BRIAN SIBLEY : his blog: March 2019

Friday, 29 March 2019

B-DAY!

Today was supposed to be the day you have either dreaded or, possibly, longed to see dawn...

Amid all the frantic flounderings, the purblind stupidity, the hysterical xenophobia, the weather-vane politics, the unbelievable mendacity and the despicable self-seeking hypocrisy comes a searing satire featuring ––– rabbits!

Yes, you heard correctly: rabbits!

During a six-month residency at London's House of Illustration, Taiwanese artist and graduate of the Royal College of Art, YiMiao Shih, satirises current affairs through drawing, video and embroidery.

Her latest work – on exhibition from today – has created a parallel universe in which the United Kingdom has voted not for 'Brexit', but for 'Rabbrexit': the final expulsion of rabbits from this sceptred isle, this other Eden, demi-paradise etc., etc...

For Rabbrexit MeansRabbrexit, YiMiao Shih has created a collection of ‘relics’ from the UK’s imaginary rabbit population, including large-scale embroidered epics, newly minted 52p and 48p coins and aeroplane landing cards and flight accessories for rabbits stripped of their British citizenship – among them Mr. W. Rabbit (Country of birth: Wonderland), Peter Rabbit, Benjamin Bunny & Co., and the celebrated rabbits of Sandleford Warren.

As the gallery press-release puts it: "These satirical pieces draw together Shih’s real-world observations of the nationalistic fervour, economic uncertainty and fragmentation of societal bonds brought about by Brexit." Or, as I would put it – having visited the exhibit following a day on which we heard the death rattle of national sanity – it is a glorious and much-needed laugh in the gathering dark...

LANDING CARDS and IMMIGRATION OFFICER NOTES

In addition to Rabbrexit Means Rabbrexit, House of Illustration currently has exhibitions devoted to the illustrative work of Ludwig Bemelmans (creator of 'Madeline') and Corita Kent – pop artist, social activist and nun!

Photos: David Weeks and Brian Sibley

Opening Times:

Tuesday-Saturday 10am-5.30pm, (last entry 5pm)
Sunday 11am-5.30pm (last entry 5pm)
Closed Monday

Open late on the first Friday of every month 10am-9pm (last entry 8.30pm)

Current and Future exhibitions...

Exhibition Dates:
Quentin Blake Gallery
- Ludwig Bemelmans: Sketches for Madeline open until 28 April
- Gallery closed 19 April - 7 May
- Quentin Blake: From the Studio open from 8 May
Main Gallery
- Corita Kent: Power Up open until 12 May
- Gallery closed 13 - 23 May
- Posy Simmonds: A Retrospective open 24 May - 15 September
- Gallery closed 16 - 26 September
- Cold War Cuba: Graphics for Solidarity open 27 September 2019 - 19 January 2020
South Gallery
- Journeys Drawn: Illustration from the Refugee Crisis open until 24 March
- Gallery closed 25 - 28 March
- YiMiao Shih: Rabbrexit Means Rabbrexit open 29 March - 14 July
- Gallery closed 15 -18 July
- Marie Neurath: Picturing Science open 19 July - 3 November
- Gallery closed 4 - 7 November
- W.E.B. Du Bois: Activism by Numbers open 8 November 2019 - 1 March 2020

Ticket Prices:

	With gift aid	Without gift aid
Adult	£8.25	£7.50
Concession: student, jobseeker, disabled (free entry for accompanying carers)	£5.50	£5
Over 65	£7.15	£6.50
Child: aged 5-18 (free entry for under 5s)	£4.40	£4
Family: up to 2 adults and 3 children	£19.80	£18
First Friday: 5.30-9pm first Friday of the month	£5.50	£5
National Art Pass: 50% discount on full-price adult ticket	£4.15	£3.75
Friends: unlimited free entry	Free	Free

And here's how to find House of Illustration!

Sunday, 17 March 2019

BEETLEMANIA!

Chris Beetles Gallery, my favourite selling art gallery, has just had a website face-lift making its extraordinarily diverse stock of artworks more tantalizingly accessible to the the online gallery-goer.

Former doctor, watercolour expert, past and present collector, Chris Beetles is an idiosyncratic dealer in English watercolours, illustrations, cartoons, photography and oils. In a profile, a few years ago, Renaissance: The Fine Art Collector, wrote: "If you want to buy a beautiful 19th century Edward Lear watercolour, an original Quentin Blake from a classic Roald Dahl book, an up-to-date Matt cartoon from the Daily Telegraph or a stunning Norman Parkinson photograph from the pages of Vogue, then this is the place to visit with everything just 'waiting in the wings'. It is virtually impossible to enter this venerable, approachable and reassuringly British gallery without adding to your collection. This also makes it the perfect place to start one…"

As a regular visitor (in real and virtual time) to Chris' gallery – and as a sometime (very modest) collector – I have, for many years, enjoyed the opportunity to discover more about the joys of many aspects of art and, in particular, those that are almost universally ignored by our great art institutions and, indeed, most commercial galleries too: illustration art, cartoons and caricatures.

At Beetles' London gallery – 10 Ryder Street in the heart of St James’s – I have met the aforementioned Quentin Blake, fellow illustrators Michael Foreman, Helen Oxenbury, John Burningham and others and enjoyed brilliant exhibitions either devoted to the work of specific artists or, in his legendary annual Illustrators blockbuster where an astonishing variety of graphic artists are hung shoulder to shoulder among them Mervyn Peake, Ronald Searle, Rowland Emett, Mabel Lucy Atwell, Arthur Rackham, Charles and William Heath Robinson, Eric Fraser, Al Hirschfeld, Lawson Wood, George and Eileen Soper, Edward Ardizzone, Norman Thelwell and Louis Wain.

The rejuvenated gallery website allows the visitor to browse its extensive collection by artist A to Z or by area of interest from 'Victorian' to 'American', from 'Cartoons' to 'Decorative Arts', 'Prints and Etchings' to 'Literary Manuscripts' or, in these days of Brexit uncertainty, 'Early English' to 'European'!

You can explore the current exhibitions featuring the vibrant paintings of Geraldine Girvan and a bicentennial celebration of the work of John Ruskin, reflecting on the work of artists who either helped him hone his aesthetic and skills or who received his praise and support.

Enthusiasts can also create a 'My Beetles Wall', a personal exhibition space on which to display your favourite exhibits.

I won't keep you further from your exploration of the delights in store, but I will just encourage you further to visit with a handful of fantastic images currently available to pursue or maybe, depending on your bank balance, take home to hang on your wall!