A Cumbrian art gallery has gone digital to showcase its international collection of drawings after a major London art fair was cancelled.
Castlegate House in Cockermouth is launching a video exhibition, Draw at Castlegate, featuring works that were to be exhibited later this month at the prestigious Draw art fair at the famous Saatchi Gallery alongside some of the top European art galleries and dealers.
“The London exhibition is cancelled due to Covid so we’re staging our own contribution in Cockermouth and having it filmed so clients and the wider public can see it in electronic form as well as on our website in the usual manner,” said Castlegate owner Steve Swallow.
The gallery, which is currently closed to visitors, has sourced works from eight artists – all drawings, not paintings – by major international art names such as Frank Auerbach along with artists much earlier on in their career, such as Alex Hain. The other artists are Leon Kossoff, Dame Laura Knight, Norman Cornish, Sarah Bellwood, Ian Norris, and Ben Johnson.
Steve added: “Drawing can be and is often an incredibly powerful art medium, it’s often the monochrome nature of such works or their spontaneity which emphasises the drama and message an artist is looking to convey.”
Artists listed can be seen on the exhibition page www.castlegatehouse.co.uk/exhibitions/draw-at-castlegate/ and the digital exhibition will be live from May 21 for at least three weeks.
Meanwhile Castlegate is also donating 25% of its profits until May 21 to children’s charity the Rainbow Trust, which helps support the families of children with serious or terminal illnesses.
To promote the scheme the gallery has created a new online exhibition of a selection of its collection of the best of 20th century and contemporary British art. Prices range from under £1,000 to a £21,000 Sheila Fell and a £65,000 Winifred Nicholson.
The initiative, which began on April 24, also applies to all gallery works from more than 70 artists shown throughout its website.
In March the gallery unveiled its 30 finalists for its inaugural Castlegate Prize. The announcement of the first winner of the £10,000 prize, and opening of the exhibition of finalists’ work, has been rescheduled from May 2 to September 12.
The gallery received 700 entries from all over the country for the new national open art prize – raising more than £12,000 in the process for YoungMinds mental health charity. Paintings had to take inspiration from the word ‘Hope’.
