
Talk
Recent Acquisitions to the RBSA Collection: Tour
04 Feb 2023
RBSA Gallery
Birmingham, United Kingdom
The RBSA Collection and Archive comprises over 1,000 works of art together with innumerable other items covering the activities of the Society and its Members over two centuries. This exhibition, based on recent acquisitions, gives a taste of what the Archive has to offer.
Tracing its origins to the first open exhibition organised by the Birmingham Society of Artists in 1814, the Royal Birmingham Society of Artists is one of the oldest artist-run societies in Britain.
The RBSA Collection and Archive comprises over 1,000 works of art together with innumerable catalogues, letters, photographs and monographs covering the activities of the Society and its Members over two centuries. It has been steadily growing through gifts and bequests and the addition of diploma works from artists elected Members. As a result, it is a rich and eclectic resource for artists and academics alike.
This exhibition, based on recent acquisitions, gives a taste of what the Archive has to offer. It includes the poignant engraving “The Triumph of Peace” by the pacifist painter and designer Joseph Southall and a masterpiece of expressive observation, “Dead Locomotive” by Laurie Hammonds. One of the most welcome and unusual gifts has been the group of six original plaster designs by the sculptor William Bloye for bronze door reliefs on the now demolished Birmingham Citizens Savings Bank on Colmore Row. Delightful works of art, they also preserve a small part of the city’s social history. Striking landscapes by Eithne Donne and Dawn Cookson are shown alongside a lovely group of English Romantic watercolours by Albert Marlow and William Merrett Hodges’ astonishing aerial view of Birmingham published in 1886 by the Graphic Magazine.
Private View: 6-8pm Thursday 12 January
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