Lecture
Ancient and Modern: The Whitworth Art Gallery

Ancient and Modern: The Whitworth Art Gallery

Tuesday, November 13, 7 pm

New York University Main Building, Room 300 (enter at 32 Waverly Place)

 

In a lecture, Alistair Smith, Director of the Whitworth Art Gallery, will enlarge on the themes of Pastoral to Postindustrial through an exploration of the great range of the Gallery’s collections. Founded in 1887 thanks to the bequest of Sir Joseph Whitworth, “the world’s best mechanician,” the Whitworth Art Gallery remained an independent museum until it became associated with the University of Manchester in 1958. The subsequent conversion of its stately Edwardian interiors into one of the most humanely modernist art galleries in the UK was accompanied by new collecting initiatives, so that the Whitworth is now recognized for its holdings of both modernist and traditional styles of art, producing an intriguing interface between the ancient and the modern.  Described upon its founding “as a source of gratification,” the Whitworth is dedicated to “the Collection, Exhibition and Illustration of Fine Art, and the Study of and Instruction in Fine Arts, by means of Galleries, Libraries, Classes and other methods.” Dr. Smith will assess how far these aims have been developed and achieved.

 

Organized by the Grey Art Gallery and cosponsored by the Program in Museum Studies, New York University