Harewood House celebrates 250 years of Artistic Innovation at the Terrace Gallery
Harewood’s new visual arts programme celebrates the 21st anniversary of the Terrace Gallery, the first dedicated contemporary art space to have been established in the setting of a country house. The occasion marks 250 years of artistic innovation at Harewood House.
Throughout its 250 year history, contemporary artists have been drawn to Harewood. A nerve-centre for ideas and skills, Harewood has supported artists for generations in the surrounding legacy of world-class collections.
In 1989, the Terrace Gallery was established at Harewood by artist/curator, Diane Howse: a radical gesture in its day, is now a much more common feature in stately homes. The acclaimed exhibitions programme at the Terrace Gallery has commissioned and shown work by many leading British and international artists including Mark Wallinger, Anya Gallaccio, Marc Quinn, Sonia Boyce, Sidney Nolan, Andy Goldsworthy, Jason Brooks, Leo Fitzmaurice, Laura Ford, Zarina Bhimji and Bill Viola.
As part of the 21st anniversary, twenty-one leading artists, writers, curators, performers and others have been invited to respond to the collections at Harewood to put new light on objects, themes and locations specially selected by them from across the House and gardens.
The response from the artists will form part of 'Twenty-One’, a new exhibition that begins on Saturday 19th June till Saturday 22nd August. In the meantime, celebrations are about to start with Fragile Stories, Paul Rooney: Bellevue, Richard Woods and Sebastian Wrong, and Awesome Movement/Fantastic Motion.
Fragile Stories: Friday 2nd April – Sunday 13th June
This new exhibition uncovers the hidden stories behind Harewood's collection, drawn from the outstanding collection of ceramics that will showcase beautiful pieces gathered from different countries around the world.
This will include the tiny, yet potent treasure of the Marie-Antoinette’s teacup. These seemingly fragile objects were sometimes transported half way across the world in the 18th Century, and those from the Far East inspired the race among the European factories to produce genuine porcelain.
Curated by artist/curator Kerry Harker, the exhibition traces the innovations through history that transformed the use of porcelain. The exhibition will display blue, red and gold Japanese Imari wares against the backdrop of the Watercolour Rooms and China Room.
Paul Rooney - ‘Bellevue’: Friday 2nd April – Sunday 20th June
Northern Art Prize winner Paul Rooney’s new film, Bellevue, will be shown for the first time in its natural home at Harewood, where it was filmed on location in the summer of 2009.
The film draws on English writer, Malcolm Lowry’s time in a psychiatric ward at New York’s Bellevue Hospital in 1935, that informed his novella, Lunar Caustic. The film’s main character, Bill, takes part in an advertising company's focus group meeting. This was filmed in the Harewood House conference facilities. Bill also appears to be acting out scenarios set in a 1930s New York psychiatric institution, in which he takes on the character of a failed jazz musician recovering from alcohol abuse. Eventually, this 1930s world and the shadow it casts over the present, entirely disrupts the proceedings.
Bellevue was co-commissioned by Film and Video Umbrella with Bluecoat, Liverpool, in association with Harewood House and Spacex, Exeter.
Richard Woods and Sebastian Wrong: ‘WrongWoods’ and ‘Bricks & Mortar’: Friday 2nd April – Sunday 13th June
British artist Richard Woods, is renowned for his work with garish and repetitious motifs applied to buildings and interiors across the world. In the range of ‘WrongWoods’ plywood cabinets (based on G Plan post-war utility designs) and ‘Bricks & Mortar’ seating on display on the State Floor, he has collaborated with designer Sebastian Wrong to produce ranges for Established & Sons.
For the first time, this witty and contemporary collaboration inhabits Harewood’s interiors, where art and design have long co-existed since Robert Adam’s interiors and Thomas Chippendale’s furniture were commissioned for the building of the House in the 1760s.
Awesome Movement / Fantastic Motion: Friday 2nd April – Sunday 13th June
A new exhibition by Leeds based artists collective, Nous Vous, whose work crosses the boundaries of graphic design, publishing, illustration, art and commerce.
The idea of ‘innovation’ will be explored and upturned by this playful and thoughtful collaboration of artists in ‘Awesome Movement/Fantastic Motion’. Graduates of Leeds College of Art & Design, their work has already been shown at Project Space Leeds (PSL), the Contemporary Art Society and Square Yard Gallery, Newcastle.
