Fleeting Arcadias at Pitzhanger Manor
British Landscape photography from the Arts Council
The landscape as a source of lyricism, spiritual comfort and nostalgia has always loomed large in British consciousness, but by the 1970s a number of photographers began to take pictures that questioned this ideal. Fleeting Arcadias, selected by the artist and writer John Stathatos, is an exhibition of 35 framed photographs which address issues such as ecological concerns and commercial exploitations. Fleeting Arcadias, a Hayward Gallery Touring exhibition, will open at PM Gallery, Pitzhanger Manor, Ealing on 24 November 2006.Fleeting Arcadias contrasts and compares the work of photographers as diverse as Fay Godwin, John Blakemore, Ray Moore, Martin Parr and Chris Wainwright. Martin Parr’s humorous picture of a sightseer at Glastonbury Tor, Beauty Spots, Glastonbury Tor, is in stark contrast to the ominous image of a Nuclear Power Station, in Gateshead, by Chris Wainwright. Keith Arnatt’s series of photographs Pictures from a Rubbish Tip includes a close-up shot of a teabag rotting on a plastic sheet. The highly coloured and decorative quality of the image, obscures the underlying environmental message. Paul Joyce’s atmospheric black and white photograph captures the sheer scale and beauty of the Brecon Beacons.
PM Gallery sits in Walpole Park, central Ealing. The Gallery is the extension to the Grade I listed Georgian Pitzhanger Manor house and is the largest exhibition space in West London. It houses contemporary art exhibitions throughout the year, often extending into the Manor, giving artists the opportunity to respond to its history and architecture.
The architect Sir John Soane bought Pitzhanger Manor-House in 1800, when he was architect and surveyor to the Bank of England. Soane intended to build his ‘dream’ house, a country villa designed to show off his own architectural style, with stripped classical detail, radical colour schemes and inventive use of light and space. On completion in 1804, Pitzhanger became Soane’s rural retreat, a place to entertain his famous peers, including the artist JMW Turner, at weekends. He displayed his fine art collection at the House, including the eight paintings of Hogarth’s ‘A Rake’s Progress’, purchased in 1802 specifically for display at Pitzhanger. Soane sold the House in 1810 and the collection originally displayed at Pitzhanger can now be found at the Sir John Soane Museum in Lincoln’s Inn Fields, London.
Exhibition: Friday 24 November-Friday 22 December 2006.
Admission is free to all visitors.PM Gallery, Walpole Park, Mattock Lane, Ealing, W5 5EQ
Opening hours: Tues-Fri: 1-5pm; Sat: 11am-5pm; Closed Sundays and Mondays.
For more information telephone 020 8567 1227 or visit www.ealing.gov.uk/pmgalleryandhouse
December 12, 2006
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