Cornwall Museum and Art Gallery: Look Grandad, the Sky's all Pink

This was a short exhibition that finished on the 14th March 2026

This was an art exhibition featuring pieces from the Schools Art Collection.  This collection was formed by Cornwall Council for use in schools to allow children access to art including paintings and sculptures.  The collection is now hosted by the Museum but the pieces continue to be loaned to schools for assemblies, one off lessons as well as being used in the museum for workshops and display.

The collection began in 1961 when an anonymous donation was made to help primary school funds.  It was decided to use this money to enrich the lives of school children by introducing them to interesting and high quality art.  Various local artists went on to donate pieces or sell them at minimal cost.  The first piece to be donated was a small bronze sculpture of the collie dog 'Frisky' by Jacob Epstein.  This piece was so popular that Cornwall Council agreed to put money aside each year for the scheme.  The majority of the collection was in place by 1970, so it provides quite a snapshot of Art in Cornwall across the 60s.

Some of the pieces in the collection are no longer available on loan.  I imagine there are several different reasons for this.  I doubt insuring valuable pieces such as Barbara Hepworth sculptures is very easy.  Some of the pieces are probably quite sensitive now and would be likely to be easily damaged.  They can sometimes be viewed on request by school groups at the museum though.

This short exhibition gave an opportunity to see some of the paintings and sculptures in the collection that are not normally on display to the public.  It was nice to see the artworks and my favourites were definitely the three sculptures on display.  These were the lovely Frisky by Jacob Epstein and I could see exactly why children liked it so much.  Frisky was obviously an engaging character!  Barbara Hepworth's Involute II was an elegant swirl of green copper.  My favourite though was Paul Mount's Six Characters

I think though that many of the pieces of art in the collection are of their time and were perhaps not selected on the basis of what would appeal to children the most!  Many of the pieces were abstract and I wonder how easy they would be for younger children to connect to.  I understand the value though.  Many children will not have such art in their homes and the only time they would see such things would be on school museum trips.  It is good to give children as wide a range of experiences as possible.  You just never know what they will find inspiring.

I was particularly pleased to see Dod Proctor's Boys and Coconuts which shows two boys in Jamaica.  Representation is incredibly important.  I recently saw an article about how women in Denmark were knitting clothes for statues.  They were making a point about representation where men are celebrated for what they do and women are celebrated for their beauty and sculptures of women often do not have clothes.  This is similar to the point being made by Josie Ko about people of colour who are not represented.  If I were a teacher in a school, this would be the piece I would choose and I would link it to history and geography.

It was lovely to learn more about this collection and to see some of the pieces from it.  I can see why Cornwall Council have involved Cornwall Museum and Art Gallery though!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Box: Journey's with Mai

This exhibition runs until the 14th June 2026 Sir Joshua Reynolds is one of the greats of British painting and will be a name familiar to many.  I had no idea he was born in Plympton, just outside Plymouth though.  He is a major 18th century European painter and the leading portrait artist of the time.  He was one of the founders of the Royal Academy of Art and its first president. Portrait of Omai is considered his best work and a timeless masterpiece that is one of the best pieces of British art.  In 2022 the portrait was up for sale and in danger of leaving the UK with a hefty expected value of £50 million.  It was place under a 12 month exportation bar.  The National Portrait Gallery started a fund to raise money to buy the portrait and the Getty Museum asked to jointly purchase the painting so that it could be shared between both.  In March 2023, the exportation bar expired with only half of the required amount raised and it was announced that pro...
Read more

KARST: Discord and Harmony, Beryl Cook and Others

This exhibition runs until the 18th April This was my first visit to this lovely little gallery but it will not be my last.  The exhibition was inspired by the work of Beryl Cook and included several of her works.  Other artists had been selected for inclusion based on some sympathetic aspect of their work to Beryl's.  Some of these were obvious but others needed a little more digging I think.  This made for a diverse and thoughtful exhibition with plenty of fun pieces. It's always interesting, visiting a show put together with various artists.  So many artists have a body of work that speaks as a whole as they develop a style, their own language and explore a theme.  Individual pieces do not always make as much sense by themselves, unless you have a knowledge of that artist and their work.  Putting pieces of work together from different artists changes what they have to say and understanding their relevance is an interesting thing to work out. This ex...
Read more

RAMM: Exeter's Fine Arts Gallery, Highlights from the Collection

This exhibition runs until the 9th August 2026. This one room changes regularly to give an insight in to the fine art collection.  This is a pretty impossible task as the collection contains over 7000 pieces including paintings, prints, drawings, watercolours, miniatures and sculptures.  The current display includes only around 30 pieces, so highlights is definitely a good term for this display. Looking around the room, the pieces are split in to a few different categories, beginning with portraits.  One portrait is called a Man in a Red Suit and shows a man of colour wearing a red suit.  The artist is unknown and it dates from around 1740 to 1780.  A huge amount of research has been conducted on this painting and yet there are still no clear answers.  It has been credited to Sir Joshua Reynolds and I can see why but it may also be by Allan Ramsay.  Nobody knows who the sitter is either, even though attempts have been made to link to two different free...
Read more