New exhibitions and displays at the Graves Gallery in Sheffield

It has been an exciting few years for the Graves Gallery in Sheffield. Following a sixth-month refurbishment of the gallery spaces in 2021, the curatorial team undertook a major rehang of the artworks, with the commitment to continue refreshing the displays on a regular basis. The idea is to ensure that as much of Sheffield’s rich visual arts collection is accessible to the people of the city.
By Yvette Huddleston
Published 31st Mar 2023, 14:04 BST
Updated 31st Mar 2023, 14:04 BST

The improvements to the gallery spaces were carried out thanks to a grant awarded by the Ampersand Foundation – it was just the first stage in a five-year programme of change. Since that initial phase of the project, the funding has been supporting a range of initiatives including further redisplays, conservation of the collection to safeguard it for future generations, work with schools and collaborations with artists, experts and specialists bringing new perspectives to the displays. “This is our third year of our Ampersand Foundation-funded project and we have been looking at putting out more of the collection,” says Kirstie Hamilton, director of programmes at Sheffield Museums. “We have two more years of the funding left – and it is a really good opportunity to bring in new audiences.”

Three new exhibitions and displays have recently opened offering visitors the chance to see a wide range of painting, sculpture, film, photography and works on paper. One of the exhibitions, PostNatures, has been curated by Sheffield-based artist Victoria Lucas who has responded to the collection using JMW Turner’s painting The Festival for the Opening of the Vintage at Macon as a starting point to explore representations of the relationship between women and nature. “It is always really exciting working with artists in that way,” says Hamilton. “They get to delve deeper into the works in the collection and bring new things to the fore. Victoria has brought out lots of works on paper, which have not been on display for a long time, and objects from the archaeological collection too.” PostNatures brings together a range of artworks and objects, alongside recent works from Lucas and the Heavy Water Collective. Overall the exhibition invites the viewer to reassess and further explore ideas of the feminine in nature.

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Also just opened is the exhibition Portraiture and the Human Figure, a new display drawn from the city’s collection exploring artists’ longstanding fascination with depicting people. Humanity’s constant interest in looking at itself has fuelled centuries of artistic representations in all kinds of media of the human face and body. The display presents over 80 paintings, photographs and works on paper exploring the diverse ways in which artists have portrayed others, and themselves. It ranges from the formal, posed picture to much more casual, naturalistic depictions and includes work by David Hockney, Cecil Beaton, Pierre Bonnard, David A Bailey and Barbara Hepworth. “This is the first time we have done a portrait redisplay and it has been really interesting to look at what portraiture is and can be,” says Hamilton. “We have selected a whole range of work from the 16th century right up to the modern day with a mixture of works on paper, artists drawings which are more intimate and photographs, so there is a freshness to the display. We know that people have their favourites though too, so we have tried to keep those. ”

Walter Richard Sickert, L'Hotel Royal, Dieppe, 1894. Image © Sheffield Museums.Walter Richard Sickert, L'Hotel Royal, Dieppe, 1894. Image © Sheffield Museums.
Walter Richard Sickert, L'Hotel Royal, Dieppe, 1894. Image © Sheffield Museums.

Completing the new additions at the Graves Gallery is Modern Europeans, an exhibition which celebrates the achievements and influence of a number of talented and distinctive French and British artists working in the late 19th and early 20th century, a period which saw the development of Impressionist painting and which has been hugely influential in western visual art history. And its legacy continues.

“The artworks on display are taken mostly from the Sheffield collection as well as some long-term loans,” says Hamilton. “We have focussed on painting, colour and composition and because those Impressionist pioneers influenced so many other artists, it feels like that display could relate to whatever other exhibitions we are programming.” It features work by Vanessa Bell, Paul Cezanne, Pierre-August Renoir, Roger Fry, Walter Sickert, James Tissot and others. “The display makes the connections between Britain and Europe which feels important, especially at the moment,” says Hamilton. “It was such a rich period and one which had such an impact, it is something I think we might return to, with a different focus.”

At the Graves Gallery, Sheffield until December 2.

Related topics:Sheffield