York Art Gallery
The York Art Gallery has amazing location as it can be found in central York making it accessible by train or busses for me as a student this made it a prime location to visit. Upon entry to the Gallery, I noticed it was extremely accessible with ramps on each side allowing for disabled access. One drawback I did experience though in comparison to another gallery’s that I have visited was the paid entry as this will most definitely affect the type of people who visit, rather than a free entry making artwork accessible to everyone. The staff were polite and helpful but did let us know there were Closures in certain rooms unfortunately this was not mentioned on the website and there was no fee reduction.
When entering the first room, the work exhibited was very mixed media. This room had a traditional style of having no windows and being top lit though sky-lighting giving it a very traditional gallery Architectural style. One thing I did note to really appreciate is some of the sculptural work displayed in this first room example being (Gosney, H. (2015). Reverie. [Oak Sculpture]. York Art Gallery, York.) Encourage the viewer to be able to touch and interact with the artwork I felt this gave a really personal experience. When comes to this particular piece by Harold this wooden sculpture is Ambiguous neither male nor female really making you think about this piece allowing the viewer to move to their own conclusions. Thinking about more of the work that was displayed in this room with the majority of work being displayed on mass it really allowed me to make connections between the works another piece I would like to mention was (Etty, W. (1828-30). Male Nude, with Arms Upstreched. [Oil painting]. York Art Gallery, York.) Something that I've found really inspiring About this painting from William Etty a York born artist was its modern connections to the society we live in today as Etty was thought to have identified as asexual making this painting Notorious amongst the LGBTQIA plus community. What I found really interesting was the erotic nature of the painting and how this coincided with the painter's asexuality.
Connecting other works I also came to glance upon work by Somaya Critchlow The work displays a woman naked with her legs spread on a bed resting against a cushion. (Critchlow, S. (2022). Bedstead. [Oil painting]. York Art Gallery, York.) This work definitely drew your attention due to its explicit nature the work also challenges themes of body confidence sexuality race and exploitation of black women all really key and modern things to today's society and issues that our attention should be brought to. Other elements of this gallery that I would like to mention, “the Wall of Women.” A wall celebrating Ceramics by female artists it was amazing to see a gallery celebrating women in this way. Overall, I would like to say my experience to the Gallery was an overall positive.
