Dimensions: support: 1935 x 2648 mm frame: 2080 x 2790 x 52 mm
Copyright: © John Wonnacott | CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 DEED, Photo: Tate
Curator: John Wonnacott's "The Norwich School of Art" presents an imposing architectural portrait. The building dominates the scene. What's your immediate take? Editor: The composition is quite striking, almost oppressive. The muted palette and the sheer scale of the building lend it a somber, weighty presence. Curator: The building, a former textile mill, became an art school, so there's a fascinating tension there, the transition from industry to creativity. Notice the figures on the bridge; they suggest a community, a flow of life engaging with this monumental space. Editor: Indeed, those figures add a crucial human element. The lines of the bridge lead the eye directly to the school, creating a powerful sense of perspective and directing our gaze. The colors create a sense of realism. Curator: The building is really a potent symbol of transformation and artistic ambition. Wonnacott is saying something about the power of art to transform our surroundings. Editor: Yes, and the artist's choice of viewpoint emphasizes the school's solid geometry, it's function as a well-designed building. It's quite compelling. Curator: A fascinating intersection of place, purpose, and people. Editor: A stimulating study in form and context.
http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/wonnacott-the-norwich-school-of-art-t03928
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This 'portrait' of the Art School in the city of Norwich celebrates the building and the people who worked in it during the late 1970s and early 1980s. Wonnacott taught life drawing there, at a time when the discipline was falling out of favour; he was dismissed the year after this painting was completed. Prophetically, he shows himself, and two colleagues who left at the same time, in the foreground of the painting, walking away from the building 'like an Expulsion from Paradise' Gallery label, August 2004