Shafts of Light - September 13th 2010
A stunning exhibition of art inspired by the North East coal mining industry opened to the public this weekend (11 September).
More than 50 striking paintings, prints and etchings by artists from the region have been brought together by the exhibition’s curators Robert McManners and Gillian Wales. All of the artists on show have been either involved in the industry themselves or related to someone who has, or inspired by the effect of coal mining on the community.
Many of the artists will be familiar names such as Tom McGuiness, Norman Cornish and Bill Hindmarsh all of whom have had their own dedicated exhibitions at Woodhorn, but others will be less well-known to Woodhorn visitors. All have had a powerful urge to capture the essence of an industry, a way of life, a community. The exhibition features several paintings by artists from the Ashington Group: works by Kilbourn, Floyd, Harrison and Wilson will be on show for the first time from Woodhorn’s own collection. Also on show will be a number of paintings by female artists including Marjorie Arnfield’s powerful perspective on the Miners’ Strike, and Pat Thirtle’s entertaining painting of the Big Meeting. Of course many of the images on display in the exhibition capture the unique atmosphere of the mining industry, the effect on the human condition and the harsh environment. The bulk of the artwork on show is part of the Gemini Collection owned and administered by Robert McManners and Gillian Wales themselves. “Gemini is dedicated to collecting mining art with the long term aim of producing a corpus of work for public display,” said Gillian. “We’ve used the proceeds from our books on mining art and artists to augment the collection, and we’ve been fortunate to have works donated by the artists themselves too.”
The exhibition runs until 28 November.