PRESS RELEASE 2014
British Self-Portraits:
Highlights from the Ruth Borchard Collection
18 October 2014 – 31 May 2015
This October Pallant House Gallery will present an
exhibition of self-portraits from the Ruth Borchard
Collection. The Collection features artists who made a
significant contribution to Modern British Art during
the twentieth century such as Michael Ayrton, Cecil
Collins, William Gear, Roger Hilton, Lawrence Gowing,
Peter Phillips and Keith Vaughan. It is one of the most
significant collections devoted solely to self-portraits by
British artists.
The writer Ruth Borchard (1910 – 2000) began her
collection of artist’s self-portraits in 1958, setting 21 guineas
as the highest price she would pay for any work, irrespective
of the artist’s fame or reputation. By 1971 she had amassed
a collection of 100 works, including oil paintings,
watercolours, gouaches and pencil and ink drawings. The
resulting collection traces the development of modern
British art through Neo-Romanticism, the Euston Road
School, the London Group and the Pop Art Movement.
The core of the exhibition will focus on the portraits
collected by Borchard between the late 1950s and the mid
1960s. It was during this period that Borchard began both to
seek out emerging artists at art school exhibitions and to
approach more established artists, and the exhibition will
range from artists practising in the 1930s and 1940s,
including Ithell Colquhoun and Ann Redpath, to those who
found prominence in the post-war era such as Euan Uglow,
Peter Coker, Roger Hilton, Peter Phillips and David Tindle.
The exhibition will also feature archival materials that
include pieces of correspondence between Borchard and the
artists.
The exhibition will be displayed in Pallant House Gallery’s
Grade I listed Queen Anne townhouse. This setting recalls
the Collection’s original presentation in Borchard’s home in
Reigate, Surrey and will also constitute the first time that the
portraits have been seen publically in a domestic setting. The
setting will also resonate with Pallant House Gallery’s own
Collection of Modern British Art, which has been developed
through the acquisition of similar personal collections.
Paintings from the Gallery collection by members of the
Euston Road School, the London Group and the Pop Art
movement such as David Bomberg, Peter Blake, William
Coldstream and Victor Willing will be on display in the
gallery during the exhibition.
There will be a series of educational and learning activities
taking place at the gallery in conjunction with the exhibition:
The exhibition will explore
themes of creativity and
self-identity,
and
will
represent a range of
different approaches to
depicting the human form.
Many of the works offer a
detailed likeness of the
artist while others are only
suggestive of physical
features and attributes. In
some cases the image has
Ithell Colquhoun, Selfderived entirely from an
Portrait, c.1929, oil on
artist’s imagination, in others
canvas, courtesy of Robert
they have been painted from
Travers, Piano Nobile Works
their reflection in a mirror,
of Art, London © The Estate
occasionally capturing the
of Ithell Colquhoun
surroundings of their studio.
The works demonstrate a variety of techniques and media.
The exhibited works will range from oil paintings on canvas
to works on paper created in pencil, ink, crayon, gouache
and watercolour.
All of the themes raised by the exhibition will be explored in
a programme of workshops for schools and community
groups. A programme of talks and events about Ruth
Borchard and the Collection will also be organised for the
duration of the exhibition.
NOTES TO EDITORS:
About Ruth Borchard: Ruth Borchard was born in a
fishing village near Hamburg and later studied at the
University of Hamburg. In 1938 she and her husband came
to England as refugees escaping Nazi anti-Semitism. On her
fascination with the self-portrait Borchard once said, 'In
literature, my taste ran to introspective books: diaries,
autobiographies, letters... Then one day I was struck by the
idea that introspection in painting meant self-portraits'.
CONT…
Talk: The Self-Portrait: A Cultural History
Thursday 29 January 2015, 6pm, £9 (Friends £7.50,
Students £8)
INTERVIEWS/ IMAGES: Anna Zeuner, Head of Communications a.zeuner@pallant.org.uk 01243 770 823 / 07734 710 212
PRESS RELEASE 2014
Author of a new history of self-portraiture James Hall
explores the story of this popular and humane art form,
considering the confessional self-portraits of Titian and
Michelangelo, the role of biography for serial self-portraits
such as Courbet and van Gogh, themes of sex and genius in
works by Munch and Bonnard, and the latest developments
in the genre in our globalised age. The talk is followed by a
wine reception and a book signing supported by Thames &
Hudson.
Exhibition Tour: British Self-Portraits: Highlights from
the Ruth Borchard Collection
Thursday 22 January 2015, 6pm, £5.50 (£3 students)
Gallery guides Anne Hewat and Liz Walker explore the
fascinating stories behind Ruth Borchard’s collection of
British self-portraits which features artists such as Michael
Ayrton, Ithell Colquhoun, Jean Cooke, Peter Phillips and
David Tindle.
Sunday Art Class: Ruth Borchard Collection: SelfPortraits
Sunday 23 November, 1-4pm, £17 (with Jenny King)
Explore the self-portrait process through drawing and
painting. Starting in the exhibition space, study and draw
directly from the collection and then use your preparatory
work to create a final piece.
About Pallant House Gallery:
Pallant House Gallery is a unique combination of an historic
Queen Anne townhouse and contemporary extension,
housing one of the best collections of Modern British art in
the country. Widely acclaimed for its innovative temporary
exhibitions and exemplary Learning and Community
Programme, the Gallery has won numerous awards since re–
opening in 2006 including the Gulbenkian Prize (now The
Art Fund Prize), the largest for arts and cultural
organisations in the country.
INTERVIEWS/ IMAGES: Anna Zeuner, Head of Communications a.zeuner@pallant.org.uk 01243 770 823 / 07734 710 212