‘I Am a Man and a Brother’

Interesting display and trail at the V&A Wedgwood Collection at the World of Wedgwood examining Josiah Wedgwood’s anti-slavery medallion designed to promote and bring about the abolition of the Slave Trade.

The display combined archive material from the collection with modern ceramic medallions by students from Stoke-on-Trent Sixth Form College reacting to the original. It’s a piece I fond of and I would love to own one. I am fascinating by how quickly the image spread and its impact.

A trail round the main displays provided the context for the medallion and the wider history of the abolition and anti-racism. This trail was subtle giving insights without feeling too preaching. It led your eye from an object to a commentary which you might not have thought was relevant to the narrative.

Closes January 2022

 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Lifeboat: Courage on our coast

Image
Outdoor exhibition outside London City Hall of photographs by Nigel Milllard of the life and work of the RNLI. I spotted this was on from the twitter feed of the RNLI at the Tower (@TowerRNLI) and was pleased to pass it while walking between galleries. I always like to see this sort of outdoor exhibition and watch how people interact with it. There was a nice mix of portraits, seascapes and action shots showing the work of this organisation and I particularly liked a picture of a boat being built and one of rescuing a crew from the Fastnet Race. The pictures easily held their own against the fabulous backdrop of Tower Bridge and the Tower of London.  
Read more

The Renaissance Nude

Image
Beautiful exhibition at the Royal Academy looking at the nude in Renaissance art. The show was gently themed but mainly let the pictures speak for themselves. It began by looking at the subjects, both religious and secular, which include nude figures then examined techniques and models used in these works, finishing by looking at more personal pictures. This is a period I’ve studied a lot so there were a lot of old friends and it was quite fun predicting what might appear. There were a few surprises too such as the rather surprising drawing of the Ecstatic Christ. I liked the fact the show included lots of different art forms not just paintings including sculpture, etchings, drawings and illuminated manuscripts. There were some fascinating hangs to draw comparisons particularly two sets of pictures by Giovanni Bellini and Hand Memling from almost exactly the same date. These were shown back to back in a display cabinet down the middle of one room. My favourite work was
Read more

Courtauld summer school day 1

Image
Today has been my first day of this year’s week at the Courtauld Institute’s summer schools. This year I am doing “Painting in Renaissance Venice” which is being led by Michael Douglas-Scott. It was nice to see some familiar faces and there are at least five of us who did Michael’s course last year. Today has been two lectures. Firstly setting out the background of Venice in this period looking at how the city had set up a myth of itself, the role of the Doge. the nature of the Republic and the role of citizens. The second lecture looked at why the nature of Renaissance was different in Venice. There was still a sense of the coming of antiquity and humanism but in Venice it fused with the Gothic and Byzantine rather than replacing it. The day ended with a choice of gallery talks. I went to one on the second floor of the Courtauld on the coming of Modernism. In essence it looked at the Impressionists and discussed what they were reacting against and what themes they portrayed. All in a
Read more