James Metcalf on the fictionality of the latest archaeological page-turners
Stephen Puddicombe looks at the unusual appeal of Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot
Ciaran Rafferty investigates the science of book classification
Tucked into a little side room, just off the Gallery’s spiralling staircase, is an exhibition dedicated to York’s changing cityscapes. Architectural plans, scribbled sketches and washed-out watercolours frame the walls. York Art Gallery’s latest exhibition is a treasure trove of past perspectives.
Working its way through the centuries the exhibition includes sketches of the city from as far back as 1858. The aim of the exhibition is to capture the process of the city’s architectural evolution, to portray how York went from monkey to man.
In 1881, for example, William Richardson’s depiction of the Shambles looks truly shambolic. The lurching, bent over Tudor buildings invade the narrow streets casting dark shadows on the ground. Flower pots teeter tentatively above doors ready to topple, meat hangs out in the middle of the street and children while away the hours chasing marbles. It is all a chaotic muddle of milk maids and top hats.
Saunter across the room to Sir Henry Rushby’s 1965 painting of the Minster, however, and an orderly serenity has been established. Higgledy piggledy has been replaced by symmetry. Drawn from the roof top of the Gallery there is a soft lightness to the scene. People are still frantically rushing this way and that, under arches, over cobbles, but the buildings are taller, straighter, as though the city has assumed a more eminent poise.
Yet, despite the positive effects of the city’s architectural evolution, and its simultaneous rise to wealth, the exhibition makes the old, sprawling York look so much more exciting. Instead of the occasional tourist tour cruising up the Ouse, there used to be great big sailing ships- pirate like ships- with their proudly puffed up ragged red sails. Instead of public crowds pacing past the lost Water Lanes of York, real gypsies used to live there, with their hungry horse and cart.
However small Changing Landscapes might be, it is well worth the trip. Tracing a city as it refashions itself to fit in with the style and demands of the time, you can watch how some things from history remain, and others, sadly, get left behind.
A Different View: The Changing Landscapes of York is on from 31 January – 19 July 2009.
You must log in to submit a comment.
