Exhibitions

A collabration with the Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam

Sculptures by Arnold Bocklin, Camille Claudel, Charles Cordier, Jean-Leon Gerome, John Gibson, Max Kilnger, Pablo Picasso, Auguste Renoir, Auguste Rodin, and many others.

In the 18th and 19th centuries there was an implicit asmupton that sculpture was simply monochrome. even today, many people assume that they can illustrate books on sculpture with black and white reproductions, seeing sculpture as essentially colourless. This exhibition focuses on reactions to such preconceptions, and is, first and foremost, a spectacular array of colour in it's various guises. The Colour of Sculpture presents works in a wide range of materials: marble, metals, precious stones, glass and ivory, and shows how they were 'painted' to effect different tints and patinas.

The reaction to monchrome scultpure emerged gradually during the 19th century, and was substantially supported by archeological finds which suggested that Classical sculpture had, itself, orignally been coloured. By the end of the century coloured sculpture was used to explore a prevailing interest in historicism, evoking precedents culled not only from the Classical World, but also from the medieval and the Rennaisance periods. However, this exhibition concentrated more on the French fin-de-sielce and the themes on show echo those of Symbolism more widely. Colour and the contrast engendered by contrasting materials, was ideally suited to scenes of mysticism, eroticism and exotism. The female muse has rarely been captured so maginficently.

The Colour of Sculpture 1840-1910 was selected by Andreas Bluehm of the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, where it was first on show.