New exhibition at Leeds Gallery explores creative connections between Yorkshire and Cornwall

“The starting point for the exhibition was our acquisition of three new sculptures by the artists Ro Robertson, Emii Alrai and Veronica Ryan,” says curator Dr Clare Nadal. “I have been working on this since I started at the gallery a year ago and I was thinking about ways in which we could display these new works and how they might connect with the more historical part of our collection. And also, there is this line of connection between Yorkshire and Cornwall, both historical and contemporary, which I wanted to explore.”

The new acquisitions are presented in dialogue with paintings, sculptures, ceramics and works on paper by artists working in Cornwall or Yorkshire, and in some cases both, from the 1920s right up to the present day. Featured artists include Patrick Heron, Michael Cardew, Terry Frost, Wilhelmina Barns-Graham, Christopher Wood, Barbara Hepworth, Ben Nicholson, Janet Leach, Peter Lanyon and William Scott.

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There are 27 works on display in total, covering a range of media, all drawn from the collections of Leeds Museums and Galleries. “I wanted it to be very focused,” says Nadal of the selection process. “We have drawn on the breadth of our nine different sites – so, for example we have some ceramics from Lotherton Hall – and all the artists on display have one or two works in the exhibition. I didn’t want to give more weight to one artist, in order to keep it equal and balanced.”

Barbara Hepworth was a key figure in the development of post-war abstract sculpture and had strong links with both Yorkshire and Cornwall. Born in Wakefield, she studied at Leeds School of Art and then the Royal College of Art. At the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939 she and her husband, the abstract painter Ben Nicholson, and their three children moved to Cornwall. Other young artists followed in the post-war years and at around the same time, in 1950, the University of Leeds established the Gregory Fellowships in painting, sculpture, music and poetry which offered artists new opportunities to work in Yorkshire for a period. Abstract painter Terry Frost was a Gregory fellow who taught at Leeds School of Art and later moved to St Ives, earlier in his career he had been an assistant to Hepworth in Cornwall.

Hepworth is also the connecting point between the three contemporary artists featured in the exhibition. “Emii Alrai is based in Yorkshire, Ro Robertson, formerly based in West Yorkshire recently relocated to Newlyn, near Penzance, working from Porthmeor Studios and Veronica Ryan undertook a residency at Tate St Ives working in Barbara Hepworth’s former Palais de Dance studio,” says Nadal. “And all three have been influenced and inspired by Hepworth’s work.”

The earliest artwork on display in the exhibition is a circa 1928 painting, Mount’s Bay with St Michael’s Mount, by Cornish fisherman turned artist Alfred Wallis, then there are works moving through the 1930s, 40s, 50s, 60s and 70s, alongside the recent works by Ryan, Robertson and Alrai, created in 2021 and 2022. “What I think is really interesting is the interplay between landscape and abstraction in some of the works,” says Nadal. “There is a section of hard-edged 1930s constructivist abstraction and ideas of modernism and then we move into the 1950s with Heron and Frost and others. Then the contemporary sculptures reflect back on the abstract reclining figures of mid-century abstract sculptors.”

The response to the exhibition so far has been very positive. “Visitors are really enjoying it and people have their own personal connections to the show,” says Nadal. “Also, I think it is a real reminder of the strength of our collection of 20th century British art and it’s been lovely to bring out works that haven’t been on display for a while.”

An Axis of Abstraction: Art in Cornwall and Yorkshire – Then and Now is at Leeds Art Gallery until March 23, 2025. Free entry.