I went down to the Jerwood Gallery for lunch because I wanted to see its exhibition of 100 Modern British Artists which shows off the best of two collections of Modern British Art, the Jerwood and the Ingram. I was pleased to see that there is a policy of indicating whether or not the artists were RAs and that the great majority were – Dod Procter as well as Laura Knight, Glyn Philpot, William Roberts, the landscape artists of the 1950s, John Aldridge, Tristram Hillier (a very good artist represented by a particularly memorable Crucifixion) and Richard Eurich, through to Carel Weight, the now too forgotten guru of the RCA, and Mary Fedden. There is a presumption, fostered by the Bloomsbury Group and not helped by Alfred Munnings, that the RA in the mid-twentieth century was hopelessly reactionary, but this exhibition does much to refute this, showing a great deal of work influenced by surrealism and social realism, as well as the neo-romantics.
As you rightly say, the Jerwood has an excellent collection, full of 20th century RAs.
But it is also a fine building, designed by architects, Hana Loftus and her husband.
It should, in my opinion, have won many more prizes.
Yes, a good and thoughtful building with excellent daylight and fits well in amongst the fishing huts. Charles
Is Hana Loftus Simon’s daughter? I remember that she studied architecture at Cambridge. However I know her when she was a child in Bulcamp House, Suffolk.
Sounds probable. He’s been responsible for the Southwold Museum, as well as Adnam’s. Charles