York has a plethora of art galleries, mostly in private hands and some under municipal control. York art gallery, located in exhibition square, in the centre of York, is a York City Council owned gallery, and has recently been refurbished to the tune of nearly half a million pounds, from the heritage lottery fund and was reopened a couple of months ago by the city's Lord Mayor.
The collection features works spanning 600 years from British and European art displayed in themed areas under the headings of people, places, stories, devotion, and morality. This is an interesting way of organising the works on display, and a seemingly increasing trend amongst gallery collections over recent decades, one that I first experienced at the Tate Modern in London.
The Tate Modern were the first major collection in this country, to my knowledge to abandon the traditional
layout of displaying works chronologically, which can be a bit dry and seem more like an educational lecture. The curators of York City Art Gallery have followed this trend and you can enjoy the works in their thematic context, alongside other artists' response to the same subject matter over the centuries. It is a more subjective approach to evaluating the artists work, stimulating a more comparative response to the works, than a more academic approach you would get by displaying the works in chronological order, and reading them like a history book, I think this puts you more in touch with the artist and their intentions, and what they were trying to express when they created the works than studying them as an intellectual and academic canon, one leading to the next, and so on.
The most exciting innovation for me is that these areas also feature works from contemporary artists, including video, photography, ceramics, painting and installation. There is nothing better than contemporary art works to put a historical collection in to perspective, it also gives contemporary artists an exhibition space for there work to find the public eye, and hopefully inject some interest in modern works.
I was impressed to see that the gallery had managed to get a Monet as part of the opening exhibition, which is good going for a provincial gallery, ironically enough the subject is flood waters, an apt painting for York whether by accident or design, as the Ouse is well known for spilling over its banks on a regular basis, in York I think there must have been an element of planning in there somewhere, one of the curators must have a dark sense of humour.
There is a good collection of twentieth century ceramics, which is small but features some of the most significant makers of the period, including Bernard Leach. There is also an unusual feature of the ceramic collection where you get to handle some of the work.
The Café
The café is pretty much what you would find anywhere in any museum or gallery these days, it's a requirement, alongside a souvenir shop, It is a completely private enterprise and has no connection with the City Council which is good thing. I think they just used to have a little café with a Council Char woman serving PG tips from a giant Urn and curly cheese sarnies, which could have been mistaken for some of the exhibits. The café is run by Hartley's, who seem to have a few franchises in the town for sandwich bars and is of reasonable quality. The standard range of filter coffee and sandwiches is available.
I've went in in their for my lunch, a few weeks ago,I had a cheese ploughman's sandwich £2.20 and a, and a bottle of sparkling Harrogate spring water £1.10, which came to £3.60. If you think the sandwiches are over priced, and you think you're being exploited there is a cheap sandwich shop just across the road called 'Brill' where you can get a filled roll, bag of crisps and a can of pop for £1.99. So you can nip across at dinner time get your meal deal, eat it outside of the gallery where there is a large concourse where people often sit in the summer and save yourself a bit of cash.
The Shop
There is a range of souvenirs, mostly books, but with a collection of work from local artists on display and for sale, including jewellery, pottery, and a collection of handmade handbags is currently on offer. I think it is good that local artists are given a chance to show and sell their works in the museum shop as it makes the place more alive seem more relevant and integrated to the local community. The shop could have been bigger in order to accommodate more local artists
Disabled
The Gallery is listed as fully accessible, there is a stair lift for wheelchairs, which will take you up to the first floor (there are only two floors), and wide door openings. The building being neo-classical in design has wide concourses and interior spaces, which makes it handy for manoeuvring wheelchairs, and pushchairs etc, I cant vouch for the toilets as I did not go in, but I suspect all is in order due to the recent refurbishment.
Opening times
Open Daily 10.00am - 5.00pm Closed 25/26 December and 1 January
Admission prices FREE
Getting there York Art Gallery, only 3 minutes walk from the Minster, opposite the main Tourist Information Centre.
A regular Park and Ride service operates from four sites close to the A64, A19 north, A19 south, 1079 and A166 main roads into York.
Good review here, well done, hope you had a lovely new year and a merry christmas(-:
MAFARRIMOND 27.10.2005 09:40
I love wandering round art galleries. I have never been to York's but it sounds wonderful. Maureen
mr-zeeman 11.09.2005 11:45
Everything anyone could ever need or want to know about the place, and some interesting personal opinions ... excellent! I totally agree with you re: the 'stuffiness' of placing art works in chronological order ... I used to lecture in Art History and always approached the subject themeatically (although these days I'm not even sure whether I can spell it right LoL! Cheers, Paula.
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