Saturday, July 11, 2015

Percy F. Westerman books at Portsmouth City Museum

A Hard Choice is a major exhibition at Portsmouth City Museum which explores the stories behind Portsmouth’s collections of art and design.

 What do a Turner watercolour, a 13th century cosmetic jar and a gramophone painted by Dora Carrington have in common?  They were all acquired for Portsmouth Museums during the curatorship of Rosalinda Hardiman over the past 35 years. Rosalinda is the ‘Queen of Eclectics’, a curator with wide ranging interests and full of arcane and quirky facts.

Showcasing the diversity of Portsmouth's collections, Rosalinda reveals the stories behind the objects and the hidden world of the curator. The exhibition will share her knowledge and joy in museum collections. Fine and decorative art will feature strongly.  Many items have not been displayed for over thirty years, including prints by Walter Sickert. A group of fifteenth century ceramics from south-east Asia will be on show for the first time in this exhibition.

Community Collections Showcase
Visitors to
A Hard Choice are also able to see highlights from three collections owned by Portsmouth residents.  The collections were chosen from the entries in a public competition and will be shown in turn in the Community Collections Showcase:

 
Percy F Westerman
(1876 - 1959)
21 July to 27 September
Books from The Westerman Yarns Collection demonstrating changing trends in book cover illustration. 
You will also be able to see a short video of yours truly discussing why he collects books by Percy F. Westerman; my wife is quite interested in seeing this!