Whitworth Gallery

I made one of my irregular visits to Cheshire last weekend. Always a pleasure to see my friends. Even though yet again the train was late enough to miss my connection at Crewe.

With his wife otherwise disposed it fell to my mate Dave to entertain me. Options were pretty much mine so I thought I would ask for a trip to the newly renovated Whitworth Gallery in Manchester. Mistake.

Its a rather oppressive looking Victorian Gothic edifice. I thought renovations had been completed but clearly there is a lot to do to the existing parts.

But there is a glass extension, and the whole gallery space has been expanded and flows a bit better. Unfortunately, the only really good part of the extension is the restaurant, so yes there is a quite nice tree surrounded glass box to eat in.

The art spaces would be OK if there was anything much worthwhile to look at. Unfortunately the Whitworth has a collection of art that would need a significant number of promotions to reach the second division. This was exemplified the portrait exhibition that had a somewhat curious form of curating, not by any form of historic development, but putting together pleasing clusters of arrangements on the walls, as if one was tiling a bathroom.

The portrait exhibition

A Gilbert & George canvas, as usual featuring the modest pair

Strangely, and a rather unlikely result, one of its least promising collections (wallpapers) was actually just about the most satisfying displays.

The curated modern art display however was largely an insult to our intelligence. A glass cabinet  displaying a neat pile of blank A4 paper (which I could easily find lying around my photocopying room) was probably the laziest bit of detritus - at least the computer print out was slightly artfully placed. However, much of the rest was far less appealing. 

The modern sculptures around Whitworth Park alternated between the fairly appealing although hardly stunning like this stainless steel model of a tree, to one which we genuinely thought was just a climbing frame. When you can't tell the difference between the art and municipal services, perhaps someone should pick a different career

I had to be back for a gig on the Sunday so we menfolk headed off for a pub lunch while the women did church things, leaving only a brief time for a walk in the local woods before I needed to catch my train. But actually a rather nice walk. Good woods.