Modern Mercia: Art and design in post-war Coventry and Warwickshire, 1945-70
Art and design in post-war Coventry and Warwickshire, 1945-70
Leamington Spa Art Gallery & Museum
20 May - 19 September 2021
This exhibition is curated by Jane Simpkiss, Visual Art Curator at Leamington Spa Art Gallery and Museum, and Louise Campbell, Professor Emerita of History of Art at the University of Warwick and author of an illustrated exhibition guide, whose production was funded by the Warwick Institute of Engagement.
Celebrating post-war creativity
The 60 exhibits comprise architectural perspectives, sculpture, drawings, paintings, stained glass designs, photographs, archive films, textiles, ceramics and homeware.
They were selected to convey a period of extraordinary creativity in the Midlands after World War Two.
Inspired by the post-war rebuilding of Coventry and the optimism and growing affluence of the 1950s and 1960s, artists, architects and designers envisaged new ways of living, learning, working, worshipping and shopping.
Part of the exhibition installation featuring textiles by Tibor Reich
(Copyright Estate of Tibor Reich).
Walter Ritchie carving a panel for the Upper Precinct, Coventry
(Copyright Sally Taylor/Estate of Walter Ritchie).
A striking display from an array of collections
Bringing together work from local collections - Leamington’s own collection, those of The Herbert, Coventry Cathedral, the University of Warwick and private lenders – the exhibition demonstrates the value of collaboration. Overlapping with the first three months of Coventry as City of Culture, it supplies the historical background to the exhibitions being organised there, while attracting visitors to the Leamington gallery where access and footfall have been badly affected by the pandemic.
While many cities celebrated the arrival of peace with visionary building schemes, Coventry saw one of the most significant programmes of architecture and public art in post-war Britain. Sculpture, street furniture and landscaping were integral to the vision of its designers. Meantime, staff and students from Coventry College of Art, artists from outside the region, and emigré artists like Peter Peri and Tibor Reich produced sculpture, murals and textiles for public buildings and sites across Warwickshire.
Part of the exhibition installation featuring textiles by Tibor Reich
(Copyright Estate of Tibor Reich).
Illuminating Coventry and Warwickshire’s twentieth-century heritage
The post-war art and architecture of the region – which has been long neglected - is at imminent risk from redevelopment.
This exhibition shines a spotlight on this important aspect of Coventry and Warwickshire’s twentieth-century heritage.
