Revisiting Modern British Art

Product Information

Kate Bryan, Art Curator, Writer, Advisor and Broadcaster Head of Collections at Soho House globally The event will celebrate the new publication Revisiting Modern British Art, edited by Jo Baring with a text by James Russell. The talk coincides with our current exhibitions The Living Collection and Unseen, which include works by Ravilious and Paul Nash – both featured in the publication, along with Eileen Agar, Vanessa Bell, Francis Bacon, Barbara Hepworth, Margaret Mellis, Richard Hamilton and Kim Lim. Edited by Jo Baring (Director, The Ingram Collection), with essays by Harriet Baker, Elena Crippa, Aindrea Emelife, Laura Freeman, Alexandra Harris, Simon Martin, Hammad Nasar, James Purdon, James Rawlin, Natalie Rudd, James Russell and Laura Smith. The discussion will take place from 6.00pm to 6.45pm, after which there will be 15 minutes for an audience Q&A. Join us for a thought-provoking panel discussion with Ravilious-specialist James Russell, director of the Ingram Collection Jo Baring and Towner’s Head of Exhibitions and Collection Sara Cooper to discuss how specific artists, such as Eric Ravilious, provide focal points for collections.

Pragya Agarwal is the author of (M)otherhood: On the choices of being a woman in addition to three other widely acclaimed nonfiction books for adults on racism, gender bias and reproductive rights, and a picture book for raising non-racist children. Her latest book, Hysterical: Exploding the myth of gendered emotions was one of The Telegraph’s best big ideas books of 2022, as well as Waterstones and The i newspaper’s best non-fiction of 2022. Pragya is a professor of social inequities, behavioural and data scientist, and founder of a research think-tank investigating gender inequities. Speakers: Anna Liber Lewis (artist), Bianca Chu (researcher, advisor to the Kim Lim Estate), Naomi Polonsky (Associate Curator, The Women’s Art Collection), chaired by Jo Baring (Director, Ingram Collection) The discovery of Soutine’s paintings in the early 1950s was a significant moment for Kossoff, who was already finding his way towards the kind of direct and expressive use of paint he saw in his predecessor’s work. Soutine grew up in Belarus before migrating to Paris as a young man, while Kossoff was born and raised in London, his parents having arrived there from Ukraine as children. Although their life experiences were very different, the two artists shared a Russian Jewish heritage which perhaps brought a particular cultural sensibility to their work. To create transcendent works from the stuff of everyday life became Kossoff’s mission, as it had been Soutine’s.Sophie J Williamson is a curator based in London and Margate. She is initiator and convenor of Undead Matter, an on-going programme focused on the intimacy of being with dying and its dialogue with the geological. From 2013-2021, she was Exhibitions Curator at Camden Art Centre, and was previously part of the inaugural team at Raven Row, (2009–13). Breakdown of anticipated expenses (travel, accommodation, and any other costs you plan to claim for) I needn't have worried. The first scene plunges us into a world of mingled sadness, beauty and joy. Pace and tone are spot on. Voices and images come and go, held lightly together by Edmund Joliffe's marvellous score - music I could imagine ER whistling as he worked. Watercolours, wood engravings and lithographs appear before us, hover for a moment or two, then fade away. The voices of Eric (Freddie Fox) and Tirzah (Tamsin Greig) convey the brightness - in all senses - of the characters. There are familiar faces - Anne herself, ER's grand-daughter Ella Ravilious, Grayson Perry, Alan Bennett - and one or two I wasn't expecting. Ai Weiwei's interjections are memorable. Anne Desmet is fantastic on wood engraving.

This inclusive, questioning, invigorating book feels like a game-changer. It reframes modern British art and asks us to celebrate a more expansive and exciting idea of Britishness.’ – Charlotte Mullins, author of A Little History of Art Sara Cooper is Head of Collections and Exhibitions at Towner Eastbourne, where she is responsible for the exhibition programme and for the permanent collection, including overseeing acquisitions. How do we consider narratives about art through experiences of motherhood that include grief and childlessness not by choice? Kerri ní Dochartaigh is a mother and writer from the North-West of Ireland, now living in Clare with her family. As well as these, she makes and mends; sows and grows; swims and walks. She writes about nature, literature and place for The Guardian, The Irish Times, the BBC and others. Her first book, Thin Places, was published by Canongate in Spring 2021, for which she was awarded the Butler Literary Award 2022, and highly commended for the Wainwright Prize for Nature Writing 2021. Her second book, Cacophony of Bone, is coming out in May 2023 with Canongate.This is definitely a book to have on the bedside table and dip into repeatedly, not least because it is so beautifully illustrated. Anyone who has ever produced an art book will know that the cost of images can be prohibitive. Well, no expense has been spared here, and the pictures are every bit as lively and eclectic as the text. Visitors will have a rare opportunity to view Kossoff’s stunning Nude on a Red Bed, 1972, alongside works such as his powerful Head of Seedo, 1964. A major group of Soutine portraits includes Le Petit Pâtissier, c1927, Young Woman in a White Blouse, c1923 (Courtauld Institute) and Le Valet de Chambre, c1927. Each book takes as its starting point an innovative illustrated book of shops published in Paris in the 1920s: Boutiques (1925) and Boutiques de la Foire (1926), with colour lithographs by Lucien Boucher, and Boutiques Litteraires, with illustrations by Henri Guilac (1925). Each Mainstone edition features captions by Andrew Stewart and an array of historical photos, archive materials and artworks brought together in typically elegant, witty style by designers Webb & Webb. Literary flaneuse Lauren Elkin wrote an accompanying essay for the Guilac book, while fairground historian Pascal Jacob did the same for Boutiques de la Foire and I wrote on the first Boucher book. Print aficionado Neil Philip provided for each volume a succinct print and production history.

Revisiting Modern British Art is a significant contribution to its field, and to British art in general, in reassessing and re-energising this increasingly popular area of history for a 21st century audience.' – Country LifeThis event will allow time for conversation with audiences and for spending time in the galleries. We appreciate there will be a range of life experiences in the room, which the speakers and host staff are respectful towards. This event will bring together a diversity of positions around creativity and motherhood, being childless not by choice, and grief and loss around motherhood to reflect on how we encounter art. Opening at Hastings Contemporary in April 2023, Soutine | Kossoff pairs two major figures of 20th century painting: one a master of the School of Paris, the other a master of the School of London. Soutine | Kossoff is the first museum exhibition to explore the artistic relationship between British artist Leon Kossoff (1926-2019) and Belarus-born painter Chaim Soutine (1893-1943). Undertaken with the full support of the Kossoff estate, it brings together important loans from public and private collections in the UK and overseas, providing a fascinating follow-up to The Barnes Foundation’s 2021 show Soutine / De Kooning. Join Pallant Director Simon Martin, Jo Baring and Dr. Alexandra Harris for a wide ranging panel discussion covering topics such as Neo-Romanticism, Surrealism, gender and sexuality.