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Opens 16 June 2016
Georgiana Houghton (1814-1884) was a Spiritualist medium who, in the 1860s and 70s, produced an astonishing series of abstract watercolours. Detailed explanations on the back of the works declare that her hand was guided by various spirits, including several Renaissance artists, as well as higher angelic beings.
In 1871 Houghton rented a prestigious gallery space in Bond Street and presented 155 of her spirit drawings to a perplexed London audience. The Critic from The Era newspaper pronounced it to be “The most astonishing exhibition in London at the present moment.” The Daily News likened the works to “tangled threads of coloured wool” and concluded that “They deserve to be seen as the most extraordinary and instructive example of artistic aberration.” The exhibition proved to be a commercial failure and nearly bankrupted Houghton. Although she continued to make spirit drawings after the exhibition, her ambition of popularising the practice was not realised. Today, less than fifty of her works are known.
In this exhibition The Courtauld Gallery explores this astounding series of largely abstract Victorian watercolours and offers visitors a unique opportunity to view remarkable works which have not been shown in the UK for nearly 150 years.
Organised in collaboration with:
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£9.4m has been secured from the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) towards Phase One of a major transformation programme, “Courtauld Connects”.
“Courtauld Connects” overall will be a £50m project. It is the biggest programme of development since moving to Somerset House in 1989. Phase One will focus on The Courtauld’s collection and built heritage, its conservation work and its public engagement, both in Somerset House and nationally. The HLF award enables The Courtauld to progress with its planning, fundraising and delivery of Phase One, with its significant public benefits including:
• Additional space for the display of The Courtauld Gallery’s growing permanent collection
• The Great Room restored and represented as the culmination of the visitor experience
• Improved presentation of the collection in the historic Fine Rooms
Phase Two of “Courtauld Connects” will be a £20m programme, which aims to provide state of the art facilities for research, learning and teaching.
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The Courtauld Gallery is delighted to announce a significant addition to its modern collections - a major series of prints by the American artist Jasper Johns (born 1930), The Seasons.
This fantastic body of work comes from the generosity of Barbara Bertozzi Castelli, the widow of Leo Castelli, the legendary New York dealer who ‘discovered’ Johns in the 1950s. It was with Castelli that Johns first exhibited The Seasons series in 1987. The works bear a personal dedication —‘For Leo’— in pencil on each sheet. This gift was made possible by The American Foundation for The Courtauld Institute of Art.
This new acquisition reaffirms The Courtauld Gallery’s commitment to extending its historical collections further into the twentieth century and beyond. This is a unique opportunity to view Johns’ work, rarely shown in the United Kingdom.
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Please support our work by giving to the 2016 Courtauld Annual Fund.
Last year we raised over £130,000. By making a gift today, you join our many other supporters, friends and alumni in making an ever greater collective impact in 2016.
Whatever the amount you give, your generosity supports Gallery renovations, special displays, the care of our world-class collections as well as conservation and research projects. Continuing the philanthropic vision of our founder Samuel Courtauld, we help students in need of financial assistance and offer an outstanding public programme to learners from all backgrounds.
Thank you for joining in and donating whatever you can.
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The Courtauld's MA Curating the Art Museum students have curated the exhibition Confusion of Tongues: Art and the Limits of Language at The Courtauld Gallery. Inspired by the complex and multi–layered narrative of Thomas More's Utopia, this art exhibition explores the creative power of language and its limits as means of communication.
Through a selection of works by modern and contemporary artists such as Oskar Kokoschka, Imogen Stidworthy, and Hamish Fulton, it highlights the limits of language, yet it also suggests that within misunderstanding, difference and distance there exists a powerful space for creativity and imagination.
This exhibition is part of UTOPIA 2016: A Year of Imagination and Possibility, a vibrant programme of events celebrating the 500th anniversary of Thomas More’s famous work Utopia at Somerset House.
Exhibition open 16 June – 17 July 2016.
#ConfusionOfTongues
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