National Treasures
Turner's 'The Fighting Temeraire'
At the Laing Art Gallery, Newcastle upon Tyne
Until 7 September
Laing Art Gallery
Founded in 1901, the Laing Art Gallery, Newcastle upon Tyne, holds regularly changing exhibitions of historic, modern and contemporary art, as well as events including artist and curator talks and family activities.
The gallery today is home to an internationally important collection of art, focusing on British oil paintings, watercolours, ceramics, silver and glassware.
Turner, 'The Fighting Temeraire
Turner’s The Fighting Temeraire at the Laing Art Gallery, marks the first time the painting has been seen in the North East. The themes of industry and nostalgia present in the painting are particularly relevant to Newcastle and allow the exhibition to link two great rivers of the Industrial Revolution: the Thames and the Tyne.
The exhibition Turner: Art, Industry and Nostalgia features over 60 works from several lenders which reference Turner’s wider practice and evoke ideas around the industrial landscape. It includes another 25 works by Turner as well as a group of rare ship and boat models and artworks from artists including L.S. Lowry, Tacita Dean, Chris Killip, John Kippin and Paul Dolan.
Exciting activities in the community will run alongside the exhibition. Laing’s young people’s group, L-INK, will work with local communities with lived experience of the region’s industrial past, sharing ideas and memories to create artworks and events. Workshops for school children will explore maritime history and the repurposing and recycling of materials, mirroring the Temeraire’s fate in being broken up for scrap.
