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Fantastic! What a lovely surprise to see this. I managed to find one Stubbs painting in Edinburgh. I teach horse riding in Australia and I've studied the anatomy of the horse at university… His anatomical drawings amaze me. To see Whistlejacket was a dream come true. Thank you York!
Visitor to York Art Gallery
York Art Gallery
The process of improving the gallery spaces has progressed this year with the refurbishment of the South Gallery. This has been transformed by the removal of the 1970's suspended ceiling revealing the Victorian roof structure. The opening display included religious panels and 17th century Dutch works around the theme of 'Courage', and part of the ceramic collection in Round the World in 80 Pots. The South Gallery was awarded a York Design Award in the conservation category in July 2009.
The exhibition Stubbs and Whistlejacket in York created much interest in the city attracting over 61,000 visitors and was the first time this particular angle on George Stubbs had been looked at. We worked closely with the National Gallery for the loan of the famous Stubbs painting of Whistlejacket. This famous horse had close connections with York as did the young Stubbs who trained here as a painter. We had lots of help from York Racecourse and the exhibition was a great success. We also produced a very interesting publication and our learning team organised 22 days of activity creating a Cavalcade of Horses involving over 750 adults and children. The horses continue to be displayed on the hoardings around the Hungate excavation site in York.
The innovative exhibition A Thousand Words was curated by the bestselling author Tracy Chevalier, our first ever Writer in Residence. Tracy invited visitors to add their own ideas about what was happening in the paintings she selected from the collections through the simple device of blackboards which surrounded the works on display. People enjoyed the interactivity very much and I think it was the first time any gallery had invited such direct responses from their audience. We also organised a short story competition which attracted over 600 applications. We were sorry to see the exhibition go but it was followed by one of the highlights of the year.
The Stanley Spencer exhibition was a strong follower and was on loan from Tate Liverpool. York's own Stanley Spencer, The Deposition and Rolling Away of the Stone, was included in the exhibition.
The Little Gallery provides a useful space for small displays which play an important part in the varied programme. The exhibitions included Crying with Laughter which was an exhibition of pots and prints on a satirical theme and Out of the Shadows an exhibition of works working with light and shade.
During this later part of the year we closed the first floor Modern Approaches gallery for refurbishment to create the Gallery of Pots. This will be a gallery dedicated to the fabulous collection of Studio Pottery, allowing us to create exhibitions from the ceramic collection that dates from the prehistoric period to contemporary works.