The London Art Fair is presenting a special exhibition by the Jerwood Collection as its special museum partner this year. They are exhibiting key works by artists featured in their 2016 exhibition programme within a pavilion space at the front of the Fair.
The most eye catching work on the stand is a bronze sculpture by YBA artist Marcus Harvey who has depicted the late PM Margaret Thatcher, washed up on the beach alongside a pigs head with crabs crawling around her breasts. Harvey is best known for his infamous portrait of Myra Hindley, which was central to the seminal ‘Sensation’ exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts, London (1997). Harvey says that ‘Thatcher’s image has a magnetic, dark, complicated sexual allure that’s hard for me to define – it’s not exactly feminine and it does come with a pungent whiff of testosterone’. The sculpture has already created a buzz around the fair.
The exhibit was curated by Liz Gilmore (Director, Jerwood Gallery) and Lara Wardle (Curator, Jerwood Collection). It illustrates the ways in which the British coastline, as a physical and spiritual place, coupled with its extraordinary light, have shaped and influenced selected artists in the Jerwood Collection, which is on permanent display at Jerwood Gallery. Important works by artists including Barbara Hepworth, Ben Nicholson, John Piper, John Tunnard and Christopher Woodwill feature in their exhibitionCoast.
Other key works included in the exhibition are by artists associated with St Ives, the artist’s colony in Cornwall where Ben Nicholson, Christopher Wood and Alfred Wallis were living and working in the early 1930s. Their chance meeting in 1928 was to become one of the great milestones in 20th Century British art. Also on display will be works by artists featured in the Jerwood Gallery’s 2016 exhibition programme, including: John Bratby and Prunella Clough.
Photo: P C Robinson © Artlyst 2016