Falmouth Art Gallery - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Falmouth Art Gallery is an art gallery

Art gallery

An art gallery or art museum is a building or space for the exhibition of art, usually visual art.Museums can be public or private, but what distinguishes a museum is the ownership of a collection...

in Cornwall

Cornwall

Cornwall is a unitary authority and ceremonial county of England, within the United Kingdom. It is bordered to the north and west by the Celtic Sea, to the south by the English Channel, and to the east by the county of Devon, over the River Tamar. Cornwall has a population of , and covers an area of...

, with one of the leading art collections in Cornwall and southwest England, which features work by old masters, major Victorian

Victorian era

The Victorian era of British history was the period of Queen Victoria's reign from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. It was a long period of peace, prosperity, refined sensibilities and national self-confidence...

artists, British and French Impressionists, leading surrealists and maritime artists, children's book illustrators, automata

Automata

Automata is the plural form of automaton, a self-operating machine. It may also refer to:* "Automata", a short story by E. T. A. Hoffmann* "Automata", a hardboiled science fiction crime series by Penny Arcade...

, contemporary painters and printmakers. It is located on The Moor, in the upper floor of the Municipal Buildings above the Library in Falmouth, Cornwall

Falmouth, Cornwall

Falmouth is a town, civil parish and port on the River Fal on the south coast of Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It has a total resident population of 21,635.Falmouth is the terminus of the A39, which begins some 200 miles away in Bath, Somerset....

History

Falmouth Art Gallery in its present form opened on 12 October 1978 and was renovated with grant aid from The Heritage Lottery Fund

Heritage Lottery Fund

The Heritage Lottery Fund is a fund established in the United Kingdom under the National Lottery etc. Act 1993. The Fund opened for applications in 1994. It uses money raised through the National Lottery to transform and sustain the UK’s heritage...

and other funding bodies, opening on 31 May 1996. Falmouth Art Gallery is a service funded by Falmouth Town Council and is a nationally accredited museum

Museum

A museum is an institution that cares for a collection of artifacts and other objects of scientific, artistic, cultural, or historical importance and makes them available for public viewing through exhibits that may be permanent or temporary. Most large museums are located in major cities...

and complies with standards laid down for the Registration of Museums in the United Kingdom.

The core of the town's art collection dates from 1923, with gifts made by Alfred Aaron de Pass (1861–1952), a South African businessman and art benefactor. This has encouraged other major donations, most notably from Richard Harris, Grace Gardner, and Sue and Ron Astles. The gallery has also benefited from purchases made through grant funding from organizations such as The Art Fund, the Heritage Lottery Fund

Heritage Lottery Fund

, MLA

Museums, Libraries and Archives Council

The Museums, Libraries and Archives Council is a non-departmental public body in England and a registered charity with a remit to promote improvement and innovation in the area of museums, libraries and archives...

/V&A Purchase Grant Fund, and the Nerys Johnson Contemporary Art Fund.

The collection

The town's art collection, administered by the gallery's director Brian Stewart until his untimely death in 2010, features works by major British artists including Sir Frank Brangwyn

Frank Brangwyn

Sir Frank William Brangwyn RA RWS RBA was an Anglo-Welsh artist, painter, water colourist, virtuoso engraver and illustrator, and progressive designer.- Biography :...

, Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones, Charles Napier Hemy

Charles Napier Hemy

Charles Napier Hemy was a British painter best known for his marine paintings and his two paintings in the Tate collections....

, Dame Laura Knight

Laura Knight

Dame Laura Knight, DBE was an English Impressionist painter known for painting the world of London's theatre, ballet and circus.-Early life and education:...

, Sir Alfred Munnings

Alfred Munnings

Sir Alfred James Munnings KCVO, PRA was known as one of England's finest painters of horses, and as an outspoken enemy of Modernism...

, William Strang

William Strang

William Strang was a renowned Scottish painter and engraver.He was born at Dumbarton, the son of Peter Strang, builder, and educated at the Dumbarton Academy. He worked for fifteen months in the counting-house of a firm of shipbuilders before going to London in 1875 when he was sixteen...

, Henry Scott Tuke

Henry Scott Tuke

Henry Scott Tuke, RA RWS , was a British visual artist; primarily a painter, but also a photographer. His most notable work was in the Impressionist style, and he is probably best known for his paintings of nude boys and young men....

, John William Waterhouse

John William Waterhouse

John William Waterhouse was an English painter known for working in the Pre-Raphaelite style. He worked several decades after the breakup of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, which had seen its heydey in the mid-nineteenth century, leading him to have gained the moniker of "the modern Pre-Raphaelite"...

, George Frederick Watts and Cornish painter John Opie

John Opie

John Opie was an English historical and portrait painter. He painted many great men and women of his day, most notably in the artistic and literary professions.-Life and work:...

.

Following a 2009 Art Fund bequest, Falmouth acquired a major collection including etchings by Pierre-Auguste Renoir

Pierre-Auguste Renoir

Pierre-Auguste Renoir was a French artist who was a leading painter in the development of the Impressionist style. As a celebrator of beauty, and especially feminine sensuality, it has been said that "Renoir is the final representative of a tradition which runs directly from Rubens to...

and Edvard Munch

Edvard Munch

Edvard Munch was a Norwegian Symbolist painter, printmaker and an important forerunner of expressionist art. His best-known composition, The Scream, is part of a series The Frieze of Life, in which Munch explored the themes of love, fear, death, melancholia, and anxiety.- Childhood :Edvard Munch...

, and several works by Prunella Clough

Prunella Clough

Prunella Clough was a prominent 20th century British artist. "Her subjects are closely observed details and scenes from the landscape...

, one of the most significant British painters and printmakers of the post-war period.

Falmouth holds one of the most important master print collections outside London, including woodcuts, engravings, lithographs and screen prints by Albrecht Dürer

Albrecht Dürer

Albrecht Dürer was a German painter, printmaker, engraver, mathematician, and theorist from Nuremberg. His prints established his reputation across Europe when he was still in his twenties, and he has been conventionally regarded as the greatest artist of the Northern Renaissance ever since...

, Rembrandt, Claude Lorrain

Claude Lorrain

Claude Lorrain, , traditionally just Claude in English Claude Lorrain, , traditionally just Claude in English (also Claude Gellée, his real name, or in French Claude Gellée, , dit le Lorrain) Claude Lorrain, , traditionally just Claude in English (also Claude Gellée, his real name, or in French...

, Adriaen van Ostade

Adriaen van Ostade

Adriaen van Ostade was a Dutch Golden Age painter of genre works.-Life:...

, Giovanni Battista Piranesi

Giovanni Battista Piranesi

Giovanni Battista Piranesi was an Italian artist famous for his etchings of Rome and of fictitious and atmospheric "prisons" .-His Life:...

, Henri Matisse

Henri Matisse

Henri Matisse was a French artist, known for his use of colour and his fluid and original draughtsmanship. He was a draughtsman, printmaker, and sculptor, but is known primarily as a painter...

, Pablo Picasso

Pablo Picasso

Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Ruiz y Picasso known as Pablo Ruiz Picasso was a Spanish expatriate painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist, and stage designer, one of the greatest and most influential artists of the...

, Francis Bacon

Francis Bacon

Francis Bacon, 1st Viscount St Albans, KC was an English philosopher, statesman, scientist, lawyer, jurist, author and pioneer of the scientific method. He served both as Attorney General and Lord Chancellor of England...

, Merlyn Evans, Andy Warhol

Andy Warhol

Andrew Warhola , known as Andy Warhol, was an American painter, printmaker, and filmmaker who was a leading figure in the visual art movement known as pop art...

, Patrick Caulfield

Patrick Caulfield

Patrick Joseph Caulfield, CBE, RA was an English painter and printmaker known for his bold canvases, which often incorporated elements of Photorealism within a pared down scene.-Life and work:...

and Sir Peter Blake

Peter Blake (artist)

Sir Peter Thomas Blake, KBE, CBE, RDI, RA is an English pop artist, best known for his design of the sleeve for the Beatles' album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. He lives in Chiswick, London, UK.-Career:...

.

Falmouth also houses small but important collections of 20th century and contemporary photography and Surrealism

Surrealism

Surrealism is a cultural movement that began in the early 1920s, and is best known for the visual artworks and writings of the group members....

. It has the largest collection of Lee Miller

Lee Miller

Elizabeth 'Lee' Miller, Lady Penrose was an American photographer. Born in Poughkeepsie, New York in 1907, she was a successful fashion model in New York City in the 1920s before going to Paris where she became an established fashion and fine art photographer...

photographs outside the Lee Miller Archive http://www.leemiller.co.uk, as well as remarkable photographs by Eve Arnold

Eve Arnold

Eve Arnold, FRPS is an American photojournalist. She joined Magnum Photos agency in 1951, and became a full member in 1957....

, Fay Godwin

Fay Godwin

Fay Godwin was a noted British photographer, most widely known for her black-and-white landscapes of the British countryside and coast.-Career:Through her husband, Godwin was introduced to the London literary scene...

and Linda McCartney

Linda McCartney

Linda Louise McCartney, Lady McCartney was an American photographer, musician and animal rights activist. Her father and mother were Lee Eastman and Louise Sara Lindner Eastman....

. The Surrealist collection includes photographs by Roland Penrose

Roland Penrose

Sir Roland Algernon Penrose CBE was an English artist, historian and poet. He was a major promoter and collector of modern art and an associate of the surrealists in the United Kingdom.- Biography :...

and works by Henry Moore

Henry Moore

Henry Spencer Moore OM CH FBA was an English sculptor and artist. He was best known for his semi-abstract monumental bronze sculptures which are located around the world as public works of art....

, Man Ray

Man Ray

Man Ray , born Emmanuel Radnitzky, was an American artist who spent most of his career in Paris, France. Perhaps best described simply as a modernist, he was a significant contributor to both the Dada and Surrealist movements, although his ties to each were informal...

, Eileen Agar

Eileen Agar

Eileen Forrester Agar was a British painter and photographer associated with the Surrealist movement.-Biography:...

and the Cornish surrealist Jonathon Coudrille

Jonathon Coudrille

Jonathon Xavier Coudrille is an English artist, musician and writer. He was born in November 1945 on the Lizard Peninsula in Cornwall, an area with which he is still closely associated. His father was the artist and ventriloquist Francis Coudrill...

Recent exhibitions

The modern collection includes specially commissioned works for seasonal exhibitions such as the Darwin200 exhibitions in 2009, celebrating the arrival in Falmouth of Charles Darwin

Charles Darwin

Charles Robert Darwin FRS was an English naturalist. He established that all species of life have descended over time from common ancestry, and proposed the scientific theory that this branching pattern of evolution resulted from a process that he called natural selection.He published his theory...

at the end of his HMS Beagle voyage

Second voyage of HMS Beagle

The second voyage of HMS Beagle, from 27 December 1831 to 2 October 1836, was the second survey expedition of HMS Beagle, under captain Robert FitzRoy who had taken over command of the ship on its first voyage after her previous captain committed suicide...

in 1836. A plaque was erected as part of these celebrations in Falmouth marking the point where Darwin came ashore near the gallery and left by mail coach for Shrewsbury. Exhibitions and the permanent collection includes contemporary Cornish artists such as John Dyer

John Dyer (painter)

John Dyer is a Cornish-based painter, focussing on colourful landscapes, architecture, gardens and notable events, especially in Cornwall.Dyer was born in Ruishton, Somerset to artist parents, Ted Dyer and Vivien Hutchings....

the official Darwin200 artist for the Southwest.

Notable previous exhibitions include the "Surrealists on Holiday" in Cornwall and Matisse; a list of previous exhibitions can be found on the website.

Exhibitions are mounted in partnership with many organisations including Newlyn School

Newlyn School

The Newlyn School is a term used to describe an art colony of artists based in or near to Newlyn, a fishing village adjacent to Penzance, Cornwall, from the 1880s until the early 20th century. The establishment of the Newlyn School was reminiscent of the Barbizon School in France, where artists...

paintings from Penlee House

Penlee House

Penlee House is a museum and art gallery located in the town of Penzance in Cornwall, and is home to a great many paintings by members of the Newlyn School, including many by such luminaries as Stanhope Forbes, Norman Garstin, Walter Langley and Lamorna Birch. Penlee house is currently operated by...

Museum and Gallery, Royal Cornwall Museum

Royal Cornwall Museum

The Royal Cornwall Museum is a museum in the city of Truro, Cornwall, England. It is the oldest museum in Cornwall and the leading museum of Cornish culture. Its exhibits include minerals, an unwrapped mummy and objects relating to Cornwall’s unique culture...

Truro, University College Falmouth

University College Falmouth

University College Falmouth is a British university college in Falmouth, Cornwall. Founded in 1902, it had previously been the Falmouth School of Art and then Falmouth College of Arts until it received taught degree-awarding powers in March 2005...

and Newquay Zoo

Newquay Zoo

Newquay Zoo is a zoological garden located in Newquay, England. The zoo was opened in Cornwall on Whit Monday May 26, 1969 by the local council , it was privately owned by Mike Thomas and Roger Martin from 1993 until 2003...

.

An A to Z of artists in the collection is available on the gallery's website and a digital imaging project is underway to make the collection accessible online

Awards and recognition

Falmouth Art Gallery has been nominated for or won 15 major awards including The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...

newspaper Kids in Museums Award 2006 (Winner) and the Gulbenkian Prize

Gulbenkian Prize

The Art Fund Prize, formerly known as the Gulbenkian Prize, is an annual prize awarded to a museum or gallery in the United Kingdom for a "track record of imagination, innovation and excellence"...

, Britain's most prestigious arts award.

Falmouth Art Gallery has gained national recognition for its innovative education programme. It was recently selected as one of four national flagship schemes by the Government’s Museums and Galleries Life-long Learning Initiative. The gallery welcomes a wide range of groups from Surestart toddlers to Age Concern

Age Concern

Age Concern was the banner title used by a number of charitable organisations specifically concerned with the needs and interests of all older people based chiefly in the four countries of the United Kingdom....

senior citizens.

External links

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