BARBICAN LIFE


INSIGHTExhibition Review Kate West’s quarterly roundup of what’s happening in the local arts scene


Bank of England Museum Cartoons and Caricatures Until 31st December


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Bank of England Museum


'Political Ravishment or The Old Lady of


Threadneedle Street in Danger'


by James Gillray Published


22nd May 1797


his entertaining new exhibition explores two centuries of satirical press coverage of the Bank of England and the notable figures from both bank and government that surround that venerable institution. During that time, past and present Governors of the Bank, Prime Ministers and successive Chancellors of the Exchequer have all been on the receiving end of a sometimes humorous and often savage poke from the cartoonists’ sharp pen.


The key exhibit on display is the first depiction of the Bank of England as ‘The Old Lady’. James Gillray’s cartoon Political Ravishment or The Old Lady of Threadneedle Street in Danger went on sale at Mrs Hannah Humphrey’s print shop in St James’s in May 1797. This brilliant attack on William Pitt the Younger was an immediate hit, showing the Prime Minister as a spotty, skinny youth pawing and groping in the pockets of the outraged virtuous old lady who sits protectively on a padlocked chest of gold. Gillray’s prints were so popular that a foreign visitor to London at the time reported on the chaos triggered by a new Gillray drawing. “The enthusiasm is indescribable when the next drawing appears; it is a veritable madness. You have to make your way through the crowd with your fists.” Gillray’s ‘The Old Lady’ cartoon became so famous that the nickname has stuck forever. The exhibition includes cartoons and caricatures from the finest and most influential cartoonists of the past 200 years. From the 19th century there are works by Dickens’ illustrator George Cruikshank and from the celebrated illustrator of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Sir John Tenniel. The modern-day masters of the genre Steve Bell, Richard Cole, Chris Duggan and Andy Davey bring the exhibition bang up-to-date, with


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works that give Eddie George, Gordon Brown and Mervyn King a satirical mauling.


Great fun and well worth seeing.


Bank of England Museum Bartholomew Lane,


off Threadneedle Street EC2 Monday - Friday 10am - 5pm Admission: Free www.bankofengland.co.uk/museum


Goldsmiths’ Hall Ultra Vanities


Bejewelled Make-up Boxes from the Age of Glamour Until 20th July


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glittering exhibition at the Goldsmiths’ Hall blends two glamorous worlds, beauty and


jewellery, here combined in the most exquisite form - the jewelled make-up case. Over 200 examples are on display dating from the 1920s to the 1970s. Made from gold, silver and platinum and studded with precious stones, they were made by all the leading jewellery houses, among them Cartier, Van Cleef & Arpels, Tiffany and Bulgari. These stunning make-up cases were the ultimate in the world of luxury accessories and reflected the art and fashion trends of their time. The exhibition is staged in the


principal first floor rooms of the Goldsmiths’ Hall which have been transformed, for the occasion, into an elegant Parisian salon of the 1930s. Truly the age of glamour.


Goldsmiths’ Hall, Foster Lane EC2 Daily 10am - 5pm, Closed Sundays Admission: Free www.goldsmiths.co.uk


Whitechapel Gallery Black Eyes and Lemonade: Curating Popular Art Until 1st September


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his summer the Whitechapel Gallery delves into its archives to revisit their 1951 exhibition Black Eyes and Lemonade, an exhibition of British popular art, originally staged as part of the Festival of Britain.


The 1951 exhibition was organised by Barbara Jones, the muralist/ designer/writer whose bold aim was show ‘things that people make or are manufactured to their taste’, championing popular taste over what she saw as stuffy museum connoisseurship.


Jones gathered the objects for Black Eyes and Lemonade from bazaars, second-hand shops, her own eclectic collection and from a road trip she


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