The Fry Gallery have joined forces with The Ingram Collection of Modern British Art to present two exhibitions, ‘A World of Private Mystery: British Neo-Romantics’ and ‘Art and Design: Great Bardfield artists working across the boundaries of the fine and applied arts’

Gordon Cummings, Hon Secretary, Fry Art Gallery Society will give the Friends a private viewing and curatorial talk on both exhibitions and an exclusive look behind the scenes of the Fry Gallery in Saffron Walden.

Saffron Walden is a delightful market town with fine historical buildings, a castle, victorian gardens,  great independent cafes and shops, antiques and an award winning Saturday outdoor market.

Booking required £20 Friends / £25 Non Friends

Own transport – Car / Car share / Bus

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Further Information

A World of Private Mystery: British Neo-Romantics 

Nocturnal landscapes and cityscapes illuminated by silvery, crescent moons, ruined cottages covered in tangles of undergrowth and anxious figures sheltering in shadowy woodlands and bombed-out streets – all hallmarks of British neo-romanticism.

A spotlight is being shone on this movement that produced some of the most innovative and captivating works of art in the mid-20th century in a free exhibition at the Fry Art Gallery in 2023.

The Fry holds a collection of works by neo-romantic artists who lived and worked in north west Essex, and is joining forces with The Ingram Collection of Modern British Art to explore this movement through an exhibition of 30 works by artists Graham Sutherland (1903-1980), John Piper (1903-1992), Keith Vaughan (1912-1977), John Craxton (1922-2009), John Minton (1917-1957), Robert McBryde (1913-1966), Robert Colquhoun (1914-1962) and Michael Ayrton (1921-1975).

Neo-romanticism infiltrated key areas of British creative life from the 1930s to the end of the 1950s and was characterized by a renewed interest in the Romantic era’s artistic and literary themes. This movement was a reaction to the dominant style of the time, which was abstract expressionism, and its artists sought a more intuitive, subjective approach to artmaking and to revive a sense of the mystical, imaginative, and emotional in art.

The works often feature strong narrative elements, evoking a sense of mystery and symbolism that invites the viewer to delve deeper into the hidden meanings behind the images. There is an all-pervading sense of nostalgia, foreboding and claustrophobia and this can partly be explained by the anxiety generated by the Second World War and the nightly blackouts which plunged the country into years of darkness and uncertainty.

Art and Design: Great Bardfield artists working across the boundaries of the fine and applied arts.

This exhibition includes works from the Fry gallery’s permanent collection as well as some unusual loaned pieces.  The exhibition will emphasise the contribution the artists made to British design and aims to show the strong connections between art works and design. Nash spoke of making no distinction between art and design and Edward Bawden and Eric Ravilious accepted and practised that view throughout their work.

Among the artists also represented in the exhibition are Richard Bawden, John and Lucie Aldridge, Sheila Robinson, Walter Hoyle, Tirzah Ravilious, and Michael Rothenstein.

The Ingram Collection

The Ingram Collection is one of the largest and most significant publicly accessible collections of Modern British Art in the UK.  Through its programme of loans and exhibitions, the collection works in partnership with galleries & museums, innovative spaces, and new artistic talent to bring art to the widest possible audience.

Founded in 2002 by serial entrepreneur and philanthropist Chris Ingram, the collection spans over 100 years of British art and includes over 600 artworks.  More than 400 of these are by some of the most important British artists of the 20th century, amongst them Edward Burra, Lynn Chadwick, Elisabeth Frink, Barbara Hepworth and Eduardo Paolozzi.  The main focus of the collection is on the art movements that developed in the early and middle decades of the 20th century, and there is a particularly strong and in-depth holding of 20th century British sculpture.

The Ingram Collection holds a growing number of works by young and emerging artists, and in 2016 established The Ingram Prize, an annual purchase prize created to celebrate and support the work and early careers of UK art school graduates. More at www.ingramcollection.com

Access

For access information on visiting the Fry Gallery please contact info@fryartgallery.org

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