Living with art: Picasso to Celmins. A British Museum touring exhibition
Spanning almost one hundred years of modern art this exhibition will showcase highlights from the wide-ranging collection of Alexander Walker (1930鈥�2003), longstanding film critic for London鈥檚 Evening Standard newspaper and prolific collector of modern and contemporary prints and drawings. In life Walker surrounded himself with works from his collection in all rooms of his Maida Vale flat, including his kitchen and bathroom.
Walker was born in Portadown, Co. Armagh and attributed his love of cinema to childhood trips to the town鈥檚 Regal Cinema. He bought works of art for pleasure rather than financial gain and generously left his collection of over 200 works on paper to the British Museum when he died. This is the first exhibition in over 10 years to showcase the art through the lens of his collection.
The exhibition will include 30 prints and drawings by artists ranging from Pablo Picasso and Henri Matisse to Lucian Freud, Bridget Riley, David Hockney and Vija Celmins. It will demonstrate Walker鈥檚 interest in artists鈥� working methods and in transitional pieces that show an artist developing a new style or subject, or experimenting with a new technique.
The exhibition aims to trace the development of 20th-century art in Europe and America through key pieces in Walker鈥檚 collection, which he viewed as a record of his own art-historical education. It will also demonstrate Walker鈥檚 own tastes from the figurative to the abstract and consider what motivates collectors like Walker to surround themselves with art.
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Spanning almost one hundred years of modern art this exhibition will showcase highlights from the wide-ranging collection of Alexander Walker (1930鈥�2003), longstanding film critic for London鈥檚 Evening Standard newspaper and prolific collector of modern and contemporary prints and drawings. In life Walker surrounded himself with works from his collection in all rooms of his Maida Vale flat, including his kitchen and bathroom.
Walker was born in Portadown, Co. Armagh and attributed his love of cinema to childhood trips to the town鈥檚 Regal Cinema. He bought works of art for pleasure rather than financial gain and generously left his collection of over 200 works on paper to the British Museum when he died. This is the first exhibition in over 10 years to showcase the art through the lens of his collection.
The exhibition will include 30 prints and drawings by artists ranging from Pablo Picasso and Henri Matisse to Lucian Freud, Bridget Riley, David Hockney and Vija Celmins. It will demonstrate Walker鈥檚 interest in artists鈥� working methods and in transitional pieces that show an artist developing a new style or subject, or experimenting with a new technique.
The exhibition aims to trace the development of 20th-century art in Europe and America through key pieces in Walker鈥檚 collection, which he viewed as a record of his own art-historical education. It will also demonstrate Walker鈥檚 own tastes from the figurative to the abstract and consider what motivates collectors like Walker to surround themselves with art.
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