- Venue
- Towner
- Location
- South East England
“The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes”
New Eyes, the latest temporary display in Towner’s Collection Gallery uses the above quote from Marcel Proust both in its title and as its conceptual inception. The exhibition broadly investigates, in both the works exhibited and the modes of display implemented, ideas of looking, exploring and interpreting: all areas that are quite relevant to many involved in contemporary practices of making, displaying and viewing art.
Six local artists, chosen through Bluemonkeynet, an artist network affiliated to Towner, have curated the display. The co-authored nature creates a varied rhythm in the selection and display of works, reflecting the various exhibition organisers’ input and offering the visitor a refreshingly unhomogenised experience when moving through the exhibition.
The decision to invite local artists to organise the display reaffirms Towner’s commendable position as a museum geared towards visitor experience, rather than simply collection preservation. This display is testament to its commitment to renewing its tactics of public involvement in its diverse programme.
The exhibition divides between five sub-themes arranged in six rooms, combining works in various mediums from various times, inviting different combinations and juxtapositions to be made. The themes of the unfixed nature of looking and interpreting continues in the captions, offering both a quote from the artist and curatorial interpretation, no definitive answer is given, the opinion of you as the viewer becomes just as important as that of the expert.
The first room, The Lie of the Land, explores depictions of topography, ranging from Jem Southam’s timelessly static exploration into landscape features contrasted with Thomas Joshua Cooper’s seascapes and Roger Hilton’s painting that abstract their depictions to monochrome texture.
Next The Many Layers ranges from Eduardo Paolozzi’s Pop to the geometric abstraction of Mark Lancaster to otherworldly scenes in Graham Gussin and Pablo Picasso.
Down to Earth takes the exhibition in a more raw, primitive direction, focussing further on expressive abstract painting and the materiality of objects.
Making the Invisible Visible highlights the process of creation and explores attempts to capture or constitute the intangible through expression.
The final space The Eyes of Others explores approaches to portraiture with various levels of realism and fragmentation, from Clare Richardson’s long-term photographic study to Grayson Perry’s deconstructed map of society.
The show is full of strong individual works however for me the following four are particular highlights. Map of Nowhere, Grayson Perry’s witty, insightful and intelligent musings on society provides beautiful draughtsmanship alongside intellectual exploration.
Mark Lancaster’s Diet, is a somewhat personal selection due to a predilection for abstraction, the subtle and harmonious composition affords long contemplation. Similarly to Lancaster’s composition, Callum Innes begins with geometric abstract forms, however the subsequent uncontrolled removal of pigment creates a juxtaposition between modernist composure and primitive powers beyond human control, which makes Exposed Painting, Cadium Orange one of my favourite pieces in the Towner collection.
Finally the highly researched and planned studies of Clare Richardson’s Harlemville series of photographs, which are impressive in the way they still capture fleeting moments and the essence of characters depicted, particularly the spectral quality of the central print.
All in all there is little to criticise about this exhibition, though for me, despite the works by Paolozzi and Neudecker, the show is a bit lacking in quality sculptural pieces, especially compared to the abundance of great painting and photography. Billed as organised by practitioners working in an array of fields, it could have been more varied, though taking into account the painting-heavy content of the Towner collection as a whole, it is perhaps not a point that need be dwelled upon.
This aside, the display shows a broad selection of the gallery’s collection with pieces that will please almost any audience. The displays are balanced and encourage the viewer to meander through themes, suggesting, rather than telling, how to explore the works in a way that is informative but not overly academicised, all invaluable qualities for collection display such as this.
New Eyes is curated by Paul Bartholomew, Sally Colledge, Sheila Hay, Axel Hesslenberg, Cat Ingrams and Nikki Davidson-Bowman.
