Leave a Comment

Bob’s Epstein Archive Gallery – Weeks 2 & 3

Hello all, the Archive Gallery is opening on the 15th of September and Bob has been really busy painting the walls of the space. See below for the films of weeks 2 & 3 of his residency. What’s next is that the cases will be installed in the next few weeks and we can begin to put the archive material alongside Bob’s fantastic wall pieces. I hope that you can make it along on the 15th, 6-8pm, free and all welcome.

Week 2 – Bob’s History of Art

Week 3 – Epstein’s Travels

Leave a Comment

Bob and Roberta Smith’s Epstein Archive Gallery

Bob has been up at the gallery this week to start his work painting the Archive Gallery on Floor 1 of the Garman Ryan Collection. Inspired by the Festival of Britain, the room is very colourful and has a distinct 1950s feel, which sits well with the time period of the Epstein Archive. See the below film for an explanation of the project from the man himself…

Leave a Comment

The Garman Ryan Collection and the Epstein Archive

A big few weeks for the Epstein Archive as we have been installing framed items from the archive in amongst the Garman Ryan Collcetion. We’ve done this to give the collection a bit more context and to embed the archive further into the gallery as a whole. In total, we have 10 items from the archive displayed alongside relevant works of art from the collection. What sparked this off was a fantastic little note in the archive from Sally Ryan to Kathleen Garman. Sally had just bought a Bonnard oil painting, La Seine a Vernon (The Seine at Vernon), and gave it to Kathleen as a gift, along with the hand delivered note that we still hold today. It was with this in mind that Jo Digger and myself sought out 9 more items from the archive that could complement the Garman Ryan Collection and we are really happy with the results.

So, from today – you’ll notice some cupboards on the walls on floors 1 and 2 of the gallery. The archive items are behind cupboard doors to give visitors a bit of the same feeling of discovery that I’ve had over the past 12 months. From a conservation point of view, the cupboards are great for protecting the material from light damage when they aren’t being viewed.

We also have a new introductory leaflet to the Garman Ryan Collection that reflects the inclusion of the Epstein Archive and shows the locations of all of the cupboards.

So, come along and let us know what you think…