The Lake District Guide

The Lakes Top Ten Attractions

Abbot Hall Art Gallery, Kendal

As well as the fine permanent collection, Abbot Hall is widely acknowledged as having one of the most important and independently minded exhibition programmes outside London.

“Given its location, it would have been easy for such a gallery to have rested on its laurels, simply showcasing historic works with links to the area. But what has put Abbot Hall on the map has been its bullish policy of showing and collecting modern British art.” Sue Hubbard, The Independent, July 2007.

Abbot Hall Exterior

Abbot Hall Interior

Here are some examples of what you can see in the Gallery:

The 18th Century

George Romney (1734-1802) served his apprenticeship in Kendal and went on to be one of the most sought after portrait painters in England. Abbot Hall has the most important collection of his work in the country.

Alongside works by several of his important contemporaries, Romney’s paintings can be seen hung in the elegant historical settings for which they were painted, with fine 18th century furniture, and original Georgian colours decorating the walls.

Modern & Contemporary

The English Watercolours

Watercolours are a quintessential British phenomenon and yet are rarely to be found on display in public galleries. Abbot Hall has a superb collection from which it draws different groups in rotation throughout the year.

The watercolours are shown in a small gallery reminiscent of a collector’s private room, where a Turner can be seen next to a Ruskin and a Constable oil sketch sits in a cabinet next to works by such figures as Cotman, Cozens and Edward Lear.

Changing displays from Abbot Hall’s modern and contemporary collection are shown in the elegant galleries formed from the original Georgian rooms on the first floor. Key works are also used within some of the temporary exhibitions, to draw in major paintings and sculpture from collections throughout Britain and abroad.

Abbot Hall has been one of the most active galleries collecting British art in recent years and important works have been acquired, ranging from a Turner watercolour of Windermere to portraits by Stanley Spencer and Lucian Freud, and abstract paintings by Bridget Riley and Sean Scully.

Through its wide contacts with collectors, Abbot Hall has also secured some spectacular long term loans, including the largest collection of Lucian Freud etchings to be found in a public gallery.

Abbot Hall Art Gallery 2010 Exhibitions:

Basil Beattie: Paintings from the Janus series II 2010 - 22 January - 6 March 2010

Abbot Hall starts the year with an exhibition by the artist Basil Beattie. (b.1935). Beattie has been described as ‘one of the most significant of bridges in the generations of contemporary abstract painters’. His career spans the emergence of Abstract Expressionism in the late 1950s to a more recent emphasis on the ambiguities of signification that have dominated visual art practice since the 1980s.

Ipaggery - The Art of Photography - 11 January - 8 May 2010

Abbot Hall Coffee Shop starts the year with an exhibition by The Independent Photographers Art Group (IPAg).
The exhibition will showcase the work of each member of the Group and illustrates the diverse range of approaches to photography practised within the Group. It will run, with changes of images, until May. The Independent Photographers Art Group consists of nine photographers based in the South Lakes area with a common interest in artistic, creative photography. IPAg photographers regard photography as an independent art form and this is reflected in the work produced.

Mark Francis: Arena - 20 March - 3 July 2010

Mark Francis belongs to a generation of primarily non-objective painters. His work draws on a wide range of previously unavailable scientific images now in general circulation due to the invention of the electron microscope and advances in telescopic technology. This exhibition will showcase some of his most recent work which explores the use of the grid format and the dynamic between the man-made and the natural. Francis studied at St. Martin’s School of Art (1980-1985) and Chelsea School of Art (1985-1986).

The Loneliness of Lowry - 17 July - 30 October 2010

Better known for his northern industrial landscapes the exhibition will examine a different side of L.S.Lowry, looking beneath these scenes at an artist who cites his inherent loneliness as one of the main influences on his work. He is quoted as saying “Had I not been lonely none of my works would have happened". The exhibition will featuring some of Lowry’s most powerful yet lesser known works depicting his mysterious bleak landscapes, desolate seascapes and deserted buildings. Works will be drawn from both private and public collections and include oils and works on paper.

Thomas Bewick: Tale-pieces - 12 November - 18 December 2010

This is the first exhibition devoted entirely to the vignettes of the extraordinary artist-engraver and naturalist Thomas Bewick (1753-1828). Born in Northumberland, Bewick worked in Newcastle until his death. His childhood on a small farm on the banks of the river Tyne and his love of the countryside had a profound influence on his work. He became renowned for his woodcuts of animals, hundreds of small pictures that are remarkable for their vitality through painstaking accuracy. Bewick referred to the pieces as ‘tale-pieces’, intended as illustrations of ‘some truth or point of some moral’.

Abbot Hall Art Gallery - More information

Open:
Monday - Saturday (closed Sundays), 6 January - 18 December 2010, 10.30am - 5.00pm (Closing 4.00pm November - March)

Admission:
Adults £5.75, Gift Aid It for £6.35, Young people up to the age of 18 and full-time students up to the age of 25 FREE

Abbot Hall, Kendal, Cumbria, LA9 5AL

Telephone: 01539 722464  Fax: 01539 722494  info@abbothall.org.uk  Web: www.abbothall.org.uk

Group visits

We warmly welcome groups of all ages and there is a special reduced rate for pre-booked groups of 10 or more, subject to availability.

Abbot Hall Coffee Shop

An appetising menu of locally produced food is freshly prepared daily, and a selection of wines and beers are available with meals. You can view changing selling exhibitions of artists’ prints with a cup of fresh coffee or speciality tea. In summer you can eat outside the Coffee Shop and enjoy the view of Kendal Castle.

The Gallery Book Shop

Browse through the range of specialist art books in the Book Shop, which also stocks exhibition catalogues, postcards and fine art greetings cards.

Parking

There is a pay and display car park at Abbot Hall Art Gallery.

Photography

Due to the restrictions of copyright placed on pictures on loan, no photography of any kind is allowed.

Picnics

There are picnic facilities in the adjacent park, as well as swings and slides for children.

Room Closures

Certain rooms may need to be closed when changing exhibitions. Please ring in advance if you are wishing to see a particular exhibit.

How to Get There

Follow signs to south Kendal and then for Abbot Hall. A 10 minute drive from j36 of the M6. Nearest train station: Oxenholme, the Lake District.

Access

Abbot Hall is a Grade I listed building, yet all levels are accessible for wheelchair users. Please telephone in advance so that a member of staff can be on hand to help with the lifts.