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How to use this pack
Practical information for your visit
The Art Gallery pack is for Group Leaders to use during self-led visits. It
contains ideas for activities to do in the Gallery and has suggestions for previsit and follow-up work.
Planning your visit
The pack is divided into ‘themes’, with teaching materials to be used before,
during and after a visit. They can also provide a stimulus for project activity in
school.
Teachers’ Information Sheets
G Meet with a member of the Learning and Access team to discuss
the visit
G guidance for Gallery activities with National Curriculum links
G ideas for pre-visit and follow-up work
How to book
Activity Sheets
You will need to book at least two weeks in advance, providing the Gallery
with:
G are for use in the Gallery
G include discussion and ‘doing’ activities
G Name and address of the group with contact name and telephone
number
G can be photocopied
The sheets are colour-coded to make them easy to use. ‘Visual prompts’
indicate the type of activity suggested. A key appears below.
KEY
G Carry out a risk assessment (guidelines are available at
www.leeds.gov.uk)
G Make sure the artworks you want to see are on display
G background information on the artworks or themes
Teachers’ Information Sheets
discussion in pairs
or in a group
Our exhibitions change, please contact the Gallery to confirm which artworks
are on display. We recommend that teachers visit the Gallery prior to their
trip in order to:
G Time of arrival and departure
G Number and age of the group
are highlighted in blue
something to
think about
a writing activity
Activity Sheets
a drawing activity
are highlighted in red
a making or
doing activity
learning objectives
G Any special needs your group may have
G Any facilities/resources you may want to use e.g. lunch space
Street next to the Henry Moore Institute (see map). There is a possibility of
limited minibus parking on request.
Bookings can be made through the Learning and Access team on
0113 247 8254
When you arrive you will need to make yourself known to Front of House
staff at the Gallery’s entrance.
The Education Office, Leeds Art Gallery, The Headrow, Leeds LS1 3AA
Access inside the Gallery
Contact Information
There is wheelchair access to most areas within the Gallery. A lift to Level
One can be found in the Library through the Tiled Hall. Disabled toilets are
situated on the ground floor. There is seating within the galleries and all
stairs have hand rails.
For general information about the Gallery:
Telephone:
Fax:
Email:
Website:
0113 247 8248
0113 244 9689
[email protected]
www.leeds.gov.uk/artgallery
Opening times:
Monday/Tuesday
10.00am-8.00pm
Wednesday
12.00am-8.00pm
Thursday/Friday/Saturday 10.00am-5.00pm
Sunday
1.00pm-5.00pm
G Guide dogs are welcome in the Gallery
G Large print maps and labels for artworks are available on request
As we need to take care of our collections, it is not usually possible to touch
artworks. However, Gallery staff are happy to advise visitors on which
artworks are multi-sensory. Please contact the Learning and Access team.
Eating facilities
The Gallery is closed on Bank Holidays. Admission is free.
There are designated spaces in the Gallery for groups to eat lunch. Please
check on availability and ensure you reserve the space in advance of your visit.
Getting to the Gallery
Leeds Art Gallery is
conveniently located in
the centre of Leeds,
joined to Leeds Central
Library and near to the
Town Hall. It is five
minutes walk from both
the rail and bus stations.
Drop-off points for
coaches are on Calverley
Street next to Millenium
Square and Cookridge
Cloakrooms
Leeds
Art Gallery
There are toilets on the ground floor with additional facilities situated near
the Education Studio on the first floor.
Cookridge
Street
Town
Hall
Westgate
Eastgate
The Headrow
Park
Row
Briggate
City
Square
Bus Station
Boar
Lane
Railway
Station
Vicar
Lane
York
Street
A cloakroom and lockable boxes are available for coats and bags. Lockers are
available at a deposit of £5.00. Please let the Gallery know in advance if you
would like to use these facilities.
The Gallery Code
Group leaders are responsible for the behaviour of their students whilst in
the Gallery. Please refer to our risk assessment guidelines for further
information on the Gallery Code.
Background to Leeds Art Gallery
Education Services
Leeds Art Gallery has permanent collections which comprise artworks
purchased by or donated to the Art Gallery. One of the themes in this pack
explores the idea of collecting and displaying artworks.
Leeds Art Gallery offers a number of services for groups. Most activities are
free and publicised through our mailing list or Education Leeds.
Leeds Art Gallery has some of the most outstanding works of British art
outside of London, including watercolours by JMW Turner, Victorian
paintings by JW Waterhouse and the pre-Raphaelites, and contemporary
artworks by artists by such as Damien Hirst and Cornelia Parker.
Each of the rooms in the Gallery has its own distinctive atmosphere and the
regular changes of display create a lively dynamic to the collections. Leeds
Art Gallery curates temporary exhibitions which usually run for 6-8 weeks,
with related events and education programmes.
Details of the Gallery’s collections and artworks can be found on the
following pages.
The following programmes are on offer for all Key Stages, young learners
and Further Education students:
G Interactive talks introducing individual artworks on thefollowing
topics:
For Primary groups:
Tell a Story
Art Detective
The Gallery and Victorian Leeds
Art as Ideas
For Secondary groups:
Ways of Looking
Investigating and Making
The Gallery and Modern Life
Contemporary Art: Is it any good?
G Interactive workshops relating to the ‘Themes’ in this pack
G Practical workshops with artists (more information available in
the ‘Treasury of Learning’ brochure)
G Out of School and Extended Schools activities
G In-service training
G Materials, equipment and a large studio space (accommodating
full classes)
G Support from education staff: consultations, Work Packs and
REsource Files
G Short Artist Residencies
For young learners:
‘Early Years’ space
Workshops for playschemes
and holiday activities
For Key Stage 3 students and above:
Day Schools and Seminars
Sixth Form Study/Portfolio Days
Volunteer and Work Experience Schemes
The Collections
Here is a summary of the different collections and artworks you can find
at Leeds Art Gallery. Included is a floor plan, highlighting where you might
find some of the works. Please bear in mind that the Gallery’s permanent
collections are frequently re-displayed so please contact the Gallery if you
plan to see specific artworks on your visit.
The Sam Wilson Collection
The Sam Wilson Collection was bequested to Leeds Art Gallery by Sam Wilson
in 1915. It achieved recognition in its day as an outstanding amalgamation
of paintings, sculpture, pastels, furniture and ceramics. This collection focused
on modern British painting, now referred to as ‘English Impressionism’, and
avoided the lofty sentiments, heroic subjects and literary allusions of the
Royal Academy.
Wilson wanted artworks for his own home in Leeds at Rutland Lodge,
Potternewton. The paintings were domestic in scale and reflected a modern
outlook as befitted a successful woollen manufacturer in the early 20th century.
Artists in his collection include Willian Orpen, Charles Clausen and Laura
Knight which represent Wilson’s taste for artworks which look to French
open-air painting as a precursor. Exceptions to this are the neo-romantic
symbolist pictures of Georg Sauter and the dark, more expressive style of
Orpen’s figure subjects.
Wilson also bought the panels by Frank Brangwyn from the Venice Biennale
in 1905 for presentation to the Gallery.
Victorian Early Days
The Leeds City Art Gallery opened on 3 October 1888 to celebrate Queen
Victoria’s fifty years on the throne. The main instigator of the project was
Colonel T Walter Harding; not only did he promote the cause, he also bought
paintings such as Lady Butler’s Scotland for Ever! to present to the Gallery.
Apart from the JG Uppleby bequest of 1858, which was transferred to the
new Gallery from the Town Hall, there was no collection at all. Significantly,
the decision was taken to acquire contemporary British Art, not Old Masters
or 18th century portraits. The paintings were the type of picture which could
be seen at the annual Royal Academy exhibition.
History painting, whether of contemporary events or classical legends, was
considered to be the pinnacle of achievement. Lord Leighton’s Return of
Persephone was an early acquisition, a major success for the Gallery’s first
curator George Birkett. The range of subjects and styles proved to be very
popular with the aim of ‘improving’ the visitor. Contemporary events such
as the Afghan wars, the Death of General Gordon and the sailing of the
Titanic were given a particular status through a painted representation.
Significantly, a number of women artists were included in the collection,
particularly Lady Elizabeth Butler (Scotland for Ever!, 1881) and Milly Childers
(Self-Portrait, 1889).
Like most other public collections in Britain no attempt was made to buy
new French art, impressionism or its successors.
Especially notable early acquisitions include James Tissot’s The Bridesmaid
(1883-5), William Waterhouse’s Lady of Shalott (1894) and for the local
audience Atkinson Grimshaw’s Boar Lane (1881). The only social realist subject
depicting the poor was The Village Funeral (1872) by Frank Holl, a genuine
reminder of real life and death conditions. Sadly, only one Pre-Raphaelite
picture, William Holman Hunt’s Shadow of Death (1870-73), came into the
collection in the early years.
Britain & Europe 1900-1920
One of the most vibrant periods in European art and culture was matched
by a frenetic explosion of new art movements alongside a flowering of musical
and dramatic talents. In Britain, old attitudes towards art took a long time to
die. The dominance of the Royal Academy was gradually challenged by
James Whistler and Walter Sickert, both of whom were aware of the new
trends in art taking place in Paris. Sickert’s return to London acted as a catalyst
for several young artists to form a group around him which became known
as the Camden Town School: Harold Gilman and Spencer Gore.
The second decade of the century saw a further flowering of artistic talent:
the Slade School in London being a particularly important centre for young
artists, including David Bomberg, Stanley Spencer, Wyndham Lewis and
Leeds based Jacob Kramer. The first truly avant-garde British movement,
Vorticism, with its dynamic use of cubistic forms, flat planes of colour and a
suggestion of movement emerged at this time. The Leeds collection reflects
many of these trends.
Modernism in Britain in the 1930s & 1940s
The 1930s, like the period up to 1914, was a time of dramatic political
events which were eventually to lead to World War. In Britain, painting and
sculpture moved into the mainstream European avant-garde with the gradual
acceptance of abstract art and surrealism. British artist Eileen Agar’s surrealist
work was particularly influential and is represented in the Collection. The
Gallery’s first abstract painting, by Francis Butterfield, presented by a body of
subscribers in 1937, proved to be an important milestone in the change from
a collection of academic paintings to one reflecting current trends and the
influence of French art from Impressionism onwards. In terms of sculpture,
artists such as Henry Moore and Barbara Hepworth began to establish an
international reputation. In 1936 the first great International Surrealism
Exhibition was held in London creating an unparalleled national interest.
Philip Hendy, appointed Director of Leeds Art Gallery in 1935, did much to
change the direction of the collection. Most contemporary British artists of
the day exhibited in Leeds during this time.
The Post-War Collection
For a time in the mid 1950s there was a brief flowering of a new British
realist group labelled ‘Kitchen Sink’ artists who concentrated on humdrum,
everyday subjects in the home and the street: Derrick Greaves, Jack Smith,
John Bratby and Edward Middleditch. In Leeds the recently established
Gregory Fellowships at the University from 1950 brought several young
artists to work in the City – Terry Frost, Alan Davie, Hubert Dalwood, Reg
Butler and Kenneth Armitage.
In spite of the success of the British ‘Kitchen Sink’ contingent at the Venice
Biennale, they were soon to be ousted by ‘Pop Art’ with its bright colours
and popular images. Artists attached to the Pop Art movement, such as
Peter Blake and Andy Warhol were represented in the Collection.
By the 1960s, post-war austerity was giving way to a more optimistic future,
so that by 1962 swinging London became an international centre for art and
fashion. Bridget Riley became an important figure in the ‘Op Art’ movement.
Her painting Winter Palace (1981), although produced much later, is an
example of Riley’s life-long exploration of colour, abstraction and illusion in
painting which began in the ‘60s. By the late ‘60s American Abstract Art had
begun to affect European schools and the focus of Western art shifted from
Paris to New York.
During the last twenty years of the century many different forces were at
work. Old divisions between abstraction and figuration, oil paint verses new
media, became more prevalent. Artists such as Steven Campbell and Paula
Rego re-invigorated figurative painting, producing large scale, narrative
works. More recently the Gallery has embarked on a five-year project with
the Contemporary Art Society to develop a new collection featuring
installation and film.
Contemporary Collection
Whatever you might think about contemporary art, it is a reflection of the
times in which we live, and if we are to leave a trace of our experience of life
in the current age for future generations, we need to represent this work in
our permanent art collections. It has been recognised that contemporary
collecting is difficult for public galleries such as Leeds, since inevitably questions
are raised about the use of public funds to buy art.
In recognition of this the Arts Council of England and the Contemporary Art
Society initiated and funded the Special Collections Scheme for fifteen
galleries throughout England to build up collections of contemporary work
over a five year period.
This has presented the curators at Leeds with an opportunity to rethink the
direction the collections might take so that they take into account the world
in which we live. Leeds has rich holdings of British twentieth century art,
having acquired work by living artists over the last hundred years. This
collection is now ranked second only to that of the Tate Gallery in London
particularly in the field of sculpture. Paintings and sculpture dominate this
collection, and yet increasingly, in this televisual age, artists are looking at
the possibilities offered by new media such as video, DVD, and the digital
manipulation of images. The traditional concentration on the visual has also
been challenged by some artists who create artworks based on sound alone,
or which can be experienced through the other senses, touch and smell.
Curators at Leeds have decided to explore this area for the new collection.
DVD works by Mark Wallinger, Mark Dean and Annelies Strba have been
purchased along with a sound work by Tacita Dean. Works have also been
commissioned from Mariele Neudecker in collaboration with Opera North,
Georgina Starr and Bill Fontana.
Watercolours, Drawings and Prints
The collection of works on paper at Leeds Art Gallery includes historic
watercolours by ever-popular artists such as JMW Turner and John Sell
Cotman, prints by Rembrandt, shelter drawings by Henry Moore and work
by contemporary artists such as Paula Rego and Rose Garrard.
There is usually a display of watercolours, drawings or prints from the
permanent collection on show in the Watercolour Gallery, otherwise works
can be viewed by appointment.
Leeds Art Gallery is fortunate to have an impressive collection of English
watercolours. Since the 1920s the Gallery has actively collected historic
watercolours, and over the years several important bequests have been
made. In 1938 a bequest from a great collector of John Sell Cotman, Sydney
Decimus Kitson, left Leeds with one of the largest collections of watercolours
and drawings by Cotman. In 1952 Leeds received a bequest from the siblings
Agnes and Norman Lupton who together had gathered a collection of
English drawings and watercolours, as well as an outstanding collection of
prints by Rembrandt.
During World War II many artists became official war artists. In 1947 the
works produced were distributed to galleries by the War Artists Advisory
Committee. Amongst those given to Leeds are shelter drawings by Henry
Moore and miners depicted by Graham Sutherland. The war artists produced
some of the most powerful images in our collection.
Without the funds enjoyed in earlier years at the Leeds Art Gallery, it is no
longer possible to collect works on paper as actively as before. However
contemporary works on paper are purchased when it is possible. Recent
acquisitions are prints by Paula Rego, a drawing and watercolour by Rose
Garrard and large scale charcoal drawings by Peter Randall-Page. Occasionally
the Gallery acquires important historic works such as the Farnley Book of
Birds by JMW Turner acquired in 1985 with help from a public appeal.
Sculpture
From the works of Auguste Rodin, Henry Moore, Barbara Hepworth and
Alexander Calder to more recent works by artists such as Anthony Gormley,
Alison Wilding and Bill Woodrow, Leeds Art Gallery has a wide range of
sculpture. With the help of the Henry Moore Foundaton, Leeds Art Gallery
has been able to accumulate a major collection of sculpture which is second
only to that of the Tate. There is always sculpture from the permanent
collection on display.
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