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Midlands Art Papers 2 (2018/19)

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.

  • Detail from the painting

    On exhibit: Curating Madame Vuillard

    In October 2018 the Barber Institute of Fine Arts opened a loan exhibition, ‘Maman: Vuillard and Madame Vuillard’, featuring the art of the French post-Impressionist Édouard Vuillard (1868–1940). Curator Francesca Berry explains the feminist ideas motivating the exhibition.

  • Detail from abstract painting

    In conversation: perspectives on art interpretation

  • Detail from a sculpture

    On exhibit: The Space Between Gender (RBSA)

    How can sculpture perform a feminist occupation of space? Cai Lyons explores the role of gender binaries in Yazmin Boyle’s 2018 RBSA exhibition.

    Cai Lyons article

  • Close-up on a face in the painting

    Object in focus: Trevor Denning, RBSA Gallery, New Street

    Faith Whitehouse explores the tension between ‘modern’ and traditional painting at the RBSA in the 1950s.

    Faith Whitehouse article

  • Close-up on two faces in the illustration

    In depth: intertwining histories - Donald Rodney and David Hockney

    How did artists respond to the racial politics of 1980s Britain? Greg Salter explores the provocative intertwining of histories of racism, colonialism and sexuality in Donald Rodney’s 1989 drawing.

  • Close-up on eyes in the sculpture

    Object in focus: Jacob Epstein, TS Eliot (1952)

    Matthew Geary explores an unlikely friendship between sculptor Jacob Epstein and poet T.S. Eliot, and the sculpture in The New Art Gallery Walsall from which this relationship developed.

    Matthew Geary article

  • The head of the sculpture with the figure's right arm resting on the head

    Object in focus: Auguste Rodin, The Age of Bronze (c.1877)

    Rodin’s famous sculpture The Age of Bronze is displayed at the Barber Institute of Fine Arts in an unusual way. Curator Helen Cobby reveals the history of its reception, acquisition and display.

  • Male figure with batman on clothing

    Object in focus: Andrew Tift, Three Black Country Steel Workers (1992)

    How can a painting document de-industrialisation and its social consequences? Mimi Buchanan examines Andrew Tift’s study of Black Country steelworkers.

  • Close-up of the ship at sea

    Object in focus: Alfred Wallis, A Brig Close To Shore (c.1928)

    Rebecca Savage argues that we need to understand the ‘childlike’ paintings produced by the fisherman-turned-artist Alfred Wallis in relation to wider developments in modern British art.

    Rebecca Savage article

  • Godiva sat on a white horse

    Object in focus: John Collier, Godiva (1998)

    Kate Nichols explores debates around the Victorian nude – past and present – and sets out new information about Collier’s iconic Godiva painting.

    Kate Nichols article

  • A sulphur crested cockatoo in the painting

    Percy Shakespeare, Tropical Bird House, Dudley Zoo (c.1939)

    Object in focus

    What can we learn about human-animal relationships from art works? Sam Shaw discusses 1930s paintings of people and animals in zoos.

    Sam Shaw article