Plymouth City Museum and Art Gallery

http://www.plymouth.gov.uk/museumpcmag.htm/

Designed by Thornley and Rooke architects, Plymouth City Museum and Art Gallery opened to the public in 1910. After being badly damaged during the Blitz, the interior of the gallery was refurbished in 1954.

The collection includes a majority of works by English artists from the 19th and 20th centuries, with many views of the region by local artists Sir Joshua Reynolds, Charles Locke Eastlake and Benjamin Robert Haydon, as well as works from the Newlyn School. The 20th-century collection is characterised by the St Ives School; there are also a number of works by the Camden Town Group.

A large collection of ceramics is displayed, showing a range of styles from the work of William Cookworthy and Plymouth Porcelain, to the 20th-century studio pottery of Bernard Leach. Works by Bernard Forrester, Ewen Henderson and Mary Rogers are also on display.

Plymouth programmes a range of temporary exhibitions throughout the year, alongside displays of its permanent collection which rotate on an annual basis.

Guest editor’s note:
The Museum makes me think of three things: a live bees’ nest with the bees entering through a hole in the outside wall — I heard kids got stung and the nest was removed; the mummified Egyptian — a recurring nightmare in 1988; and the most recent memory, a Young British Artist's show in 2002 when I was at Art College. It blew my mind and I put my A level MC Escher book aside for a Sensation catalogue.

Reviewed by: Rhys Coren