The gallery presents exhibitions of modern and contemporary art. It has a national and international reputation for quality of exhibitions, projects and commissions, which are supported by a learning and engagement programme with audiences in excess of 100,000 each year.[1] Funded primarily by Arts Council England, many exhibitions, events, activities and workshops are free for visitors.
The gallery was founded by architect Trevor Green in 1965.[3] With funding from the Arts Council of Great Britain, the gallery survived as a venue for temporary exhibitions. It was widely known as MoMA Oxford, similar to other international modern art spaces such as MoMA in New York.[4]
It was renamed "Modern Art Oxford" in 2002.[3] Adrian Searle of The Guardian commented, "Perhaps the museum bit was only ever there to confuse tourists and convince gowny academic Oxford that modern art was worth taking seriously."[5]
Elliott's programme focused on media that were often ignored by bigger public galleries at the time, such as photography, architecture and graphic design. Under Elliott's directorship, MoMA held photography exhibitions such as the Robert Doisneau Retrospective in 1992. Elliott introduced up-and-coming artists from Africa, Asia and the Soviet Union, and at various times also held major video art exhibitions. His contributions also included multiple gallery renovations. He resigned his position in 1996 to become the director of the Moderna Museet in Stockholm, having served the longest term of any director in the history of the gallery.
Michael Stanley assumed the directorship in January 2009.[7]
David Thorp assumed interim directorship in October 2012 following the death of Michael Stanley.
Paul Hobson was appointed Director in April 2013 and took up the post that September.
Notable exhibitions and shows
Artists' exhibitions have included Richard Long (1971); Sol Le Witt (1973) Joseph Beuys (1974); Donald Judd (1995); Marina Abramovic (1995, 2022-23); Carl Andre (1997), Lubaina Himid (2017), Ruth Asawa (2022), and Yoko Ono (1997).[8] Since the renaming of the gallery, notable exhibitions have included:
Tracey EminThis Is Another Place (November 2002 – January 2003) - marked the reopening of Modern Art Oxford by and was her first British solo exhibition since 1997.[9] The exhibition contained drawings,[5] etchings, film, neon works such as Fuck off and die, you slag and sculptures including a large scale wooden pier, called Knowing My Enemy.[5]
Stella Vine (July - September 2007) - a solo show of by the Britart painter including more than 100 paintings and a catalogue essay by Germaine Greer.[13][14]
Other artists featured include Ed Ruscha (2001), Jim Lambie (2003), Mike Nelson (2004), Jannis Kounellis (2004), Daniel Buren (2006), Gary Hume (2008), Howard Hodgkin (2010), Thomas Houseago (2010), Graham Sutherland (2011), Jenny Saville (2012), Lubaina Himid (2017), Anish Kapoor (2021), Ruth Asawa (2022) and Carey Young (2023).[citation needed]
Stuckism is an international art movement founded in 1999 by Billy Childish and Charles Thomson to promote figurative painting as opposed to conceptual art. By May 2017 the initial group of 13 British artists had expanded to 236 groups in 52 countries.
The Turner Prize, named after the English painter J. M. W. Turner, is an annual prize presented to a British visual artist. Between 1991 and 2016, only artists under the age of 50 were eligible. The prize is awarded at Tate Britain every other year, with various venues outside of London being used in alternate years. Since its beginnings in 1984 it has become the UK's most publicised art award. The award represents all media.
The Young British Artists, or YBAs—also referred to as Brit artists and Britart—is a loose group of visual artists who first began to exhibit together in London in 1988. Many of the YBA artists graduated from the BA Fine Art course at Goldsmiths, in the late 1980s, whereas some from the group had trained at Royal College of Art.
Tracey Karima Emin is an English artist known for autobiographical and confessional artwork. She produces work in a variety of media including drawing, painting, sculpture, film, photography, neon text and sewn appliqué. Once the "enfant terrible" of the Young British Artists in the 1980s, Tracey Emin is now a Royal Academician.
The Hon. Sir Nicholas Andrew Serota,, is a British art historian and curator.
Alexander Robert "Sandy" Nairne is a British art historian and curator. From 2002 until February 2015 he was the director of the National Portrait Gallery, London.
Charles Thomson is an English artist, poet and photographer. In the early 1980s he was a member of The Medway Poets. In 1999 he named and co-founded the Stuckists art movement with Billy Childish. He has curated Stuckist shows, organised demonstrations against the Turner Prize, run an art gallery, stood for parliament and reported Charles Saatchi to the OFT. He is frequently quoted in the media as an opponent of conceptual art. He was briefly married to artist Stella Vine.
Stella Vine is an English artist, who lives and works in London. Her work is figurative painting, with subjects drawn from personal life, as well as from rock stars, royalty, and other celebrities.
The Stuckists Punk Victorian was the first national gallery exhibition of Stuckist art. It was held at the Walker Art Gallery and Lady Lever Art Gallery in Liverpool from 18 September 2004 to 20 February 2005 and was part of the 2004 Liverpool Biennial.
Mark D, born Mark Randall, is a British punk musician. He is also associated with the Stuckist group of artists. Mark D was born and spent his childhood in Peterborough. He now lives in Nottingham.
Stuckist demonstrations since 2000 have been a key part of the Stuckist art group's activities and have succeeded in giving them a high-profile both in Britain and abroad. Their primary agenda is the promotion of figurative painting and opposition to conceptual art.
My Bed is a work by the English artist Tracey Emin. First created in 1998, it was exhibited at the Tate Gallery in 1999 as one of the shortlisted works for the Turner Prize. It consisted of her bed with bedroom objects in a dishevelled state, and gained much media attention. Although it did not win the prize, its notoriety has persisted. It was sold at auction by Christie’s in July 2014 for £2,546,500.
Andrew Colin Nairne OBE, is director of Kettle's Yard, the University of Cambridge’s modern and contemporary art gallery.
Go West is the title of the first exhibition by Stuckist artists in a commercial London West End gallery. It was staged in Spectrum London gallery in October 2006. The show attracted media interest for its location, for the use of a painting satirising Sir Nicholas Serota, Director of the Tate gallery, and for two paintings of a stripper by Charles Thomson based on his former wife, artist Stella Vine.
Sir Nicholas Serota Makes an Acquisitions Decision is one of the paintings that was made as a part of the Stuckism art movement, and is recognized as a "signature piece" for the movement, It was painted by the Stuckism co-founder Charles Thomson in 2000, and has been exhibited in a number of shows since, as well as being featured on placards during Stuckist demonstrations against the Turner Prize.
The Government Art Collection (GAC) is the collection of artworks owned by the UK government and administered by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS). The GAC's artworks are used to decorate major government buildings in the UK and around the world, and to promote British art, culture and history. The GAC now holds over 14,000 works of art in a variety of media, including around 2,500 oil paintings, but also sculpture, prints, drawings, photographs, textiles and video works, mainly created by British artists or artist with a strong connection to the UK, from the sixteenth century to the present day. Works are displayed in several hundred locations, including Downing Street, ministerial offices and reception areas in Whitehall, regional government offices in the UK, and diplomatic posts outside the UK.
Liverpool and the Black Atlantic was a season of citywide series of exhibitions and events initiated by Tate Liverpool exploring connections between cultures and continents.
Lubaina Himid is a British artist and curator. She is a professor of contemporary art at the University of Central Lancashire. Her art focuses on themes of cultural history and reclaiming identities.
David Thorp is an independent curator and director. He curated GSK Contemporary at the Royal Academy of Arts and Wide Open Spaces at PS1 MoMA New York, among many others. He was Curator of Contemporary Projects at the Henry Moore Foundation and was also director of the South London Gallery, The Showroom and Chisenhale. He has been Associate Director for Artes Mundi, the biannual contemporary art exhibition and prize at the National Museum of Wales, and following the death of Michael Stanley in late September 2012 was appointed Interim Director at Modern Art Oxford. He was a member of the Turner Prize jury in 2004. Since the beginning of 2005 David Thorp has been an independent curator organising and initiating various projects in the UK and abroad. Thorp has held the positions of International Adjunct Curator at PS1 MoMA New York, Associate Curator at Platform China, Beijing, Curator of the Frank Cohen Collection, one of the most important collections of contemporary art in the UK.
Folkestone’s outdoor public art exhibition – Folkestone Artworks – is the UK’s largest urban outdoor contemporary art exhibition, consisting of 74 contemporary artworks by 46 artists in scenic locations around the town and its coastline. Artworks include those by Lubaina Himid, Tracey Emin, Yoko Ono and Antony Gormley. Folkestone Artworks is refreshed every three years, as permanent works commissioned for the Folkestone Triennial are incorporated. Folkestone Artworks is maintained and cared for by Creative Folkestone on behalf of the Roger De Haan Charitable Trust.
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