FLAG News:

NEWSLETTER - JANUARY 2012

CHAIRMAN’S MESSAGE

A very Happy New Year to you all. With a holiday in Rouen, a tea party to celebrate Her Majesty the Queen’s 60th year of her reign, let alone a full summer programme, it should be a happy and interesting one for FLAG.

So many of you have remarked how much you have enjoyed the current exhibition at the Gallery of James Edward Duggins work, and how surprised you were to find that in our own town the artist had produced work to rival that of the more revered and better-known Impressionists.

Perhaps this is reflected in the enthusiastic and imaginative programmes that the Art Gallery & Museum staff design to encourage and inspire us. The money that we produce to support these activities, the conservation of well loved pictures, as well as contributions to the acquisition of new work, is put to good use. Discussions of priorities are made in consultation with gallery staff at regular meetings, where they have been sensitive to FLAG’s preferments and we to their professional judgement.

At the AGM in April we elect a new chairman who will inherit a dedicated and supportive committee, who have been a joy for me to work with during three challenging years. I step down in the surety that FLAG will continue to be a source of pleasure and reward.

Thank you all for your continuing support so that we are able to be effective Friends of Leamington Spa Art Gallery & Museum.

Diana Adams

PROGRAMME NOTES

As well as the visit to the Wallace Collection and two Study Mornings we have secured tickets to the Lucien Freud Portraits exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery. Our summer programme of visits will be out in March but one summer event to look forward to is our Diamond Jubilee Celebration Tea Party. This is a special event when the guest speaker will be our President, David Barby. We do hope lots of Friends will be able to join us for this special celebration. Details and booking slips are enclosed with this newsletter.

N.B. In order to aid our cash flow cheques for events and excursions will now be paid into the bank two weeks before the event. We hope this will not inconvenience anyone.

Talks for the remainder of the season:

16 February CHURCHES IN AND AROUND THE COTSWOLDS – A look at the history, art and architecture of the beautiful churches around the Warwickshire part of the Cotswolds from Anglo Saxon times to the present day.

15 March DROUGHT AND RELIEF IN THE HORN OF AFRICA - A personal view from Ian Mathie who has lived and worked in this area. Members may have heard Ian talking about some of his experiences on Radio 4’s Excess Baggage last October.

19 April GROWING OLD DISGRACEFULLY - After the AGM this lighthearted talk from a local actor should be very enjoyable.

GALLERY NEWS

I would like to start by thanking FLAG for their support during 2011, in what proved to be a successful year for Leamington Spa Art Gallery & Museum. The programme of exhibitions and events culminated with an extremely enjoyable Victorian Christmas on Saturday 12 December. There were lots of activities for all the family, and Santa Claus made his annual visit. We are grateful to FLAG for providing much needed refreshments during the day.

Looking forward, 2012 promises to be an eventful year, which will include an exhibition of works by Henry Moore, celebrations for the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee, and a sports exhibition to mark the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. I look forward to seeing you all over the next 12 months.

Vicki Slade
Senior Curatorial Officer

Exhibitions and Events

Our current exhibition James Edward Duggins (1881-1968) A Warwickshire Impressionist opened on 2 December 2011, and will continue until 12 February 2012. The exhibition provides a unique opportunity to see a wide range of works by the popular, but now often forgotten, artist and photographer James Edward Duggins. This is the first retrospective exhibition of Duggins’ work to take place since the artist’s death. It includes paintings, pastels, watercolours and photographs from both public and private collections.

We have held a series of events, which have run alongside the exhibition. The first event which took place on Friday 9 December at 1pm, was our Friday Focus talk with Duggins’ granddaughter Helen Cunliffe and her husband Bob. The couple talked about their personal memories of the artist’s life and work, in what proved to be a very touching Friday Focus. This event was extremely popular, and over 100 people attended!

Another event, which got booked up almost immediately, was the Landscape Painting Workshop for adults on Saturday 14 January, 11am-4pm. During the day participants took inspiration from the James Edward Duggins exhibition to capture the landscape using acrylic paints.

Our second Friday Focus talk linked to the exhibition, which will take place on Friday 20 January at 1pm, is with David Barby, art and antiques expert and President of FLAG. David will talk about the Duggins paintings from his personal collection that are on loan to the exhibition. If you plan to attend do arrive early as we anticipate this event will be very popular.

The next exhibition, which will open on 23 February, is Henry Moore in the Arts Council Collection. This exhibition examines all the works of Henry Moore (1898-1986) that are in the Arts Council Collection. Seen together the works on display present the development of his practice between 1927 and 1962. Many of the works show Moore’s investigation of human and organic forms towards a point of abstraction. His contribution to public sculpture can also be seen in various models for larger outdoor commissions. Each of these pieces can, in their own right, be appreciated for their expressiveness, craftsmanship and unique formal qualities. As Moore himself once noted, ‘the sensitive observer of sculpture must learn to feel shape simply as shape’. This is a Hayward Touring exhibition from the Arts Council Collection, on behalf of Southbank Centre, London. It runs until 15 April 2012.

The exhibition opens with an introduction by Sculpture Co-ordinator Laura Robinson from the Arts Council Collection. This is a Friday Focus Extra (one of our extended talks lasting approximately one hour) on Friday 24 February from 1-2pm.

New Displays

The new displays launched in the main gallery in September 2011 with the return of The Penitence of St. Peter, which looks stunning now that conservation work has been carried out. We are extremely grateful for FLAG’s contribution to pay for the cost of a new frame, which really sets off the work.

It is also great to see the Lucy-Kemp Welch painting Old Grey Mare with her Foal up on display, following some conservation work. This painting was kindly presented to the Art Gallery and Museum by FLAG in 2009.

We have also chosen to display water-shed by Edmund de Waal, which was purchased with funding from the MLA/V&A Purchase Grant Fund, along with an extremely generous donation of £2,000 from FLAG. This purchase marks the 40th anniversary of FLAG, and I’m sure you will be glad to see it out on display once more.

We are currently in the process of swapping over some of the works on paper in the main gallery, as these have been on display for about three months now, so need to ‘rest’ in the store. Please pop in and see the changes to the display, as we have several new works going up including the Stephen Bone painting, Hoar Frost on the Birch Tree, Leamington Spa.

I hope to see you all at future exhibitions and events over the coming months. Happy New Year!

Alice Swatton
Curatorial Officer (Visual Arts)

Finally a reminder that subscriptions are due from 1 February. Please send the completed form (including your email address if you have one) and cheque to our Membership Secretary. We value all our members and do hope you will want to renew your subscription for another year. Don’t forget if you have any friends who are thinking about joining us and would like to come along to a meeting they would be most welcome.