Stanley Spencer Exhibition
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Wed 03 Aug 2016 - Sun 04 Dec 2016
The centrepiece of
Carrick Hill's 30th anniversary of its opening to the public will be an exhibition of national significance entitled
Stanley Spencer: a twentieth-century British Master running from
3 August to 4 December 2016. Former BBC television
Bargain Hunt presenter
Tim Wonnacott will formerly open the exhibition on th
Thirty paintings and drawings borrowed both nationally and internationally will tell the story of
Stanley Spencer's muses and the subjects that made this painter one of the greatest forces in British painting.
It will be the first exhibition in Australia in 50 years devoted to
Stanley Spencer (1891- 1959). The first
Spencer exhibition in Australia was held in Adelaide as part of the 1966 Adelaide Festival of Arts for which the Haywards of Carrick Hill lent paintings.
The exhibition, which is only to be shown in Adelaide, will re-examine
Stanley Spencer's contribution to British Modernism through the
Spencer works currently held in the Southern Hemisphere.
Spencer is heralded as one of Britain's most significant twentieth-century artists. Although he never visited the antipodes his work is in every major institution throughout Australia and New Zealand with Adelaide at one time being home to as many as twenty works, the largest group collected outside of the United Kingdom during the artist's lifetime.
Some of Spencer's most extravagant flower and garden paintings are held at Carrick Hill.
Blue Iris, Sunflower, From the Artists Window, and Flowers and Rooftops are just four of these. 2016 is an impressively active year for
Stanley Spencer, with three single artist exhibitions in England and one in Australia at
Carrick Hill.
The Haywards first saw Spencer's work in Adelaide in 1935 in the landmark Loan Exhibition of Contemporary British Art and were inspired to buy their first work by the artist during their honeymoon in England the same year. They eventually amassed the largest private collection of
Spencer's work outside England. The Hayward's home became a microcosm of British taste and the best private collection in Australia.
Stanley Spencer: a twentieth-century British master will feature a selection of 30 works. They include still-lives, landscapes, portraits and figurative compositions on loan from national and international sources.
The
Spencer showing will be accompanied by a new book and a new film to be shot in Spencer's home town of Cookham in England and in Adelaide.
The exhibition will also be complemented by a public program of talks, music (Spencer was a talented pianist) and readings (he was a prolific letter writer as well as a prolific painter).
From his origins as a village boy growing up in a large family home schooled with an eccentric musician father, his participation in two world wars, his marriages, through to his last decade, which brought public accolades including a knighthood, Royal Academy membership and a retrospective exhibition at the Tate, it was a remarkable and productive life.
[LINK=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keith_Murdoch]
Sir Keith Murdoch[/LINK] (Rupert's father) initiative in the 1930s to bring an exhibition of French and British contemporary art to Australia (which opened first in Adelaide in 1939) helped to introduce a wider Australian public to British and European contemporary artists. He was described as a rare combination of an astute business man and an informed connoisseur. The showing included four
Spencer paintings, three of which would remain in Australia after the show closed and returned to Europe.
Exhibitions such as these played a key role in predisposing Adelaide audiences to what
Spencer was communicating through his art.
As part of the 30th anniversary celebrations
Carrick Hill in conjunction with former BBC television
Bargain Hunt presenter
Tim Wonnacott and
Theodore Bruce Auctions will run an appraisal day from 10.00am to 3.00pm on Wednesday 3 August. Ever wondered what that painting, chair, teapot or snuff box you inherited from Great Aunt Jean is worth?
Discovery Day will be conducted by the
Theodore Bruce Valuation team with
Tim Wonnacott providing the commentary. Together they will identify and value the items presented. Patrons may bring up to three items each.
On Thursday 4 August from 2:30pm to 4.00pm
Tim Wonnacott will feature in a further
Carrick Hill event entitled
Tea & Talk with Tim offering patrons the opportunity to meet the expert in antiques and the pursuit of the object.
Carrick Hill Estate is an absolutely stunning residence with hectares of well maintained gardens modelled on the English country park. We're so lucky the heritage listed property is open to the public, and the only place in Australia to host the exhibition.
#springfield
#history
#historic_houses
#exhibitions
#art
#august
#september
#october
#november
#december
!date 03/08/2016 -- 04/12/2016
%wnadelaide
113862 - 2023-06-12 17:20:43