Brighton

Whilst visiting Brighton over the weekend, I saw several interesting exhibitions. The first was at Brighton Museum and Art Gallery and featured Women Artists from the Fine Art Collection. It was an eclectic mix but of main interest was a small display of prints and drawings by Gertrude Hermes. I have seen examples of her work before but never original pieces. Born in Kent in 1901, her father was German and she spent several years studying in Germany and taught herself to wood engrave. I certainly think the influence of German Expressionism is evident.

The second show I saw that impressed me was 'Jan Svankmajer - The Inner Life of Objects' at the University of Brighton Gallery and was part of the Brighton Film Festival. The gallery were showing clips from several of his best known films such as 'Alice', 'Little Otik' and 'Punch and Judy'. Props, sets and puppets from these films were on display. Also there was 'Historia Naturae' - weird and wonderful creatures created from skulls, bones and shells, as well as doll parts.

 Along side these were coloured etchings, which on first glance looked like traditional natural history illustrations until you see that they are complete figments of Svankmajer's imagination.