The Whitechapel Gallery Shows Works From the British Government's Collection

Written by Richard Grayson Tuesday, 10 April 2012 23:26

London.- The Whitechapel Gallery is proud to present "Government Art Collection: At Work", the first in a  planned series of exhibitions featuring seldom seen works from the British Government's art collection. For over 100 years, the Government Art Collection has acquired paintings, sculptures and work in other media to promote British art and artists. Usually on display in more than 400 locations, such as embassies and trade offices all over the globe, works from the Collection are now being shown here for the first time in a British public art gallery. On exhibition through 4 September, 2012.

Owned by the British public, the Government Art Collection exhibits historical and contemporary art to visitors to government buildings in the UK and most capital cities of the world. At Work is a selection from these embassies and government departments that showcases the diverse nature of the Collection, its locations and function. Highlights include a 16th-Century portrait of Queen Elizabeth I, formerly on display in the Ministry of Justice; the modern masterpiece "Lancashire Fair: Good Friday, Daisy Nook" by Mancunian artist L.S. Lowry, recently shown at 10 Downing Street; and the 1962 contribution by Derek Boshier to British Pop Art, "I Wonder What My Heroes Think of the Space Race" – previously installed at the British Embassy in Moscow.

The exhibition is curated by the Government Art Collection in collaboration with the Whitechapel Gallery. Other artists featured range from Tracey Emin to Walter Richard Sickert and William Marlow to David Tindle. The selectors who have chosen works are: Lord Boateng, former Government Minister and British High Commissioner to South Africa; the Prime Minister’s wife Samantha Cameron; Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg; Lord Mandelson, former Business Secretary; Dame Anne Pringle, British Ambassador to Moscow; Sir John Sawers, Chief of the Secret Intelligence Service; and Culture Minister Ed Vaizey. The first in a series of five displays, "At Work" is part of the Whitechapel Gallery’s on going programme opening up important public and private collections for everyone.

The Whitechapel Gallery is a public art gallery on the north side of Whitechapel High Street, in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. Designed by Charles Harrison Townsend, it was founded in 1901 as one of the first publicly-funded galleries for temporary exhibitions in London, and it has a long track record for education and outreach projects, now focused on the Whitechapel area's deprived populations. It exhibits the work of contemporary artists, as well as organising retrospective exhibitions and shows that are of interest to the local community.The Gallery exhibited "Guernica" by Pablo Picasso in 1938 as part of a touring exhibition organised by Roland Penrose to protest the Spanish Civil War. For the history of post-war British art, the most important exhibition to have been held at the Whitechapel Gallery was This is Tomorrow in 1956. Initiated by members of the Independent Group, the exhibition brought Pop Art to the general public as well as introducing some of the artists, concepts, designers and photographers that would define the Swinging Sixties.


Throughout its history, the Whitechapel Gallery had a series of open exhibitions that were a strong feature for the area's artist community, but by the early 1990s these open shows became less relevant as emerging artists moved to other areas. In the later 1960s and through the 1970s, the critical importance of the Whitechapel Gallery was displaced by newer venues such as the Hayward Gallery, but in the 1980s the Gallery enjoyed a resurgence under the Directorship of Nicholas Serota. The Whitechapel Gallery had a major refurbishment in 1986 and has recently completed (April 2009) a two year programme of work to incorporate the former Passmore Edwards Library building next door, vacated when Whitechapel Idea Store opened, which has doubled the physical size of the Gallery and nearly tripled available exhibition space, and which will now allow the Whitechapel Gallery to remain open to the public year round. Visit the gallery's website at ... http://www.whitechapelgallery.org

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