Fitzwilliam Museum news

Announcing our new Chair of the Fitzwilliam Museum Syndicate

2024-10-02T15:03:53+01:00

We’re pleased to share that Sir Richard Heaton KCB officially commenced his appointment as the new Chair of the [Fitzwilliam Museum Syndicate](https://www.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/about-us/syndicate-and-supporters) on 1 October 2024. Sir Richard is the current Warden of the University of Cambridge’s Robinson College and has a background in the Civil Service. He is a former Permanent Secretary in both the Cabinet Office and most recently, the Ministry of Justice. As the Chair of Trustees at Koestler Arts, Sir Richard supports their ongoing work in rehabilitation through art in prisons and places of detention. He is also Chair of the Advisory Committee for the Government Art Collection. His passion for the arts extends to his collection of contemporary and 20th century paintings, drawings and ceramics. _'I’ve always loved and admired the Fitzwilliam, and I’m delighted to be joining it as Chair of the Syndics.'_ — Sir Richard Heaton The Syndicate was established as a General Board committee to undertake the governance of the Museum, and they report directly to the [University of Cambridge’s Regent House](https://www.governance.cam.ac.uk/governance/key-bodies/RH-Senate/Pages/default.aspx). Alongside our Director and Marlay Curator Luke Syson, the Syndicate ensures that we fulfill our vision of opening up the past to transform our futures, and our mission to use art, objects, spaces and experiences to inspire reflection, connection and creativity. Sir Richard – whose appointment begins in October, succeeds our outgoing Chair, Catherine Arnold OBE who has overseen the reorganisation of the Museum and a new mission in her role since 2021. During this time, we have welcomed our highest-ever visitor figures. _'I am enormously grateful to Catherine Arnold for her rigour and good humour over the past three years, with change afoot at the Fitzwilliam. And I am really delighted that Richard will take over as the new Chair of our Syndicate. His depth of experience and his love of art will be enormously helpful as we make the Fitzwilliam Museum not just more and more vibrant but also financially and environmentally sustainable. The Fitz has a big part to play in making connections across Cambridge’s communities to the rest of world. With Richard’s energy and eye for detail, I’m sure we will make real strides towards realising our huge potential. I much look forward to working with him.'_ — Luke Syson, Director and Marlay Curator of the Fitzwilliam Museum

Gary Wragg, Oval Works Gaze Left, 1997

2024-03-01T14:24:42+00:00

**Contemporary British abstract painter Gary Wragg reflects on his work 'Oval Works Gaze Left', which will be hung in an [exciting new redisplay](https://www.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/news/exciting-new-redisplay-set-to-reopen-in-our-recently-refurbished-galleries) of our main painting galleries, 1-5.** There have been a number of constant threads, themes and concerns in my painting over the past sixty years. I continue to pursue discoveries in my practice, going strong in my newly built studio. Then and now, freedom and spontaneity are priorities in my painting and drawing. The duality of painting and Tai Chi Chuan has run through my career, a life’s passion and way of life. Two as one, each enhancing the other, a friendship of discovery and experimentation. 'Oval Works Gaze Left' 1997, with its elemental colour blue, was one from a group of Tai Chi Chuan related paintings, from what I called, the Oval Works series, after my studio in the 1990s at the Oval, south London. The Oval Works series included also my non-figurative version of Poussin’s Crucifixion. Later that decade I worked on another series relating to Cezanne and Goya. Looking back helps me to go forward with new paintings. This is integral to my painting journey, a circular process rather than linear. During the 1990s, I made various groups of paintings with fields of broken colour, in closely knit, rough, overlapping layers. Often these fields were made by pressing paint-covered bubble-wrap onto the surface of a painting in progress. I got the idea at the Royal Academy’s 1995 Poussin exhibition, where I noticed an accidental bubble-wrap mark on one of the paintings. Pressing the bubble-wrap on the surface helped fuse a sense of flickering light, colour and freshness with a felt sensation, and pulse in my body and hands, related to Tai Chi practice. While organizing, planning and implementation are indispensable; everything is in the moment, of every moment as paint is applied. Gazing and looking are a natural everyday duality of visual perception. Central and peripheral vision is essential for visual and spatial awareness. Gaze Left, Look Right, Forward, Backward and Central Equilibrium are all components of the Five Elements, central to the practice of Tai Chi Chuan, and the four cornerstones have been a constant thread in my paintings over six decades. They are, to simplify, Stillness and Movement, Hard and Soft (or Dry and Liquid), Full and Empty and Open and Close. A painting is something that is absolutely still, but naturally I move as I paint, or when I look at a painting. Then again, I can be standing still but optically can see so much movement in the painting. There are many permutations. The paintings tend to develop slowly to realise the essence of drawing, light, colour, and touch in paint, to resolve and resonate precision, and the unexpected differences as you paint. Order with it’s own explorations and surprises. I would like to thank the Friends who presented my painting in 2002, and the director and curator then, Duncan Robinson and Dr Jane Munro. And thanks to everyone at the Fitzwilliam for the wonderful, sensitive and beautiful organising and hanging of works throughout the exhibition programme these past decades. Gary Wragg, 11 February 2024.

New acquisitions display in the Shiba Gallery

2025-12-05T17:54:29+00:00

This display brings together works that have been added to the Fitzwilliam Museum’s collection by the generous support of individuals, charities and supporters during the last five years. The majority included in the selection is works on paper, since the museum’s outstanding collection of 150,000 drawings, prints and watercolours cannot be displayed for long periods because light can cause damage to papers and pigments.

Exciting new redisplay set to reopen in our recently refurbished galleries

2023-11-16T11:23:23+00:00

**See new paintings and rediscover old favourites in our recently refurbished galleries, opening together for the first time in four years.** After a significant refurbishment and redisplay project, we’re thrilled to announce the reopening of our main painting galleries (1-5) from 15 March 2024. Through themes of interiors, migration, landscape and portraiture, this fresh redisplay explores our collection in imaginative and surprising ways, bringing together our most popular works alongside exciting rediscoveries and brand-new acquisitions—some of which are displayed for the first time ever. >The Fitzwilliam has a crucial role in telling a more expansive and inclusive story of art that resonates with us today Luke Syson, Director and Marlay Curator of the Fitzwilliam Museum Reflecting the ongoing diversification of our collection and research, the galleries include paintings from the 1600s to today. From works by Gwen John, Henri Matisse and Dante Gabriel Rossetti to contemporary artists such as Jake Grewal, Joy Labinjo and Kerry James Marshall, the new display offers different perspectives and a new lens through which to consider both our past and future. > Our most famous works of art now take their place alongside more unexpected pieces in a rich array that leaves space for a range of responses and asks us to think anew. Luke Syson, Director and Marlay Curator of the Fitzwilliam Museum Galleries 1-5 will reopen from 15 March 2024. Image: Detail of Anthony van Dyck, Rachel de Ruvigny, Countess of Southampton, as Fortune, 1638, Oil on canvas © The Fitzwilliam Museum, University of Cambridge

Three major contemporary artworks to enter our collection

2023-10-12T13:27:10+01:00

**We’re delighted to announce that three major contemporary artworks will enter our collection, all made possible thanks to Frieze London and the Contemporary Art Society’s Collections Fund.** These three acquired works by artists Grada Kiloma, Pamela Phatismo Sunstrum and Goshka Macuga embody a multitude of global stories and art historical traditions. And the acquisitions mark the first time that two of the artists, Grada Kilomba and Pamela Phatismo Sunstrum, will be represented in the collection of a British institution. **About the artists and the artworks…** **Grada Kilomba** is a Berlin-based Portuguese artist, whose works draws on memory, trauma, gender and post-colonialism, interrogating concepts of knowledge, power and violence. Kilomba’s artwork, Untitled Poem (one sorrow, one revolution) consists of 18 charcoaled wood blocks engraved with poems by the artist in gold leaf, written in Yoruba, Cape Vere Creole, Portuguese, Syrian Arabic and English, to further explore cyclical violence and the relationship between narrative, power and repetition. **Goshka Macuga** is a London based, Polish artist whose practice is based on historical and archival research, which informs her installations, sculptures, tapestries, and collages. As an artist Macuga questions history, political structures, and the pressing issues of our time. Macuga’s sculpture, Rabindranath Tagore (Blue), includes a plaster head of Indian polymath and Noble laureate, Rabindranath Tagore as a flower vase. The work relates to her larger series of 73 bronze sculptures from 2016, the “International Institute of Intellectual Co-operation” depicting 61 historical and contemporary figures in imaginary dialogue across cultural and temporal divides. Tagore was highly influential in introducing Indian culture to the West and vice versa, and he is generally regarded as the outstanding creative artist of early 20th-century India. **Pamela Phatsimo Sunstrum** was born in Botswana and is now based in The Hague. Her art encompasses drawing, painting, installation and animation, with works that allude to mythology, geology and theories on the nature of the universe. Sunstrum’s drawings have been said to appear simultaneously futuristic and ancient. Sunstrum’s artwork, The Dream II (mae), pictures a double portrait of the artist’s alter ego Asme, who has become a constant figure in her work - representing a testing ground for ideas, in the absence of representation of the black female body in art history. The double figures in the painting are each depicted cradling eggs in the palms of their hands. The rich symbology of the egg - speaking to fertility and unhatched potential here ascribes a powerful sense of what might come. Suggesting then, in The Dream II, the artist desires for the visibility of women of colour as well as a profound sense of potential. Caroline Douglas, Director of the Contemporary Art Society said “_In this 7th year of our collaboration with Frieze London, and its 20th anniversary year, I am delighted that we have been able to make these important purchases for one of our most important institutions outside of London. We are proud of a track record of acquiring works by major international artists, who bring global discourses into the heart of UK regional museums with works that engage, delight and challenge_.” Habda Rashid, our Senior Curator Contemporary & Modern Art said “_I am deeply thankful to the Collection Fund at Frieze and the CAS patrons for supporting the acquisition of works by three outstanding international women artists, whose poetic and powerful art making can resonate across the collections at the Fitzwilliam Museum._” We’re thrilled to have these works enter the Fitzwilliam Museum collection.

Landmark portrait by artist Kerry James Marshall joins our collection

2023-10-03T14:40:28+01:00

We’re thrilled to finally reveal the exciting new portrait that’s joining our collection. World-renowned American contemporary artist Kerry James Marshall is donating a portrait of author, scholar and award-wining filmmaker Henry Louis ‘Skip’ Gates to the University of Cambridge. The Fitzwilliam Museum is only the second institution in the UK to acquire a work by Marshall, who is widely regarded as one of the most important artists working today. Unveiled earlier today, the painting is now on free public display in our Gallery 4. Marshall is best known for his figurative paintings that often reference representational painting styles across centuries of art history. In a way, the artist is in conversation with the past—reinterpreting and updating compositions, elements and themes which he recontextualises in a contemporary setting. His depictions of Black bodies create what Marshall refers to as a ‘counter-archive’, addressing the invisibility of people of colour in Western art history and creating new narratives for his figures. _‘Marshall is unquestionably one of the very greatest artists working today, and his generous gift of his powerful, subtly characterised portrait of Skip Gates, radical and influential thinker and academic, cements the enduring connection Gates feels so strongly to the University of Cambridge, where he first studied fifty years ago. It’s a painting that truly celebrates past, present and future.’_ — Luke Syson, Director and Marlay Curator of the Fitzwilliam Museum Aside from his own self-portraits, Marshall’s painting of ‘Skip’ Gates is his first-ever portrait of a living, rather than imagined, sitter. Among many things, Gates is a literary critic, historian and currently the Alphonse Fletcher University Professor and the director of the Hutchins Center for African and African American Research at Harvard University in Boston, Massachusetts. Gates’ connection to Cambridge and the University began half a century ago in 1973, when he became the first African American student to be awarded a Paul Mellon Fellowship at Cambridge University where he completed a PhD in English. Gates was awarded an honorary degree—one of the University’s highest accolades—in 2022. The idea for the portrait first came about when an image of Gates was included in a 2018 exhibition curated by the Black Cantabs Research Society, a student group set up in 2015 to create a link between past black scholars, present students, and prospective students. Then, in spring of 2019, Clare College hung a photographic portrait of the acclaimed intellectual in its Graduate Common Room. When visiting Cambridge for the unveiling of that photograph on the occasion of the 90th anniversary of the Mellon Fellowship, Gates was inspired by the historic, richly coloured portraits which hang in Old Court. Following a discussion with Kerry James Marshall, a close friend, the two decided to create a colour portrait of Gates which would be gifted to the University. _‘This is a very important donation - not only as this is the first portrait of a living person that Marshall, one of the most significant artists of our time, has ever created but also that it depicts one of our remarkable alumni and honorary graduates, half a century after he first came to study here in 1973. We hope this portrait, soon to be on display at the Fitzwilliam, will inspire the next generation of thinkers and academics.’_ — Deborah Prentice, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cambridge. **‘Henry Louis Gates Jr’ will be on display in Gallery 4 from Tuesday 3 October 2023.** Image credit: Kerry James Marshall, Henry Louis Gates Jr, 2020. Acrylic on PVC panel in artist's frame © Kerry James Marshall. Courtesy the artist and David Zwirner, London; Photo: Anna Arca

FUTURE/POWER: Empowering young people through museum research

2023-09-28T10:43:13+01:00

We’re excited to announce our new FUTURE/POWER learning project in partnership with [Museum X](https://www.themuseumx.com/), a Black-led cultural organisation exploring Pan-African history and culture in Britain and driving sector change. We’re delighted to have been awarded a generous grant of £74,120 from [‘Mindsets + Missions for Museums and Science Centres of the Future’](https://www.museumsassociation.org/funding/mindsets-and-missions/). This learning programme is funded by UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) in partnership with the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) and delivered by the Museums Association in partnership with The Liminal Space and the Association for Science and Discovery Centres. The ‘Mindsets + Missions’ programme uses the concept of ‘future citizens’ to bring together diverse and plural perspectives at participating spaces such as the Fitzwilliam Museum. It encourages young people to engage with, influence and develop the knowledge our future societies will be built on. FUTURE/POWER is a partnership between ourselves and Soham Village College, a local secondary school part of Staploe Education Trust. Together we’re forming an innovative in-school youth collective of 15 students and generating creative, interdisciplinary co-research spaces within their school, our museum and online. These young people will be invited to explore our upcoming exhibition [‘Black Atlantic: Power, People, Resistance’](https://www.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/visit-us/exhibitions/black-atlantic-power-people-resistance), which is the first in our series of planned shows and gallery interventions between 2023–2026 examining the legacies of empire and enslavement in Cambridge. Working collaboratively alongside professionals with lived experience, our FUTURE/POWER project aims to empower young people to look afresh at research practices through the lens of Black history; discovering compelling new ways to re-examine material legacies within our collection and experimenting with innovative storytelling tools that can help harness and facilitate the sharing of untold stories. Through engaging with our museum research, exhibitions and collection, FUTURE/POWER participants will explore how empire shapes our past, present and collective future. We believe museum learning can inform, inspire and equip our young global citizens with the skills they need for the future. Co-designed with the Soham Village College and facilitated in collaboration with Museum X, planned activities include tours of our exhibition, discussions with the ‘Black Atlantic’ curators, Design Lab sessions, behind-the-scenes access to the museum and object handling sessions, as well as weekly after-school creative workshops with the Museum X team and freelance creatives, curators, art historians, tech specialists and more. In partnership with a local theatre company, the project will culminate in a live performance piece, designed by the FUTURE/POWER youth collective, here in May 2024. Discover more about the ‘Mindsets + Missions’ project [here](https://www.museumsassociation.org/funding/mindsets-and-missions/).

Play Make Saturdays

2023-04-20T17:13:58+01:00

We are excited to share the news that the Fitzwilliam Museum will soon be launching 'Play Make Saturdays', a free monthly make and play workshop for families, starting in May 2023. 'Play Make Saturdays' invites you to explore, play, create and have fun with materials in our Studio. Workshops are free and supported by the Fitz Families team. All materials are included and the workshops are suitable for children aged 5-12 years and their parents and carers. There will be a choice of four 45-minute workshops each month. Due to popular demand, pre-booking is required. We will announce dates on our [website](https://www.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/events/families), or sign up to our [eNews](https://tickets.museums.cam.ac.uk/account/create) to be the first to know. Please note: Play Make Saturdays replaces Family First Saturday. -------------- Families can also discover our collections through free resources that are available to collect on arrival from the Courtyard Entrance: 0-2 years Pick up a Play Mat specially designed to entertain babies and toddlers. Contains carefully selected sensory objects that connect with themes and objects in the collection. Please return the Play Mat as you leave for others to enjoy. 2-6 years Borrow a Story Starter containing a picture book and fun activities to use in the galleries. Please don’t forget to return the satchel to the front desk on your way out! 6-11 years Grab a themed gallery trail to inspire you as you explore the Museum. From an interactive trail using artworks and objects to guide your journey through the galleries, to topics on colour, Egypt, and Shakespeare.

Fitzwilliam Museum announces 2023 exhibition programme

2023-09-06T09:27:13+01:00

The Fitzwilliam Museum today announced its programme of exhibitions for 2023, bringing together interdisciplinary research and ideas from across the University of Cambridge and beyond to explore how identities and attitudes are formed – and the role art and objects can play in shaping both our presents and our futures. ***[Islanders: The Making of the Mediterranean](https://www.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/visit-us/exhibitions/islanders)* (until 4 June)** This critically acclaimed exhibition transports visitors back 4,000 years to the islands and sea of the ancient Mediterranean. It brings to the UK an unprecedented group of over 200 antiquities on loan, most for the first time, from three of the largest Mediterranean islands – Sardinia, Cyprus, and Crete – to demystify the identity of island life and show how the evolution of the Mediterranean world was defined by how connected the islands were across three millennia. ***[Black Atlantic: Power, People, Resistance](https://www.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/visit-us/exhibitions/black-atlantic-power-people-resistance)* (8 September – 7 January 2024)** This landmark exhibition, exploring the impact of the Black Atlantic, will be staged in the Museum’s Founder’s Galleries, which were built using profits from enslavement and exploitation. *Black Atlantic* will bring together significant national and international loans with collections from across the University of Cambridge’s museums, libraries and colleges, telling both a Cambridge story and a global one. Objects and artworks from the seventeenth and eighteenth-century Britain will be shown in dialogue with modern and contemporary artworks by artists including Donald Locke, Barbara Walker, Keith Piper, and Jacqueline Bishop. ***[Real Families: Stories of Change](https://www.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/visit-us/exhibitions/real-families-stories-of-change)* (6 October – 7 January 2024)** This major exhibition will explore the intricacies of families and family relationships through the eyes of artists. Over the past 50 years, Western ideas of what makes a family and how family life is experienced, have been transformed by advances in science and by changes in social attitudes and law. Developed in collaboration with the world-leading [Centre for Family Research](https://www.cfr.cam.ac.uk/) at the University of Cambridge, this exhibition will feature works by artists including Paula Rego, Chantal Joffe, JJ Levine, Lucian Freud, and Tracey Emin.

The Fitzwilliam Museum acquires its first David Hockney painting

2022-12-09T15:33:36+00:00

We’re delighted to announce that the Fitzwilliam Museum has acquired its first David Hockney painting, *Huggate's St Mary's Church Spire, August 2005*, under the [Acceptance in Lieu](https://www.artscouncil.org.uk/supporting-arts-museums-and-libraries/supporting-collections-and-cultural-property/acceptance-lieu#section-1) scheme. Painted en plein air, Hockney’s landscape is from a period of artistic reengagement with Yorkshire, where he was born and raised. It shows what fields at harvest time in the Wolds of East Riding, a scene Hockney was familiar with having worked as a seasonal farm labourer as a teenager. One of the first of Hockney’s oil landscapes, it was painted at the beginning of a seven-year period focused on producing oil works of Yorkshire landscapes. In 2022, it was on display in *Hockney’s Eye: The Art and Technology of Depiction*, an exhibtion hosted by the Fitzwilliam and The Heong Gallery, Downing College Cambridge, where it was exhibited next to John Constable’s *Hampstead Heath.* Both paintings are currently on display in [Gallery 3](https://www.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/visit-us/exhibitions/fitzwilliam-favourites-in-gallery-3) until 30 December 2022. *Huggate’s St Mary’s Church Spire, August 2005*. By David Hockney. © David Hockney.

University of Cambridge publishes report on Legacies of Enslavement Inquiry

2023-04-20T17:10:12+01:00

The University of Cambridge has today (22 September) published the findings of an investigation into its historical links with the transatlantic slave trade, together with a response from the Vice-Chancellor. The Advisory Group on the Legacies of Enslavement was created in early 2019 at the request of the Vice-Chancellor in light of the growing public interest in the issue of British universities’ historical links to enslavement and the slave trade. It was asked to advise him on Cambridge’s historical links and on the legacies of those links, and to propose future action in the light of the findings. This inquiry follows similar initiatives by other leading institutions including the Bank of England, the Church of England, the National Trust and other universities. Read the [University's story](https://preview.shorthand.com/ciIZdC1FRpU08q6L) here and [watch here](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JKjIWKk6eow).