British art gets a make-over at the Walker

It's a very exciting week this week as the newly refurbished room at the Walker Art Gallery, 'British art 1880-1950', is opening again on Friday. It will showcase pieces from our collections including works by LS Lowry and Lucian Freud, plus many works which have never been on display before! I had a chat with our curator of British art, Laura MacCulloch, who told me more about what you can expect to see there: Tell me about the different types of works which are being brought together in this room? This work brings together paintings, sculptures and works on paper with furniture and ceramics all made between 1880 and 1950. It's a really exciting period to explore as artists begin to break away from the traditional, Victorian ideas about art and experiment with styles, colours and techniques. It's great to be able to show fine and decoratvie arts together because it shows how artists working in all media experimented. How does this room differ from the more 'standard' rooms of paintings in the Walker? We are aiming to give our visitors more of the context surrounding the art. Between 1880 and 1950 there were huge political and social upheavals brought on by two world wars and increasing industrialisation. We have created an interactive timeline which includes lots of information and images relating to key historical and art historical events. There is more information on the timeline than we could ever fit on a label.

Get your hands on a jigsaw version of this painting by Ceri Richards in the new British art 1880-1950 room
You can see some sneak preview photos of the new room before it opens in our Flickr set here.