the Royal Collection of Charles I, Penshurst Place, dendrochronology and why Rembrandt painted so many self-portraits.

Something I love about popping into the sculpture conservation studio at the National Conservation Centre is you get to see all sorts of monuments and sculptures up close and from angles that wouldn't normally be possible. Earlier this year I got to look up Queen Victoria's skirt (probably not something I should admit to - I'll be sent to the Tower). Yesterday I got to see the Britannia sculpture from the war memorial at Crewe and Nantwich from above, which only the birds get to do usually. The sculpture is currently being cleaned by conservator Marisa Prandelli.

The public don't usually get to go behind the scenes like this. However, conservators will be holding special tours of their studios in a series of open days on 5 October, 8 November and 5 December 2006. Places are free but numbers are limited so please book in advance by ringing 0151 478 4999. For more details please see the What's On pages.

Up close you can see the horses decorating the Britannia sculpture's helmet

First a preview image, then a construction shot, now Airside have sent us a movie clip of their Insyde installation which opens at the Walker Art Gallery this Saturday 16 September 2006 as part of the Liverpool Biennial.

The movie clip (with sound) is available to view here.

Anne-Marie Hughes working on the Vivienne Westwood dress

Today textile conservator Anne-Marie Hughes showed me two Vivienne Westwood outfits that she has been working on.

The first, a knitted woollen dress from the designer's Buffalo Girls Collection of 1982, has quite a few small holes that need repairing. Just finding wool to match the original colours was quite a challenge.

In better condition is a tartan suit, complete with bondage trousers, from Vivienne Westwood's Anglomania Collection of the early 1990s. The suit, which used to belong to Holly Johnson, has just needed surface cleaning to make it ready for display.

These items and more are currently being prepared for a new display in the Craft and Design gallery at the Walker that will open at the end of this year.

Holly Johnson's Vivienne Westwood suit

Liverpool Echo has today printed a handy Liverpool Biennial map showing all of the venues where the action will be taking place. If you missed picking up a copy at the shops you can print off a copy the map instead. (NB the map is a pdf. file).

The map is very basic, so the Biennial site is probably the best place to check out the full details of events - but  this is a quick way to plan your route about town.

This morning I took my daughter along to the Walker Art Gallery for the Monday morning 'carer and toddler' session in the Big Art gallery. Keeping a rabble of under 4s entertained is no mean feat - but the great thing is that it is completely informal, so you don't need to worry if your child gets fidgety.

On arrival, we were greeted by a member of staff who directed us to the paper and chalks. Then we gathered into a group for a stories and rhymes with the facilitator Ros who used puppets and 'lift the flap' books to engage the children.  

Getting stuck into books in Big Art

Some of the children were really attentive while others wandered around and explored the many toys and activities available on the gallery. Helpfully, Ros had already pointed out that it doesn't matter what the children are doing, as long as they are enjoying themselves. There's no pressure to make your child sit down and listen - which is a real blessing for all the parents and carers. Eva spent an eventful hour dressing up the magnetic dolls, colouring-in, playing with coloured dough and generally having fun!

Dressing up the magnetic dollies

And at the end of the hour there are free refreshments - tea / coffee / juice and (really quite spectacular) biscuits - in the Walker's cafe.

This session is being repeated on Moday 18th and 25th of September from 10.00am until 11.15am. You'll need to book your free place in advance  - call 0151 478 4178 for further details.

Image of John Gilbert from the monument at Gilbert’s Lookout, Taroom, Australia

Clem Fisher, our intrepid curator of birds and mammals at World Museum Liverpool has sent back a report on the Ludwig Leichhardt Rally in Australia:

"The Rally has finished and was a wild success, especially the re-enactments of the Leichhardt Expedition. During one the actors pretending to be the Leichhardt Expedition were confronted by Aborigines with spears - they didn't warn us about that and most of us nearly had heart attacks as the Aborigines rushed over the hill towards the horses ridden by the other actors. They then changed back into their dungarees and hats and joined us for Smoko (tea).

There were also lots of talks, some by me, lots of great big slabs of very nice beef, lots of outback poets and singers, lots of travelling along the expedition route by 4 wheel drive and visiting the original expedition campsites and in some cases seeing the same birds they saw 160 years ago!

Yesterday we were following the Dunny Truck (mobile loos) over a ford in the Burdekin River when it go stuck and had to be winched out. We thought it was really funny until we came back through the ford at the end of the day and lost the radiator fan and half the radiator. So I have time to report back while it gets fixed."

Clem might be able to send some pictures when she reaches the next big town, Mount Isa. In the meantime I've used a reconstructive image of John Gilbert, the noted naturalist who was killed on the original Leichhardt expedition in 1845. Chris Clayton of National Museums Liverpool’s design department created this image for the monument at Gilbert’s Lookout, Taroom, which Clem unveiled during her last visit to Australia.

Curators at the Walker Art Gallery recently asked if we could provide an online version of the printed gallery guide available free to visitors in the gallery. The print guide provides a map of the building with suggested highlights for visitors unfamiliar with the permanent collection.

The Walker Art Gallery online room guide is intended to give online visitors, many of whom will never have visited the gallery, a greater idea of the content of our displays. Alternative ways of browsing the collection online are provided through the A-Z index of artists (also incorporating artworks from Sudley House and Lady Lever Art Gallery) and the chronological Collection highlights. Any feedback on this new guide would be appreciated.

We recorded Frank Milner's artwork of the month talk at the Lady Lever Art Gallery on Wednesday (mp3/transcript/links).

George Morland was arguably the most popular painter of the late 18th century but only two attendees out of a packed standing room only audience had previously heard of him.

Frank Milner discusses Morland's reputation as an alcoholic, debtor, womaniser and painter of 'exquisite technique'.

When Dr Clem Fisher, curator of birds and mammals at World Museum Liverpool, first told me that she was going to be a key speaker at an international conference in Australia I assumed that she would be staying in a nice hotel during her travels. However, the Ludwig Leichhardt Rally is not your average conference. It commemorates and recreates the German explorer Ludwig Leichhardt’s pioneering expedition across the uncharted Australian outback in 1844-45. Since Wednesday the delegates have been travelling part of the expedition trail and camping en route.

Today Clem has reported that the rally is going well so far, although she is missing her bed. She has already given two lectures, including one today in the open air in front of what she describes as the gorgeous scenery around the Burdekin River. In an unsceduheld addition to the conference programme earlier this week a tribute was held to the late Steve Irwin, who was a friend to several people on the rally.

In case you were wondering, I don't have any photos from this year's expedition yet, so have used a picture of Clem speaking at the 2004 Ludwig Leichhardt Rally. Apparently normal attire for the rally is much less flamboyant and more suited to travelling through rough terrain. Clem was glammed up to officially unveil a monument to John Gilbert, a naturalist credited with discovering many Australian species, who was killed on Leichhardt's expedition. I hope to be able to show some more current photos once Clem is back in range.

There’s a lunar eclipse this evening and according to Jonathan Cainer 
(who happens to be an astrologer, not an astronomer) you should be able to see it at around 7.50pm if you’re in the UK. Although in astronomical terms it is only a ‘rather small partial eclipse’ (NASA), in astrological terms it carries more significance. This is because the full moon coincides with a ‘lunar standstill’ which only occurs every 18.6 years.

One of the best places to watch the eclipse will be the ancient stone circle of Calanais  on the Isle of Lewis in Scotland which is thought by some to mark significant events in the lunar cycle.

The pelican in this portrait represents sacrifice - but is the Virgin Queen hiding something?

Keeping with the astrology theme, it is Queen Elizabeth I’s birthday today which means she was a Virgo. Very apt, given that she was the ‘Virgin Queen’ – or so I thought – but apparently I am mistaken.

The goddess Ceres that governs Virgo is not a symbol of celibacy, but one of abundance. And the reputation of Virgos as prim comes more from their fastidiousness and orderliness rather than their chastity.

Perhaps this explains the ongoing debate over Elizabeth’s love life and her dalliances with the Earl of Leicester, Robert Dudley.  Some researchers even go so far as to propose that Elizabeth actually had a child with her suitor.

• Calanais on flickr
• Lunar eclipses on flickr
• More about Virgos

Mirroring the construction work happening throughout the city centre, a week away from the start of the Biennial and most of the city's galleries look like building sites. Construction of the Insyde installation was well under way on the first floor landing of the Walker Art Gallery this afternoon.

The European Union Individual Chess Championships started at World Museum Liverpool yesterday. You can follow the games live online between 12.30 and 7pm for the next nine days.