Manchester gallery visit 23rd May 2013

Artists Between the Wars.
When we arrived,  we were greeted by meg who had helped Mary to arrange our visit to this exhibition.  We were introduced to Kate Jesson, the curator and the first item we looked at was a bust of C.P Scott, by Charles Epstein. Scott had been the editor and then the owner of the Manchester guardian and is a well known benifactor of Manchester for many years.  We were allowed to touch the bust and clearly feel the strong features.  There was another item,  this time the mother and Child by Henry Moore and again we could touch this sculpture.  We moved on to look at a painting by Raymond Coxwain which depicted women knitting.
The next painting we saw was by Duncan Grant and was a Window showing a scene in France.  A quite strange portrait of medussa by Edward Barlow was very interesting and seldom seen by the public.
Between the wars,  many artists moved to the south of France where they lived and worked and were known as the bloomsbury group. They painted in what was called a simple style. Another two paintings were abstracts and Ann Hornsby did a wonderful job describing in an animated fashion what I thought looked like shavings dotted around.
Many of the paintings had not been exhibited for a long time and form a part of the huge number of works owned  by the gallery.  At  the end of the tour,  we went to the education room where we enjoyed cups of tea and coffee and munched on a very nice selection of biscuits.
Many thanks to Ann for her audio descriptions and to Mary and her dedicated volunteer drivers who always ensure that we have an interesting morning out.