ART HISTORY FESTIVAL 2024 – North West

Come along and enjoy a free highlights tour of our Pre-Raphaelite Gallery.

Women were the heartbeat of the Pre-Raphaelite movements. If we imagine a Pre-Raphaelite work of art what often comes to mind is an extraordinary, androgynous-looking woman in a scene painted with jewel-like colours. The Pre-Raphaelite artists lived, loved, and worked at the cusp of change for women and, in many ways, this is reflected in their work. Yet these stories are rarely told.

Through Tullie’s superb collections we explore how women were the objects of the artists’ gaze often becoming a symbol for morality. We consider the striking women who featured in the work, and the determined women who created their own. The women who collected and patronised these artists are celebrated along with their important acquisitions.

Featuring favourite works by Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Elizabeth Siddal, Edward Burne-Jones, Phoebe Anna Traquair and Arthur Hughes, alongside works never before displayed in our galleries, we look at the pioneering nature of the Pre-Raphaelites, asking the question: when before had gender been so central to art?

Show Me The World Mister is a solo exhibition by Ayo Akingbade comprising of two new film commissions. Shot on location in Nigeria, The Fist and Faluyi are Akingbade’s most ambitious productions to date, building upon her continued interest in history, place-making, legacy and power.

The Fist is a portrait of the Guinness brewery in Lagos, where histories of industrialisation and labour collide; while Faluyi follows protagonist Ife on a journey tracing familial legacy and mysticism in ancestral lands. Both films have been acquired by the Whitworth and will be shown together in a bespoke installation designed by the artist.

The exhibition is open until 20 October with relaxed screenings on Wednesdays from 10am.