National Museums Liverpool Blog - Monday, December 20, 2010

Curator Charlotte Keenan researches paintings from the original 1911 exhibition

It’s that time of year when many of us will be making our annual trip up to the loft to get down the tinsel, fairy lights and all important star for the Christmas tree. But this time while you are up there cast your eyes around- you may very well be able to help the Walker Art Gallery with one of their major exhibitions for 2011!

Curators at the gallery are on the hunt for paintings by local artists that were included in a ground-breaking exhibition held in Liverpool almost 100 years ago and feel sure some of them must have made their way into local homes.

Could you have one hanging in your home or collecting dust in your loft? Do you think you might even be a descendent of one of the artists? Our curators would love to hear from you.

In 1911 the Bluecoat held an exhibition of post-Impressionist artists, who were relatively unknown and anti-establishment at the time, but some of whom are now recognised as giants of 20th century art.

Works by Picasso, Matisse, Gauguin and Van Gogh all starred in the exhibition alongside other European and local avant-garde artists.

Next year the Walker Art Gallery is hosting 'Art in Revolution: Liverpool 1911', an exploration of this important exhibition. Our curators have been researching both the exhibition itself and the backdrop of social unrest in Liverpool at the time. Their research has led them to collections all over the world but there are some works which are still eluding them.
 
Below are the local artists and artworks our curators are most interested in finding out more about. If you think you can help please contact Charlotte Keenan on charlotte.keenan@liverpoolmuseums.org.uk or 0151 478 4141.

Constance Irving – Exhibited a drawing and painting titled 'In the Sere' and 'Bet Ty' respectively.

Eleanor B. Page – exhibited one painting, 'Poppies and Cabbages'

Enid Jackson – Two untitled drawings

Ethel Martin Frimston – 'Boats' (Painting), 'The Sphinx' (Bronze), and 'Urn from Dove Park' (Plaster).

George T. Capstick – Two paintings: 'Portrait Study' and 'Interior'

Hamel Calder – 'A Balcony in Liverpool'

Hilda Goffery Atkinson - 'The Landing Place'

Kate Sargent – 'Lilacs' and 'Sussex Landscape' (paintings)

Mary McCrossan - 'The Foreshore', 'Green Shutters', 'The Fair', 'Washing Day' and 'The Fleet - Night'

Mary Palethorpe - 'The Harbour, Volendam'

Maud Glynn - 'Hills near Bethesda, Wales'

Prescod Malcom - 'At the top of the field'

Thomas Handley - 'The Hayle Bar - Low Tide (Sketch Near St Ives)'

William Wilfrid Cave - 'After the Dance' and 'September Morning – Amberley'

Winifred Burne - 'The Bathing Houses - Wort See'

Winifred Phillips - 'A Town Garden', 'A Cliff', 'Hastings Beach', 'Wild Flowers', 'Portrait of the Artist' and 'Flowers'

Image courtesy of the Liverpool Daily Post and Echo   

Over the Christmas and New Year periods passengers on the stylish liners would have packed extra clothing to make an impression.

This would have certainly been the case in First Class but all passengers would have dressed up for festive occasions. It might be a new gown or suit to mark the occasion. Poorer people made their own.

It was, and maybe still is in some families, a tradition to have a complete new set of clothes when travelling or on holiday.

This was the age of elegance – beautiful ships moving gracefully through sparkling seas, passengers and crew equally immaculately turned out.

This is one of the most enduring images of Victorian and Edwardian times, a period of huge confidence matching the growth of Britain’s power and prestige.

All sections of society wore hand-made clothes and most people took great trouble with their appearance. The Victorian idea of casual dress was very different from our own.

By the standards of the time people tended to dress more casually when they were at sea. Among the wealthy, top hats and other formal titfers were abandoned for more practical flat caps which stayed on in the wind.

Ladies made sure they had extra scarves and hat pins to secure their headgear. Even on board ship it was unthinkable for people of all ages, rich and poor, to be seen without their hats.

Only the very poorest could not afford hats or bonnets – in Liverpool bareheaded women were called Hairy Marys. It was only after the First World War that people began to be seen out of doors without hats.

Exhibits in Merseyside Maritime Museum’s Life at Sea gallery indicate what life was like for passengers on British ships from the 1850s.

A contemporary colour illustration shows a lady being dressed for dinner by her maid.

I love the hilarious colour comic strip (pictured) showing a gent struggling to dress as the ship rolls and heaves. He falls over as he attempts to get his detachable collar from his suitcase but makes it in the end.

Crews also had to be smartly dressed to match the style of the passengers. Photographs from 1889 to 1960 show the many different types of uniforms worn on passenger liners. A uniform worn by a chief engineer in 1930 is among those on display.

A new Maritime Tale by Stephen Guy appears every Saturday in the Liverpool Echo. A paperback – Mersey Maritime Tales (£3.99) – is available from the museum, newsagents and bookshops.

Way back in the early 1990s when I was an architecture student I went on a site visit to the shell of a building that had been the Midland Goods Depot in a past life. I was fascinated to hear how it was being converted into an innovative Conservation Centre for the museums, with every studio inside specially set up for the particular needs of conservators specialising in different materials.

A couple of years later – having abandoned a career in architecture in favour of art history – I started work at the Walker Art Gallery. The paintings conservators were based there at the time (in rooms which later became part of the exhibition galleries) and I got to know them over many cups of coffee in the staff room. I did miss them when they moved into the new building but was excited to see their impressive new studio.

Not long afterwards the National Conservation Centre opened to the public to great acclaim. It was ground breaking in focusing on the essential behind-the-scenes work of conservators that people would never normally see. This included everything from the cutting edge use of lasers by Conservation Technologies to traditional skills used to conserve objects such as the Lutyens cathedral model.

The Centre also built up a great reputation as a venue for photography exhibitions. I’ve particularly enjoyed the glimpses of the city’s past in exhibitions from Stephen Shakeshaft, Philip Jones Griffiths, Bernard Fallon and the fantastic Stewart Bale collection.

With all these great memories I can’t help feeling sad that the National Conservation Centre will close to visitors today, it really is the end of an era.

Behind the scenes the work of the conservators is, of course, continuing – they’re rather busy at the moment preparing displays for the Museum of Liverpool. You can read about the work they do on the website and see special in-depth features about the research they carry out, such the surprising discovery about the past of a painting of St Michael from the Lady Lever.

There will also be special conservation-themed events at our other venues, starting with a look at Crystal magic at World Museum next week, with more to follow, so do keep an eye out for them.

Record breaking visitor figures at 2010 John Moores Painting Prize

We were pretty confident this was a special exhibition but it is always nice when our visitors agree! Almost 47,000 people have visited since it opened its doors in September, making this the most popular 'John Moores Painting Prize' in the competition’s 53 year history!

The exhibition is open until 3 January 2011, but visitor figures already stand at 10,000 more than the final figure for the last exhibition in 2008, when Liverpool was crowned European Capital of Culture.

If you are stuck for Christmas present ideas or would just like a memento of this year’s fantastic exhibition why not pick up one of our exclusive Gary Hume badges at the Walker Art Gallery shop (£9.95)? All proceeds go towards funding future exhibitions.

I am an amateur cartoonist and caricaturist – all right, a doodler – who’s also very interested in the development of this art form since it emerged about the time of the English Civil War.

The Second World War inspired some classic newspaper and magazine drawings which kept up morale and were sometimes also used on propaganda posters and leaflets.

Captioned: 'Who's afraid of the big bad wulf? (By holding everything, including his fire, one of HM tugs brought one down on 11th January 1941'. Image courtesy of the Liverpool Daily Post & Echo.

Allied merchant shipping carrying vital supplies used the convoy system in an attempt to protect itself from combined U-boat submarine and air attacks during the war.

However, German sea and air forces were never fully co-ordinated as the Germans did not have anything similar to Britain’s Fleet Air Arm, the branch of the Royal Navy responsible for the operation of aircraft.

The fall of France heightened the German threat to shipping. By mid-1940 German planes based in France were increasing the peril to Allied shipping in the Atlantic.

In particular, the squadron of long-range Focke-Wulf Kondor or Kurier aircraft had been established near Bordeaux. Flying up to 600 miles into the Atlantic, the Kondors could direct U-boats on to convoys or bomb the almost-defenceless merchant ships.

In their first two months of operations they alone sank 30 cargo ships. Fortunately for Britain, the Kriegsmarine (German Navy) was never able to fully control the Luftwaffe (German Air Force) missions over the Atlantic.

Hitler’s decision not to set up an Arm meant that German air power was largely directed elsewhere away from the Atlantic.

On display at Merseyside Maritime Museum's Battle of the Atlantic gallery is a photo of the Focke-Wulf Kondor or Kurier (FW-200) long-range aircraft.

Dramatic photographs show the sinking, more than 200 miles west of Ireland, of the Elder Dempster liner Apapa by bombs from FW-200s.

The 9,000-ton Apapa had been sailing in convoy on a voyage from Freetown, West Africa, to Liverpool with 200 passengers and crew plus general cargo. Twenty-four lives were lost.

The 1941 cartoon commemorates a morale-boosting event. Jimmy Ryan of Hull was on HM rescue tug Seaman when it was attacked by a Kondor. He crawled to a Lewis gun, lit a cigarette and brought the bomber down with a deadly burst of fire.

Jimmy, a peacetime tug master, then helped to rescue the three German airmen who had ditched in the sea. He was awarded the George Medal for his remarkable success.

A new Maritime Tale by Stephen Guy appears every Saturday in the Liverpool Echo. A paperback – Mersey Maritime Tales (£3.99) – is available from the museum, newsagents and bookshops.

l-r: Youth volunteers; Caroline, Tara, Richard, Ben & Emma.

Last week, the Volunteers team along with a group of young volunteers attended the prestigious NCVYS Young Partners Awards 2010.

We were thrilled to have been shortlisted as one of three organisations in the North in the running for winning an award, to celebrate ‘young people’s involvement in decision making within voluntary and community youth organisations or projects’.

Richard Wan, one of the youth volunteers who attended the awards gives us an overview of the day…

‘On Saturday 4th December 2010, a group of youth volunteers and members of staff from the Volunteers team attended the Young Partners Awards 2010 in London’s 4-star Lancaster Hotel; following their shortlisted nomination for an award to recognise the input of young people in decision making within the youth volunteer programme at National Museums Liverpool (NML).

The ceremony began with a bang! A group of dancers first hit the stage showing off a couple of good dance moves in the process. It was slightly concerning too see somersaults metres away from ruining the clean ceiling. Amongst the other performers were a trio of African dancers, a singer and a rapper.

The complimentary three course meal was of an unquestionably high quality and there was an ongoing quiz throughout the ceremony. During the quiz there was no match for Lauren Yule, Assistant Volunteer Co-ordinator – who was ON FIRE with her answers!!!

It was unfortunate that NML did not win the award for the North but the volunteers did succeed in coming third in the quiz.

Despite not winning, I speak on behalf of the volunteers, when I say it was an honour to be nominated in the first place and being acknowledged for all the work NML has done and congratulations to the deserved winners.’
   

Thursday of that week saw the first day of Dinomania. I worked with the volunteers doing arts and crafts with children, making badges, masks and colouring in. The children had lots of fun making the masks and frightening their teachers and friends. The event was popular with many families and primary schools attending. On Friday I again joined the volunteers in the World Museum.

On the Tuesday of my second week I was based in the Weston Discovery centre in the World Museum, observing Egypt school sessions. I learnt much from the children that I had forgotten since primary school! The sessions were interesting and the children clearly enjoyed themselves. I also spent quite a while exploring the museum. It has been a long time since I have been – I forgot how much there was to look at! Wednesday I was again up in Human Resources. I attended the Volunteer meeting with the Mersey V’s. They were planning for an event to be held in April to celebrate the end of their volunteer project. I got an insight into just how much there is to think about when planning such an event. On Thursday I was based in the Walker Art Gallery.

For the morning I helped in the office, and after lunch I was shown around the gallery, shadowing different members of the Visitor Services team. I liked this day, there is much to look at and enjoy in the Walker.

I have enjoyed my time at NML and have been made to feel very welcome! I now have an understanding of the scale of this organisation and how much time and effort goes into organising things, as I have had the chance to see ‘behind the scenes’.

We had some exciting news recently from one of the John Moores exhibitors, Cara Nahaul, who has been selected along with two other artists for the Jerwood Painting Fellowship 2011.

Cara's painting "Somewhere between prayer and agenda"

Born in 1987, Cara is one of this year's youngest exhibitors and is following in the foot steps of other John Moores artists whose inclusion in the exhibition has proved to be an important stepping stone in their career. One of the best examples being the artist Peter Doig, whose work broke records in 2007 when it sold for £5.7 million, and who has described his John Moores win in 1993 as a "pivotal point".

Cara says: “To be selected for this year's John Moores Painting Prize was an amazing opportunity for myself as an artist, as it allowed me to see my work in a national institution. Having my work shown at John Moores gave me the confidence and impetus to pursue my professional practice. I applied for the Jerwood Visual Arts painting fellowship and was selected to make work for an exhibition in 2011 at Jerwood Gallery.“

Jerwood Painting Fellowships are a new initiative from Jerwood Visual Arts designed to promote and support emerging artists in the field of painting. It follows the Jerwood Contemporary Painters series, which came to an end earlier this year after a four year run, and previously the Jerwood Painting Prize.

The John Moores Painting Prize continues at the Walker Art Gallery until 3 January 2011

Canning Half Tide Dock

Apparently the big freeze will be over by the end of the week.  We were lucky this time in Liverpool, just slippery pavements rather than feet of snow.  This is how the Canning Half Tide dock looked this morning, partially frozen with a few confused seagulls picking their way across the ice. 

I should really include something maritime related rather than just a nice view out of the window of the Maritime Archives & Library, so I shall mention a few points from the entry on 'ice' in the very useful Oxford Companion to Ships and the Sea, part of our library collections.  Sea water freezes at about -1.9 degrees centigrade rather than the normal 0 degrees because of the dissolved salts in the water.  When sea water freezes the salts are left in solution making the unfrozen water saltier.  Frozen sea water forms pack ice which can last for 5 years in the Arctic, whereas icebergs are broken off from glaciers or ice shelves, so we're unlikely to see one of those in the dock.

Jason discusses his colourful and complex painting.

Aaron Eastwood is a final year English student at the University of Liverpool and is currently volunteering with us in the press office. Yesterday he went along to the Walker Art Gallery to catch the last of the John Moores artist talks. Here is what he made of it:

Local artist Jason Thompson’s painting, ‘Refractions (Robert Hooke)’, stands proudly in this year’s John Moores Painting Prize as the first piece made by a National Museums Liverpool employee to be chosen for exhibition!

Jason himself visited the gallery yesterday to talk about his work, explaining the creative processes involved in the conception and production of his work.

The distinct painting is small yet powerfully visual. Bold, angular lines of enamel paint emanate strikingly from the plywood background. These ‘threads of colour’ as Jason put it, criss-cross and intertwine over many layers. It was fascinating to hear that Jason’s creative methods are based on ‘random, intuitive mark-making’ and I really got the sense that Jason truly believes in and enjoys the long, natural processes involved in his artwork. He only works with ‘found’ objects, including the paints he works with. As a result he never mixes colours, so all his colours are chosen rather than manipulated in the mixing process, which adds to the earthly feel of the work and shows just how much effort goes into each piece.

One keen audience member commented that a friend’s child, on viewing the painting, had exclaimed that he just wanted to ‘reach out and grab the painting to see if the colourful sticks would move.’ I thought this was an excellent observation: the painting, although static, seems in constant motion and has a very inviting, tactile quality.

Jason further explained that the reference in the painting’s title to the natural philosopher Robert Hooke had no explicit representational meaning but was meant to evoke comparisons to the natural evolutionary processes involved in the formation of living things.

We’re all very proud of Jason’s achievement in the exhibition – well done!