The Oxford Guide - Differences between Version 30 and Version 29 of Christ Church Picture Gallery

Version 30 Version 29
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18 September - 20 October 2010
'The Firing Line - Depictions of Conflict in the Collection of General John Guise' - 29 August 2010 (extended due to popular demand).
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'Likenesses - Photographs by Judith Aronson'. An exhibition accompanying Judith Aronson's new book.
War and battle have always had a place in art – from prehistoric cave paintings to the most current conflicts of the 21st century. For centuries rulers of states had their military encounters visually glorified, choosing not only their own military encounters, but more often famous historical and mythological battles. Critical depictions of war, with very few exceptions, only occurred from the mid-19th century. The subject matter demands monumentality and most of the painted, woven and sculpted works are impressive in size with the intention to overwhelm and awe the viewer.
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This exhibition shows a selection of works from the 16th and 17th centuries in the much more intimate medium of drawing. The sheets on display allow the viewer to examine the beginnings of the monumental designs which were created by artists for their powerful patrons.

Christ Church is unique among the Oxford and Cambridge colleges in possessing an important collection of Old Master paintings and drawings, housed in a purpose-built Gallery of considerable architectural interest in itself. The collection consists of some 300 paintings and almost 2000 drawings and is strongest in Italian art from the 14th to the 18th century.

The internationally renowned drawings collection in the Picture Gallery at Christ Church is regarded as one of the most important private collections of Old Master drawings in the country. These small in-house exhibitions are changed about every three months to enable the public to see a varied selection from this part of the collection.

The current exhibitions are:

'The Firing Line - Depictions of Conflict in the Collection of General John Guise' - 29 August 2010 (extended due to popular demand).

War and battle have always had a place in art – from prehistoric cave paintings to the most current conflicts of the 21st century. For centuries rulers of states had their military encounters visually glorified, choosing not only their own military encounters, but more often famous historical and mythological battles. Critical depictions of war, with very few exceptions, only occurred from the mid-19th century. The subject matter demands monumentality and most of the painted, woven and sculpted works are impressive in size with the intention to overwhelm and awe the viewer.

This exhibition shows a selection of works from the 16th and 17th centuries in the much more intimate medium of drawing. The sheets on display allow the viewer to examine the beginnings of the monumental designs which were created by artists for their powerful patrons.

'Sacred Faces - Icons in Oxford (25 August - 22 December)

Icons are used in the Eastern Orthodox Church to focus worshippers' prayers. Their form and function have hardly changed over the last fifteen centuries and their spiritual message is retained even in a museum setting. This exhibition will show Greek and Russian icons from the Picture Gallery and the Ashmolean Museum which are normally not on view. Among them are a St George and the Dragon from around 1500 which has just been cleaned and restored to its former splendour and two Ashmolean fragments from a large Last Judgement, which are certainly the most important Russian icons preserved in Oxford. Further works, given to Christ Church in 1980 by C. R. Patterson provide an overview of Russian religious art in the imperial period.

Admission: £3/£2. Free to those who have Bod cards and ArtFund members.


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