The Covid Diaries 83 – Dulwich Picture Gallery incl. Unearthed: Photography’s Roots

A return to an old favourite – the Dulwich Picture Gallery – now that I live in South East London once more. And a chance to explore Unearthed: Photography’s Roots, an interesting if rather academic photographic exhibition.

Revisiting the Dulwich Picture Gallery

It’s been a while since I visited the Dulwich Picture Gallery! It is easier to get to now that I am once more living in South East London; the last time I wrote about it on the blog was the inaugural historic walk back in 2018, when I was also living in Brockley.

There is some historic background on the Dulwich Picture Gallery in that previous post so that isn’t the main focus of today’s visit. In a nutshell though, it is largely a collection of Old Masters. It was amassed for the King of Poland who wanted a royal collection. Sadly, though, he had to abdicate his kingdom by the time the collection was ready. For a roundabout reason one of the two collectors bequeathed the works to Dulwich College on the condition that they be made publicly available. In 1817 it thus became the nation’s first purpose-built public art gallery.

Other collections and acquisitions followed, but the collection’s strengths today remain Baroque European art, and British painting. The Dulwich Picture Gallery have a calendar of events and exhibitions which help to bring new visitors in and engage the local community. We will take a closer look at two of these temporary exhibitions today. As an aside, in the previous post I commented on the £8 entry charge as a potential barrier to entry; it’s now up to £16.50 for adults. Perhaps due to Covid-related loss of income? Still, more for the art enthusiast than the casual visitor at that price.

Unearthed: Photography’s Roots

This exhibition reminded me a little of Forgotten Masters at the Wallace Collection last year. In that they are both very interesting exhibitions, but so focused and academic as to be quite niche. Coincidentally, both also have a natural history spin to them; Forgotten Masters was about natural history studies for the East India Company, and Unearthed: Photography’s Roots looks at the development of photography through the lens of images of plants and botany (see the pun in the title?).

Flowers and plants made quite good subjects for early photography: far less likely to move around and get blurry with long exposure times. And easy to experiment on for those interested in early techniques like cyanotype. So this really does make sense as an exploration of photographic history and techniques from the earliest phases of the medium. The Dulwich Picture Gallery exhibition is methodical in its presentation: the exhibition is chronological; and images are displayed with information about the photographer, and the techniques used. In this way we get to know female photography pioneers like Anna Atkins, as well as more mysterious types like Charles Jones, whose work was unknown until it was discovered in an antiques market 20 years after his death (a little like Bandele ‘Tex” Ajetunmobi, photographer of life in Tower Hamlets).

From The Historic To The Contemporary

One thing I enjoyed about Unearthed: Photography’s Roots was the breadth of works on display. In a relatively compact exhibition space, there are historic and contemporary works; male and female artists; Western and non-Western photographers (although Western men are still most heavily represented). It is possible to follow the development of photography from early excitement at being able to accurately depict the world; through 20th Century experiments in modernism and meaning; to a plethora of contemporary artistic expressions.

Some of my favourite works were among the earliest and latest. I really liked Anna Atkins’ early cynotypes: photographic absences of plants against blue backgrounds. There is something soothing about all those bound volumes of the outlines of plants. At the other end of the exhibition, I also liked Richard Learoyd’s image taken in a giant walk-in camera. This technique means there is no pixellation because the image goes straight onto the photographic paper. It also means that only a fraction of the image is truly in focus. It is a fascinating work to get up close to and look at in detail (bottom image above).

So if you are mad for botany and photography, this is the exhibition for you. If not, I would say there are exhibitions on with a wider interest in central London. So consider whether you want to make the trip out here and pay major museum prices for a relatively small exhibition. For me it was a nice local outing for a quiet Sunday, and enjoyable to visit the Dulwich Picture Gallery once more.

Journeys

On my way around the Dulwich Picture Gallery for one last look before leaving, I came across Journeys. This is a temporary display of items from the permanent collection, co-curated by a group of Community Curators. Who are Community Curators, you ask? Well in this case it was a group of individuals of different ages, from different backgrounds, who came together to bring new perspectives to the collection on the themes of journeys and migration.

Journeys occupies just one room of the gallery, but the work of the Community Curators is effective. They have selected a handful of works, and drawn migration themes out of them. There is a depiction of the Holy Family on the move. A work by Canaletto, who was in England repeatedly in the 1740s and 50s. Most interestingly (for me at least), there is a 19th Century visitors book, open to the page with Vincent Van Gogh’s signature. It reminds us that art can be inspired by travel and exchange, and that art is also a connection between people from all walks of life. At a time of proposed museum closures, it also reminds us how important public collections have been in history and continue to be today.

As well as interpreting objects from the collection, new works have been commissioned. This includes an animation by Nicola Jane Francis of some of the conversations generated during the curation process, and a piece by spoken word artist Akila M. Richards. These are interesting resources even if you don’t make it to the Dulwich Picture Gallery in person.

Unearthed: Photography’s Roots: 3/5
Journeys: 3/5

Unearthed until 31 August 2021
Journeys until 22 August 2021

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