Watts in the City
G. F. Watts: Victorian Visionary
Guildhall Art Gallery, London
11 November 2008 – 26 April 2009
Retrospective of one of Britain’s greatest and most original artists. Drawn from the Watts Gallery collection, more than eighty paintings, drawings and sculptures will be returning to London for public display for the first time in 100 years.
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G. F. Watts: Parables in Paint
St Paul’s Cathedral, London
1 December 2008 – 30 July 2009
Watts did not possess a conventional religious faith yet he retained a sense of the profound importance of spirituality. The exhibition explores the religious and spiritual dimension of his art and the way that this underpinned his sense of social responsibility.
Two Major Works by Watts in the Nave of St Paul’s Cathedral
1 December 2008 – April 2009
Time, Death and Judgement and Peace and Goodwill will return to the Nave of the great cathedral some 100 years since they were first hung.
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Postman’s Park
Open all year round
Watts believed that stories of heroism could uplift and stimulate and should therefore be commerorated. He created a memorial in the form of a 50ft long open gallery in the public gardens on the site of the former church yard of St Botolph, Aldersgate. Along the walls of the Gallery Watts placed tablets, each describing acts of bravery that resulted in the loss of the hero or heroine’s life.
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Freshwater by Virginia Woolf
Thursday 11 December 2008, 7pm (performance starts at 7.30pm)
The Art Workers Guild, 6 Queen Square, Bloomsbury, London WC1N 3AT
Following sell-out performances at Watts Gallery, Farnham Theatre Group will give a dramatic reading in costume of Virginia Woolf's gently mocking play about Watts, his young wife Ellen Terry, Tennyson and the playwrights great Aunt, the photographer Julia Margaret Cameron.
Tickets £12 to include a glass of wine
To book tickets please call 020 7713 0966
Network of other displays of work by G. F. Watts both in the City and wider area of London
Open all year round
G. F. Watts was born 23rd February in London and died there 1st July 1904. In his long lifetime he created public works of art in fresco and sculpture for the city and was involved in the creation of several public galleries. His generous donations of his works to London galleries, which included most notably the Tate and National Portrait Gallery have meant that he has a continued public presence in the metropolis. Monuments such as Postman’s Park and Physical Energy in Kensington Gardens are just two of his London landmarks.
A map will shortly be added to the website listing all the locations of Watts interest.