Our new exhibition will offer a unique opportunity to explore artworks from The Ingram Collection of Modern British Art alongside audio recordings with the artists that created them, shedding new light on the fascinating personal experiences that shaped their lives, relationships and art.
The artists selected are some of the best known within the collection: Eileen Agar, Kenneth Armitage, John Bellany, Ralph Brown, Lynn Chadwick, Geoffrey Clarke, Ken Currie, Mary Fedden, Paul Feiler, Elisabeth Frink, Terry Frost, William Gear, Derrick Greaves, Patrick Heron, Josef Herman, Allen Jones, Bernard Meadows, Brendan Neiland, Eduardo Paolozzi, Leonard Rosoman, Carel Weight and Rosemary Young.
This is a unique opportunity to hear these artists in their own words, illuminating their practice and revealing their personal history. In addition, the exhibition forms an overview of a particular period in British history as artists came to terms with the aftermath of two world wars, and the political, social and cultural changes that followed.
The recordings in this Lightbox exhibition are from Artists’ Lives, a National Life Stories project in partnership with the British Library. Established in 1990, the Artists’ Lives archive now contains almost 400 life-story interviews with British artists as well as critics, dealers and gallery directors, providing an unparalleled and rich history of the British art landscape over the course of the 20th century. Scroll down to find a few tasters of what to expect – audio clips from interviews with Elisabeth Frink, William Gear and Eileen Agar.
The exhibition is organised by The Ingram Collection and The Lightbox in collaboration with Michael Bird.
Michael Bird is a writer and independent art historian. He is the author of books on modern British artists Lynn Chadwick, Sandra Blow, Bryan Wynter and George Fullard, The St Ives Artists: A Biography of Place and Time and the bestselling children’s history of art Vincent’s Starry Night and Other Stories. He was 2016 Goodison Fellow at the British Library and is writing a book based on his research into the Artists’ Lives archive.
In Their Own Words: Artists’ Voices from The Ingram Collection
20 May 2017 – 30 July 2017
The Lightbox, Chobham Road, Woking GU21 4AA
£4.50 Day Pass or £7.50 Annual Pass | Under 18s Free
Audio clips
Eileen Agar discusses her strict upbringing by her mother and French nanny, and her childhood rebellious streak:
William Gear jokes about a classroom art competition in which he won a shilling for drawing a teacher’s handbag:
Elisabeth Frink reminisces about her earliest works – ‘boring’ childhood sketches:
Image: Eduardo Paolozzi outside his West End studio, c.1959. Photograph by David Farrell