There are some familiar names and familiar paintings in Art Then! British Painting, Sculpture and Drawing, 1910-1960 at Southampton City Art Gallery, but it's the unfamiliar that makes it especially worth the trip to a venue you might not normally consider for an exhibition. This show provides an excellent overview of art trends in this country in the first half of the 20th century. And it's free! Southampton has a very good collection, but we often get the feeling that a lot of interesting works are in store behind closed doors. Pleasant surprises await when they finally see the light of the day, in this case in combination with a selection from the extensive Ingram Collection of modern British art. In all, there are more than 100 works by over 100 artists, demonstrating how the British reacted to the latest developments in art on the Continent. So let's start with a couple of hidden gems from the Southampton treasure trove, first of all a Landscape that really stoppe...
Nicholson's a big name in the history of British art. Our 1970s copy of the Penguin Dictionary of Art and Artists gives half a page (a comparatively long entry) to Sir William and his eldest son Ben, "the best-known British abstract painter". There's no mention, though, of Mabel Pryde Nicholson, William's wife and Ben's mother. She was a painter too. But she hasn't had an exhibition devoted to her since shortly after her death more than a century ago. Now, for a short time only, you can see Prydie: The Life and Art of Mabel Pryde Nicholson 1871-1918 , back at the Nicholsons' old family home, The Grange in Rottingdean, on the outskirts of Brighton. This is a show strong on family portraits (definitely the most striking of Mabel's works on display are those of her own family), with tantalising hints at sometimes quite complex paintings by her whose whereabouts are unknown. All this is woven in with the complicated and colourful story of the Nichols...