New Director at the Foundling Museum and new exhibition by John Kindness
18/09/08
The Trustees of the Foundling Museum are delighted to announce the appointment of Lars Tharp as Director of the Foundling Museum.
Lars Tharp is as well-known figure in the art world having been a director and auctioneer at Sotheby's, specialising in ceramics. He is best known to the wider public as an expert on the hugely popular BBC 1 programme, The Antiques Road Show, for 21 years.
Lars is an avid Hogarth enthusiast and a popular and witty entertainer. He established the Hogarth Group and has been a great supporter of the Foundling Museum from its inception. His appointment coincides with the first exhibition in the foundling's contemporary art programme.
From 8 October until the end of December the contemporary gallery space at the Foundling Museum will be disguised as an 18th century room to harmonise with the fine original 18th century rooms in the building. The space will be lined with hand painted wallpaper and decorative borders. Guests will be able to view the exhibition before dining in original 18th century interiors of the museum, designed by William Hogarth.
The main scenes in the work are taken from Dudley Watkins's Desperate Dan comic strips and details from William Hogarth's engravings. A school blows up, a woman gives birth to rabbits, a freemason kisses a Papal posterior, and a composition worthy of a medieval fresco cycle, involves a tar boiler, a pig trough, a boulder and an armoured car. Kindness finds the same talent for orchestrating mayhem in Hogarth and Watkins, "...they both have the ability to make the most chaotic events seem compositionally delightful. Hogarth had a unique mnemonic system for recording events in a kind of mental shorthand, while Watkins worked at a speed which made his drawing almost calligraphic." The images are rendered by Kindness in a hybrid style that emphasises the compositional genius of these artists and owes much to vernacular painting, particularly Indian Kalighat work.
This is Belfast artist John Kindness's first solo project in London, a city he has made his home for the past 6 years. Curated by Gill Hedley, the idea behind this installation comes from a long tradition of painted interiors in England.
For further information contact the Events team on 020 7841 3616 or events@foundlingmuseum.org.uk
