Birkenhead’s Williamson Art Gallery has launched a major new partnership with London’s Hayward Gallery to bring a landmark collection of modern and contemporary art to the Wirral.
The Williamson Art Gallery has partnered with London’s Hayward Gallery to bring an exhibition of works by a selection of Britain’s leading contemporary artists from the last 50 years to Birkenhead.
Small Wonders: Reimagining British Art revisits the vision of the Festival of Britain which took place in 1951.
The Festival of Britain acted as a beacon of post-war hope, launching a landmark touring exhibition that brought world-class art to local museums and art centres across the UK. Seventy-five years later, Hayward Gallery Touring honours this legacy.
The exhibition brings together 50 acclaimed artists who have participated in the British Art Show – the UK’s definitive five-year curated survey of contemporary art , since its inception in 1979.
Each artist has created a new, small-scale work that responds to their original British Art Show presentation.
The result is a condensed yet expansive overview of a half-century of British art history.
Alongside Small Wonders, there will also be an exhibition of 21 exquisite photogravure prints of major drawings by Georgia O’Keeffe.
One of the most important artists in 20th-century American art, O’Keeffe balanced abstraction with figuration and tenaciously pursued her innovative style.
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The 21 drawings featured in this exhibition were made between 1915 and 1963, spanning the period when O’Keeffe established herself as a major figure in American Modernism.
O’Keeffe worked with her agent and long-term friend Doris Bry (1920 – 2014) to produce this sublime collection of photogravures of the drawings, which charts key trajectories and motifs in her practice.
The exhibition opened today, Friday June 5th, and will continue until Saturday, July 25th. Williamson Art Gallery is open Monday – Saturday every week.
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Williamson Art Gallery Curator, Josh Mackarell, said:
“It’s fantastic for the Williamson to be partnering with the Hayward Touring Programme and bringing such significant artists to Birkenhead.
“Small Wonders is an inspiring exhibition that celebrates the enduring and constantly inventive creative spirit of modern British art.”
The inclusion of Georgia O’Keeffe’s work alongside the British contemporary collection provides visitors with a rare opportunity to explore a pivotal era of international modernism.
The curated selection highlights decades of technical experimentation, bridging the gap between historical American abstraction and the evolutionary landscape of British creativity.
