Recent acquisitions in WM of works by Donald Rodney and Luke Fowler

New Art WM Recent acquisitions in WM of works by Donald Rodney and Luke Fowler ‘The Poor Stockinger, the Luddite Cropper and the Deluded Followers of Joanna Southcott ’ (2012). Commissioned by FVU, The Hepworth Wakefield and Wolverhampton Art Gallery, through the Contemporary Art Society Annual Award for Museums: commission to collect.

Supported by Arts Council England. Special thanks to the Yorkshire Film Archive. Donald Rodney and Luke Fowler: Recent Acquisitions and Commissions in the West Midlands By Anneka French Two of the region’s best-loved galleries have been working hard to acquire and commission artworks from some of the most significant and influential contemporary British artists.‘The Land of Milk and Honey II’ (1997) by Donald Rodney, which was shown at Birmingham Museums’ Waterhall Gallery at the end of last year as part of ‘STATIC: Still Life Reconsidered’ has been acquired by the Birmingham Museums Trust with the help of the artist’s estate and the Contemporary Art Society.

The sculpture was originally made for ‘Nine Night in Eldorado,’ Rodney’s last exhibition, which was held at the South London Gallery in 1997. Rodney (1961-1998) was born in Birmingham to a family who had emigrated from Jamaica. Issues of race continued to significant throughout his life and work.

He lived on Marshall Street in Smethwick, whose residents eventually successfully lobbied the council to ban black families from living in the road. He has recounted stories of his family being made to feel unwelcome in church, so much so that his and other black families began to hire out their own halls for worship. Rodney suffered with sickle cell anaemia his whole life and spent much time in hospital as a child, trying to understand his experiences and grapple with his identity through hours spent reading comics and drawing.

He later went on to study art in Bournville in Birmingham and in Nottingham, and became one of the founding members of the seminal BLK Art Group. The group, made up of British African-Caribbean artists based in the Midlands, sought to challenge dominant views on race, gender, community and identity through their work during the 1980s in particular.

Donald Rodney (1961-1998) Land of Milk and Honey II 1997 Glass vitrine, copper coins, milk 168 x 61 x 31cm ‘The Land of Milk and Honey II,’ like many of his pieces, is rooted in Rodney’s personal experiences of illness and race. The sculpture incorporates copper one and two pence pieces suspended in milk, while the title refers to the view of Britain in the 1950s as a place of hope and opportunity to families emigrating from the Caribbean and other places. The glass vitrine enables the viewer to see the chemical reactions between the two substances, and the extraordinary textural and colour variations created.

Although the work was made in tribute to his late father, it has taken on renewed significance since Rodney himself passed away in 1998 at the age of 36. Wolverhampton Art Gallery, meanwhile, has been working alongside The Hepworth Wakefield and Film and Video Umbrella to commission and co-acquire new work by Luke Fowler.

The group were awarded the Contemporary Art Society Annual Award for Museums: commission to collect. The resulting work is Fowler’s film ‘The Poor Stockinger, the Luddite Cropper and the Deluded Followers of Joanna Southcott ’ (2012) which now resides jointly in the permanent collections of the two galleries. Shown most recently at the Scottish National Portrait Gallery, the film explores the life of the historian, activist and critic E.P. Thompson in the post-war period and his influence in the cultural arena during this time.

Fowler’s work combines archival footage with newly shot film to uncover the ways that Thompson gave miners, factory workers and unemployed people in Yorkshire classes in history and literature through the Workers’ Education Association (WEA), a subject with contemporary resonance given changes to the cost of and access to higher education in Britain today. Fowler, who lives and works in Glasgow, has a particular interest in biography and documentary-making. He explores personal and political subjects by adopting the roles of artist, historian, curator, archivist and film-maker simultaneously to produce works that are critically acclaimed.

Fowler describes his films as modes of enquiry, as means to answer questions that engage him. The resulting films, the artist notes, are partially self-portraits, ways of trying to understand both himself and the world around him. Notably, Fowler was one of the four artists shortlisted for the prestigious Turner Prize in 2012, alongside Elizabeth Price, Spartacus Chetwynd and Paul Noble.

A short clip of Fowler’s film can be seen on Film and Video Umbrella’s website. Exhibition 2015 13 November – 23 December The SALON exhibition showcases contemporary art for sale at the Waterhall Gallery, Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery.

Exhibition 2016 12 February - 15 May A selected West Midlands graduates’ exhibition that takes place at venues across the region between February and May each year. The New Art West Midlands 2016 exhibition was selected by Sonia Boyce, John Stezaker and Katharine Stout and features work by 43 artists. Editorial Barbara Walker’s Shock and Awe reviewed by Andrew Jackson Friday 13th May 2016 Trevor Pitt and the Preston Street Union Wednesday 13th April 2016 Subscribe Friends of New Art WM If you are interested in staying up-to-date with contemporary art in the region or in buying and collecting please join our mailing list.

Curators’ Network If you are a curator or visual arts professional and interested in the contemporary art landscape of the West Midlands please join our mailing list. Recent acquisitions in WM of works by Donald Rodney and Luke Fowler - New Art WM Developing the market for contemporary art in the West Midlands 7ads6x98y