Two Art Galleries in Bristol Museum & Art Gallery opened this week and I got to go to the opening!!!
One of the galleries is called ‘City Lives – Contemporary art in a changing world’. It highlights artists from around the world who have charted the changing landscapes, consumer culture, disaffection, subcultures and high hopes using a wide range of art and media from photography, video, sculpture and installation. Through the variety of media used in the gallery, we are given an insight into what the artists have envisioned city life to be, including our dreams, our worries, the past and the future.
This new exhibition is fascinating to walk around as it includes artists and pieces never before seen in Bristol!! There is photography by the Iranian artist Shirin Aliabadi who took the famous ‘Girls in Car’ photographs, a video by Israeli artist Omer Fast and installations from the African artist Meschac Gaba and Lebanese artist Akram Zaatari.
© Bristol Museums, Galleries & Archives
On top of that there are also photographs by the British artist Sarah Dobai and images of Bristol by Martin Parr. My favourite part of the gallery is the photographs of the Bristol Docks by Jem Southam. They beautifully trace the history of the dock over the past 40 years.
The second gallery is called ‘Places of Desire’ and it explores themes of travel, romance and modern life through the museum’s collection of Victorian and Edwardian era paintings which range in date from the 1840’s to the 1920’s. There are also pieces by the Pre-Raphaelites Millais, Burne-Jones and Arthur Hughes.
© Bristol Museums, Galleries & Archives
I was told that this time period was an exciting time for British and European Art because artists were experimenting with a wide range of styles and subjects. And wow! I could definitely see that when I explored the gallery!! The stories told in each of the painting were so clear, they simply drew you in.
© Bristol Museums, Galleries & Archives
My favourite painting is 'La Belle Dame Sans Merci' by Frank Dickee which is based on the poem written by John Keats. The painting shows a young knight who doesn’t notice the beautiful countryside around him because he has fallen in love with the lady sitting on his horse. The painting, I believe, is a wonderful example of the Victorian fascination with chivalry.
RSS Feed
