Bury Art Museum and Sculpture Centre - Review

It is a short walk from the tram stop to Bury Art Museum and Sculpture Centre. The sky is clear, but the cold of the winter lingers in the mornings. I am visiting for a dual purpose. Firstly, for this review series. Secondly, to scope the place out for an interview the following week. While ultimately I didn’t get the job, it was a fun experience to run reconnaissance on the place – going more in depth on specific art works to prepare for a mock tour I was to be delivering.

I had researched the institution before hand – its origin in the collections of paper merchant Wrigley, and its purpose-built building, with certain architectural quirks. Decals symbolising Manchester’s trades sit above in the rafters, glass tiles allow light into the lower floors, where the museum sits.

Upstairs, Tina’s tea room. A healthy amount of patrons are sipping cups of tea and nibbling on slices of cake. The café is odd. It wraps around a central opening which looks back down to the ground floor.

Off from the tea room is the temporary gallery. At the moment it displays – now familiar – Turner’s Liber Studiorum. After encountering this at the Whitworth, this is a much more condensed display. Amongst the mezzotint prints sits the gallery’s four Turners. Their crown jewel is ‘Calais Sands at Low Waters: Poissards Collecting Bait’. It is an incredible piece of work. It’s framed in a grandiose Victorian gilded frame and sits at the far end of the hall. Before it, three chairs from which to sit and study it. It’s positioning diminishes the Liber prints that flank the room. Yet, it is a nice exploration of Turner.

‘Calais’ is evidently a point of pride for the gallery. A central table case contains publicity material from various institutions at which the ‘Calais’ has toured. I later learn that it usually hangs in the permanent gallery – amongst other landscapes – but has been moved to embellish this temporary exhibition. Turnermania this year.

Around the corner we find quite a delicate room, shaded, low light levels. Here hang examples from Bury’s extensive works on paper collection, rotated frequently to prevent light damage. Wrigley’s bequest set the Art Gallery up with a fun origin story, since – rather than a fan of the renaissance – he loved 19^th century contemporary art. Although, because of his taste, the collection has a blind spot for the pre-Raphaelites – a fact acknowledged by the text in this room.

Adjoining here is a film box currently screening a piece on Islamic culture and custom amongst the Masjid Uncles – this is a very accomplished piece of contemporary film. The room is calm and cool; however the seating is merely more of the same seats from other places in the gallery. The presence of a permanent film showcase is very respectable – allowing for the display of cutting-edge contemporary practice and broadening the medium available in the gallery.

Next we enter the permanent gallery. Yet again I have encountered this room from an inopportune angle. The explanatory text – laying out the gallery’s rationale – is at the other end. I later learn that the hallway is divided into thirds, framed around Stories, People and Places. I stand in Places.

Picking up an explainer booklet from a nearby wall, I read up on the artworks – finding details about Lady Elizabeth Butler or Helmut Schoeber. The Text is useful, in depth, and interesting. However there is only one copy available. Any wall text remains simple cold provenance details. There is no indication – beyond the content of the artworks – that this room deals with the concept of Place, or Landscape. Not even a simple heading anywhere. It would have been nice to approach this hallway from either direction.

The central section is guarded by a giant ironwork piece of Chinese sculpture. Beyond this, taking up around half of the hallway – is People. The artworks are diverse. A cabinet of sculptures made entirely of paper (pictured below) hints at the heritage of the venue. One half is reserved for images of women. Mixed medium. A large central work in acrylic towers above various oil paintings, watercolours.

On the other side of the hall, a pair of Jacob Epstein busts. They nicely disrupt the classical sculpture displayed nearby. Their rough edges give character to their subjects. Nearby, a Harold Knight. In this a woman brushes her hair, facing a mirror, her reflection looking away from the viewer. On further research I find out that Knight – husband of Dame Laura – was a conscientious objector. Does this change the way I view the artwork? Maybe. Certainly, more context is always something I’m seeking, and something that the gallery seems reluctant to provide.

Within this room is a Nahem Shoa – one of my personal favourites. I encountered his work first in Graves Gallery in Sheffield. One of his Giant Heads was on display. Later on I learn that Bury had an exhibition of his work a few years back. This piece, a self-portrait, was acquired during that event. Shoa, with his neo-impressionist stylings, feels to me akin to a successor to Lucian Freud. He remains one of my favourite contemporary artists and it is always a pleasure to see his work.

Over to the final part of the permanent collection. Stories. This is an interesting collection. Most of the works here are paintings of scenes from narratives: Historical and Fictional. Landseer’s ‘A Random Shot’ depicts a dead doe with live fawn, inspired by a line from a Walter Scott poem. It’s rather macabre scene is apparently not an issue for younger visitors, according to a longstanding volunteer that I had the pleasure of having a chat with.

Other scenes draw from Shakespear or Greek Myth. We see an interesting praxiological intervention by local artist Jez Dolan. A digital photography work remaking an earlier piece, bringing in themes of queer history to this more traditional room.

Here, the rationale for the curation of the permanent collection is spelled out. Text on a trolley in the middle of the room, in which are items to dress up with, explains the history of the building, and finally spells out the trichotomy of Story, People, Place.

Next door, finishing our tour of the upper floor, is quite the brilliant collection of photography – a local project documenting holocaust survivors in the local area. I really respect the use of this room to highlight and platform this project, which shares space with a few tables acting as a make-space.   

Which leads us back to Tina’s tea room.

Downstairs – possibly the subject of a later post – is the sculpture centre. It is wrapping up an exhibition of Lowery’s ‘Going to the Match’. It is a fun little exhibition, blending photography with archive material, all celebratory of the local football culture and Lowery’s place in that. It is also very well attended, even during a week day on its last week. Next up is Universal Bridge, by Lee Holden. A sculpture exhibition I am planning on eventually visiting.

Within the sculpture gallery, past a co-curatorial make space linked to the Lowery exhibition, is the local art shop, which has some absolutely stunning prints and objects on offer. The calibre of work is very high.

And downstair, subject for perhaps a different post also, is the museum. Little to be said here on this though.

Ultimately, Bury Art Museum and Sculpture Centre is a gem of a venue with a strong permanent collection. Its presentation was hampered mainly by my repeated habit of counter-clockwise viewing. Curatorially sound and a lot more interesting than one might expect, the museum has a nice blend of 19^th century and contemporary art and is a pleasant visit, if only for the wonderful building that houses it all.