A live caterpillar was the first thing I noticed on entering National Museum Cardiff’s newly refurbished Impressionist and Modern Art Galleries. The insect was a bizarre sight on a freezing cold winter’s day, but it looked quite at home crawling beneath Cycle of Nature by the Welsh painter Ceri Richards.
Cycle of Nature hangs among a selection of surrealist works from the 1930s. This is one of the themes used to organise the displays. Works are arranged by artistic movement, period or nationality. British art is also divided according to genres such as portraits and landscapes.
This clear arrangement makes it easy to navigate the displays in the seven new galleries at the museum. It also makes conducting guided tours much simpler. This was something I learned from the museum’s Eleri Wyn Evans, who was leading a primary school group around the galleries at the time of my visit.
Watching her captivated audience reminded me why art matters. The children were encouraged to let their imaginations loose. What does Richards’ Cycle of Nature mean? Well, the children were told, you can decide, because we don’t know all the answers.
We also don’t know all the questions. The rehang shows how the collection is being continually reinterpreted, although some themes are constant. One is the importance of key collectors, notably the Davies sisters, Gwendoline and Margaret. It is largely thanks to them that the museum has such a spectacular collection of British and European modern art.
A recess at the far end of the central gallery focuses on these unmarried granddaughters of one of Wales’ richest industrialists. A selection of documents and artefacts charts their charity work, philanthropy and cultural activities.
We learn that they founded the Gregynog Press in 1922 in order to “help cultivate a love of beautiful things in the people of Wales” – a sentiment that could be equally applied to the art collection that they so generously bequeathed to Wales and its national museum.
A timeline along the wall lists their principal acquisitions and the prices paid, starting in 1908 when Turner’s The Storm was bought for £5,775. It ends with Brown Harbour by Terry Frost, which was acquired for £250.
It is unusual to see price tags in an art museum, even if the estimated value of the paintings today is not given. Maybe there is a risk that their immense financial worth might attract avaricious attention given the rise of financially motivated disposal in public museums.
But the reason why our museum collections should not be cherry-picked in this way is apparent in the rotunda next door. This is built around Flowers, Lily Pad, Pictures and Labels, a large-scale mosaic by Patrick Caulfield, commissioned and paid for by the Derek Williams Trust. Caulfield was inspired by the three paintings of waterlilies by Monet that Gwendoline Davies donated to the museum.
This indicates how the Davies sisters’ bequest has generated more “beautiful things”. Wales’s national art collection may have come together in a piecemeal fashion, but it is very much an organic whole that is so much more than simply the sum of its parts.
Sculptures by the Welsh artist William Goscombe John encircle Caulfield’s mosaic. Works by other sculptors are dotted around the galleries. They look magnificent alongside the paintings.
The best combination is Monet’s San Giorgio Maggiore by Twilight, hanging between two bronze sculptures by Degas. This grouping features in a gallery devoted to French impressionists. The vivid blue walls set Monet’s orange sunset ablaze.
The colour scheme for this room is established by the stunning blue dress of Renoir’s La Parisienne. Bought by Gwendoline Davies for £5,000, it rightly takes pride of place at the centre of the main wall. She stares across at Augustus John’s full-length portrait of his wife Dorelia McNeill in the Garden at Alderney Manor hanging on the far wall of another gallery.
The curators use this imaginative arrangement to demonstrate the dialogue between French and British art without resorting to lengthy explanations. Instead, the art is displayed as an “aesthetic hang”, with text panels kept to a minimum.
There is a touchscreen tucked away in the corner of the gallery devoted to British art around 1900. This compares two iconic artists: Gwen John and her brother Augustus. Differences in technique, material and subject matter are explained next to clusters of works by the siblings.
Complementing the permanent hang is a temporary exhibition gallery that showcases individual Welsh artists. This will play an important role in bolstering the Welshness of the display.
The balance between Welsh and non-Welsh artists has been a bone of contention right from the inception of the museum and this comes across very clearly in Rhiannon Mason’s informative book, Museums, Nations, Identities: Wales and its National Museums.
National Museum Cardiff’s refurbished Impressionist and Modern Art Galleries bring its wonderful collection to life. It will appeal to art connoisseurs and children. With the latter in mind, it would be good to see more resources for younger visitors. Hopefully it will soon have its own activity book similar to that for the “historical” art collection in the adjacent galleries.
The collection’s potential is destined to increase once the museum’s contemporary art galleries reopen in the summer. This will come one year after the inauguration of the excellent Clore Discovery Centre on the ground floor. Such initiatives will help make sure that young people remain lifelong visitors to the museum.
Even though that caterpillar I spotted on my arrival was carefully rescued by a gallery invigilator, I very much doubt whether it survived Cardiff’s bitterly cold winter to metamorphose into a beautiful butterfly. I am pleased to report that the vibrant, colourful National Museum Cardiff is, on the other hand, maturing nicely.
Stuart Burch is a lecturer in museum studies at Nottingham Trent University
Cost £100,000
Main funders Amgueddfa Cymru – National Museum Wales, Wolfson Foundation, Henry Moore Foundation
Lighting in house
CDM consultancy Davies Langdon
Graphics Ten4 Design
Refurbishment Rok
Vinyls Easycolourpint
Plinths D4 kt
Cycle of Nature hangs among a selection of surrealist works from the 1930s. This is one of the themes used to organise the displays. Works are arranged by artistic movement, period or nationality. British art is also divided according to genres such as portraits and landscapes.
This clear arrangement makes it easy to navigate the displays in the seven new galleries at the museum. It also makes conducting guided tours much simpler. This was something I learned from the museum’s Eleri Wyn Evans, who was leading a primary school group around the galleries at the time of my visit.
Watching her captivated audience reminded me why art matters. The children were encouraged to let their imaginations loose. What does Richards’ Cycle of Nature mean? Well, the children were told, you can decide, because we don’t know all the answers.
We also don’t know all the questions. The rehang shows how the collection is being continually reinterpreted, although some themes are constant. One is the importance of key collectors, notably the Davies sisters, Gwendoline and Margaret. It is largely thanks to them that the museum has such a spectacular collection of British and European modern art.
A recess at the far end of the central gallery focuses on these unmarried granddaughters of one of Wales’ richest industrialists. A selection of documents and artefacts charts their charity work, philanthropy and cultural activities.
We learn that they founded the Gregynog Press in 1922 in order to “help cultivate a love of beautiful things in the people of Wales” – a sentiment that could be equally applied to the art collection that they so generously bequeathed to Wales and its national museum.
A timeline along the wall lists their principal acquisitions and the prices paid, starting in 1908 when Turner’s The Storm was bought for £5,775. It ends with Brown Harbour by Terry Frost, which was acquired for £250.
It is unusual to see price tags in an art museum, even if the estimated value of the paintings today is not given. Maybe there is a risk that their immense financial worth might attract avaricious attention given the rise of financially motivated disposal in public museums.
But the reason why our museum collections should not be cherry-picked in this way is apparent in the rotunda next door. This is built around Flowers, Lily Pad, Pictures and Labels, a large-scale mosaic by Patrick Caulfield, commissioned and paid for by the Derek Williams Trust. Caulfield was inspired by the three paintings of waterlilies by Monet that Gwendoline Davies donated to the museum.
This indicates how the Davies sisters’ bequest has generated more “beautiful things”. Wales’s national art collection may have come together in a piecemeal fashion, but it is very much an organic whole that is so much more than simply the sum of its parts.
Sculptures by the Welsh artist William Goscombe John encircle Caulfield’s mosaic. Works by other sculptors are dotted around the galleries. They look magnificent alongside the paintings.
The best combination is Monet’s San Giorgio Maggiore by Twilight, hanging between two bronze sculptures by Degas. This grouping features in a gallery devoted to French impressionists. The vivid blue walls set Monet’s orange sunset ablaze.
The colour scheme for this room is established by the stunning blue dress of Renoir’s La Parisienne. Bought by Gwendoline Davies for £5,000, it rightly takes pride of place at the centre of the main wall. She stares across at Augustus John’s full-length portrait of his wife Dorelia McNeill in the Garden at Alderney Manor hanging on the far wall of another gallery.
The curators use this imaginative arrangement to demonstrate the dialogue between French and British art without resorting to lengthy explanations. Instead, the art is displayed as an “aesthetic hang”, with text panels kept to a minimum.
There is a touchscreen tucked away in the corner of the gallery devoted to British art around 1900. This compares two iconic artists: Gwen John and her brother Augustus. Differences in technique, material and subject matter are explained next to clusters of works by the siblings.
Complementing the permanent hang is a temporary exhibition gallery that showcases individual Welsh artists. This will play an important role in bolstering the Welshness of the display.
The balance between Welsh and non-Welsh artists has been a bone of contention right from the inception of the museum and this comes across very clearly in Rhiannon Mason’s informative book, Museums, Nations, Identities: Wales and its National Museums.
National Museum Cardiff’s refurbished Impressionist and Modern Art Galleries bring its wonderful collection to life. It will appeal to art connoisseurs and children. With the latter in mind, it would be good to see more resources for younger visitors. Hopefully it will soon have its own activity book similar to that for the “historical” art collection in the adjacent galleries.
The collection’s potential is destined to increase once the museum’s contemporary art galleries reopen in the summer. This will come one year after the inauguration of the excellent Clore Discovery Centre on the ground floor. Such initiatives will help make sure that young people remain lifelong visitors to the museum.
Even though that caterpillar I spotted on my arrival was carefully rescued by a gallery invigilator, I very much doubt whether it survived Cardiff’s bitterly cold winter to metamorphose into a beautiful butterfly. I am pleased to report that the vibrant, colourful National Museum Cardiff is, on the other hand, maturing nicely.
Stuart Burch is a lecturer in museum studies at Nottingham Trent University
Project data
Cost £100,000
Main funders Amgueddfa Cymru – National Museum Wales, Wolfson Foundation, Henry Moore Foundation
Lighting in house
CDM consultancy Davies Langdon
Graphics Ten4 Design
Refurbishment Rok
Vinyls Easycolourpint
Plinths D4 kt
