Annual Report 2018-2019 Contents 2 3 Director’s Report 17 Acquisitions 21 Works of art lent to public exhibitions 23 Long-term loans outside Government 28 Advisory Committee members 29 GAC staff Cover Image: Visitors on one of our ‘behind-the-scenes’ tours of Shifting Identities, New Stories marking the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting in April. Director’s Report 3 Sybil Robson Orr and Matthew Orr with Hurvin Anderson’s TenTen print. © Dafydd Jones Introduction Collection has received sustained support from a homage to the aesthetics of the front room Much has been achieved in this year alongside individuals in its 121 year history. Starting this (as explored in Michael McMillan’s and Stuart preparations to move out of our Queen’s Yard year and continuing annually over the next Hall’s 2009 book The Front Room: Migrant premises of twenty years. Looking back it was decade, the GAC will commission a British artist Aesthetics in the Home), and Anderson’s a year of firsts, with the launch of The Robson to create a unique, limited edition print series. memory of a space so familiar to many second Orr TenTen Award, a Government Art Collection/ and third generation migrant British families. Outset Annual Commission; buying only work TenTen is an initiative conceived and produced Fifteen prints were framed ready for display in by women to mark the centenary of the 1918 jointly by the Collection with the philanthropic British embassies and residences, with the first Representation of the People Act, which included organisation, Outset Contemporary Art Fund, displayed in the Consul-General’s Residence in a portrait by Joan Carlile, the earliest work by a whose Director Candida Gertler first introduced Los Angeles. Over a decade of TenTen, each woman for the Collection; the planning of a large GAC Director Penny Johnson to the Robson year a small number of prints will be available for public engagement project with Waltham Forest Orrs in 2017. Inspired by the contribution that purchase through a collaboration with Outset to London Borough of Culture and first visits to the Collection makes to promoting British art raise funds for GAC acquisitions by emerging review displays in Abuja and Lagos. in diplomatic buildings worldwide, the Robson and under-represented artists. Orrs recognised similarities to the work of TenTen the Foundation for Arts and Preservation in Still Life with Artificial Flowers is an intricate We were immensely proud to launch TenTen Embassies in the USA. So began an enthusiastic print set within a corner of Anderson’s mother’s this year, an ambitious artists’ commissioning and exciting conversation with the GAC and front room in Birmingham. The vase shown was programme, and the most significant yet for the On u t s e t i w hich t h e c o n c e p t o f Te nTe n t o o k s h a p e . a precious possession that travelled with her Government Art Collection (GAC). Generously The first recipient of the TenTen commission is from Jamaica to the UK becoming something sponsored and encouraged by the British- Hurvin Anderson, whose beautiful screenprint, of an iconic item. Set against elaborate lace American philanthropists, Sybil Robson Orr Still Life with Artificial Flowers is composed of doilies and deep red, flocked wallpaper, the and Matthew Orr, this is the first time that the complex layers of colour and meaning. It is both scene celebrates the warmth and love of home. TenTen 2018 Commission: Still Life with Artificial Flowers by Hurvin Anderson. © Hurvin Anderson 4 Right: Hurvin Anderson with Master Printers, Kip Gresham and Alan Grabham at The Print Studio, Cambridge. 5 Far right: Portrait of a Lady wearing an oyster satin dress by Joan Carlile. Illustrating the ‘kitsch’ aesthetic of furniture and Chiming with the idea of firsts, we have Hyde Park. Photographed at a traditional furnishings, Anderson’s print is also a nod to pop acquired several works by artists previously site for free speech, this image amplifies the culture, transforming objects from the everyday unrepresented in the Collection. A rare historical presence of the female voice in the 1970s, a to the luxurious. Artificial flowers in a glass vase find was Portrait of a Lady wearing an oyster period when women were regularly overlooked were one of several objects and furnishings satin dress (c.1650s), a startlingly elegant portrait by the art establishment. that signified the front room as the best room by Joan Carlile (1606-79). One of the earliest in many West Indian families’ homes. For the professional female painters working in England, Works by a more recent generation of artists commission, Anderson worked with Master Carlile gained patronage from Elizabeth Murray, also joined the Collection. Phoebe Boswell’s Printers, Kip Gresham and Alan Grabham, of Countess of Dysart, an influential member of beautifully haunting pencil drawings, I Hear My The Print Studio, a long-established artists’ print the Sealed Knot, the secret organisation that Voice Clear, Here Between Things and Eye I trace studio in Cambridge. supported the return of Charles II to the throne. the aftermath of a traumatic medical event. One Neutron too many and Lise Meitner, two works Acquisitions Figure Head (2017) by Rose Wylie is painted in by Yelena Popova, incorporate abstract tapestry Our new acquisitions this year were especially the artist’s ebullient style, depicting a mermaid designs inspired by Russian Constructivism and significant as each was a work by a woman. 2018 figure set against a joyful burst of yellow. This the scientific research of Meitner, the Austrian- marked the centenary of the Representation of is one of a series of works that Wylie produced Swedish physicist. Almond Clasp by Lynette the People’s Act, a historic British legislative to commemorate next year’s 400th anniversary Yiadom-Boakye, also purchased, is a fine act that extended the right to vote to women of the departure of the Mayflower ship from example of the artist’s characteristic practice of over 30 and paved the way to universal suffrage. Plymouth to Massachusetts in 1620. Another painting portraits of fictional figures that invite In celebration of this important landmark, the timely acquisition was Undivided Self (Speaker’s imaginary narratives of their own. Imeweyou, a Collection pledged for the first time in its history Corner), Rose Finn-Kelcey’s enigmatic digital print by Fiona Banner, presents another to acquire solely works by women throughout photograph in which she appears to be in very different exploration of portraiture. It depicts the entire year. conversation with herself in Speaker’s Corner, a library of white-covered books all of which are New Acquisition: Figure Head by Rose Wylie © Rose Wylie 6 titled with personal pronouns. A unique kind of ‘group portrait’, her work explores the complex relationship between naming, language and 7 object with deadpan humour. In June, the new works by Joan Carlile and Phoebe Boswell featured in Taking Up Space, a GAC-curated display of works by women at our Queen’s Yard site. Responding to the historical absence and silencing of women within public spheres, Taking up Space brought together works that challenged the concept of public space, exploring architecture, space, mapping and communication. Displays Throughout the year, our selection and installation of new displays of art in buildings in K the U and abroad, continue to contribute to the UK’s wider efforts in promoting soft power and cultural diplomacy. Planning how and where artworks are placed in ministerial offices, conference rooms and reception areas allows us to create opportunities for visitors and staffo t encounter artworks at first hand. This year has seen the installation of works of art for 71 displays across a range of government departments and ministerial offices in the UK. Selected UK Displays 10 Downing Street: In preparation for the UK- hosted Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting hosted in April, we installed a recently acquired group of works by Shiraz Bayjoo, En Famille 1–9,n i the Entrance Hall. Using photographic transfers, these works reveal portraits of household figures who once worked for a 19th century Mauritian sugar baron. Exploring cultural memory and the challenge of establishing a collective identity through a post-colonial lens, Bayjoo’s works suggest the thoughts and dreams of anonymous lives. Warmly received by staff New Acquisition: and visitors, the set remained on view until En Famille 1-9, mixed media group of works by Shiraz Bayjoo. the summer. This year’s regional gallery © Shiraz Bayjoo selection featured ten loans from The New Right: Lubaina Himid’s painting Le Rodeur: The Pulley on display at 10 Downing Street. Far right: The royal portrait of 8 Fath ’Ali Shah back on display in Tehran after restoration. Art Gallery Walsall. Each work linked to Sir significant artworks in the Residence were ...restoration of the key works is little short Jacob Epstein and his family, as represented damaged or destroyed. Diplomatic relations of miraculous...but more to the point, the in the Garman Ryan Collection, permanently between both countries were suspended until thought that has gone into assembling a really housed at the Gallery. Alongside these were 2016. The GAC returned the damaged artworks meaningful art collection for Tehran shows the worksy b Cedric Morris, Dod Procter and backo t London in 2017, among which were a GAC at its very best...We now have a room that Michael Wishart, loans from Walsall’s main 19th century portrait of Fath ’Ali Shah, and a tells the story of diplomatic relations between collection. Reflecting the Collection’s focus portraitf o Queen Victoria painted specifically for Iran and the UK over centuries, and modern on y art b women this year, a new display of the Tehran Residence in 1863.