New work, Edinburgh Art Fair and some art history
10th November, 2023
New acquisitions
Firstly, as usual, we’ve been busy beavering away travelling around the UK acquiring new works of art to bring back to the gallery. In truth, looking back at the last 2-3 weeks, it’s been a little portrait-tastic, with works by Philip Naviasky and William Johnstone as part of the mix. We’ve also acquired the most wonderful 1928 portrait of a young lady with a tennis racquet by the go-to society portrait painter of the day, David Jagger. This painting was produced for the Horlicks company for use in magazine advertising, appearing in the June 1928 edition of UK Good Housekeeping with an accompanying slogan “Life is fun when you’re fit”; it couldn’t be from any other era!
Anthony Whishaw (RA)
Also acquired, a fabulous 1958 portrait by Anthony Whishaw (RA). This painting actually features in a 1960 BBC TV programme, Monitor. The show featured Anthony, a young up and coming artist who had graduated from Chelsea and then the Royal College of Art and was working away in his studio in Kensington, shared with his wife Jean Gibson, herself a talented sculptor. Our portrait acquisition led us to visit Anthony, a senior Academician of the RA and at 93 years of age amazingly still working away each day in that very same Kensington studio! We’ll be talking further about Castlegate and Anthony in the not-too-distant future.
Edinburgh Art Fair
From the evening of the 16th November to Sunday 19th, we’ll be exhibiting contemporary paintings at this years Edinburgh Art Fair. As a change of focus, we won’t be exhibiting an array of Modern British (20th C) works by many a household name, instead we’re looking to showcase many of our current contemporary artists, especially those in the earlier stages of their careers; raising their profiles and getting them in front of a wide audience who may not yet realise just how talented they are. Artists will include Craig Simpson, Alice Campbell, Rebecca Swainston, Alex Hain and David Storey, amongst many others. We have a raft of complimentary e-tickets, so should anyone wish to attend, just click on this link and follow the instructions, it covers the preview evening and all other days.
A bit more depth
Finally, we’ve recently teamed up with a wonderful young art historian, Imogen Delbourgo, to look at some of our more prominent works and apply more of an art historians’ eye to them. We think what she’s produced is extremely interesting and insightful, focusing firstly on the portrait of Sir Roy Strong by David Hockney (RA) and the portrait of Lord Lambton and family by Carel Weight (RA). We spend a lot of time researching works of art, seeking authentication and digging up the provenance, but it’s very interesting and I think valuable to have an art historian’s take on a piece, it certainly brings a different approach to understand a work of art.
All for now,
Steve and Christine
