8 October 2007
Collective Response at Guildhall Art Gallery
8 October – 11 November 2007
By popular demand Collective Response at the Guildhall Art
Gallery has been extended to 16 December
The City of London is your inspiration. What work of art would
you create?
Artists from the prestigious London Group were asked to respond
to Guildhall Art Gallery’s collection, high finance in the Square
Mile and the ‘hidden’ City landmarks such as Guildhall’s
subterranean Roman amphitheatre.
Collective Response is the result. An exhibition of sculpture,
installation and drawing on show at Guildhall Art Gallery from 8
October -11 November 2007.
Curator at the Guildhall Art Gallery, Vivien Knight, said the
London Group artists have created a real dialogue with City stimuli
from metallic lips to scorched chandeliers and gold.
“Guildhall Art Gallery exhibitions are designed to celebrate the
essence of London. Period and modern art is a vital part of
recording city trends and culture,” Knight said.
The London Group has numbered some of Britain’s best-known
artists among its members since its foundation in 1913. Collective
Response features fourteen of its current artists who have created
dialogues with the Gallery’s own collection through sculpture,
installation and drawing. Curators posed the question “what does it
mean to be a member of the London Group and how does London
contribute to the artist’s identity?”
Collective Response will also contain artefacts, displayed from
the London Group’s archive at the Tate Britain. The artefacts have
been included for their ordinariness, for example cheques made out
to Eileen Egar and an illustrated letter from John Nash to Dora
Carrington about his election to the London Group in 1914.
Paintings and drawings by past members of the Group (including
Sir Matthew Smith, Ethel Sands, John Piper, Carel Weight, Edward
Wolfe, John Nash and Duncan Grant) are also on display from a
private collection and the Guildhall Art Gallery’s own holdings.
They reflect the Group’s rich heritage alongside its vibrant and
active life in the UK’s arts scene today.
The exhibition takes place during the annual Big Draw (a
national event) and there will be a collaborative process with the
local community education centre, delivering workshops involving
local people, to coincide with the exhibition. Other educational
events will include public talks and artists discussing.
Collective Response by the London Group:
- Wendy Anderson
- Bryan Benge
- Clive Burton
- Tony Carter
- Tony Collinge
- Mark Dickens
- Annie Johns
- Eugene Palmer
- Ian Parker
- David Redfern
- Susan Skingle
- Wendy Smith
- Bill Watson
- Arthur Wilson
Curators: Wendy Anderson and Annie Johns
Press queries to Cubby Fox at City of London press office on 020
7332 3451.
Notes for editors
Guildhall Art Gallery
The Guildhall Art
Gallery is home to the City of London’s renowned art collection. It
was established in 1885 but reopened in a new building in 1999. The
gallery houses an important group of Victorian paintings and
sculpture, including famous pre-raphaelite works; fascinating views
of London and Londoners from the 16th century to the present; John
Singleton Copley’s painting The Siege of Gibraltar, which spans two
floors of the gallery; and selected works from Sir Matthew Smith’s
Studio Collection. Visitors can now also step into the arena of the
Roman London’s Amphitheatre which was recently preserved and is
located beneath the gallery. Visit the Guildhall Art
Gallery’s webpages.
The London Group
The London Group was founded in 1913, when the
Fitzroy Street Group and the Camden Town Group joined together. It
united all the divergent personalities of the contemporary art
scene, and was for many years the most modern exhibiting society in
Britain, numbering many of the best-known British artists among its
members and exhibiting paintings and sculptures which today are
universally recognised as key works of their period.
Guildhall Art Gallery & Collective Response
exhibition
At: Guildhall Art Gallery, Guildhall Yard, Aldermanbury, London
EC2
From: 8 October – 11 November 2007
Opening hours: 10.00am to 5.00pm Monday to Saturday, 12.00 noon to
4.00pm Sunday
Tube: St Paul’s, Moorgate, Bank, Mansion House Adults £2.50,
concessions £1. Children, Friends of Guildhall Art Gallery, City
resident / worker – free entry with ID. Free admission to the
Gallery all day Friday and after 3.30pm other days.