Inside the Laing Art Gallery's newest exhibition Romance To Realities

NewcastleWorld

We got a first look at the newest exhibition at Newcastle's Laing Art Gallery, Romance to Realities.  The exhibition explores over 200 years of landscape art across Northern England and Scotland and considers the role of humans within the region.  The exhibition opens on Saturday, October 5 and will be in place until April 2025.

Transcript

00:00Thank you very much.

01:00And what I've noticed going about is that it's not just the kind of classical, it's

01:13the real kind of transition into other stuff, you've seen there's photography as well in

01:17the other room.

01:18How has it been trying to bring this all together into one, under one roof?

01:22Well, basically the project is in collaboration with the Fleming Collection, which is a private

01:29And their collections are really strong in landscape, particularly a lot of the kind

01:34of modern and contemporary pieces as well.

01:36And also that's the strength of the Lenz Collection, so we had a lot to choose from.

01:41It was probably more kind of narrowing it down, really.

01:44But we were keen to, although there's a kind of chronological thrust to the exhibition,

01:49we're really keen to also emphasise certain themes and showing how modern and contemporary

01:54artists return to those ideas as well.

01:57So ideas that were introduced around landscape in the early 19th century, how other artists

02:02do kind of reuse and return and revisit it as well.

02:05So it was a real pleasure to really select from the collections that trying to actually

02:11kind of narrow it down was actually the trickiest bit, just because particularly at the Lenz

02:15are really strong landscape collections.

02:17How do you do that then?

02:18How do you kind of bring it down from what you've got down to what we see today?

02:23We start by actually really looking in the stores and seeing things in person, discussing

02:28it, but it's very much thinking about how a work will fit within a particular section

02:33or a particular theme, how it might work as a pairing with another work as well.

02:37So sometimes you might select something because it really complements another piece that you've

02:42already identified.

02:43I tend to start by kind of mapping out in terms of those ideas, but really in terms

02:49of narrowing down the choice, it's all to do with layout and it's all to do with actually

02:53when you start to design the exhibition and kind of work out how things are going to work

02:57within the galleries that we have and within the kind of sequence.

03:01So that's when you start to narrow things down really and think about which works you

03:05want in certain key locations as well, where you're going to get kind of a straight view

03:10through to them and things like that.

03:12So that actual spatial planning really helps to kind of narrow down the choice and to start

03:17to think about how works will look alongside each other in the gallery space.

03:22And I guess as well, coming from a north-east angle, how important is it to make sure that

03:26these pieces stay in the area rather than heading elsewhere, be down south or abroad

03:31or anything like that?

03:33Yeah, I mean it's definitely an emphasis of our collections and how we continue to acquire

03:38is to represent the art of the region and also the kind of landscape and places of the

03:44region which is why the collections are so strong.

03:48So that's something that we can continue to do really, but also kind of highlighting

03:53what a wealth of works we have and also the importance of Newcastle and north-east based

04:00artists as well throughout time.

04:02So that's something we're always really keen to do.

04:05And it's that kind of identity, isn't it?

04:07It's that kind of identity within the north-east and that pride of staying within the region,

04:11I guess, as well.

04:12Yeah, absolutely.

04:13And I think we really wanted to get a sense of place in this exhibition and a sense of

04:18these works which have kind of shaped how we look at landscape.

04:23I think often when we look at landscape, we're almost looking through the eyes of artists

04:28and paintings that we've seen and we expect that landscape to look like that, but also

04:32to really unpick the fact that these landscapes have been shaped by human intervention as

04:38well and to emphasise agriculture and industry and urban expansion as well and how that's

04:44influenced our landscape.

04:46And putting this all together as well, has it kind of changed your relationship with

04:49how you see various parts of the north-east or Scotland or things like that?

04:52Yeah, absolutely.

04:53I think particularly the ones which are kind of those wild, untamed, kind of unspoilt landscapes

05:01and it's made me think about actually how those landscapes kind of came about.

05:06The fact that of course there were people living there and I think particularly around

05:11the Highland Clearances as well and what happened in terms of that, that actually what we're

05:16seeing is very much this kind of image of Scotland in particular as this wild and untamed

05:22place and actually the role of art in creating that.

05:26But thinking more about actually the communities and kind of who lived there as well versus

05:31the people who would come for maybe for sports or kind of tourism and that kind of thing.

05:37So yes, it's definitely kind of changed my views in terms of those.

05:41One of the things that we're really proud of is the fact that we've represented women

05:46artists kind of throughout the period.

05:48So the exhibition covers over 200 years of landscape art and we're really keen to emphasise

05:55the role of women right through from the early 19th century through to the present day and

06:00really make sure that they were also represented within the works as well, which is always

06:06slightly trickier for the kind of earlier period.

06:09It's something that we really wanted to do and we were able to achieve partly through

06:13loans from other museums as well.

06:16So yeah, we're really pleased to do that.

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