Lucien Pisarro, courtesy of Worthing Museum. Photo by Ed Sexton
Ed Sexton talks to curator Emma Walder about the new exhibition at Worthing Museum that celebrates 100 years of a remarkable collection.
Worthing Museum and Art Gallery is holding a special exhibition to celebrate 100 years of Worthing’s Art.
100 Years of Worthing’s Art runs until February 28 2009 and features works dating from the 1600s to the present day.
The Sussex based museum holds an impressive 2,000 oil paintings, watercolours, drawings prints and sculptures as well as 2,500 pieces of ceramic and glassware leaving curators Emma Walder and Laura Kidner with the unenviable task of choosing their best pieces for the exhibition.
“The pictures are mainly from the 18th century although there are other earlier works," explained curator Emma Walder.
"We have tried to base the exhibition around themes that are represented by the collection including Victorian and the Pre-Raphaelites and 18th and 19 century watercolours in which the local area is represented. We have some very well known names in the collection, including the Camden Town Group.”
The museum has been planning the exhibition for months to celebrate its founding in 1908 by benefactors including Andrew Carnegie.
Examples of the Ceramics on Display Courtesy of Worthing Museum.
Since then the collection has been built up by bequests, donations and purchases whilst following its registration in the 1970s the main focus has been the representation of British art movements and styles since 1800.
The Camden Town group make up one of the most well known parts of the exhibition with works from Walter Sickert, Lucien Pissaro, Harold Gilman and Charles Ginner.
“Sickert was the artist that named the Camden Town group and he was also suspected of being Jack the Ripper," said Emma. "Ginner is quite easy to identify as he often uses blocks of colour and painted a lot of scenes along the East Sussex Coast.
“The ceramics represent both commercial and studio work, with pieces of Poole Pottery and studio work from local artist Ben Barber and we have one of his pieces that was especially commissioned for the millennium.”
Dame Laura Knight Courtesy of Worthing Museum
She added: “We have tried to include as much information as possible about the artists so that people can understand how the pieces relate to each other and to other artists.
“There are also a number of tours taking place of the exhibition and we always try and encourage as many people as possible to take part in the exhibitions and we are planning to hold more tours in the New Year.
“We only have a small amount of our art on display at one time but we make our stores available if people are interested in viewing certain pieces in the collection.”
You can join the curators for a tour of 100 Years of Worthing’s Art on December 10 2008, and January 15 January 27, February 20 and February 25 2009. For more information contact the museum on 01903 221448.
