States of the Nation: Art and Politics in Britain in the 1980s
From 16 January On-going ( Gallery 17)
This collections display showcases the political concerns of many artists in Britain during the 1980s – whether reacting to Thatcher’s government, an economy in recession, the Falklands war or growing social dislocation. It brings together major paintings and sculpture from our collection augmented by key loans, including works by Tony Cragg, Bill Woodrow, Stephen Willats, Ken Currie and Steven Campbell.
An English Artist Abroad - Highlights from Leeds Watercolour collection
From 17 May
The display draws from Leeds permanent collection and include works by Turner, Cozens and Cox. The Classical world of Ancient Rome was a great pull on the imagination of English artist throughout the 18th and 19th centuries. It was through travel to continental Europe that they could experience it directly. The Roman ‘campagna’ (countryside) was considered an essential part of the Grand Tour, which every young English gentleman needed to experience if he wanted to be a ‘bona fide’ artist. As artists went to Italy to study and work, the landscape too, especially if it had classical association, became a subject for artworks produced on tour.
Artist and Camera - Ways of looking
23 August – 2 November ( Lyons Gallery)
In the year which sees the 150th anniversary of the foundations of a public art collection in Leeds this exhibition, with works by Gilbert and George, Richard Long and the Bechers, shows how Leeds was probably first regional gallery to start considering, and acquiring, photography as ‘fine art’.
Northern Art Prize
21 November 2008-1 February 2009
After introducing the Northern Art Prize, a prize for contemporary visual artists in the North of England, last year, Leeds Art Gallery will host the prize in its second year running. With its home in Leeds the prize celebrates and rewards professional artists of any age, working in any medium, living in the North East, North West and Yorkshire regions.
Rank: Picturing the Social order 1600-2009
11 February – 26 April 2009
The working principle is that, ideally, the works are single images which create a legible picture of the components of society (either the UK or the globe) or map it for us to understand how people and groups differ.
Mark Wallinger curates the Russian Linesman
9 May-28 June 2009
‘The Russian Linesman’, Tofik Bakhramov, is famous (or infamous) for a controversial ruling in the 1966 World Cup Final between the home team
England and West Germany, which had just eliminated the Soviet Unionteam in the semi-finals. Mark Wallinger’s exhibition for Hayward Touringwill be concerned with the liminal, a concept with physical, political,metaphysical meanings. It signifies the dissolution of boundaries and fixed identities, and is associated with rituals and rites of passage, transitional states characterized by ambiguity, openness and indeterminacy
Sculpture Displays:
The Wonder and the Horror of the Human Head
May 2007 – Dec 2008
This display focuses on a compelling group of sculptures and prints from the 1950s and early 1960s which use the form of the human head as a mirror for contemporary concerns.. During this period, Britain was haunted by the memory of World War II. At the same time, she was threatened by the spectre of the Cold War and an escalating nuclear arms race. The powerful imagery of these conflicts permeates this display which includes works by William Turnbull, Eduardo Paolozzi, Henry Moore, Elizabeth Frink, Anthony Caro, Bernard Meadows, F.E. McWilliam, Geoffrey Clarke and Hubert Dalwood.
Ordinary People
May 2007- Dec 2008
This display shows sculptures of familiar everyday figures – parents, children, lovers, friends and crowds – none of them famous but celebrated here in a reflection of the increased social inclusivity of the 1950s. The pieces in Ordinary People embody the desire for social harmony and cohesion prevalent in post-World War II Britain. The display focuses on recent acquisitions of pink plaster sculptures by Kenneth Armitage, shown together here for the first time, as well as the concrete sculptures of Peter Peri, with the addition of selected works by other artists.
From the Studio to the Study: Sculpture and its Writers, c.1910 - 1950
May 2007 – Dec 2008
This display explores the symbiotic relationship between artists and writers in the early modern period, a theme which is particularly resonant in the year that the City Art Gallery and Library are joined. It introduces key art critics - Ezra Pound, H.S. Ede, T.E. Hulme, Adrian Stokes, Herbert Read and R.H. Wilenski - who were able to interpret through their own creative writing, ‘difficult’ or innovative sculpture to a wider audience and suggests the way in which beautiful description and insightful interpretation can enhance and shape our view of art.