2016 Centenary Programme

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The Holburne Museum Announces Major Exhibitions for 2016 Centenary Programme

• Three new exhibitions – Impressionism: Capturing Life, Stubbs and the Wild and Silver: Light and Shade
• Artist commissions for Djordje Ozbolt and Linda Brothwell
• Special collection displays and public events

The Holburne Museum has today announced a 2016 centenary programme to mark 100 years since Sir William Holburne’s collection moved to its current home on Great Pulteney Street in Bath. Throughout the year, the Museum is curating three major new exhibitions as well as organising contemporary commissions and public events in the Grade I listed building, which was fully restored with the addition of a glass and ceramic extension by Eric Parry Architects in 2011.

Impressionism: Capturing Life, Stubbs and the Wild and Silver: Light and Shade make up the special ticketed programme in the main exhibitions space, complemented by new work from artist Djordje Ozbolt, whose incisive responses to the Collection will appear around the Museum, as well as focussed shows in the Davidson and Wirth galleries.

Jennifer Scott, Director of the Holburne Museum, said: “2016 is an exciting moment in our history as a vibrant cultural hub at the centre of Bath. We are delighted to mark this with three original exhibitions of outstanding quality, curated in house to celebrate the best of Britain’s national and regional collections.”

Exhibitions Programme
Impressionism: Capturing Life (13 February – 5 June 2016) unites 28 masterpieces from British public collections to celebrate the Impressionists’ observations of humanity, curated by Holburne Museum Director Jennifer Scott. The show centres on figurative paintings by (and depictions of) the artists that exhibited at the first Impressionist exhibition of 1874, including Claude Monet, Edgar Degas, Berthe Morisot, Camille Pissarro, Pierre-Auguste Renoir and Alfred Sisley. Significant loans from, among others, Tate, The National Gallery, London and The Scottish National Gallery feature alongside the Holburne’s works on paper by the important but often overlooked British Impressionist Sir George Clausen, founder-member of the New English Art Club.

Stubbs and the Wild (25 June – 2 October 2016) delves into the visionary eighteenth century world of George Stubbs through his realistic animal studies and sublime fantasy pieces. The exhibition presents the early encounters between polite Georgian society and the wild creatures and places depicted in Stubbs’ work. The uneasy relationship between the domestic and the exotic is explored through important paintings, prints and drawings by this extraordinary artist, curated by Amina Wright.

Silver: Light and Shade (22 October 2016 – 22 January 2017) tells a new story about the properties of silver, conveying its visual impact and its infinite potential for creative, design-led objects. Silver can be turned black or white, it goes red under heat; it can be combined with base and other metals, enamel or precious stones. Curated by Catrin Jones and Vanessa Brett, the exhibition will include significant loans from UK collections to reveal the aesthetic potency of silver from the sixteenth century to today.

Around the Museum
A Handful of Dust (13 February – 18 September 2016) presents the finest pastels from the Holburne’s collection, including Love Songs and Matches by John Russell and James Nelthorpe by Jean Etienne Liotard. Because of their fragility these works on paper are rarely on display.

Linda Brothwell (6 August 2016 to 2 January) this pioneer of contemporary British craft skills will create a playground of textures and colours in stone, wood and metalwork in response to the most intricate works in the Holburne’s collection.

Djordje Ozbolt (1 October 2016 – 22 January 2017) this exciting painter and sculptor will respond to the Holburne’s Old Masters with contemporary eyes and an injection of humour by selecting key areas of the collection displays to ‘invade’.

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Press Enquiries

For further information about the 2016 centenary programme, please contact: Matthew Brown | E: matthew@suttonpr.com | T: +44 (0) 20 7183 3577 | M: +44 (0) 7715 901 047

For more information about the Holburne Museum, please contact: Katie Jenkins | E: k.jenkins@holburne.org | T: +44 (0) 1225 388547

About The Holburne Museum

The Holburne Museum’s mission statement is ‘Changing Lives Through Art’. This reflects our commitment to opening up the enjoyment of art to people of all ages and from every walk of life.

NOTES

The Holburne Museum houses an important art collection formed by Sir William Holburne in the early nineteenth century, which includes paintings, silver, sculpture, furniture and porcelain of national and international significance.

Artists in the collection include Gainsborough, Guardi, Stubbs, Ramsay and Zoffany. The Museum reopened in May 2011 after ambitious renovations and a new extension by Eric Parry Architects. The Holburne has fast gained a reputation as one of a number of outstanding regional museums in the UK.

• Winner of the Museums & Heritage Award for the re-display of the permanent collection.
• Winner of RIBA Building of the Year, south west.
• Winner of the Civic Trust’s Michael Middleton Special Award for a restoration/extension project within a conservation area.

The Holburne Museum, Great Pulteney Street, Bath BA2 4DB Open daily, free admission 10am to 5pm (11am to 5pm Sundays and Bank Holidays) Tel: 01225 388569 | email: enquiries@holburne.org | www.holburne.org In Partnership with Bath Spa University