Galleries and museums have been preoccupied with how to show public art collections – some built up over several centuries – and provide context through a contemporary lens.
Curators at the Hunterian Art Gallery, home to Glasgow University’s art collection, have also been toying with this and yesterday the gallery opened its doors on a complete rehang.
I was lucky enough to be given a private tour by Dr Lola Sanchez-Jauregu, Curator of Art Collections.
The rehang includes more than 200 works spanning 700 years. Some have never been on show or have been hidden away for years. As Sanchez-Jauregu says, they now want “to tell stories we have not told before”.
“There is a lot going on in the world,” she adds. “Questions around inclusivity, gender equality and colonialism, to name a few topical issues. An art collection needed to reflect all this.”
The Hunterian has traditionally been home to a large collection of Whistler paintings, as well as works by the Scottish Colourists and the Glasgow Boys.
Chardin’s A Lady Taking Tea was once voted Glasgow’s second favourite painting. It is now surrounded by new installation based around the tea trade and slavery in the 18th Century.
Walking into the Hunterian, a 1970s building which is an essay in concrete, you are confronted with a light bright, contemporary gallery space.
The artworks are presented under nine themes; including What Makes A Portrait, Colour And Light, Art And Science and Art Across Borders.
I found it heartening to see so many more women artists than I’m used to seeing in galleries, including Bessie MacNicol, Phoebe Traquair, Joan Eardley and Christine Borland.
Other works to love include paintings which recently underwent conservation, giving them a new lease of life. Take a bow, John Hoyland’s 18-6-69 and Hector’s Farewell to Andromache by Gavin Hamilton.
Since its inaugural show in 2015, Hawick’s Zembla Gallery has been on a mission to spread the joy of art. The contemporary art gallery is currently showing the work of London-based Sol Golden Sato, painter and installation artist. This Friday, Sato will set up shop in Drumlanrig Primary School. He is inviting young people to come and paint and dance to make a monumental fabric installation, made by poured paint distributed by dance moves. Talk about happy feet…
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