Since my last post I have written a presentation about the history of The Atkinson’s print collection for a talk that I’m giving next week at London Print Fair. It’s been really nice writing about how the collection came together and then picking out some of the key pieces as well as a couple of my favourites to talk about in more detail. The print collection contains some really good works by key artists such as Whistler, Rembrandt, Matisse, Frink as well as famous pop artists such as Richard Hamilton and Eduardo Paolozzi. It’s not a massive collection like what the Whitworth in Manchester have but it is a really good collection and something we should all be proud of.
A few key pieces will be displayed early next year when The Atkinson hosts the British Museum American Dream touring exhibition. This is a touring exhibition of some key American pop artists and we are adding to it with works from key British artists from the 1960s up to the present day. I saw the exhibition at the British Museum a few weeks ago and it looked fantastic so it’ll be great to get part of it up here in Southport.
Sticking with the print theme, this week staff and volunteers received some really fun and interesting training on how to identify different types of prints. David Morris who recently retired as Head of Collections at the Whitworth in Manchester came and did a really good training session where he explained different printmaking techniques, showed us the different tools that were used to make the prints and then used prints from The Atkinson’s collections to show us what they look like in the flesh. We all had great fun looking at them close up with hand held magnifiers and then in the afternoon we had a quiz where we had to examine some prints and identify what type they were. In the first round we all did ok but then we got better and by the end of the day we were all getting them right, which was fantastic. It was a really informative day and it was great using the collection as a learning aid and also to show off how amazing it is.
I’m going to finish with a picture from our amazing collection by Whistler entitled ‘Vauxhall Bridge’. Have a lovely Bank Holiday and enjoy!
Posted on 28 April 2017 under Museum
