Unruly Desires: Reframing the Past — Queering History at Leamington Spa Art Gallery & Museum

 

Image courtesy of Annabel Rainbow for FLAG

History is often presented as fixed, authoritative, and complete. Yet beneath the surface of many museum collections lie untold stories, hidden identities, and alternative ways of seeing the world. Unruly Desires: Reframing the Past, currently showing at the Leamington Spa Art Gallery & Museum, challenges visitors to reconsider the past through a contemporary queer and postcolonial lens.

Running until 6 September 2026, this free exhibition brings together acclaimed photographers Sunil Gupta and Charan Singh alongside selected works from the museum's own collection. Through a thoughtful dialogue between historic and contemporary artworks, the exhibition asks powerful questions about identity, representation, love, intimacy, and who gets to be visible within cultural history.

Reimagining the Canon

At the heart of the exhibition are photographic works by Gupta and Singh, artists whose practices have long explored the intersections of sexuality, migration, race, and belonging within the South Asian diaspora. Their work confronts the limitations of traditional Western art histories, creating space for narratives that have often been marginalised or erased.

Particularly striking are Gupta's New Pre-Raphaelite series and Singh's The Promise of Beauty. Both bodies of work draw upon the visual language of classical studio portraiture while simultaneously subverting it. Familiar poses, aesthetics, and references are transformed into something radically contemporary, questioning the imperial and heteronormative assumptions embedded within art historical traditions.

Rather than rejecting history outright, the artists engage with it directly. They reclaim visual spaces from which queer bodies and desires have historically been excluded, creating images that are both deeply personal and politically resonant.

Conversations Across Time

What makes Unruly Desires especially compelling is the way it connects contemporary photography with historical works from the Leamington Spa Art Gallery & Museum collection.

The exhibition draws unexpected links between Gupta and Singh's photographs and objects including Pre-Raphaelite artworks, Company Paintings, and other historical pieces. These juxtapositions reveal how ideas about beauty, gender, race, power, and desire have been constructed over time.

The inclusion of newly commissioned, site-specific works further deepens this dialogue. Inspired directly by objects and images housed within the museum, these responses invite visitors to look again at familiar collections and consider what stories remain hidden within them.

The result is not simply an exhibition about the past, but an active conversation between past and present. History becomes something dynamic, open to reinterpretation and challenge rather than a fixed narrative handed down unchanged.

Queer Visibility and Radical Tenderness

While Unruly Desires engages with complex themes of colonialism and representation, it is equally an exhibition about intimacy and human connection. Throughout Gupta and Singh's work, queer desire is depicted not as spectacle or transgression but as something ordinary, beautiful, and deeply human.

Their portraits offer moments of vulnerability, affection, and tenderness that have often been absent from mainstream visual culture. In doing so, they create a powerful counterpoint to historical narratives that have overlooked or suppressed LGBTQ+ lives and experiences.

The exhibition's title itself feels apt. "Unruly desires" suggests feelings and identities that refuse containment, categorisation, or erasure. These works insist on visibility while embracing complexity, ambiguity, and personal truth.

A Timely Exhibition

At a moment when museums and galleries are increasingly examining their collections through more inclusive and critical perspectives, Unruly Desires: Reframing the Past demonstrates the importance of revisiting historical narratives with fresh eyes.

By placing contemporary queer perspectives in conversation with traditional collections, the exhibition reveals how art can challenge inherited assumptions and expand our understanding of both history and ourselves.

Visitors will leave with a renewed appreciation not only for the work of Sunil Gupta and Charan Singh but also for the ways museums can become spaces of dialogue, questioning, and discovery.

Visitor Information

Exhibition: Unruly Desires: Reframing the Past

Venue: Leamington Spa Art Gallery & Museum, Royal Pump Rooms, The Parade, Royal Leamington Spa, Warwickshire, CV32 4AA

Dates: Now showing until Sunday 6 September 2026

Admission: Free

Located within the historic Royal Pump Rooms, the exhibition offers an opportunity to experience thought-provoking contemporary photography while exploring one of Warwickshire's most significant cultural collections.

For anyone interested in contemporary art, queer histories, photography, or the evolving relationship between museums and the communities they serve, Unruly Desires: Reframing the Past is a compelling and rewarding visit.

The Spirit of Ecstasy - Eleanor Thornton bio

 

 

Most people recognise the elegant silver figure that graces the bonnet of a Rolls-Royce. Known as the Spirit of Ecstasy, it has become one of the most enduring symbols in automotive history. Yet few know the remarkable story of the woman who inspired it, a woman whose family once lived in Royal Leamington Spa.

The Woman Behind the Spirit of Ecstasy: Leamington's Connection to a Motoring Icon

 

Born in London in 1880, Eleanor Thornton, known to her family as Nelly, spent part of her childhood in Leamington after her father, electrical engineer Fred Thornton, moved there to oversee one of the town's most ambitious Victorian projects. During the late 1880s, Leamington embraced the new age of electricity, and Thornton played a key role in bringing electric lighting to the town centre, helping transform the streets, shops and public buildings of the spa town into a modern urban environment.

As a young woman, Eleanor pursued a career as a secretary before finding employment in the emerging world of motoring journalism. Working for the influential publication Car Illustrated, she became the assistant to its editor, John Scott-Montagu, one of Britain's earliest motoring enthusiasts. Their professional relationship eventually developed into a long and complex personal one that would shape the course of her life.

Around this time, motor cars were becoming status symbols, and owners increasingly sought distinctive mascots to personalise their vehicles. When Scott-Montagu acquired a Rolls-Royce, he commissioned artist and sculptor Charles Robinson Sykes to create a unique bonnet ornament. Using Eleanor as his model, Sykes produced a figure known as The Whisper, depicting a woman with a finger raised to her lips.

The collaboration did not end there. In 1911, Sykes created another design inspired by Eleanor—a flowing, forward-leaning female figure whose draped form appeared to capture movement itself. This sculpture evolved into what became known as the Spirit of Ecstasy. Over time, the emblem became inseparable from the Rolls-Royce brand, appearing on generations of vehicles and becoming one of the most recognisable automotive symbols in the world.

Despite her connection to such an enduring icon, Eleanor's own story ended tragically. During the First World War, she was travelling in the Mediterranean when the ship carrying her was attacked and sunk by a German submarine. She lost her life in the disaster, while Scott-Montagu survived. He later commemorated her with a memorial, recognising the devotion and companionship she had shown throughout many years of service and friendship.

Today, visitors to Royal Leamington Spa can discover this fascinating chapter of local history through the town's Blue Plaque programme. The plaque serves as a reminder that behind one of the world's most famous motoring emblems was a real person whose life intersected with innovation, art, social convention and tragedy. It also highlights an unexpected connection between a Warwickshire spa town and one of the greatest luxury automotive brands ever created. 

With thanks to Royal Leamington Spa, Blue Plaques Group. 

 

Leamington Spa's 44th Blue Plaque commemorating Eleanor Thornton

 

Leamington Spa's 44th Blue Plaque, which commemorates Eleanor Thornton, the model used for the worldwide iconic figure on the front of Rolls-Royces.

  

Blue Plaque Honours Leamington Woman Behind the Rolls-Royce Spirit of Ecstasy

A blue plaque at 24 Charlotte Street in Leamington Spa was unveiled by Town Mayor Cllr Sarah Boad on Thursday, 4 June, in honour of Eleanor Velasco Thornton, also known as “Nelly”, who was the model for the Rolls-Royce Spirit of Ecstasy emblem, one of the most recognisable symbols in motoring history.

The Blue Plaque Scheme recognises former residents of Royal Leamington Spa who made significant contributions to the town’s history.

The Mayor of Leamington Spa, Cllr Sarah Boad, said:

“The woman seemingly in flight mascot we know for sitting proudly at the front of this prestigious car has a story behind it that brings a fascinating link and history to Leamington Spa.

“The story of this Leamingtonian, was of a bright, independent woman who trained as a secretary, obtained a responsible position working for an automotive journal and went on to work as a Personal Assistant to the Editor, John Scott-Montagu, of Car Illustrated. He was an early car enthusiast and bought a Rolls-Royce and commissioned the sculpture of his muse, Nelly who modelled for this distinctive emblem.

“The Blue Plaque commemorates this famous image of Nelly, a resident of our wonderful town, for future generations.

“The Royal Leamington Spa Town Council’s Blue Plaques Scheme brings together a group of volunteers and statutory bodies dedicated to celebrating the town’s rich history. I wish to thank the Blue Plaque Group for their hard work in ensuring that the inspiration Nelly provided as a model for the iconic Rolls-Royce Spirit of Ecstasy is remembered.”

Artist and Flag President, Mo Enright.

 

Meet Mo Enright

Many members of Friends of Leamington Art Gallery will already know Mo Enright as our President, but they may not know the remarkable artistic career that lies behind her long-standing support for the arts in Leamington.

Born and raised in the Hambleton Hills of North Yorkshire, Mo studied Fine Art before completing a Master's degree in the History of Art and Design. She is now a full-time professional artist working from her Warwickshire studio.

Mo's paintings are best known for their evocative use of memory, landscape and the passage of time. Working primarily in oils, she creates richly layered works that draw on personal experience as well as the environments that surround her. For commissioned projects, she carefully considers the character of a site and will often adapt her approach and materials to suit the setting.

Over the years, her work has found its way into private and corporate collections across the world and she has been recognised through inclusion in Who's Who in Art.

One of Mo's most significant local commissions can be seen at St Mary's Church, Leamington Spa. Created between 2001 and 2002, The Easter Story consists of two large-scale paintings positioned on either side of the altar. The semi-abstract works explore the themes of Christ's death and resurrection through dramatic contrasts of colour, light and form.

The commission was awarded a Leamington Society Golden Jubilee Award in 2003 and continues to be admired for the way it complements the architecture of the church while offering a powerful visual interpretation of the Easter narrative.

As both an accomplished artist and a passionate advocate for the visual arts, Mo has made an important contribution to the cultural life of Warwickshire. We are delighted to have her as President of Friends of Leamington Art Gallery and grateful for her continued support of our work.

Waiting - series of 6 paintings

This series of six paintings is about time and the concept of time in a child's mind. The concept of time to a young child is very different to that of an adult. For the child, time appears to pass at a snail's pace and as in this case allows much time for curiosity, impatience and naughtiness to ensue.

At this rehearsal session a small child waits behind a makeshift screen for her turn to step from behind and present her performance piece. Waiting - the minutes seem like hours, curiosity gets the better of patience - just one little peep, or two. Waiting patiently or impatiently is, in this case,  conducive to mischievousness. The temporary stage curtain is not up to this kind of treatment and soon departs from its moorings. One turn in the wrong direction leads to unavoidable entanglement. A young child aware of her misbehaviour can exit the scene extremely quickly.

Mo Enright at ‘Waiting’ exhibition. 

Legacy (Triptych)

These panels endeavour to make a statement about the/my carbon footprint. They depict my concern about the indiscriminate felling of trees, the destruction of the forests and the ultimate damage caused to the environment worldwide. We need paper, we need books, but do we need so much and so many? Millions of books are printed every year and hundreds of thousands are sold, however, many, many thousands remain unsold and are returned to the publishers for pulping. A large percentage of books will never be read. Of course paper is just a minuscule part of the problem, but a part nevertheless. The trees, the forests, are our life support, what are we doing abusing them in this way?

Legacy by Mo Enright- triptych

 

Legacy Triptych by Mo Enright

 

 The Easter Story

The oil painted panels situated on the East Chancel wall in the Sanctuary of St Mary’s Church Leamington Spa, were commissioned in 2000 and the whole project took approximately two years to complete. The paintings nestle in the arched recesses either side of the altar and tower up to 579cm high by 109cm wide culminating in a Lancet Arch at the apex.

The paintings show, in a semi-abstract idiom, a visual depiction of some of the momentous events in the Christian calendar leading up to Holy Week. The artist's aim was to blend the new art work with the existing artefacts of the Leonardesque Last Supper of the reredos, up through the painted panels to the large stained glass window of the Ascension.The work was dedicated by the Bishop of Coventry on the 10th February 2002

The Easter Story by Mo Enright.

 

Our Visit to Gloucester Cathedral

 With thanks for text and words; FLAG member Carolyn Gifford

Gloucester Cathedral

The cathedral, originally a minster, was established in 679. It became a Benedictine monastery in the 11th century (but with only two monks in 1072) and the present building was begun in 1089. After a series of fires, the choir and cloisters were rebuilt in the 14th century, the earliest surviving example of fan vaulting. After the Dissolution, it was re-established as a cathedral and like so many, was refurbished in the 18th and 19th centuries.

 

Photo of large columns

The nave, the earliest surviving part of the early church, has massive columns with spans of zigzag arches between. They are, apparently, filled with rubble.

 

Photo of intricate fan vaulting

 

The intricate vaulted stone ceiling above the choir.

There is a very ornate tomb of Edward II, who met his death at Berkeley Castle in 1327. Probably murdered, his tomb soon became a shrine, much visited by pilgrims and swelling the cathedral’s coffers.

 

Photo of the cloisters

 

The cloisters also have very fine fan vaulting and although enclosed by glass windows onto a walled garden, are surprisingly draughty.

 

Photo of blue stained glass

 

 This is ‘Rhapsody in Blue’ in the Thomas Chapel, stained glass created by Thomas Denny in 1992.

 

There are furnishings and memorials from pretty much every one of the 15 centuries since the cathedral was built, including the 20th century. 

Why join the Friends of the Gallery and Museum?

 

Why join the Friends of the Gallery and Museum?

Because local culture matters.

The Friends help support exhibitions, collections, educational work and activities that keep our gallery and museum vibrant and welcoming for everyone.

Some of our members come to talks and trips, others enjoy keeping in touch with what’s happening behind the scenes, and many simply join because they believe our gallery and museum are an important part of community life.

Membership is a simple way to help protect and celebrate something special in Leamington Spa.

If that sounds like you, we’d be delighted to welcome you.

Membership is £15 per year and forms can be downloaded by clicking the box on the sidebar, or from the Information Desk in the foyer of the Pump Rooms

Elephant Sculpture in Leamington Spa

 (Photos by FLAG member)

 

Why does Royal Leamington Spa have so many elephants?

Look closely and you’ll find them everywhere; sculptures in public spaces, references in local businesses, illustrations in cafés, even children climbing across bronze elephant backs in the town centre. It is one of Leamington’s most charming and unexpected visual motifs, and much of it can be traced back to one extraordinary Victorian showman: Sam Lockhart.

Born in 1850 into a circus family, his father described himself on the census as a “Professor of Gymnastics”. Sam Lockhart began his career as an acrobat before becoming one of the most celebrated elephant trainers of his age. His travelling circus toured internationally and, while working in Burma, he acquired the elephants that would make him famous.

Lockhart later settled for a time in Leamington Spa, and local stories still cling to the town. One enduring tale claims that circus elephants were washed in the river near what is now known as Elephant Walk in Priory Terrace. Historians debate the truth of it, but it is easy to imagine: elephants famously adore water, and the riverside setting feels entirely plausible.

Fragments of this elephant history continue to surface. During the redevelopment of the former council offices on Warwick New Road, large bones, believed to be those of an elephant, were reportedly discovered in the grounds, though quicklime had badly damaged them. Nearby street and business names quietly preserve the memory too: Wilhelmina Close on Warwick New Road and the Haddie & Trilby bakery on Dale Street both reference members of Lockhart’s famous troupe.

When Sam Lockhart died, the Leamington Courier described him as a “retired giant of the entertainment industry," a fitting epitaph for a man whose presence still echoes through the town’s visual culture more than a century later.

 If you want to read more about him I suggest clicking this link.

 

The Three Graces, by Philippa Downes, Livery Street, Leamington Spa, Bronze

  

Philippa says:

"Recently we installed three bronze elephants titled ‘The Three Graces ‘ in Regents Court, Royal Leamington Spa commissioned by New River Retail. They were sculpted out of polystyrene and plaster , then were taken to the bronze foundry to be moulded and cast in bronze. The whole process took around five months from start to finish. They were a great piece to work on and it’s lovely to see the local children interacting and playing on the elephants now they are in place" .

She describes herself as " Sculptor, prop maker and effect specialist"

 

 

The Three Graces were commissioned by New River Retails for the new Livery Street, and celebrate Sam Lockhart who lived in Leamington Spa for over eighty years and shows the most famous of his troupe, Wilhelmina, Haddie and Trilby.

 Elephant Seat by Nicholas Dimbleby (1946-2024) Stone and bronze.

1978 Commissioned by Warwickshire County Council 

Above is a round seating area with three elephant sculptures around the circular seat. There is a child on the back of the elephant closest to the camera. It was made in 1978, and was sited in what is now the inside of the Royal Priors Shopping Centre, but at the time it was outside in Whiteshead Court. It was re-sited in the Jephson Gardens in 2015

Dimbleby began his career as an assistant to abstract sculptor William Pye in London. After briefly living in rural France, he returned to the UK and established a studio in Devon, where he settled permanently.He worked on public and private projects, including portraits of sports personalities such as rugby player Jonny Wilkinson and rower Steve Redgrave He also produced private commissions for the British royal family, including a lifecast of Lady Louise Windsor for her parents, Prince Edward and Sophie, Duchess of Edinburgh, and several pieces commissioned by King Charles III when he was Prince of Wales. He also created sculpture of Captain Cook on High Green, Great Ayton. (Wiki)

Placed quietly beside the river, the sculpture feels almost like a continuation of Leamington’s elephant folklore, it's an artwork that keeps the town’s curious circus history alive in bronze and stone.

 

Outsider Art - Is It A Birthright?

Outsider art reminds us that creativity is a birthright, not a career path.

The images below echo the spirit of outsider artists such as Adolf Wölfli, Judith Scott, and Howard Finster. They are illustrative rather than attributable, and sourced from free-to-use image libraries. 

(by Membership Secretary, FLAG) 

Coined by artist Jean Dubuffet in the 1940s, art brut literally means “raw art.” It described work made by people in asylums, prisons, or complete obscurity; people who probably didn’t even know they were making “art” at all. They were just doing it. Creating something, anything, almost compulsively, obsessively. Sometimes with bottle caps. Sometimes with human hair. Sometimes with a thousand biro pens and a dream, or gluing matchsticks to a life-size papier-mâché giraffe in a garden shed in Norfolk. In other words: outsider art in its purest form. 

In a world where everything is curated, filtered, and optimised for engagement, outsider art is gloriously resistant to polish. It’s the antidote to art speak and the enemy of cool. It’s where sincerity still lives, sometimes in the form of an intricately carved wooden toaster that doubles as a shrine to a lost cat. And frankly, that’s beautiful.

Because maybe art doesn’t need to be clever. Or commercially viable. Or made in a Hackney studio with exposed brick and oat milk flat whites on tap. Maybe it just needs to be.

There’s something else, too, outsider art doesn’t ask for permission. It doesn’t wait for validation, or a degree show, or a panel of tutors with clipboards and careful language. It emerges fully formed from the need to make, not the need to be seen, and that feels increasingly rare.

I sometimes think my daughter, who has a wonderful Fine Art degree, may have struggled with her tutors because, although none of us saw it at the time, what she was making might have been outsider art. Someone who carefully collects their own eyelashes and eyebrows, then uses them to create a tiny, painstaking self-portrait, well that’s not just creative, it’s deeply personal. There was such quiet intensity in it, such focus, and not the faintest concern for whether it fit into anyone else’s idea of what art should be. Looking back, it makes perfect sense.

Giving people a title for what they do helps define them to others. Apparently, outsider art is now the height of fashion. Museums are mounting major exhibitions, and I believe collectors are shelling out serious money. Auction houses are whispering reverently over cracked canvases painted by people who didn’t even know what acrylics were. The once-marginalised is now curated, institutionalised, and Instagrammed.

 

 

And that’s where it gets a bit murky.

Is it still outsider art when it’s hanging next to a David Hockney? Is it still rebellious, or couldn’t-care-less when it’s being endorsed by the very establishment it once sat outside of? Can something be both raw and reframed, instinctive and institutionalised? I’m not entirely sure. It feels a bit like trying to bottle something that was never meant to be contained.

Here are a few outsider artists, if you’re curious:

• Henry Darger – Chicago janitor by day, creator of a 15,000-page fantasy epic by night. His world: part Victorian fairytale, part fever dream, part “should we be worried?”
• Judith Scott – Deaf, with Down syndrome, and institutionalised for decades, she made intricate cocoon-like sculptures from yarn and found objects.
• Madge Gill – A spiritualist who produced thousands of drawings, often guided (she claimed) by a spirit named Myrninerest. As you do.
• Howard Finster – A Baptist preacher who built his own garden museum filled with visions of Elvis, God, and aliens. Pretty standard, really.

Outsider art is what happens when you remove the polite conversation and gallery lighting from creativity. It’s what’s left when nobody is watching or when nobody is expected to.

And maybe that’s the point. Not everything needs to belong. Some things just need to exist. I'm off to do that which I can't stop doing and which no one will see!

 

(All images courtesy of copyright free platforms:  Unsplash, Pexels, Wiki Commons