[142872] Harrogate : Mercer Art Gallery - Cactus in Bloom

Mercer Art Gallery, Swan Road, Harrogate, North Yorkshire.

The David Morgan Rees Collection.

Look, Look Again!

Exhibition - 22 January to 4 April 2025.

 

Cactus in Bloom.

Paul Nash (1889-1946).

Oil on canvas, 1928.

 

Paul Nash left the Slade School of Fine Art in 1911 after only one year studying. He became part of the group of students Roger Fry recruited to the Omega Workshops. At Omega, Nash worked mainly on fabric design and was encouraged to study avant-garde European art. Nash's designs were displayed alongside his prints at the Friday Club exhibitions.

 

Nash was one of the most important landscape painters in 20th-century Britain. His artwork is characterised by geometric patterns and abstraction to the point of surrealism.

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The exhibition explores a fascinating period of mid-20th century British art from the neo-Romantics to the explosion of creativity unleashed by the end of the Second World War.

 

The exhibition showcases the best of the Mercer’s outstanding collection of pre and post war British art augmented by works from the Roebuck collection housed at Craven Museum, Skipton, and Goldmark Gallery’s own collection of works from that era

 

The exhibition’s title Look, Look Again! is taken from a quote by one of the most significant artists of the post war period - Prunella Clough. Clough’s work features significantly in the show thanks to a magnificent donation to the Mercer Gallery by the Yorkshire based writer, artist and photographer David Morgan Rees. The Morgan Rees collection – which features four exceptional works by Clough – includes original paintings and sketches by the likes of Keith Vaughan, John Minton, Graham Sutherland, John Piper, Leonard Rosoman and John Craxton.

Done