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Big, big rooms,
Raw concrete walls, no natural light, no natural air.
I suppose the intention is that nothing should detract from the art on the walls, but, oh Gawd, such a setting does, it does.....
This is the Towner, Eastbourne's very own, prize winning art gallery. I want to love it, truly I do, and the brightly painted outside is jolly and the corridors, with their big windows looking out over the tennis courts are jolly too, but the actual mid-level galleries are like some bunker constructed to house politicians in the event of war. They depress the spirit. The art would have to be very bright and life-affirming to assert itself in such a space. Leonardo might cope, Turner might cope, Picasso might cope.
But Eastbourne can't afford to show the big names....
And the exhibition we went to see- of modernist English art- much of it small scale and soberly coloured- doesn't stand a chance. Pictures that would look really nice on somebody's living room wall are defeated by the setting. They look unambitious, tentative, sad....
Raw concrete walls, no natural light, no natural air.
I suppose the intention is that nothing should detract from the art on the walls, but, oh Gawd, such a setting does, it does.....
This is the Towner, Eastbourne's very own, prize winning art gallery. I want to love it, truly I do, and the brightly painted outside is jolly and the corridors, with their big windows looking out over the tennis courts are jolly too, but the actual mid-level galleries are like some bunker constructed to house politicians in the event of war. They depress the spirit. The art would have to be very bright and life-affirming to assert itself in such a space. Leonardo might cope, Turner might cope, Picasso might cope.
But Eastbourne can't afford to show the big names....
And the exhibition we went to see- of modernist English art- much of it small scale and soberly coloured- doesn't stand a chance. Pictures that would look really nice on somebody's living room wall are defeated by the setting. They look unambitious, tentative, sad....
