Throughout the UK, four in five of all oil paintings held in Art Galleries, and other public buildings, are held in storage not on view usually because there are insufficient funds and space to show them. Furthermore, very few galleries have created a complete photographic record of their paintings, let alone a comprehensive illustrated catalogue of their collections. In short, what is publicly owned is not publicly accessible.  The situation in Bristol is no different to anywhere else.

The Public Catalogue Foundation, a registered charity, is working on a project to record the complete collection of oil paintings in public ownership and to make this accessible to the public. In January 2009 a partnership with the BBC was announced with the aim of placing the entire catalogue online.  The PCF is now well over halfway through this project, having photographed nearly 110,000 paintings from over 1,600 collections.

It is now Bristol’s turn, and photographing the 600 oil paintings in the Collection at the Bristol Museum and Art Gallery which started on 5 September 2011 is almost complete. Subsequently, the collections held by the Royal West of England Academy, the University and the City Council will also be photographed.

By next Spring the photographs will appear as part of a book catalogue, and individual prints will also be available for purchase.  There will be online access to the UK’s entire collection on the BBC’s site later in 2012.

(This item updated 9 October 2011)

Previously The Friends promotional material and the Bulletin masthead have carried the image of Sir Peter Blake’s Owl & the Pussy Cat. Recently, the committee decided it was time for a change and members visiting the Museum will have seen our new, permanent display stand, plus the new design of Membership leaflets, both carrying the image featured here.  It also appeared for the first time on the masthead of the August edition of the Bulletin.

The work is by another knight, Sir Terry Frost, one of this country’s leading abstract painters.  In the last decade of his life he explored the printmaking medium of woodcut and Orchard Tambourines was the result.  The work was produced in 2000. This is significant.  The Friends committee had wanted to purchase a work for the Art Gallery to celebrate the millenium,  Sheena Stoddard, Curator of Fine Art, was tasked with finding something suitable, and this was the result.

In the picture Sheena is  surrounded by the four chairmen she worked with.  To her right is Carol Lear and Hugh Roberts; to her left, John Sansom and Joanna Brown.   As our current Chairman, Joanna  had just presented Sheena with The Friends’ farewell gift of  a watercolour by Doris Hatt and a cheque.  Sheena was also made a Life Member of The Friends.

(This item updated 18 August 2011)

M Shed

The opening of M Shed has been a major event for Bristol.

Join us, The Friends of Bristol Art Gallery, and the Friends of BMAG  on Saturday 1 October, for an evening to celebrate this wonderful new museum and our contributions towards it. Enjoy music by Chris Gilligan and a wine and finger buffet in the Event Suite on the top floor with stunning views over the city. The curators who worked so hard for so long on MShed will be available to take you on tours of the galleries and behind the scenes to visit the workshop and learning suite, and delight in items commissioned by The Friends.

We will be joined on the evening by the High Sheriff, Dr John Cottrell, and other guests who have made significant contributions to the completion of this great new addition to the City including our curators and museum staff.    Do come to this very special event.

The cost per person is £17.50.  Full details of the programme for the evening are on the booking form enclosed with the August Bulletin.

(Updated 12 August 2011)

(Photo Ede and Ravenscroft)

Prolific book publisher John Sansom was honoured by Bristol University on 22 July when he was awarded a Doctor of Letters honorary degree.

Michael Liversidge, Emeritus Dean of Arts, in delivering the oration at the ceremony said: “The Redcliffe Press (founded by John) rose to local prominence principally, but not exclusively, as a publisher of books about Bristol, its region and the West Country”.

He added: “What has always made Redcliffe Press distinctive has been the way it reflects its creator’s personal passions, and his extraordinary commitment to, and belief in, the books and authors he publishes.  Now it is the University’s turn to add its tribute to a remarkable and distinguished citizen for what he has contributed to learning, the arts and the community.”

The part John played in Bristol life over several decades has previously been recognised by the Bristol Evening Post with its Lifetime Achievement Award, and by the City with the rare civic distinction of a Lord Mayor’s Medal.

As a long-time supporter of The Friends of Bristol Art Gallery, John was Chairman for two spells, the most recent from July 2006 until October 2008.  Durng this latter period, notably John oversaw the 60th celebrations of the founding of The Friends, the introduction of colour to the Bulletin, and the setting-up of this website.  John has also been an active supporter of The Royal West of England Academy, the Bristol Short Story Competition and the Bristol Civic Society.

(This item added 25 July 2011)

View to Shanklin

This Residential Excursion is FULL with a waiting list.

Please note: the Final payment with appropriate s.a.e. should reach Margaret Bell by 1st March 2012 when final notes and a fully timed itinerary will be sent out.   A payment form is with the February bulletin.

 (Updated 16 February 2012)

Members will be delighted to know that at last good progress is being made with the long-delayed Lift and Toilet Upgrade project. The Lift itself has already been purchased and tendering for the building and installation work is in hand.  The contract for this is expected to be signed by mid-September and the Lift brought into public use in March 2012.

This is a major project, and although most of the building work associated with the Lift will be retained within a relatively small area, steps will be taken to minimise any noise, vibration, and dust which may occur.  The Assyrian Reliefs will need protection from vibration, the French Gallery will be affected requiring a subsequent re-hang, and all ceramics and glass will have to be put into temporary store.

Most of the disruption will occur from September-November.  After the Beryl Cook exhibition ends on 26 August there is no exhibition planned for the ground floor Exhibition Gallery until the annual Wildlife Photographer of the Year starts later in November.

The Lift Shaft will be constructed on the outside wall of the building in the gap between the Museum and the Wills Tower, eg with access to it on the ground floor near the existing cloaks area (right-hand side going in past the reception desk).  The lift will extend from the basement to the top Gallery floor

Upgrade of the toilet facilities will include an extra W/C, increased facilities for baby feeding and changing, a disabled area, and improved privacy.

Visit the News page for regular updates as the work progresses.

(This item added 20 July 2011)

Redland Church

This year’s Carol Service will again be held at Redland Church, on Monday 12 December, attended by members from both groups of Friends.  Following the service, a finger buffet and wine will be available.  This is always a very enjoyable occasion.

A further booking form was included with the November Bulletin.  If you want to come, please complete this and send it to Carol Lear asp.

(Updated 6 December 2011)

Tonight’s lecture on Degas by Françoise Durrance, a well qualified freelance art historian and bilingual lecturer, is linked to the excursion to the Degas exhibition Degas and the ballet Picturing Movement at the Royal Academy on the following Sunday (20 November).  See entry below.

Image: The Little Dancer (part)

(This item added 9 July 2011)

New extension Holburne Museum

Tonight’s lecture,  “Making the most of it: Redisplaying the Holburne Collection” will be given by Dr Alexander Sturgis, Director of the Holburne Museum, Bath. The group of Friends who visited the Holburne on 28 June will attest to the excellence of the works now suberbly displayed in the splendid new extension of the museum at the rear of the existing building.

Important: the Museum has today informed us that because a chair broke at the September lecture, all the Cafe chairs used at lectures have had to be taken out of use.  They are being replaced but will not be available until next month.  This means that the maximum attendance on Thursday will be 70.  If you intend to come, please arrive early, late comers after all seats have been filled may have to be refused admission.  We are sorry about this.

(Updated 18 October 2011)

Wightwick Manor Photo Rupert Truman

Today we visit Wightwick Manor and Gardens in Wolverhampton and the nearby Bantock House Museum.

This excursion is FULL with a waiting list.

(This item updated 9 October 2011)

The following articles provide commentaries on the items shown on the Acquisitions & Conservations page for 2010-11.  To learn more about the items acquired or conserved in previous years, just scroll down further.

St Mary Redcliffe

This superb oil on canvas was done by Samuel Jackson (1794-1869) around 1826.  He has painted a very accurate view ot the harbour seen from Prince Street Bridge.  Shipping includes merchantmen at The Grove (left), Severn trows, and the Grove ferry (centre distance).  Teast’s Shipyard is on the right. St Mary Redcliffe has a truncated spire; it had fallen in 1446 after being struck by lightning and was not replaced until 1872.  The church is shown surrounded by 18th century industrial buildings, including a brick kiln, the Shot Tower, and the cone of the Prewett Street glasshouse.

The picture was given by Anthony McGreevy, 2006, and  was conserved by Rachel Howells, Cardiff, 2010.  The Friends of Bristol Art Gallery funded the conservation.

Quarry on Durdham Down

Attributed to William Arnee Frank (1808-1897), Quarry on Durdham Down was painted in watercolour and bodycolour circa 1865.

This is an unusual subject for an artist and shows the extent of quarrying on the Downs in the 18th and 19th centuries.  The quarry was filled-in by 1869 and there is no trace of it today.  We are looking towards Clifton from the near Stoke Road.  The tower of Dundry Church is on the left skyline, with the Clifton Observatory and a pier of the Suspension Bridge just below it, to the right.   The artist was from a Bristol Quaker family; his early work was in pencil and he seems to have become more proficient in watercolour in middle age.

(Note: members can read a fuller description of the Quarry by Francis Greenacre in the August 2011 Edition of The Bulletin)

This painting was purchased with the assistance of The Friends of Bristol Art Gallery in 2010.

Helen  Dowding, one of the conservators at the Museum, carried out the conservation.  When she first received the painting, she found the surface covered in thick brown varnish and the paint was flaking off the canvas.  Then ensued the long job of stabilising the paint, strenthening the canvas, removing the discoloured varnish, and re-integrating the paint losses.  Later, the original frame was restored.  The painting is now duly on display in the Bristol Places Gallery of M Shed.

Fruits of my Life

Kate Malone attended Henbury School and Bristol Polytechnic before moving to London and completing her studies in ceramics.  Since then she has bccome  internationally recognised, particularly for her experiments with various types of glazing.

Commissioned by The Friends, her work now on display in the Bristol People Gallery of M Shed is a striking Lady Gourd, which Kate has named ‘Fruits of my Life’.  Although difficult to see, under the lid of the Gourd carved into the inside surface, are the names of her home and places in Bristol Kate associates with her formative years in the City.  The outer surface of the Gourd features natural forms such as leaping fish, a pineapple, blossom and acorns.  It is a superb piece of ceramic art.

Kate is doing The Friends the honour of giving this year’s Schubart Lecture on Thursday 29 September in the Rear Hall of the Bristol Museum & Art Gallery.   Look out also for a video diary of Kate making her Gourd, shortly to be installed in M Shed alongside her work.

(Photo by Adrian Sassoon)

Date added: 2 July 2011

is a major talking point.  Richard is an artist of international standing with work in collections all over the world, including his ‘Delabole Slate Circle’ in the Modern Art Gallery of Bristol Museum & Art Gallery (see the ‘Acquistions’ page).  He was born in Bristol and still lives in the area. Although he was busy planning a major exhibition in New York this year, he agreed to make two works for M Shed.

Richard chose the west foyer for his mud work ‘River Avon Muddy Circle’, and text piece ‘From Bristol to the Sea.’ The latter is in vinyl lettering, mounted on the wall opposite the mud piece.  The staircase goes up between them and both works can be seen from the stairs, or the landing between the ‘Place’ and ‘People’ galleries.

For his mud work Richard used mud collected from the River Avon and smeared it with his bare hands over metres of gallery wall, in a pattern of swirles, splatters and drips.  Whilst the work itself had to be done quickly, a great deal of planning was necessary to ensure that the placement and scale of the Circle were appropriate for the space available, and, indeed, that it formed a perfect circle.

Date added 2 July 2011

Highclere Castle was the seat, 100 years ago, of the 5^th Earl of Carnarvon, who famously discovered the tombs of the Egyptian boy Pharaoh Tutankhamun in 1922 with his archaeological colleague, Howard Carter.     It is also now, of course, more familiarly known to most people as “Downton Abbey” from the TV series of that name.

Two coaches have now been laid on for this excursion and both are now FULL

(This item updated 1 June 2011)