EASTBOURNE.- Towner presents One Day, Something Happens: Paintings of People, an Arts Council Collection touring exhibition curated by Jennifer Higgie, co-editor of frieze magazine. The exhibition reflects a personal view of a period of radical change in art, an alternative narrative telling of the development of British figurative painting over the past century.
Exploring the everyday theatricality of the body, the imaginary and the real, One Day, Something Happens embraces a huge diversity of approaches to figuration drawing out common themes across the decades: work, introspection and individuality, joy and loneliness. The show spans both the historical and contemporary, and lesser known as well as famous artists including Walter Sickert, Prunella Clough, Lucian Freud, Richard Hamilton, David Hockney, Lynette Yiadom-Boakye and Phoebe Unwin.
The paintings range from some of the very earliest in the Arts Council Collection, from Head of a Woman (1906) by Walter Sickert and artists as diverse as Robert Colquhoun (Seated Woman and Cat, 1946), Prunella Clough (Lowestoft Harbour, 1951), to Richard Hamilton (Portrait of Hugh Gaitskill as a Famous Monster of Filmland, 1964) and David Hockney (Portrait Surrounded by Artistic Devices, (1965). Higgie has also selected Eric Ravilious’ Submarine Series: Commander looking through the periscope, (c. 1941), Lawrence Alma-Tadema’s Negro Head (c. 1890) and several other historic works from Towner’s own collection. Contemporary works in the exhibition include Enrico David’s Untitled (puppets we are the mods), (2003), Katharine Graham (2008) by Michael Fullerton, Renee So’s Drunken Bellamarine, 2012 and Rose Wylie’s Girl on Liner (1995).
Jennifer Higgie said, “I'm thrilled that the final iteration of One Day, Something Happens will be shown in the impressive spaces of Towner Art Gallery. Choosing works from the gallery's rich collection to be hung alongside works from the Arts Council Collection was a joy and an education.”
One Day, Something Happens is the first in a series of exhibitions curated from the Arts Council Collection for the National Partners Programme. Launched alongside the Arts Council Collection’s 70th Anniversary celebrations, the Programme will see four galleries; Towner, Birmingham Museums, Liverpool’s Walker Gallery and Yorkshire Sculpture Park curate a series of exciting and innovative exhibitions over the next three years. Further details on the 2017 National Partners programme will be announced on 27th October.
Jill Constantine, Head of the Arts Council Collection, said: “For nearly 70 years, the Arts Council Collection, managed by the Southbank Centre, has supported artists based in the UK by purchasing their work. The Collection has been built through the support of the many distinguished artists, curators and writers who have been invited to advise on the purchase of works and it is arguably in this very open and democratic approach to acquisition that the Collection’s greatest strength lies.”
In a series of events specially commissioned for One Day, Something Happens, poets Emily Berry, Richard Price and Rommi Smith, and musicians and composers Robert Stillman, Sean Carpio and Anders Holst respond to particular paintings and ideas within the exhibition.
Artists in the exhibition include: Eileen Agar, Michael Andrews, Liz Arnold, Walter
Bayes, Peter Blake, Glenn Brown, Jeffery Camp, Steve Claydon, Prunella Clough, Robert Colquhoun, Enrico David, Milena Dragicevic, Malcolm Drummond, Lucian Freud, Michael Fullerton, Alastair Gray, Roy Grayson, Richard Hamilton, Georgia Hayes, David Hockney, Donna Huddleston, Jock McFadyen, Katy Moran, Ryan Mosley, David Noonan, Paula Rego, Ceri Richards, William Roberts, Bob Robinson, Walter Sickert, Renee So, Euan Uglow, Peter Unsworth, Phoebe Unwin, Barbara Walker, Martin Westwood, Alfred Wolmark, Rose Wylie and Lynette Yiadom-Boakye
Towner Art Gallery is the final venue on the tour for One Day, Something Happens following Leeds Art Gallery (6 March – 24 May 2015); Nottingham Castle (20 June - 6 September 2015); Highlanes, Drogheda (17 October 2015 - 7 February 2016); and The Atkinson, Southport (20 February - 22 May 2016).
