h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Working in Southampton city centre, I'm not far from the Southampton City Art Gallery, which boasts of being one of the best in the UK outside London. Since first opening to the public in April 1939 it has a collection of over 5,300 works of art. It rotates these and loans them out as expected the way that decent galleries do, ensuring there is always something new to see. Although many of the works of art are modern rubbish (sorry, I'm not interested in splodges or squiggles that look like something done by a five-year-old in under ten minutes no matter how much you say 'the blue dribble represents the pan-dimensional pursuit of bananas by Purity as it experiences a blow to the head caused by a shopping trolley in a divorce court'. If that's what you like then go for it, you have my full support to pursue whatever mostly harmless hobbies you enjoy, even weird ones like watching , just don't expect it to interest me.) the anniversary exhibition gathers together the art that was displayed when the gallery opened, and these really are quite good. So for example for me a highlight are the versions of Solomon's look at class-divided railway travel, 'Second Class – the Parting' and 'First Class – the Meeting' which you can see here: http://www.simeonsolomon.com/1854-1855-first-class-second-class.html
This exhibition, which I've seen earlier in the year, is sadly due to end next week.

Yet at the moment by far the highlight of the gallery is their new exhibition, 'Beyond the Brotherhood: The Pre-Raphaelite Legacy' http://www.southamptoncityartgallery.com/whats-on/beyond-the-brotherhood-pre-raphaelite-legacy/, which also includes work from Bournemouth's Russell-Cotes Gallery as well as Tate Britain, the V&A (Victoria and Albert Museum) and the Royal Academy. It is well known that the predominant Pre-Raphaelite, John Everett Millais, was from Southampton yet this wasn't merely a look at his work, fantastic as it is. No, examples of Pre-Raphaelite work from many of the masters particularly including Hunt and Rosetti is included in the exhibition. The Pre-Raphaelite work emphasises beauty, nature, stunning realism that in many cases is virtually photographic in the level of detail, with particular application suitable to the works of Shakespeare, Tennyson, Sir Walter Scott and chivalric tales particularly King Arthur. The exhibition includes works from the 'forgotten sisterhood', women painters of the same period with the same outlook.
The final gallery in the exhibition shows how the Pre-Raphaelite movement continues to influence artists today. Work on display includes illustrations from the Brotherhood of Ruralists, illustrations for 'Alice in Wonderland' by Sir Peter Blake as well as fantasy illustrations by Brian Froud (who strongly influenced Jim Henson's fantasy work), Alan Lee (best known for his Lord of the Rings illustrations which influenced the look of Peter Jackson's Middle Earth films) as well as concept artwork for 'Game of Thrones' which was created digitally.

The exhibition will simply take you out of this world.

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I'm an enormous fan of the Pre-Raphaelites. Sounds great!

Back in the '70s, I went to the Tate and asked where they hid them.

'Downstairs,' was the grumpy answer from among all the Turners and paintings of spaniels.

Sounds great indeed! I'm a fan of the Pre-Raphaelites, too, and that is good to know the exhibition wll highlight the women artists A87849373

Are you planning on visiting Southampton in the next couple of months, Sasha? Definitely worth a pop in. There's a lift to the first floor (the ground floor had an exhibition on graffiti tags, which I must admit I didn't look at - Seen one graffito, seen them all).

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I am indeed - must start making plans.

Yes, I like the Art Gallery (although the first time I went there it was an exhibition of modern art, so it was not the easiest to interpret, as you say. Not to mention I was rather by a couple of the exhibits as they weren't quite suitable for looking at with one's in-laws but it took us all a while for the penny to drop about what they were... ).

Was that the year of the brightly coloured paintings of intertwined genitalia? That was, well, just . In many ways it is good that they do routinely show such a wide variety of different types of art. One of my work colleagues who is also one of the uni's artists in residence being particularly passionate about splodges and squiggles, but I'm very much in favour of art being works of beauty and/or detail. But then I'm open and honest about not knowing anything about the subject.

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Not sure about intertwined, but they were brightly coloured, and they were eventually recognisable as genitalia, yes

Yes, I don't know much about the subject either, apart from I know what I like. Sometimes an abstract will please me, eg this one http://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/walker/johnmoores/exhibitions/john-moores-exhibition-7-1969.aspx that incorporated a mathematical formula in the arrangement of the mirrors. Mostly I agree with you, that the most pleasing are "works of beauty and/or detail."