Masterpiece Highlights

THE LONG GALLERY, WILTSHIRE

16 – 31 July

In creating Messums Wiltshire the intention was to take a different approach. These thoughts coincided with wider shifts in the cultural sector enquiring into the relationship between process, experience, viewer and object. Our ambition to programme across genre and to engage with the creative process was then and is now our ethos. Our role is to provide the eye for the collector, the opportunity for the creative and the platform for the both to come together.

These were the plans from the outset, The gallery has become a platform for creative expressions across artistic genre and a meeting place of minds to explore how art is made, interpreted, resolved and shared. It brings a fresh light and appreciation onto peremptorily overlooked areas of art as well as developing new ones.

On show in Wiltshire this summer are a selection of works representing the breadth of our collection with works ranging from the nineteenth century to the present day. The display includes a significant selection of British Impressionism featuring masterpieces by Henry Lamb, Sir Matthew Smith, Julius Olsson, Raymond Coxon, Alice Maud Fanner, Percy Craft, James Brown, Mark Senior and Lucy Kemp-Welch. Together with these, a display of highlights from our modern British painting collection features works by Dame Elisabeth Frink, Alison Britton, John Beard, Kurt Jackson and James Dixon.

Showcased in the Pod Gallery are a selection of vibrant paintings which include those of St Ives artists Rose Hilton and Sir Terry Frost, and a collection of luminous landscapes and scenes of the Italian countryside by emerging talent Francesco Poiana.