Exhibition at the Victoria & Albert Museum re-imagines the golden age of ocean travel
The First Art Newspaper on the Net    Established in 1996 Wednesday, December 25, 2024


Exhibition at the Victoria & Albert Museum re-imagines the golden age of ocean travel
A museum employee poses next to a diamond and pearl Cartier tiara saved from the Lusitania presented at a new exhibition 'Ocean Liners: Speed and Style' at the Victoria and Albert Museum in west London on January 31, 2018. Daniel LEAL-OLIVAS / AFP.



LONDON.- The V&A re-imagines the golden age of ocean travel with the major new exhibition, Ocean Liners: Speed & Style, sponsored by Viking Cruises. Co-organised by the V&A in London and the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Massachusetts, it is the first ever exhibition to explore the design and cultural impact of the ocean liner on an international scale. It explores all aspects of ship design from ground-breaking engineering, architecture and interiors to the fashion and lifestyle aboard.

Ocean Liners: Speed & Style showcases over 250 objects, including paintings, sculpture, and ship models, alongside objects from shipyards, wall panels, furniture, fashion, textiles, photographs, posters and film. It displays objects never-before-seen in Europe, and reunite objects not seen together since on-board these spectacular vessels, which revolutionised ocean travel from the mid-19th century to the late 20th century.

Highlights include a precious Cartier tiara recovered from the sinking Lusitania in 1915, as well as a panel fragment from the Titanic’s first class lounge, returning to the UK for the first time since its doomed maiden voyage in 1912. Others include a stunning interior panel from the Smoking Room of the French liner, Normandie, created by leading Art Deco lacquer artist Jean Dunand, and Stanley Spencer’s painting ‘The Riveters’ from the 1941 series Shipbuilding on the Clyde. The Duke of Windsor’s sumptuous 1940s Goyard luggage also features, on display in Europe for the first time since leaving the Windsor Estate. As the largest machines of their age, ocean liners became powerful symbols of progress and 20th century modernity. The exhibition also features ground-breaking works by Modernist artists, designers and architects inspired by liners, including Le Corbusier, Albert Gleizes, Charles Demuth and Eileen Gray.

Beginning with Brunel’s steamship, the Great Eastern of 1859, the exhibition traces the design stories behind some of the world’s most luxurious liners, from the Beaux-Arts interiors of Kronprinz Wilhelm, Titanic and its sister ship, Olympic, to the floating Art Deco palaces of Queen Mary and Normandie, and the streamlined Modernism of SS United States and QE2. It throws light on the famous passengers and the great couturiers who looked to ocean travel to promote their designs. On display is the Christian Dior suit worn by Marlene Dietrich as she arrived in New York aboard the Queen Mary in 1950, and a striking Lucien Lelong couture gown worn for the maiden voyage of Normandie in 1935. The exhibition also showcases one of the most important flapper dresses in the V&A’s collection – Jeanne Lanvin’s ‘Salambo’ dress – a version of which was displayed at the Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes in Paris in 1925. The dress belonged to Emilie Grigsby, a renowned wealthy American beauty, who regularly travelled between the UK and New York aboard the Aquitania, Olympic and Lusitania throughout the 1910s and 1920s.

Ghislaine Wood, exhibition curator, said: “The great age of ocean liners has long passed but no form of transport has been so romantic or so remarkable. Three years in the making, this exhibition will show how liners have shaped the modern world in many ways.”

Tristram Hunt, Director of the V&A, said: “I’m delighted that this dazzling exhibition, the first of its kind to explore the international design and cultural impact of the ocean liner, will be the V&A’s first major exhibition of 2018. This seminal show will reveal hidden design stories of some of the world’s most luxurious liners, from the Titanic to the Normandie and QE2. We have collected ship-related objects and ephemera for well over 100 years, and now have a startlingly brilliant collection of ocean liner material, making us uniquely placed to present this exhibition. I’d like to thank our sponsors, Viking Cruises, for their generous support in helping us stage this ambitious show.”

Torstein Hagen, Chairman of Viking Cruises, said: “A Viking journey is all about exploration and discovery, and we are committed to providing culturally enriching experiences to our guests, both on board our ships and on shore. We are very pleased to work with the world’s leading museum of art and design and performance, and to partner on this very exciting exhibition celebrating ocean travel, past and present.”

Ocean Liners: Speed & Style reveals the largely forgotten history of leading artists and designers who contributed to their design, such as William De Morgan, Richard Riemerschmid, Jean Dunand, Edward Bawden and Edward Ardizzone. It also highlights the political shifts and the international rivalry that developed over 100 years, as liners became floating showcases of national ingenuity. The exhibition considers the sociology of ships and shifting class structures on-board, as well as the democratisation of travel and development of leisure activities in the 20th century. It also investigates the shrewd promotional strategies used by shipping companies to reposition the on-board experience, as emigration gave way to aspirational travel. The ocean liner has been appropriated into pop-culture, literature and films, including Ronald Neame’s dystopian The Poseidon Adventure (1972) and James Cameron’s Titanic (1997), which remains one of the most successful films ever made. This, and the phenomenon of the modern cruise liner is also being explored, demonstrating how nostalgia for the great ‘floating palaces’ of the past can still be felt today.










Today's News

February 5, 2018

Exhibition at the Victoria & Albert Museum re-imagines the golden age of ocean travel

Playwright Tennessee Williams is the subject of a major exhibition at The Morgan

Exhibition is first to explore Paul Klee's impact on mid-20th-century American art

Major exhibition re-creates the sumptuous ambiance of Napoleon's court

Eli Wilner & Company's recent museum funding projects

First UK exhibition of American artist Ena Swansea on view at Ben Brown Fine Arts

Exhibition tells the story of Alphonse Mucha's epoch-making influence on poster art

Blain/Southern exhibits a selection of landscape paintings and drawings by Avigdor Arikha

Metro Pictures opens exhibition of nineteen new monochromatic paintings by David Maljkovic

Phillips expands its presence in China with appointment of Zhang Wenjia as Regional Director

Reccord-breaking works of art lead Rago to $6.1 million design auctions

Rarely exhibited photographs by Hiro on view at Hamiltons

mumok presents a representative selection from the collection of Alexander Schröder

Boca Raton Museum of Art exhibits works by Arthur Carter

James D. Julia Auctions newly discovered antiques and important historical items offered on Bidsquare

Dirk Braeckman opens double exhibition at M-Museum Leuven and BOZAR Brussels

New installation and performance series by artist Brendan Fernandes opens at The Graham Foundation

Curtis R. Harley Gallery at the University of South Carolina Upstate hosts exhibition on gun violence

Kari Vehosalo announced as winner of the Ars Fennica Prize Award

New Beirut gallery opens with Eileen Cooper exhibition

Chemould Prescott Road opens Mithu Sen's first solo show in India after eight years

Solo exhibition of Spanish artist José María Sicilia on view at Galerie Chantal Crousel

When is Space? An exhibition on contemporary architecture on view at Jawahar Kala Kendra




Museums, Exhibits, Artists, Milestones, Digital Art, Architecture, Photography,
Photographers, Special Photos, Special Reports, Featured Stories, Auctions, Art Fairs,
Anecdotes, Art Quiz, Education, Mythology, 3D Images, Last Week, .

 



Founder:
Ignacio Villarreal
(1941 - 2019)
Editor & Publisher: Jose Villarreal
(52 8110667640)

Art Director: Juan José Sepúlveda Ramírez
Writer: Ofelia Zurbia Betancourt

Royalville Communications, Inc
produces:

ignaciovillarreal.org juncodelavega.com facundocabral-elfinal.org
Founder's Site. Hommage
to a Mexican poet.
Hommage
       

The First Art Newspaper on the Net. The Best Versions Of Ave Maria Song Junco de la Vega Site Ignacio Villarreal Site
Tell a Friend
Dear User, please complete the form below in order to recommend the Artdaily newsletter to someone you know.
Please complete all fields marked *.
Sending Mail
Sending Successful