IN THE AREA
in the area THE BARBER INSTITUTE
The Barber Institute of Fine Arts, University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham, B15 2TS. www.barber.org.uk Miss Clara and the Celebrity Beast in Art, 1500 – 1860 Until 27 February 2022. Praised by Rachel Cooke in the Observer as ‘just about perfect’, this five-star rated exhibition tells the story of the animal behind one of the Barber’s best-loved masterpieces, a bronze sculpture entitled ‘A Rhinoceros, called Miss Clara’. Imported into Europe from India by a Dutch sea captain in 1741, ‘Miss Clara’ was toured around Europe in a carriage pulled by eight horses, visiting more than 60 cities - from Amsterdam to Venice, Paris to Prague, and Vienna to London, where she eventually died in 1759. Achieving considerable celebrity wherever she went, she was viewed by kings and courtiers - and indeed anyone who could afford to pay the entrance fee, and inspired paintings and prints, sculpture, ceramics, clocks – and even a hairstyle. This unique exhibition throws the spotlight onto the art and merchandise inspired by her, and by other celebrity animals, including elephants Hanno, Hansken and Jumbo, and Obaysch, who in the 1850s became the first hippopotamus seen in Europe since Roman times. The First Dictators: Politics, Propaganda and the Collapse of the Roman Republic Until 26 June 2022. ‘The First Dictators’ explores how coins were used for propaganda purposes during the dying days of the Roman Republic in the first century BCE. Taking a deep-dive into the images on the currency, the exhibition features super-enlarged diagrams to explore how depictions of real and mythological characters, animals and objects were used for political ends. Three important flash points – the dictatorship of Sulla; the First Triumvirate and the dictatorship of Caesar; and the Second Triumvirate and the dictatorship of Octavian, which finally shifted the Republic into the Empire – are the focus of the exhibition. However, it also considers how several commonlyused images – and even the personalities of several of the Roman dictators themselves – were adopted and exploited by more recent states and politicians on their own coins and medals. The exhibition also includes an overview of the development of Roman bronze, base metal and silver coins from their earliest appearance until 105 BCE, and explains how coins were made. Masterpieces on Loan Until 20 March & 3 April 2022. Three spectacular and very different paintings are on display at the Barber for the first time in a series of swaps with other top UK galleries. ‘Mares and Foals in a River Landscape’ by the eminent English animal painter George Stubbs (1724 – 1806) portrays a group of glossy racehorses in a lyrical evocation of the English countryside, while ‘The Capella Nuova outside the Porta di Chiara’ is a gem-like small study from a series of views of Naples painted in about 1782 by Thomas Jones (1742 – 1803), only really appreciated since the early 20th century for his plein-air views. Both have been lent in exchange for Barber paintings borrowed for Tate Britain’s exhibition, ‘Hogarth and Europe’, and are on display until 20 March. Also on display is ‘Portrait of Rosamund 24
ARTEFACTS
SPRING 2022 • Issue 68
Sargent, née Chambers’, 1749, by prolific Scottish portraitist Allan Ramsay (1713-84). This sumptuous painting is on loan to the Barber in exchange for Rossetti’s tour de force, ‘The Blue Bower’, which has just returned to the Barber following its loan to the exhibition ‘Rossetti’s Portraits’ at the Holburne Museum, Bath. It is on display until 3 April. Highlights from Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery Until 2024. A trio of internationally significant masterpieces have been lent by Birmingham Museums Trust to the Barber for a twoyear period – where they now hang among the Barber’s own worldclass collection. The iconic Pre-Raphaelite masterpiece ‘The Last of England’, painted in 1855 by Ford Madox Brown, the monumental ‘Erminia and the Shepherd’, painted around 1620 by leading Bolognese painter Guercino and ‘The Man of Sorrows’, a tiny panel by the Flemish painter Petrus Christus from around 1450, have been lent to the Barber while Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery is closed. Beyond Representation: Re-defining Perception in the 20th Century Until 22 May 2022. International artists of the 20th century constructed new perceptions of the world during a time of intense and turbulent change – from huge technological and scientific advancements, to political revolutions and two world wars. These seismic shifts, coinciding with the rise in popularity of photography, CONTINUED OVER THE PAGE
