Over the past couple of years we have been the proud recipient of a number of generous gifts to the collection.
Nicola Anthony (b.1984) is a visual artist based in Dublin, and an elected member of the Royal Society of Sculptors. She has been invited all over the world to work with NGOs, art institutions, and architects to create art which expresses the human experience of isolation, displacement, disconnection or disenfranchisement. “My artistic practice transforms human stories, oral history and collective memory into contemporary art, with a thematic focus on voices which are forgotten, erased, or omitted. My artwork takes the form of multilayered text sculptures, burned ink drawings, sound recordings and sound collage.”
One of our 2019 highlights was Parallel Lines, a collaboration with the Royal Society of Sculptors and The Lightbox on a pair of exhibitions exploring the relationship between 20th century sculpture and contemporary drawing. The exhibitions were curated by Caroline Worthington (Director, Royal Society of Sculptors), and featured a range of works by Society members, made in response to sculptures and sculptors’ drawings from the Ingram Collection. British sculptor Nicola Anthony chose Maze Music by Michael Ayrton, Ghost Boat by John Behan, and Walking Group by Kenneth Armitage, and made three drawings, done in the charcoal derived from an intricate process of burning calligraphy paper. We are delighted that Nicola decided to donate these drawings to the collection, allowing us to keep them alongside the sculptures which inspired them. Follow the links below to read Nicola’s reflections on her artistic process and her response to Ayrton, Behan & Armitage:
Maze Fragment (When time rests, the moments settle together), 2019, incense burned drawing
Saving Our Souls, 2019, incense burned drawing
The Journey of our Parallel Lives, 2019, incense burned drawing
Liseth Amaya (b. 1983) was one of the first artists whose work we acquired for our Young Contemporary Talent collection, following our 2014 visit to her Central Saint Martins degree show. One of the pleasures of creating this collection has been following the artists’ career trajectories – keeping in touch and seeing their practice develop – and so we are thrilled that Liseth has given Loss of the soil (2018) to the collection.
Liseth created the painting during her 2018 residency at the Slade School of Art, The London Summer Intensive, and says “It’s a piece that continues my investigation into identity, freedom of mobility and belonging. I feel it has a place alongside my 2014 work, It remains as it is, already part of The Ingram Collection.”
Loss of the soil, 2018, oil on linen
Installation of Landscape Near The Sea (image courtesy of The Lightbox)
Sometimes there are artists whose work throws new light onto the period of 20th century British art, and one of these is Wilfred Avery (1926-2016). Avery’s 1958 painting, Landscape Near The Sea, has been generously presented to the collection by the executor of the Estate of Wilfred Avery.
Wilfred Avery was born in South Molton, Devon in 1926. He studied painting at St Paul’s College, Cheltenham, and moved to London in 1952 where he exhibited widely. His growing interest in modern painting was reinforced during his studies by a meeting with Paul Nash who encouraged him to look to Paris, rather than to London or New York, for the influences which would subsequently shape his work. During his career Avery also designed sets for plays, and later became a prominent figure in the campaign for gay rights.
Writing in 1982, Avery reflected that “Landscape has been a continuous theme in my work though the images come more from the ‘inner eye’ than from any objective view of Nature. In one way they are a digest of the Devonshire scenes that impressed in childhood; in another way they are of a mythical landscape where inner and outer reality meet.”
Landscape Near The Sea, 1958, oil on board
Header Image: Nicola Anthony, Saving Our Souls [detail]