In the last year, George Shaw must have been written about in many places. But now he’s really made it – one of his works has been discussed in Pint Sides, the newsletter of the Coventry and North Warwickshire branch of the Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA).
It’s not your normal art criticism though. In Old Fred’s Corner, the writer says he spotted in a national paper in an article about the Turner Prize, a picture of a “derelict site that looked strangely familiar”. Of course this turned out to be a painting by George Shaw of a pub where he used to go.
Or, as ‘Fred’, told us, it was the Hawthorn Tree on Broad Lane, Lost Pubs No 36 in the Spring 2011 edition of Pint Sides.
Fred then goes on to reminisce about the history of the Hawthorn, the surrounding area and how it came to be lost, concluding “I must look out for more of Mr Shaw’s paintings of modern urban desolation”.
Luckily, the editor at this point tells us we can see the exhibition of George’s work at the Herbert until March 11, and I hope Fred has availed himself of this opportunity.
Midlands events
Learn about Leonardo da Vinci and raise money for the Art Fund
Leonardo da Vinci is the star draw at the National Gallery at the moment, but there’s a chance to find out more about him in the Midlands – and raise money at the same time.
On January 25, the Senior Curator of Prints and Drawings at The Royal Collection, Windsor Castle, Martin Clayton, will deliver an Art Fund lecture linked to the exhibition Ten Drawings by Leonardo da Vinci: A Diamond Jubilee Celebration, which is on from this month at Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery.
Graham Sutherland exhibition curated by George Shaw opens in Oxford
Graham Sutherland, Dark Hill – Landscape with Hedges and Fields, 1940 (watercolour, gouache on paper), 48.9 cm x 69.8 cm. Swindon Museum and Art Gallery © Estate of Graham Sutherland
In Coventry Graham Sutherland is forever known for the huge tapestry he designed, Christ in Glory in the Tetramorph, for the new Coventry Cathedral.
George Shaw is currently best known in Coventry for being born in the city, for immortalising Tile Hill in his paintings and being a Turner Prize nominee.
Now their names are linked in An Unfinished World, an exhibition of Graham Sutherland works on paper on show at Modern Art Oxford, which George has curated.
The exhibition’s private view was just five nights after the Turner Prize announcement, won by Martin Boyce. On December 5, after the ceremony in Gateshead, George took his mum back to her hotel, had a cup of tea with her and then went to the pub. He was soon back in Oxford for the opening of the Sutherland exhibition. The story of the exhibition began some time ago.
EXCLUSIVE: Turner Prize nominee George Shaw talks about his first major Coventry exhibition
IN The Herbert gallery in Coventry the paintings are on the wall, and the final preparations are being made for George Shaw: I woz ere to open to the public.
It’s the first big home-town exhibition for George, born in the city in 1966, and he’s here overseeing the work and admitting to feeling a little anxious about how it will be received.
“It’s all right doing this, thinking about it before I came to do it wasn’t. Without Rosie’s [Addenbrooke, senior exhibitions and events officer] enthusiasm and commitment it wouldn’t have happened. It was something I was avoiding. You are always afraid of doing something you haven’t done before.
“I was slightly anxious the reality of the situation would take over from the work. In many ways it has but not in a negative sense.”
Anyone for tennis? Barber Institute exhibition reveals art on court
So where is the true birthplace of lawn tennis – Royal Leamington Spa or Edgbaston in Birmingham? Those with a view on the matter could bat that debate about all day, and it’s something that’s looked at in a wonderful exhibition at the Barber Institute in Birmingham.
It seems that Thomas Gem and his friend Jean Batista Augurio Perera played on Perrera’s lawn in Edgbaston in 1859 – but both moved to Leamington in 1872 where they formed Leamington Lawn Tennis Club with two local doctors.
Gem himself drew a sketch of their first match as a foursome, at the Manor House Hotel, at the first club in the world formed specifically for playing lawn tennis. The exhibition features a photograph of the sketch which was presented to the Manor House in 1957 and sadly subsequently ‘lost’.
As the original club is no longer going, the Edgbaston Archery & Lawn Tennis Society is now the oldest surviving lawn tennis club in the world – but on the strength of this exhibition and accompanying catalogue I can forgive Birmingham its boasting.
Frank Sidney Smith’s paintings at The New Art Gallery show beauty born from trauma
A LIFE full of trauma and tragedy has helped create some paintings which are enchanting and enthralling.
It seems as though Frank Sidney Smith decided to use his creative urges as a type of therapy, to try to come to terms with everything that had happened to him.
There are times when it’s impossible to look at some paintings without reference to the artist who created them and what he or she has endured, and this is one of those times.
The images are pretty and child-like in initial appearance but many tell stories of unbelievable sadness. It’s vital to read the paragraphs underneath each one in this exhibition at The New Art Gallery, Walsall, to have an understanding of what the innocent-looking pictures really show.
Give The Public a chance
A BUILDING dogged by controversy and financial catastrophes before it even opened is well worth a visit – especially if it’s hosting a temporary exhibition which attracts you.
You can even get to go for quite a pleasant walk during your visit, without having to go out into the cold.
The Public in West Bromwich is about a 45 minute drive from Coventry. It looms startlingly out of a rather bleak West Midlands landscape of a shopping centre and cleared wastelands, and you catch glimpses in gaps between buildings as you try to find your way to the nearest car park.
The Shysters’ night to shine
The red carpet was rolled out in Coventry last night for the premiere at the Belgrade Theatre of what was billed “The Shyster Theatre Company in Collaboration with Rick Medlock presents the making of theatre – an actor’s journey”.
The documentary focuses on the work of the Shysters theatre company, a group of learning disabled actors. There’s no voiceover commentary, it just follows a small group of performers as they go about their rehearsals in the lovely if slightly ramshackle surroundings of Coventry’s former court building at Drapers Hall.
Picture this – your work at the Mead
There’s a chance for people to get involved in the exhibition opening next weekend at the Mead Gallery at Warwick Arts Centre, University of Warwick.
The gallery will be showing the first solo museum exhibition for 10 years of photographs by Hannah Starkey, works which are described as creating a tension between figure and environment where ‘each appears to reflect and define the other’. She apparently composes scenes which give a sense of a story presented through small clues, such as the position of a glass, a shadow or someone’s averted gaze.
The Mead is calling on people to get involved by finding a space in Coventry and creating an image in response to Starkey’s work. If it arrives at the gallery before January 14 it will be added to the public wall and exhibited online throughout the exhibition. Images arriving after this will be added as soon as possible after they arrive.
Help Unravel an arts event
If your family wants to take part in a nationwide arts event, there’s a chance at Birmingham’s Ikon Gallery tomorrow (January 8)
An art project called Unravel is coming to the gallery as part of a national tour in an attempt to make the longest hand-painted film in Britain. Unravel aims to represent each metre of land between John O’Groats and Land’s End by one frame of a 16mm film, which will be hand painted by the public which will apparently result in a 16-hour epic.
People are invited to go along, with their children also invited to take part, at the Ikon between 12-3pm tomorrow.
Private View II 