Contemporary Vandalism

I have been looking forward to the reopening of the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, which I was lucky enough to visit in 2019  before it closed for a long, long time. I had understood that the local government  had shut the museum because it couldn't afford to run it, but I think I was being naive in believing that.

In any case, I was sad it was inaccessible and hoped I would be able to return eventually. The place had remained in my mind, largely because, alone in the Birmingham city centre, it provided evidence that there was a time when there were people who felt an intense pride in their city and a desire to create enduring loveliness there. There was a poignance to this, as all around the museum itself - a wonderful, solidly ornate Victorian building, opened by Queen Victoria herself in 1885 - the only other architectural trend on display was one that seemed to blend greed and short-termism. The newer buildings in the area appear to be made to last as long as an Ikea chest of drawers (and, while Ikea at least aims for a measure of elegance in the visual design of the objects it sells, a similar interest in aesthetics is not conveyed to the bystander by the buildings that have risen up during Birmingham's post-war years).

Anyway, today I read this, and my heart sank:

Why do these things happen? How did Britain come under the care of those who hate its culture?

Sometimes I tell myself I ought not to take photographs, that I am spoiling my experience of reality as I snap away. After discovering what has happened at Birmingham, I am kicking myself for having had such a lousy camera when we went there and for taking so few shots. Here are the things I did take pictures of - it seems that, unless things change, you will only see them here:

Corporation Street, Birmingham, in March 1914, Joseph Southall, fresco. The dating of the painting to before the outbreak of the First World War is significant as it was actually commissioned and painted during the war. However, Southall was a Quaker and opposed to the war and preferred to depict a time before it began and European life changed forever. 

Vase and cover, Terracotta, gilding and enamels, England, Devon, St Mary Church, Watcombe Pottery Company, 1875-1880 (The Watcombe Pottery was Devon's first pottery, which began production in 1869. The vase dates from the pottery's early years. The Victorians were interested in the natural world. Very few Victorians would have seen a real cockatoo.)

William Logsdall, Piazza San Marco, Venice, 1883 

JMW Turner, The Pass of St Gothard, Switzerland, 1803-4

The museum staircase with a window I particularly loved

A Saint Holding a Book by Simone Martini, circa 1320-30, tempera on panel. Martini was one of the leading artists in Siena in the 14th century but few of his panel paintings have survived. This must originally have formed part of a predella. The saint is shown weeping as he gazes to his left towards a missing central panel which probably showed the dead Jesus Christ.

The Nativity by a Master of the Prado 'Adoration of the Magi, c.1475-1500. The imagery of this painting derives from the writings of St Bridget of Sweden, a 14th century nun. She had a vision of the Virgin Mary kneeling in a. white robe and with loosened hair, adoring her new born son. In the vision, the candle held by Joseph was dim beside the radiance of the child Jesus. We don't know the name of the Dutch artist who painted this work He is identified by a nickname taken from a painting in the Prado museum in Madrid, one of several pictures which seem to have been painted by the same artist.

Tryptych: The Nativity, the Adoration of the Magi, the Presentation in the Temple, by Adrien Isenbrandt, 1510-12, Oil on panel. 

The Madonna and Child Enthroned with Saints Peter and Mark and a Donor, 1505, oil on panel. The arrangement of the figures in this painting is called a 'sacred conversation'. Saitns Peter and Mark contemplate the virtues of the Virgin who sits between them holding the infant Christ. On the right side, the man who commissioned the painting kneels in prayer. Bellini was a leading Venetian painter and Saint Mark is patron saint of Venice, so this commission would have demonstrated loyalty to the Venetian republic.

The Hon Edward Sackville West by Graham Sutherland, 1953-4. Sackville-West was a good friend of Sutherland. He was also music critic for the New Statesman during the 1940s. This is a study for a full-length portrait. I did some research in the Patrick Leigh Fermor archive in Edinburgh years ago and I have an idea there were some funny incidents involving Sackville-West in there. I will have to go back one day as I need to do further research, so I will have a look and see if my memory is right.