I handed in my final essay this week which is a great relief. Having enjoyed the architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright* and the sculptural beauty of Barbara Hepworth I think I need a little time with some two dimensional art. And what better place than Southampton. Just a few minutes from the station is the civic and cultural centre with its City Art Gallery, Sea City Museum and Solent University’s John Hansard Gallery.

The City Art Gallery first. Bridget on the course recommended the Gallery, maybe because she lives here. The main gallery is on the first floor, a long room with a very eclectic mix of mainly nineteenth and twentieth century paintings. There are the Camden Town Group here, the London Group, Graham Sutherland and some interesting work from Cornwall, together with some very fine small bronzes by Epstein, Rodin and Degas. All in all, I thought that was a quaint little provincial collection – where next?

But then I ventured into the side galleries. An early Italian room houses a superb altarpiece by Allegretto Nuzi (1315-1373), and there is an intriguing room with a series of gouache preparatory paintings on the subject of Perseus by Edward Burne Jones (1875-1885). The final work, commissioned by the Prime Minister, Balfour, was never completed so these preparatory paintings are the only full series. It is the story of Perseus’s defeat of the gorgon Medusa and his rescue of Andromeda from the sea monster. Burne-Jones is an acquired taste but a must see nonetheless.

Perseus and the Sea Nymphs, Edward Burne Jones (1877), Southampton City Art Gallery

A very interesting twist on displaying popular lively work was to ask various members of Southampton Football Club to pick their favourites. I was particularly taken by  a remake of Ford Madox Brown’s, The Work, chosen by James Searle, the Internal Communications Manager. Painted in almost the same spot in Hampstead by David Redfern in 1977, the machinery is added but all the old favourites are present, the “honest labourer, the idler, the unemployed, those employing mental labour.”

Work, David Redfern (1977)

In another Gallery was a special exhibition by George Shaw entitled ‘My Back to Nature” – a pun on his creating the work in the studio. The theme is what happens in the artist’s local woods – a lot of growing up, initiation and a few unsavoury goings on to delight the eye. I first saw  the artists work at the Royal Academy in 2011, and was astonished by the use of ‘Humbrol’ modellers paint in serious art. The subject matter then was derelict scenes on  a Coventry housing estate and the woods of this exhibition are adjoining the estate. This new exhibition, commissioned by the National Gallery is touring the country.

The Rude Screen (2015), George Shaw, from My Back to Nature (National Gallery 2016)

The final gallery was showing the work of Kelly Richardson an advocate for reminding us how far we have gone in the human destruction of the planet. Her ‘Pillars of Dawn’ are digital painted bare monochromatic trees in the unnatural light of dawn – or is it dusk? I have added Orion Tide (2013) on the main banner as an image that particularly took me. The audio visual video presentation showed launching pillars of fire from a desert landscape. Are they rockets, escaping space craft or simply what they appear to be, plumes of flame?

On the doorstep is Sea City with its exhibitions of The Titanic and Southampton Football Club (again) and the John Hansard Gallery with an Artist Room special on Gerard Richter. More of these another time.

My Back to Nature is at the Southampton City Gallery until1st September.

Pillars of Dawn is at the Southampton City Gallery until 6th October.

• Frank Lloyd Wright (1867-1959) was a great American Architect who just happened, also, to be one of Paul Simon’s pen names for Art Garfunkel.

Recently I visited the Barber Institute at Birmingham University. Easy to get to – train to University and keep walking. I went to see an exhibition entitled Rhythm of Light, a celebration of the so called Scottish Colorists. These are a group of turn of the (20th) century Scottish artists who discovered light and colour in Paris and the South of France. I enjoyed the exhibition but to be honest having enjoyed the works of S J Peploe and J D Ferguson for years I found the curation somewhat tame. Some of the work of these two artists in Edinburgh and Perth is simply stunning so while the exhibition was good and has been well received it wasn’t for me this time. 

It was ironic that probably the best Fergusson in the building was His 1902 Portrait of Jean Maconochie in the permanent collection. Well I suppose it’s a matter of taste. 

J D Fergusson,  Jean Maconochie, 1902, The Barber Institute, Birmingham.

However I did spend a little time in front of one picture in the permanent collection which made me ponder on a few things. There is a painting of The Madonna and Child and Infant St John the Baptist. The title notes attributes the picture to Sandro Botticelli, around 1480. My first thoughts was how wonderful it was that this painting was still here hanging in Birmingham over 500 years after it was created. I pondered further on the events around Birmingham and Florence all those years ago. Both experiencing royal civil wars, both about to see great dynastic changes which would eventually challenge the heart of religious doctrine of the day. 

Sandro Botticelli, Madonna and Child and Infant St John the Baptist, 1480, The Barber Instiute, Birmingham

But then I thought – Botticelli – that’s interesting – How strong is the attribution? Is it an autograph work? Is it with collaboration? Is it a factory work? Well the notes accepts that Botticelli had a very successful studio but claims the very fine work makes it the master. So what does my “complete Works” at home tell me. Well it becomes very interesting. It turns out that Botticelli painted this scene several times and my oracle claims the original of this painting is in the Galleria Palatina in the Palazzio Pitti in Florence and is attributed by all the experts. A reverse copy exists in Paris and is partially attributed. The Birmingham painting is a second reverse copy with the same dimensions as the Paris version and the same partial attribution. So I now know how busy these studios were back in the fourteen hundreds – step back Andy Warhol!

Sandro Botticelli, Madonna and Child and Infant St John the Baptist, 1480, Galleria Palatina, Palazzio Pitti, Florence. (Note the reverse to the Birmingham version)

But then I thought – The Bible makes no mention of this meeting. Did the infant Baptist meet the Christ Child? There are numerous Renaissance and Baroque paintings devoted to this event. It arises from some of the apocryphal accounts of the Life of Christ abundant in the Middle Ages and refers to Jesus meeting his cousin on the holy family’s return from Egypt. These must have echoes of Luke recounting the unborn John recognising Christ in the womb (Luke 1:41).

But so to the painting – it is gorgeous. I hope my photograph does justice to the colours. It is difficult for me to judge on the level of restoration but the colours in egg tempera are just wonderful. And just look at the gold on The Madonna’s shawl. But most of all look at the faces. I am not sure if Italians have ever looked like Botticelli’s Madonna’s or Venus’s – but wow anyway. Most of all look at the Christ Child’s eyes. From a distance they look closed but get closer and you see just what a great artist Botticelli was – just open and clearly focussed on John. 

Madonna and Child and Infant St John the Baptist (Birmingham) – detail.

It is worth taking time with a painting and certainly worth it with a truly great painter like Botticelli to see how really good The Old Masters were.

The Rhythm of Light is on until 13th May and is seriously worth it but do take a few minutes with Botticelli. You will not regret it.

I have been to The New Art Gallery in Walsall before and regard it as an oasis. The strength of the gallery is the Garman Ryan collection which covers two floors. Kathleen Garman was the wife of the great twentieth century sculptor Jacob Epstein. After his death in 1959 Garman started collecting art with her friend Sally Ryan, daughter of American entrepreneur Thomas Fortune Ryan. Together the two women collected over 400 pieces from Albrecht Drurer, through to nineteenth, twentieth century and contemporary works. The collection was donated to the People of Walsall in 1973 and has the been part of the permanent collection in the gallery since 2000. Go to the Black Country and see Constables, Renoir, Cezanne, Modigliani  alongside Jacob Epstein sculptures, prints and paintings. With such a prestigious collection it is not surprising that Walsall has attracted exhibitions from some of the finest contemporary artists including Damien Hirst, Sarah Lucas and Tracey Emin.

Amadeus Modigliani, Caryatid, 1913

As part of the Artists Rooms Tour (sponsored by The National Galleries of Scotland and The Tate) the gallery is showing works by Vija Clemons. The American Latvian artist includes drawings and prints of the natural world, such as the stars, the surface of the oceans and expanses of deserts. Her display is part of a wider  Wilderness exhibition showing extremes of the natural world. The exhibition is also showing Esther Johnson’s short film about a community living on the disappearing Yorkshire coast at Holderness.

Vija Clemons, December 1984

My reason for going on this occasion was to see Lionheart by Mike Nelson. Obviously not everyone’s cup of tea the installation consists of found objects depicting a drifters hut. The objects were all found along the old human trade routes of Eastern Europe which had been closed during the Soviet regime but are reopening with migrating peoples again. The work was first installed in Bremen in 1999, and was selected to represent Great Britain in the Venice Biennale of 2011.

Mike Nelson, Lionheart, 1997-2018

On the Ground floor is The National Gallery’s Masterpiece Tour 2018 centred on Hans Holbein the Youngers’s 1526 painting of Lady Anne Lovell, A Lady with a Squirrel and a Starling.

There are five floors of great paintings and sculpture to see at Walsall but I also like the architecture of Caruso St John’s new building opened in 2000. Praised by RIBA as almost flawless and vilified by Theodore Dalrymple as a “giant sauna on the inside and grain silo on the outside”. You can be the judge but must go there to see it. Like all centres of areas of urban regeneration, time will be the judge but for now we must thank Kathleen Garman and Sally Ryan for making their collection so accessible.

View from second floor to Town Canal Basin

The National Gallery Masterpiece Tour ends on 22nd April

Wilderness and Artists Rooms ends on 6th May

Lionheart ends on 3rd June

Tapestry must be one of the most intimate of all art forms and Hannah Ryggen, one of its most intimate of exponents. Born in Malmo in 1894 she settled into subsistence farming in Norway with her painter husband, Hans. Although trained as a painter in oils she turned to tapestry becoming closer to the rural farming class. From these earthly roots and reading of Dagbladet , the culturally radical journal, she produced works to represent some of the most profound events of the twentieth century.

6th October 1942 (1943), Hannah Rhyggen

Her works are currently on display at the Oxford Museum of Modern Art.* The show opens with a triptych narrative of her farming life, We and our Animals (1934), appearing three times feeding their hens, cattle and in a domestic setting. The pace quickens with the brilliant anti-fascist Ethiopia (1937) shown at the same World Fair alongside Picasso’s Guernica in 1937; her depiction of, the speared, Mussolini was censored out. The exhibition has two highly critical tapestries of Norway’s Second World War position and objections to its role in nuclear armament and NATO, the anti Nazi  6th October 1942 (1943) and Jul Kvale (1956). There are more powerful statements on nuclear war and a very clever attack on the USA’s involvement in Vietnam depicting Lyndon Johnson’s casual cruelty to his pet dog.

Ethiopia (1937), Hannah Rhyggen

Interspersed with her political comment are some beautiful works of a more personal flavour. She appears in A Free One (1948), a statement of the eniquity of wealth and poverty, and one of her late works, Fishing in a sea of debt (1956). Her themes of personal love are coloured with rich reds, where in her words ‘she lets loose with explosive effect’.

Mothers World (1947) Hanna Rhyggen

What gives Ryggen’s tapestry’s such intimate power is her involvement with the whole process from spinning the yarn from local wool, dyeing with colour from the immediate countryside and manufacture on a hand made loom in her farmhouse kitchen. The exhibition is completed with a very personal 30 minute film with Ryggen explaining her philosophy and describing various tapestries.

*Unfortunately the exhibition closes at Oxford on Sunday.