Holburne Museum – BATH NEWSEUM

A brush with 18th Century entertainment.

One of Bath’s former resident artists comes under the spotlight at the Holburne Museum in an exhibition that features Thomas Gainsborough’s personal and artistic links with the 18th century world of entertainment. Gainsborough and the Theatre – currently running through to January 20th next year – brings together some of his finest portraits created here […]

by Richard Wyatt

Let’s see Santa get this down the chimney!

This has to be one of the most expensive ‘stocking-fillers’ available in Bath for this Christmas – and you’re going to have to knit a very big – and strong – stocking to put it in too! The Holburne Museum is exhibiting a copy of ‘A Bigger Book‘, Taschen’s SUMO-sized David Hockney monograph which hovers […]

by Richard Wyatt

Holburne returns to charging.

Bath’s Holburne Museum has decided to re-introduce admission charges to all its galleries to help balance the books. You’ll be paying from early next month but there are some concessions and free periods. The new policy has come about after weighing up ways in which finances could be improved. In their financial statements – published […]

by Richard Wyatt

A sunshine tour.

The hottest April day since 1949 and some good news amidst the sunshine. The fountain in Laura Place is back in action after the installation of a new pump. It’s the only real fountain the city has and – just like what is left of Mr Pieroni’s architectural offering on Bog Island – […]

by Richard Wyatt

A gallery stroll around the world.

Bath’s Holburne Museum is currently offering visitors the opportunity of travelling around the world without leaving its top-floor gallery. It’s where you can experience a colourful taste of the work of artist Anthony Fry with this his first museum retrospective. Fry – who died in 2016 – lived and worked near Bath for […]

by Richard Wyatt

Local artist makes shortlist for major prize.

Bath artist Charlotte Sorapure, has been chosen from over 1,000 artists to be shortlisted for a prestigious national art prize worth £15,000 to the winner. Charlotte is one of 83 artists from across the UK shortlisted for the Lynn Painter-Stainers Prize 2018, the UK’s leading competition for British contemporary representational painting and drawing. Having made the […]

by Richard Wyatt

It’s amaze-ing!

Hands up if you haven’t yet heard of the “Sydney Gardens Parks for People Heritage Lottery Fund Project.” Yeh l know it’s a grand-sounding title, but it’s an ambitious scheme to restore one of Bath’s much-loved public spaces. Sydney Gardens has an historic past – it’s the only remaining eighteenth-century pleasure gardens in the country […]

by Richard Wyatt

Major new exhibitions at the Holburne in 2018.

The Holburne Museum in Bath has today announced its 2018 exhibitions programme, including the first museum retrospective of the painter Anthony Fry, the first exhibition to bring together Dutch seventeenth-century paintings from National Trust collections around the country, and an exhibition focussed on Thomas Gainsborough’s theatrical portraits. As well as curating these three major new […]

by Richard Wyatt

It’s all in the eye of the beholder.

I suppose – be it a traditional portrait or landscape painting framed on the gallery wall – all realistic visual art is an illusion. Be it faces or places, it’s our brains who merge paint daubs and strokes into order as a recognisable image. Perception is all about how we see things – how we […]

by Richard Wyatt

Shine a light on SouthGate.

It may have decided it couldn’t afford the time or money to continue with organising the city’s annual lantern procession but Bath’s Holburne Museum has now got itself involved in another light show. It’s being consulted by the design company behind radical new proposals to enliven and enhance the public spaces within the Southgate Shopping […]