Graves Art Gallery is an art gallery in

Sheffield Sheffield is a city status in the United Kingdom, city in South Yorkshire, England, whose name derives from the River Sheaf which runs through it. The city serves as the administrative centre of the City of Sheffield. It is Historic counties o ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. The gallery is located above the Central Library in Sheffield city centre. It houses permanent displays from the city’s historic and contemporary collection of

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

and

European art The art of Europe, or Western art, encompasses the history of visual art in Europe. European prehistoric art started as mobile Upper Paleolithic rock and cave painting and petroglyph art and was characteristic of the period between the Paleo ...

along with a programme of temporary exhibitions. The collection encapsulates the story of the development of art. The main trends and movements are traced through works by many artists, from J. M. W. Turner,

Alfred Sisley Alfred Sisley (; ; 30 October 1839 – 29 January 1899) was an Impressionist landscape painter who was born and spent most of his life in France, but retained British citizenship. He was the most consistent of the Impressionists in his dedicatio ...

and Sir Stanley Spencer, to

Helen Chadwick Helen Chadwick (18 May 1953 – 15 March 1996) was a British sculptor, photographer and installation artist. In 1987, she became one of the first women artists to be nominated for the Turner Prize. Chadwick was known for "challenging stereotypic ...

Marc Quinn Marc Quinn (born 8 January 1964) is a British contemporary visual artist whose work includes sculpture, installation, and painting. Quinn explores "what it is to be human in the world today" through subjects including the body, genetics, ident ...

and

Bridget Riley Bridget Louise Riley (born 24 April 1931) is an English painter known for her op art paintings. She lives and works in London, Cornwall and the Vaucluse in France. Early life and education Riley was born on 24 April 1931 in Norwood, Londo ...

. The gallery is managed by

Museums Sheffield Sheffield Galleries and Museums Trust, known as Museums Sheffield is a charity created in 1998 to run Sheffield City Council’s non-industrial museums and galleries. Museums Sheffield currently manages three sites in the city: Graves Art Galle ...

History

The Graves Art Gallery was built with the support of businessman

John George Graves John George Graves (1866–1945) was a successful English entrepreneur and public benefactor. He became Sheffield's Lord Mayor and an Alderman in 1926 and he was given Freedom of the City in 1929. He was born in Lincolnshire in 1866 and died in ...

, who made his fortune out of one of the country’s earliest mail order businesses. Graves also gifted his art collection of almost 700 paintings, much of which can still be seen today. Other benefactors include John Newton Mappin, of Mappin and Webb. The Central Library and Graves Gallery (on its 3rd floor) was opened in July 1934 dedicated to ‘the service of knowledge and art’. It was a state of the art facility fitted with ‘heating…by invisible panel system’, ‘artificial ventilation’, ‘synchronised electric clocks’ and five lifts. The gallery's first director was

John Rothenstein Sir John Knewstub Maurice Rothenstein (11 July 1901 – 27 February 1992) was a British arts administrator and art historian. Biography John Rothenstein was born in London in 1901, the son of Sir William Rothenstein. The family was connect ...

, who became director of the

Tate Gallery Tate is an institution that houses, in a network of four art galleries, the United Kingdom's national collection of British art, and international modern and contemporary art. It is not a government institution, but its main sponsor is the U ...

. The painter, George Hamilton Constantine followed from 1938 until the 1950s. Rothenstein and Constantine were key figures in broadening the 20th-century British collection that Graves had begun. The search for individual pieces of outstanding significance and quality characterised their vision, with works by

Walter Sickert Walter Richard Sickert (31 May 1860 – 22 January 1942) was a German-born British painter and printmaker who was a member of the Camden Town Group of Post-Impressionist artists in early 20th-century London. He was an important influence on d ...

Harold Gilman Harold John Wilde Gilman (11 February 187612 February 1919) was a British painter of interiors, portraits and landscapes, and a founder-member of the Camden Town Group. Early life and studies Harold John Wilde Gilman was the second son and ...

Gwen John Gwendolen Mary John (22 June 1876 – 18 September 1939) was a Welsh artist who worked in France for most of her career. Her paintings, mainly portraits of anonymous female sitters, are rendered in a range of closely related tones. Although s ...

C. R. W. Nevinson Christopher Richard Wynne Nevinson (13 August 1889 – 7 October 1946) was an English figure and landscape painter, etcher and lithographer, who was one of the most famous war artists of World War I. He is often referred to by his initial ...

Jacob Epstein Sir Jacob Epstein (10 November 1880 – 21 August 1959) was an American-British sculptor who helped pioneer modern sculpture. He was born in the United States, and moved to Europe in 1902, becoming a British subject in 1911. He often produce ...

, Stanley Spencer, William Roberts, Paul Nash, Christopher Wood,

David Bomberg David Garshen Bomberg (5 December 1890 – 19 August 1957) was a British painter, and one of the Whitechapel Boys. Bomberg was one of the most audacious of the exceptional generation of artists who studied at the Slade School of Art under Henr ...

L. S. Lowry Laurence Stephen Lowry ( ; 1 November 1887 – 23 February 1976) was an English artist. His drawings and paintings mainly depict Pendlebury, Lancashire (where he lived and worked for more than 40 years) as well as Salford and its vicinity ...

, John Minton, Henry Moore,

Keith Vaughan John Keith Vaughan (23 August 1912 – 4 November 1977), was a British painter. Biography Born at Selsey in West Sussex, Vaughan attended Christ's Hospital school. He worked in an advertising agency until the World War II, when as an intending ...

Prunella Clough Prunella Clough (14 November 1919 – 26 December 1999) was a prominent British artist. She is known mostly for her paintings, though she also made prints and created assemblages of collected objects. She was awarded the Jerwood Prize for pain ...

and

Frank Auerbach Frank Helmut Auerbach (born 29 April 1931) is a German-British painter. Born in Germany, he has been a naturalised British subject since 1947. He is considered one of the leading names in the School of London, with fellow artists Francis Bacon ...

purchased for the city. During the late 1980s acquisitions all but ceased due to financial constraints. Museums Sheffield revived acquisitions in 1999 with the support of the

Contemporary Art Society The Contemporary Art Society (CAS) is an independent charity that champions the collecting of outstanding contemporary art and craft for UK museum collections. Since its founding in 1910 the organisation has donated over 10,000 works to museums ...

, the

Heritage Lottery Fund The National Lottery Heritage Fund, formerly the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF), distributes a share of National Lottery funding, supporting a wide range of heritage projects across the United Kingdom. History The fund's predecessor bodies were ...

, the

National Art Collections Fund Art Fund (formerly the National Art Collections Fund) is an independent membership-based British charity, which raises funds to aid the acquisition of artworks for the nation. It gives grants and acts as a channel for many gifts and bequests, as ...

and private benefactors. In recent years renewed enthusiasm for and commitment to contemporary art has enabled the purchase of significant contemporary art works such as Marc Quinn’s Kiss and Sam Taylor-Wood’s Self-Portrait Suspended VII with support fro
J.G. Graves Charitable Trust
the Art Fund and th
V&A Purchase Grant Fund
In 2009 the gallery was refurbished and re-hung based around key themes. Significant recent temporary exhibitions include The Blk Art Group and Andy Warhol: Late Self-Portraits.

Exhibitions

2012

11 April - 1 December 2012
Andy Warhol-Late Self-Portraits

2011

27 August 2011 – 24 March 2012
The Blk Art Group
31 March - 13 August 2011
The Triumph of Maximillian

2010

21 July 2010 – 19 March 2011
Paul Nash and Fay Godwin
17 April – 3 July 2010
'Writers of Influence:

Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's natio ...

to J K Rowling' from the National Portrait Gallery Collection

2009

19 December 2009 – 27 March 2010
' Robert Mapplethorpe' - as part of ARTIST ROOMS on Tour with The Art Fund 21 November 2009 – 20 March 2010
'Comedians: 1940 to Now' - Photographs from the National Portrait Gallery Collection 16 September – 5 December 2009
'A Picture of Us?' 4 April – 7 November 2009
' Hogarth: Industry and Idleness' 4 April – 7 November 2009
'Graves Gallery 75th Anniversary' 20 May – 29 August 2009
' Moore, Hepworth,

Nicholson Nicholson may refer to: People *Nicholson (name), a surname, and a list of people with the name Places Australia * Nicholson, Victoria * Nicholson, Queensland * Nicholson County, New South Wales * Nicholson River (disambiguation) * Nicholson ...

: A Nest of Gentle Artists' 18 February – 2 May 2009
'A Picture of You?' 10 January – 21 March 2009
'Family Album'

2008

10 November 2008 - 14 March 2009
'Tate Visual Dialogues' 12 April 2008 - 31 January 2009
'The Grice Ivories' 6 March - 31 May 2008
'The Diary Room: Characters from the 17th Century' 19 January - 29 March 2008
'Hidden Narratives'

2007

21 September 2007 - 6 January 2008
'Where Are We?: Questions of Landscape' 7 July 2007 - 18 October 2008
'Breaking with Tradition' 16 June - 8 September 2007
'Pre-Raphaelite Drawings' 31 March - 16 June 2007
'We the Moderns' 10 March - 3 June 2007
'

Lady Mary Wortley Montagu Lady Mary Wortley Montagu (née Pierrepont; 15 May 168921 August 1762) was an English aristocrat, writer, and poet. Born in 1689, Lady Mary spent her early life in England. In 1712, Lady Mary married Edward Wortley Montagu, who later served a ...

: an Extraordinary 18th Century Woman'

2006

1 December 2006 - 10 March 2007
'

Angus McBean Angus Rowland McBean (8 June 1904 – 9 June 1990) was a Welsh photographer, set designer and cult figure associated with surrealism. Early life Angus Rowland McBean was born in Newbridge, Monmouthshire, Wales on 8 June 1904, elder child and o ...

' 24 November 2006 - 25 February 2007
' Richard Long'Review by Alfred Hickling for the Guardian
Retrieved on 2010-11-25.

References

External links

Official Website
{{authority control Art museums and galleries in Sheffield Buildings and structures in Sheffield Contemporary art galleries in the United Kingdom Sheffield Galleries and Museums Trust Museums in Sheffield Tourist attractions in Sheffield Art museums established in 1934 1934 establishments in England