Art Fund Collect 2011 winners
Fiona Slattery and Martin Ellis from Birmingham Museums & Art Gallery look at Yukiai (Encounters) by Naoki Takeyama
Yesterday, Thursday 5 May, curators from eight museums and galleries won a share of £75,000 to buy a unique object for their public collections. They were all shortlisted for Art Fund Collect, a unique initiative run by the Art Fund and Crafts Council.
Art Fund Collect is a scheme aimed at boosting contemporary craft in UK collections. It takes place annually on the preview day of COLLECT, the Crafts Council’s international art fair for contemporary objects. The fair is held at London’s Saatchi Gallery from 6 – 9 May.
Curators from the eight museums and galleries had special access to the fair, ahead of VIP and private buyers. They had just one hour to pick an object they wished to purchase, before presenting their selection to a panel of judges.
The winners:
Fiona Slattery and Martin Ellis, Curators of Applied Arts at Birmingham Museums & Art Gallery selected Yukiai (Encounters), 2011 by young Japanese maker Naoki Takeyama, represented by the Yufuku Gallery. Takeyama specialises in the ancient technique of enamelling. This crinkling vessel-shaped form is made from a single sheet of copper, which is then folded before layers of enamel are painted on. The piece is black with yellow flecks on the exterior, with a vivid turquoise interior. It cost £7,950.
Rachel Conroy, Assistant Curator at National Museum Wales – Amgueddfa Cymru picked Homura I (Inferno), 2011 by Japanese maker Takahiro Yede, also at the Yufuku Gallery and worth £7,150. This organic, sculptural piece is made from nickel-silver and bronze strips, painstakingly intertwined and hammered into place. Yede created this work spontaneously. Because it resembles the licking of flames, he chose the title Inferno after the making process.
Penny Sexton, Curator & Holly Morgenroth, Assistant Curator of Natural History at the Royal Albert Memorial Museum, Exeter. They picked Secret Life of Plants, 2010 by Danish maker Steffen Dam at Joanna Bird Pottery, costing £8,820. The delicate, hand-blown objects encased within this glass panel are inspired by half-decayed bulbs and funghi.
Polly Putnam, Assistant Curator of Decorative Arts at Leeds Museums & Galleries chose Amalthea, 2011 by Cumbria-based British maker Michael Eden. This pair of digitally created, spiralling works is made from a high quality nylon material with unique mineral soft coating. The cornucopia shape of the piece is inspired by the wealth of knowledge available on the World Wide Web. It cost £16,000.
James Beighton, Curator and Vicky Sturrs, Education Officer at mima Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art selected Brooch, 2010 by Italian goldsmith Stefano Marchetti, costing £5,300. Trained at the famous Padua school, Marchetti is known as a ‘radical goldsmith’ because of his cutting-edge approach. This playful piece represents a human tongue and is constructed to move as the wearer does. Inspired by the tradition of holy reliquary, this work relates in particular to St Anthony of Padua.
Francesca Vanke, Curator of Decorative Arts and Dr Andrew Moore Keeper of Art and Senior Curator at Norwich Castle Museum & Art Gallery chose a pair of vases, Kangaroo and Emu Lost in Chintz, 2010 by Australian ceramicist Robin Best. These works are inspired by traditional, Oriental ceramic work as well as modern Western design, and the painting technique was developed at the renowned Meissen porcelain centre in Germany. Costing £8,800, the pair was purchased at Clare Beck at Adrian Sassoon.
Pamela Wood, Keeper of Decorative Arts at Nottingham Castle Museum & Art Gallery selected Brooch, 2010 by Italian jeweller Giovanni Corvaja, worth £13,000. Like Stefano Marchetti, Corvaja was also trained at the celebrated Padua school of goldsmithing. This astral, meditative piece is made from gold and platinum gossamer and platinum wire. The gossamer is as fine as human hair and is scattered with drops of coloured enamel. Another piece by Corvaja was won at Art Fund Collect in 2009 – Bracelet, 2009 was selected by James Beighton at mima.
Alison Cooper, Assistant Keeper of Art at Plymouth City Museum & Art Gallery won Hakutai (A Thousand Years), 2011, another enamelling work by Naoki Takeyama at the Yufuku Gallery. This object differs from Birmingham’s win with its asymmetric shape, cobalt blue colour and finishing touch of hand-painted flecks of silver leaf. This piece cost £6,000.
Stephen Deuchar, Director of the Art Fund, said: “We’re delighted that all eight museums and galleries have chosen wonderful pieces this year. It’s always a really exciting day, and a unique opportunity for curators from across the country to come together. We were so impressed by the curators’ presentations and the vision and ambition they demonstrated. We hope their pieces will be enjoyed by the public for years to come.”
Rosy Greenlees, Executive Director of the Crafts Council, said: “Congratulations to the eight galleries and museums that were successful this year. As usual the proposals from the shortlisted curators were of high quality and very well considered. We are sure these exceptional objects will be a great asset for their institutions and enjoyed by their visitors.”
The shortlisted curators were granted special access to the fair ahead of private buyers and VIPs, and one day before doors opened to the public. They had one hour to go around the 37 international galleries represented, and pick one object they wished to add to their museum or gallery’s collection. Curators were required to justify their choice in a verbal presentation to the judges, chaired this year by Anthony Griffiths, Art Fund Trustee and Keeper of the British Museum’s Prints and Drawings Collection. Winning objects were purchased outright by the Art Fund, which provides the £75,000 funding pot.
Art Fund Collect takes place each year at COLLECT. This unique funding initiative was set up by the Art Fund and Crafts Council in 2008 as a way of boosting public collections with the best of international contemporary craft. To date, the scheme has contributed £275,000 towards the purchase of unique works for the public to enjoy.
A total of 18 institutions applied and the judging panel met on 23 March to draw up the shortlist. Applicants were required to submit a statement describing their museum or gallery’s collecting priorities as well as their personal aspirations for helping their public collections grow and flourish.
Three of this year’s winning institutions have previously competed successfully in Art Fund Collect.
James Beighton, Curator at mima, won the intricate gold Bracelet by Giovanni Corvaja in 2009 (£27,750) and in 2008 walked away with a dramatic, large-scale pot, Monumental Vase V by Julian Stair (£25,263). The Royal Albert Memorial Museum’s Penny Sexton took part in 2010 alongside colleague Tony Eccles, winning Golden Fields of Rice by Mutsumi Suzuki, an exquisite piece of Japanese lacquer ware worth £17,000. In 2009, Andrew Renton, Head of Applied Art and National Museum Wales – Amgueddfa Cymru won glass sculpture Red Stripe by Rachael Woodman, worth £6,500.
In 2010, five curators won an object for their public collections at Art Fund Collect. The winners were: Aberdeen Art Gallery; the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford; the Royal Albert Memorial Museum & Art Gallery, Exeter; Shipley Art Gallery, Gateshead; and the Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester. A total of eleven museums and galleries were shortlisted.
COLLECT 2011 is held at the Saatchi Gallery, and is open to the public from 6-9 May 2011. The public will be able to view all winning and shortlisted objects at the fair, throughout the weekend. Each one will be marked with an Art Fund Collect plaque.
Ends
Notes to Editors
The Art Fund Collect judging panel is chaired this year by Anthony Griffiths, Art Fund Trustee and Keeper of the British Museum’s Print Collection. The other Art Fund Collect judges are: Stephen Deuchar, Director of the Art Fund; Sir Nicholas Goodison, Ex Chairman of the Crafts Council and the Art Fund; Rosy Greenlees, Executive Director of the Crafts Council; Tanya Harrod, author and craft expert and Jonathan Marsden, Art Fund Trustee and Director of The Royal Collection.
COLLECT: the international art fair for contemporary objects is one of the most important annual fairs for contemporary craft in Europe, presented by the Crafts Council, showcasing work by over 500 artists represented by 37 international galleries. Visit www.craftscouncil.org.uk/collect
The Art Fund is the national fundraising charity for works of art and plays a major part in enriching the range and quality of art on public display in the UK. Supported by some 80,000 individual members, it campaigns, fundraises and gives money to museums and galleries to buy, show and share art, and offers many ways of enjoying it through the Art Pass.
As well as supporting the buying of works of art, initiatives under its funding programme include: sponsoring the UK tour of the ARTIST ROOMS collection so that it reaches several million people across the UK each year, and fundraising: two recently successful campaigns include bringing in £6 million to save the Staffordshire Hoard for the West Midlands and Pieter Brueghel the Younger’s The Procession to Calvary for Nostell Priory, in partnership with the National Trust. Over the past year, the Art Fund has given £24 million for works of art to 248 museums and galleries. The Art Fund is funded entirely by its art-loving and museum-going supporters who believe that great art should be for everyone to enjoy. Find out more at www.artfund.org
The Crafts Council’s goal is to make the UK the best place to make, see, collect and learn about contemporary craft.
•We believe that craft plays a dynamic and vigorous role in the UK’s social,economic and cultural life.
•We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to make, see, collect and learn about craft.
•We believe that the strength of craft lies in its use of traditional and contemporary techniques, ideas and materials to make extraordinary new work.
•We believe that the future of craft lies in nurturing talent; children and young people must be able to learn about craft at school and have access to excellent teaching throughout their education.
• 12% of the UK population visited a craft exhibition in 2009/10, and 18% participated in craft activity in the same year (DCMS/ACE Taking Part data update August 2010). (Taking Part is an ongoing survey being carried out by Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) and Arts Council England (ACE)
•More than 2.8 million visits were made to the Crafts Council website in 2009. To find out everything you need to know about where to make, see, collect and learn about contemporary craft visit www.craftscouncil.org.uk
• Arts Council England works to get great art to everyone by championing, developing and investing in artistic experiences that enrich people’s lives. It supports a range of artistic activities from theatre to music, literature to dance, photography to digital art, and carnival to crafts. Great art inspires us, brings us together and teaches us about ourselves, and the world around us. In short, it makes life better. Between 2011 and 2015, Arts Council England will invest £1.4 billion of public money from government and a further £0.85 billion from the National Lottery to create these experiences for as many people as possible across the country.
