Changing Times: A Century of Modern British Art brings together more than 80 works from the Ingram Collection and the collection of The Higgins Bedford, with paintings, works on paper and sculpture from some of the biggest names in British art. From Higgins also come a dozen works on paper by major European artists. Changing Times: A Century of Modern British Art is the first large-scale exhibition since the reopening of The Higgins in 2013.
Among the highlights are several powerful monumental sculptures, including Riace Figure (1986) and Walking Madonna (1981) by Elisabeth Frink. There are lithographs by Eric Ravilious from his High Street series and a pair of his watercolours, Observation Post (1939) and Rye Harbour (1938). Lucien Freud’s stunning 1945 drawing Botanical Gardens hangs alongside works John Craxton’s exquisite Yellow Estuary Landscape (1943).
A Cezanne lithograph, Large Bathers (1896), introduces a section devoted to figures in the landscape, which includes Edward Burra’s Hop Pickers Who’ve Lost Their Mothers (1924), John Minton’s Hop Pickers (1945), the early Paul Nash watercolour Fruit Pickers (1916) and The Bathing Pool (1923) by Ethel Walker, a highly regarded interwar artist who deserves to be better known. The same is true of Frances Hodgkins, whose work is also featured in Changing Times.
Another section explores the artist’s self-portrait, with David Hockney’s tongue-in-cheek etching Artist and Model alongside works by Kathe Kollwitz, William Roberts, John Bratby and John Bellany. Elsewhere the emphasis is on experiment and play, with Mark Gertler’s eerie still life The Doll (1914) and a lithograph from Marc Chagall’s Arabian Nights (1948) suite. Hockney prints depicting water can be seen alongside Howard Hodgkin’s colourful etching of Hockney’s swimming pool. Bold colour abounds in works by Sybil Andrews, Sonia Delaunay and Victor Pasmore, to name a few.
Changing Times is curated by James Russell, whose previous exhibitions include Ravilious (2015) and Edward Bawden (2018), both at Dulwich Picture Gallery.
The exhibition is supported by The Friends of The Higgins Bedford.
Changing Times: A Century of Modern British Art
15 October 2022 – 16 April 2023
Free Entry
The Higgins Bedford
Castle Lane
Bedford
MK40 3XD
Box Office: 01234 718618
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Image: Eric Ravilious (1903 – 1942), Second-hand Furniture and Effects, 1938 © The Ingram Collection & John-Paul Bland