Midlands Art Papers 6 (2023)
Midlands Art Papers is a collaborative online journal, working between the University of Birmingham and 13 partner institutions to research and explore the world class works of art and design in public collections across the Midlands.
Editorial: Exile and migration in regional collections
Midlands Art Papers special issue Editor Camilla Smith introduces this sixth issue of MAP and discusses the role that the diverse experiences of migration play in shaping our regional collections and why this matters.
Editorial
Regional Galleries and their Hidden Histories
Uncovering Migrant Networks in the Garman Ryan Collection
PhD student Elizabeth Lamle explores the migrant history and interpersonal relationships of the Garman Ryan collection at The New Art Gallery Walsall. With a focus on the unique connection between Rabindranath Tagore and Lucian Freud, she discusses how the display of this collection highlights the interconnected nature of émigré networks, and their role in shaping the production, acquisition, and display of artworks.
Camilla Smith article
Migration and the Forgotten Women Artists, Art Historians, and Patrons
Leicester Museum & Art Gallery
PhD student Carolyn Bushell explores how narratives of exile and migration shaped the formation and acquisition of works featured in Leicester’s collection of modern German art. She focuses in particular on women artists and patrons, and highlights how debates on gender have contributed to the reception of these artists’ works and their subsequent display in the collection.
Carolyn Bushell article
Photographer Chris Neophytou on Place, Identity and Migration
In conversation
In 2022, Birmingham Museums Trust purchased eleven photographs from the series ‘The Planting of a Fig Tree’ by the contemporary photographer and publisher Chris Neophytou. MAP special issue editor Camilla Smith spoke to Chris in May 2023 to find out more about how both the Midlands and family migration histories shape his photographic practice.
Interview
Midlands Art Trail: Exile and Migration at the Herbert Art Gallery & Museum
Adi Noy has created a trail of nine artworks and material objects featured in Coventry’s Herbert Art Gallery and Museum, centred around the theme of exile and migration. This trail highlights some of the gallery’s most unique and relevant objects, and explores how different people have expressed their own experiences with migration through diverse creative and innovative media.
Trail
On Exhibit: The more things change… at Wolverhampton Art Gallery
The more things change… was an exhibition of work by key members of the Blk Art Group that ran at Wolverhampton Art Gallery from April to July 2023. Emily Langridge explores the extent to which it challenged historic perceptions of the Blk Art Group’s work through its innovative foregrounding of materiality and aesthetic practice.
Emily Langridge article