Galleries - November 2011

show ‘Remember, remember: A History ofFireworks in Britain’ the most nostalgic and vivid oftrips down memory lane. Particularly the central section which looks at the vital artwork connected to the design and display of20th C. fireworks, drawing on the collec- tion ofthe remarkable Maurice Evans. Now in his 80s he has been collecting fireworks and their boxes since his childhood, a pas- sion – and a profession since dis- plays also became his job – inspir- ed, rather alarmingly, by discov- ering his father’s WW1 work in munitions (and notes on explos- ives) and a WW2 childhood letting off shells on bomb sites! With additional graphic material from other sources and a history sec- tion on Guy Fawkes’ Night, this show is sure to go with a bang . . . Art in a Blizzard There really is something wonder- fully perverse about the idea of holding an Open Studios in Central Scotland in early Novem- ber (5-6 & 12-13 November) but, undeterred by the fact that last year’s event took place in a blizzard, East Neuk Open Studios , under the cheerfully dynamic leadership ofits founder (10 years ago) Jo Whitney has no intention ofstopping. (They do a second one in June, too.) But then she is an eccentric Sassenach who only moved up there, from an early career in Plymouth, some 20 years ago. As ifthat wasn’t quite enough, she is, at exactly the same moment, having a show of her work back in Plymouth, in the Mezzanine Gallery ofthe city’s Theatre Royal. It’s a nice idea for a show too, the reworking ofa body ofpaintings and sketches she did there, 25 years back, oflife in and around the old fish market. Shortly after, she also saved this marvellous Victorian masterpiece, designed by a Great Western Railway architect, from demolition, a victim ofEU hygiene regulations – sadly only for it then to be converted into a woollen mill. Art Affairs There are not many small cities in this country that can boast 23 or more galleries, but that is the astonishing number that have come together to form the Bath Galleries Group and put on an annual co-operative event, the Bath Art Affair in November (11 to 20.) This year, the second in the series, is stronger than ever and very ably co-ordinated by Jemma Hickman of bo.lee gallery , feat- ures a major show by invited artist Peter Randall-Page in the cele- brated Octagon Gallery. Frink, Moore, Hirst, Rego, Gormley and Blake, among many others, are to be found elsewhere around the city’s gallery spaces. There’s even a signposted ‘trail’. Some 6,000 copies ofthis issue of Galleries contain a full brochure of shows and events; ifyours doesn’t, they will easily be found in quantity at venues around the city. Moving closer to London, the ANTENNAE 8. GALLERIES NOVEMBER 11 Moving In Established nearly 20 years ago in London’s Westbourne Grove to deal in the then largely unfashion- able Ecole de Paris painters of the immediate post-war era, Hanina Gallery has succeeded in chan- ging attitudes towards the period so successfully that it now finds itself needing to operate far more centrally. The mega-arrival of the fashion industry in their old patch would only seem to have hast- ened the process, though ironic- ally that’s not without its issues in the area to which they have chosen to move – St George’s Street, just behind Sotheby’s and close to Hanover Square. But, given the number of other dealers now moving in on this field of art, being central and more visible is a good plan. Evening events and openings are promised also, though exactly when, with builders still present, is being left wisely vague – “November”! Nature or Nurture ? As a child, fingering the box of fire- works with their gaudy and ex- citing designs and anticipating what they would actually ‘do’ on Bonfire Night was almost (but not quite) as good as the event itself. With the advent of myriad public displays all through the year and, of course, Health and Safety, that experience nowadays has pro- bably become a minority one for most children. All of which makes Compton Verney’s delightful