On the 25th August I visited The Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts on the University of East Anglia campus. The centre first opened in 1978 after Sir Robert and Lady Sainsbury donated their collection of world art to the University of East Anglia in 1973. The Sainsbury’s hoped that students, academic staff and the general public would grow to appreciate the works on display in much the same way as they themselves had done, by being able to look frequently and closely at them without the distraction of too much museum-style text and labelling.
The Norman Foster building was designed between 1974-76 and was Foster’s first major public building. He was asked to design a building which would contain the collection the Sainsbury’s gifted in 1973 and the School of Fine Art (now the School of World Art Studies and Museology). The 1978 building consists of the Living Area, which houses the permanent display of the Robert and Lisa Sainsbury Collection; a temporary exhibition space; the entrance Conservatory, with a gallery café; the School of World Art Studies and Museology; a large restaurant; the Robert Sainsbury Library and two mezzanines, used as study areas and for displaying collections which include the University of East Anglia Collection of Abstract and Constructivist Art Architecture and Design.
When you enter the building you are struck by the feeling of wide open space, as the centre has no internal divides. The mix of artificial and natural light adds to this and helps to create a bright and airy environment.
The building has since been extended in 1991 and again in May 2006 to create extra space for growing collections, office and temporary exhibition areas, open studio area (for reserve collections), technical workshops, conservation laboratory, an education and studio area, and a new shop.
I was here to see “A World Observed 1940 - 2010: Photographs by Dorothy Bohm”
"I have spent my lifetime taking photographs. The photograph fulfils my deep need to stop things from disappearing. It makes transience less painful and retains some of the special magic, which I have looked for and found. I have tried to create order out of chaos, to find stability in flux and beauty in the most unlikely places." - Dorothy Bohm.
The exhibition traces the career of Dorothy Bohm from the 1940s to the present day and is the first detailed retrospective of one of the key figures in British photography. It contains 150 original prints (including black and white street photography as well as colour images of contemporary life and studio portraits) that centre around the human form in its natural surroundings. She captures and documents how the world has changed over the past 70 years.
Dorothy Bohm was born in 1924 to a Jewish family in Königsberg (now Kaliningrad), East Prussia. In 1939 with the rise of the Nazi Party, Bohm was sent to a school in the UK. Here she studied photography at the Manchester College of Technology and went on to establish a studio also in Manchester.
In the late 1940’s she abandoned studio work to focus on street photography after coming to realise her love for open-air photography over the course of many visits to the artists colony of Ascona in Switzerland. Bohm travelled extensively photographing the face of post-war Europe, USA, Israel and the former USSR.
When she started to work with colour film on a 1980’s trip to the Far East she felt this gave her a “new life in photography” and carried on to publish books of visits to Egypt and Venice.
She has continued to work in colour ever since.
I have chosen some of my favourite photographs from the exhibition.
 |
| Monte Carlo, 1987 |
The composition in Bohm's images is incredibly well thought out. Her trademark is the clever use of light along with the juxtaposition of her subjects. This is illustrated in the photograph above showing a row of motorbikes parked against a mural that depicts a fashion parade. I really like the softness of the painting against the harshness of the motorbikes.
 | ||
| Provence, France, 1990s I chose this piece because I like how it appears as though it is a frame within a frame. I also like how the glass has a luminescent quality.
I love black and white photography and its timeless quality, this image is no different. I particularly like the feeling of depth and how your eye is drawn from the detail in the foreground, up to the mountains. |
 |
Lisbon, Portugal, 1963 This has got to be my favourite photograph out of the whole collection. I really like how the pattern of the tiles fills the frame as well as the feeling of texture. I also like the depth displayed by the shadows from the steps and the tree extending over the shot. I really enjoyed this exhibition and feel particularly inspired to get out and about with my camera. I shall also be considering light and composition a lot more before taking my shot. |
No comments:
Post a Comment