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Air: Visualising the Invisible in British Art 1768- 2017

Co-curated with Professor Christiana Payne & Stephen Jacobson at the RWA, 2017.

 

Air weaved its way through British art including early experiments in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries with air and studies of clouds, to representations of breath and wind instruments, flying creatures, wartime skies and aerial photography. Contemporary work introduced new environmental issues to the narrative, making reference to climate change and air-borne disease, as well as considering air as an integral component in the process of making art. Featured artists included Joseph Wright of Derby, J.M.W Turner, John Constable, L.S Lowry, Christopher Nevinson, Eric Ravilious, Peter Lanyon, Berndnaut Smilde, Mariele Neudecker, Dryden Goodwin, Neville Gabie, Peter Randall-Page, Luke Jerram, Annie Cattrell, Mat Chivers,

Jemma Grundon and Polly Gould.

 

Images: (home) Mono no Aware series by Jemma Grundon and Anamorphic Landscapes by Polly Gould, install photo at RWA by Alice Hendy © RWA (top) Nimbus RWA, Berndnaut Smilde © the artist (middle) Breathe, Dryden Goodwin, courtesy of the artist and originally commissioned by Invisible Dust. Photo by Alice Hendy © RWA (bottom) Experiment on a a Bird in an Air Pump, Joseph Wright of Derby,   install photo Alice Hendy at RWA © Copyright The National Gallery, London 2019.

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