I met a friend in Leeds recently and we visited the civic art gallery. It happened to be one of those interludes between major exhibitions so there wasn't a huge amount to see. We did, however, venture upstairs to a small sculpture gallery, passing through this amazing empty white space. The gallery attendant gave us a long explanation of how the building has changed over the years. When it was built, it had a two storey high Central Court, a chamber with a glass roof, as can be seen in the pictures below, from the Illustrated London News when the gallery opened in 1888. (Image in the public domain.) Since then, a floor has been added and a false ceiling hid the glass roof, which was rediscovered and opened up in 2016. The glass was replaced with a special material that blocks UV rays that can damage artworks.
I loved the space. When my daughter was small and I was a busy mum with a career as well, trying to juggle time, as we all do, I used to long to be in a plain white room, just me and a G&T, with little stimulation. This space would have suited me nicely!
I tried an bit of an arty pencil sketch filter on it too:
No comments:
Post a Comment