National Museums Liverpool Blog - Thursday, December 21, 2006

Subtitle: diversionary tactics part 2.

Festive detail from the not very festive Daphnephoria

Today's foray into the world of 'kind of work' has been provided by the Guardian art & architecture blog which has posed the question 'what is your favourite Christmas painting?' In the spirit of 'diversionary tactics' I'd better go for images from our own collections. You'll know a lot of these as they are regularly used on Christmas cards. My choices are:

• Peter Doig's 'Blotter'
• The Shortening Winter's Day Is Near A Close by Farquharson (proper chocolate box stuff)
• The image shown is a detail from The Daphnephoria by Lord Leighton which, despite being used on lots of Christmas cards, isn't even about winter. The Daphnephoria was an ancient festival held every nine years in honour of the god, Apollo. So now you know.
• Snowdrift by Edward Onslow Ford is often used as well, despite being about the end of winter and the coming of spring. 
• Just realised that one our most popular Christmas pics isn't on our main site (job for the new year me thinks), Angel Playing A Flageolet by Burne-Jones.

Guess this is the National Museums Liverpool blog signing off for a few days. Have a restful and peaceful holiday, whatever you end up doing.

Forthcoming exhibition, Animated Adventures

I was looking for references to Aardman Animations (they of Wallace & Gromit fame) in anticipation of the Animated Adventures exhibition we are hosting next year, and was really gutted to come across this BBC article on the death of Joseph Barbera. Peter Lord from Aardman talks about Barbera's influence in the piece.

Hanna-Barbera were the creators of my childhood (and adult if I'm honest) favourites including The Flintstones, Scooby Doo (before Scrappy, obviously), Top Cat and, my absolute fave, Tom & Jerry.

Wikipedia pretty well covers their work, with some good links to other HB sites.

Stuck in an office that bears an increasing resemblance to the Marie Celeste on a wet bank holiday doesn't put you in much of a festive mood. My reserves of diversionary tactics, ie 'it kind of is but kind of isn't work', are running low already and I've still got to survive tomorrow and most of next week. Who'da thought the world wide web could offer so little of interest?

Luckily I wandered across this new site from the Arts Council - the catalogue of its collection. Nice design and lots of pretty pictures. That's my sanity preserved for a few more hours. Tune in tomorrow to see how far I've descended into the abyss...

Every year I plan to write all my cards at the beginning of December yet somehow my good intentions never materialise. This morning found me stuffing envelopes into a postbox in order to catch the lasting posting day for first class mail - just one of my personal Christmas traditions.

Of course in this technological age if you miss the post you can always send digital greetings with a Christmas e-card. So what are you waiting for? Spread a little festive cheer!

Those Victorians had some very funny ideas when it came to designing Christmas cards. Our selection of vintage Christmas e-cards, featuring cards from our decorative art collection, include crickets playing cricket and food racing on pigback, as well as the more common snowy scenes and Father Christmas.

A century later these more unusual designs still appear to be striking a chord though. I was really chuffed to see that the 'Pip pip' e-card (with that festive favourite image of a policeman narrowly avoiding being run over) was the image of the week in The Times on Saturday. You can't beat the classics! 

Note from Karen: introducing Stephen Guy who will be presenting a weekly maritime feature starting next week.

Stephen Guy, author of the new Maritime Tales blog feature

Merseyside Maritime Museum has stunning collections giving insights into this heritage and the unique port linked to the world’s trade routes. My new weekly feature, Maritime Tales, is inspired by those exhibits and collections.  

I'll look at the remarkable characters from Liverpool’s maritime history, many of whom left lasting impressions. They include Isambard Kingdom Brunel, J Bruce Ismay, Alfred and George Holt, William and John Laird,Samuel Cunard,  Captain Edward Smith, Captain Johnnie Walker and Jesse Hartley.

Then there are those who once played a big part in the Liverpool maritime scene and its triumphs and disasters but who may no longer be remembered by many. There is Able Seaman Joseph Rogers, hero of the wreck of the Royal Charter, James Baines founder of the Black Ball Line used by emigrants, William Burslow gallant captain of the first Royal Yacht Mary, John Towne Danson marine insurance pioneer, Sir Percy Bates chairman of the Cunard Line and William Inman with his pioneering emigrant steamships.

Then there are the immeasurable numbers of unrecorded people whose hopes and fears were inextricably linked to its ships, seafarers and docks. The dark days when Liverpool was Europe’s leading slave trade port were followed by 100 years as probably the greatest emigrant port in world history. The Tales recall the highs and lows over the centuries up to the present, when 2007 is Liverpool’s 800th anniversary and Year of Heritage.

Some of the legendary vessels I'll look at include the Titanic, Great Eastern, Thetis, Lusitania, Alabama, Ellan Vannin, Olympic, Carmania, Britannia, Great Britain, Prince of Wales, Bismarck and Tirpitz.

There are disasters and triumphs – from the successes of Brunel’s pioneering steamers to the terrible losses of the Second World War. I'll look at innovative ideas and how Liverpool has frequently led the way taking risks and pushing the pace of progress.

My ancestors settled in Liverpool around 1700 and many have been mariners and shipwrights over the generations.  I have worked for many years as a news reporter and journalist before joining National Museums Liverpool.

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

Have I mentioned that Christmas is coming? Only about ten times over the last few weeks. If you still have Christmas shopping to do then you could pick up some traditional gifts at the Croxteth Hall market on Sunday 17 December, which promises lots of festive stalls in the spirit of Christmas past. 

A special guest at the market this Sunday will be the Burrell steam traction engine from our popular land transport collection, which is visiting as part of the Museum of Liverpool on the road project. It's only there for the day, so you'd better steam over there if you don't want to miss it.

It's around this time that people start asking me what big exciting things are going to be happening in our venues next year. Something that I'm looking forward to is the reopening of Sudley House. The venue, in my old student stomping ground of south Liverpool, is currently being refurbished to improve access and create new displays. Dave Moffat, assistant curator of decorative art, is pictured above with two of the dolls that will be going in Sudley's new Toy Zone, which will feature vintage playthings as well as brand new activities for young visitors. Keep an eye on the website for details of the opening in summer 2007.

There are more dolls in the selection of Christmas e-cards on our website - our conservators have assured me that they have treated the dolls much more carefully than the girl on the Doll's bathtime e-card!

Here's one I caught earlier! Taxidermist James Jackson with a mounted specimen of a Tarpon

I was interested to see in the news this morning that taxidermy is considered very fashionable at the moment. The art of the taxidermist has of course been used to great effect by the artist Damien Hirst in the 1990s. More recently Kate Moss bought artist Polly Morgan's work 'To Every Seed His Own Body', which features a mounted specimen of a blue tit on a prayer book.

Like many things, taxidermy never out of fashion at National Museums Liverpool. You can read more about the work that our staff do to preserve and display our important collections in the taxidermy department page on the website.

Above is one of my favourite pictures from the department, showing taxidermist James Jackson with World Museum Liverpool's mounted specimen of a Tarpon. The photo was taken a couple of years ago when the Tarpon had just been conserved after it had returned from a long term loan to Poole Aquarium. The specimen is a particularly large and good example of this species, also known as the Silver King, which can grow up to 8 foot long and weigh 300lbs.  In the wild it is found in the warm coastal waters and estuaries of North and South America and on the other side of the Atlantic on the coast of West Africa. It is a popular sport fish and is much sought after by anglers because of its fighting capabilities and bony mouth, which makes it difficult to hook.

I can’t help thinking that superhero Sportacus from the BAFTA-winning children’s programme LazyTown would be impressed with our LoveSport exhibition at World Museum Liverpool. The exhibition concentrates on encouraging visitors – especially children – to get active and it educates them about the benefits of sport for health.

LazyTown’s Sportacus – who was created and is played by Icelandic gymnast Magnús Scheving – goes one better. Not only is he credited with reducing the obesity levels of children in Iceland, but he has done it without ever mentioning exercise! The idea is that children find Sportacus' heroic flipping and darting around LazyTown so compelling that they decide to follow their role model on the road to fitness. Meanwhile, baddie Robbie Rotten (or is that Rotten Robbie?) is stuffing his face with goodies such as cream cakes.

Sportacus is a total hit with the children, but is also proving popular with the mummies who can’t help but admire the guy’s impeccable physique and mind-boggling agility.

If you haven’t heard about LazyTown before, you soon will. The theme tune ‘Bing Bang’  is in the race for Christmas number one single … and it’s just a teenie-weenie bit annoying. Where’s the superhero that wipes out tacky chart music when you need it?

Picture and frame reunited - Martin will be pleased!

Those of you who attended Martin Greenland's talk on his John Moores winner, 'Before Vermeer's Clouds', or who have listened to the gallery talk since, might remember Martin talking about the original frame. He said he had been persuaded to remove the frame for the show but hadn't been totally convinced as he quite liked the frame and felt it expanded the parameters of the painting.

Well, today painting and frame were reunited as the piece went on permanent display at the Walker Art Gallery. The simple, floating American pine frame is about five inches in depth and has quite a contemporary feel. Check it out.

And oddly enough I've just seen this article on the News & Star website about another of Martin's paintings, 'December' appropriately enough, that is currently on display at Meadowbank Farm Studio in Curthwaite, Wigton, Cumbria.

Detail of a botanical print of frankincense

It's cold outside, so the latest online exhibition to grace the National Museums Liverpool website is on the theme of winter weather.

As always the online exhibition draws on items from different venues, many of which are not usually on public display. This time we've got exhibits and animals from some of the coldest places on the planet, plants traditionally associated with Christmas and the perfect teapots to make a warming cuppa on a cold day, to name just a few.

So if you've ever wondered exactly how Inuit women keep warm in temperatures of -40°C, what frankincense and myrrh actually look like, or what type of bird would make a good novelty tureen to serve a nice warming stew out of - and I'm sure that last question in particular has kept many people awake at night - then we have the answers you seek.