New season at The Fry Art Gallery
The Fry Art Gallery in Saffron Walden re-opens for the new season on Sunday 2 April.
We have two wonderful exhibitions, both highlighting the way the Great Bardfield artists worked across the boundaries of the fine and applied arts. In addition to the familiar prints and watercolours celebrating the Essex landscape and so much more, artists such as Eric Ravilious and Edward Bawden worked in fields as diverse as wallpaper, book covers, fabric design, furniture, clothing, mugs and other china… even a handkerchief.
This wide-ranging work is celebrated in ‘Art and Design’, our main exhibition. Come and see the stunning Ravilious-designed upholstered dining chairs or the giant sketches made by Richard Bawden in preparation for his glorious engraved glass panels depicting the Virgin Mary and Saints Andrew and Edmund, installed in 2000 in St Andrew’s Church in the Essex parish of Belchamp St Paul. Richard’s delightful bench, featuring one of his trademark cats, is also on display.
Our second, adjoining, exhibition celebrates the work of the renowned textile designer Marianne Straub. Even those who don’t know her name will recognise her designs: her fabrics graced the seats of the Victoria and other London Underground lines, London buses and BEA aircraft. One of the Tube seats is on display, together with examples of Straub’s distinctive woven fabrics and a Morris dancer’s waistcoat, complete with a tear in the fabric where the dancer’s side drum abraded the cloth.
There are many more treasures to seek out – we invite you to come along and visit! The Gallery is free, accessible and open to all every day except Mondays (do check our website for details). We look forward to welcoming you.
