SOUTHAMPTON.- This autumn, Southampton City Art Gallery will stage an extensive exhibition of over 100 works showcasing how British artists responded to the Modern Art revolution that swept across Europe and beyond.

It has been over a century since Roger Fry caused an art sensation in Britain with his 1910 exhibition Manet and the Post-Impressionists. 23 years later Herbert Read’s seminal book Art Now reviewed how the mostly France-based avant garde artists had impacted the British art scene.

Art Then! British Painting, Sculpture and Drawing, 1910-1960 continues this modern art story with a selection of paintings, sculpture and drawings, from over 100 artists, such as Paul Nash (1889-1946), Barbara Hepworth (1903-1975), David Bomberg (1890-1957), Henry Moore (1898-1986) and Lucian Freud (1922-2011), demonstrating how that pivotal moment in art history led to some of the most exciting, daring and influential work ever to be produced on these shores.

This celebration of half a century of Modern British Art draws on one of the UK’s leading collections of the period - the Ingram Collection – as well as Southampton City Art Gallery’s own internationally-renowned collection, including rarely displayed works. The exhibition is curated by Dr David Boyd Haycock, the author of A Crisis of Brilliance: Five Young British Artists and the Great War.

From modern art’s most well-known practitioners and the leading British artists of the day, to fascinating lesser-known names that are now being recognised for their impactful contributions, the exhibition will serve as both an introduction to this exciting period as well as an opportunity to uncover forgotten and unknown gems.

Opening in 1910 with Duncan Grant’s (1885-1978) Parrot Tulips, new modernist techniques and results can be seen in landscapes such as Rye Harbor (1938) by Eric Ravilious (1903-2942) with his use of a ‘starved brush’ in which little paint is used to evoke a strong sense of engulfing light, or Graham Sutherland’s (1903-1980) abstract use of colour in his capturing of the Welsh hills with Red Landscape (1942).

Post-impressionism style is on display with Cedric Morris’s (1889-1982) bold and colourful The Jay (1924) as well as Robert Duckworth Graham’s (1908-1980) poster-like rendering of fashionable women in On the Beach (1934).

Portraits include “Queen of Bohemia” Nina Hamnett’s (1890-1956) intimate painting of fellow artist Howard Brodzky (1915), while Stanley Spencer’s (1891-1957) Patricia Preese (1933) showcases how his unique take on modernism led to graphic and emotionally charged figurative work.

And an array of sculpture will also be on display, from Elizabeth Frink’s (1930-1993) menacing composition Bird (1958) to Leon Underwood’s (1890-1975) The Birth of Eve (1929) and its use of indigenous and African influences.

The sheer creativity and variety that exploded with modernism will be fully represented in the exhibition, from Impressionism, Expressionism and Fauvism to Social Realism, Surrealism, and post war figurative painting, and much more.

Dr. David Boyd Haycock, exhibition curator, said: “I am delighted to be working with two exceptional collections of Modern British Art, in fantastic gallery space’s purpose built to show Modern Art at its best.”

Jo Baring, Director of the Ingram Collection, said: “Southampton City Art Gallery has one of the most astonishing collections of 20th century British art in the UK and I am so excited to be working with the team there alongside David Boyd-Haycock to present this exhibition.”

Councillor Alex Winning, Leader of Southampton City Council, said: “The Ingram Collection’s collaboration with Southampton City Art Gallery is a welcome endorsement of the value and impact of the Gallery and its internationally renowned collections. We are delighted to be hosting this exhibition as one of our major line ups in our reopening year. The Gallery and its amazing collections will play an increasingly important role in attracting national and international visitors to Southampton. We look forward to seeing these two fantastic collections displayed together under the expert guidance of David Boyd-Haycock.”