We’ve got art galleries at either end of Great Pulteney Street, but maybe the Holburne at the far end of this Georgian mall has to put a bit more effort into attracting attention.
Well, stand by the grand old lady of Laura Place ( that’s the fountain, which isn’t working again!), and look down the street.
At the far end, you will see that the building’s grand classical facade has a colourful add-on, and it’s certainly a standout feature and one that should help draw people down.
Illuminating the autumn – and an early addition to the city’s festive lights- is a work by Chila Kumari Singh Burman called Glowing Canopies.
The neon work was first displayed during an exhibition the artist held at the Holburne back in 2024.
Thanks to the generous support of Art Fund and the Arts Council England / V&A Purchase Grant Fund, this work has now been acquired for the Holburne Collection and will continue to light up the museum facade through the winter months.
Meanwhile, inside the building l wanted to give a shout-out to Richard Slee. He is one of Britain’s most important contemporary ceramic artists and is responsible for a major installation made up of 408 individual ceramics.
Here’s what the information board has to say:
‘Richard’s major installation Sunlit Uplands explores a familiar phrase which has been cited by politicians to describe better days to come.
Winston Churchill used it in his ‘This was their finest hour’ speech, 1940, to describe a world after the defeat of Adolf Hitler. Subsequently, the phrase was deployed to imagine the United Kingdom after it departed from the European Union, first by Conservative leadership candidate Andrea Leadsom and later by leading Brexiteer Jacob Rees-Mogg.
Richard reimagines the politically charged phrase as a chain of ceramic islands. With their exaggerated bright colours and glossy finish, these fragments of idyllic, pastoral landscapes, architectural grandeur and national symbols provide, perhaps, a piercing commentary on political ideology.
This expansive, colourful landscape ironically captures this utopian dream. It is displayed in the Holburne’s Ballroom and aligned with the horizon of Great Pulteney Street, where the sun sets in the west, looking forward to a new day ahead and better days to come.”
Richard’s exhibition continues on the second floor until January 10th, 2027.
Here’s a taste of the installation:
Meanwhile l noticed the Holburne has acquired a work ( on loan) from Gillian Wearing. The photograph shows her dressed as the female Renaissance artist Artemisia Gentileschi.
It’s part of a series titled Spiritual Family, in which Wearing depicts herself as famous artists.
See holburne.org for further info.
