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Right: Dress, 1931, Madeleine
Vionnet, purchase funded by
the Friends of the V&A |
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Objects are the essence of the V&A. It is the collections that uphold
and expand the V&A's global reputation, determine the Museum's
programmes, and inspire and inform visitors. Reseach on collections
influences how objects are displayed and used, and the directions in which
the collections develop.
The V&A collects material relating to art and design across the globe, from
woodwork, textiles, metalwork, glass, ceramics and sculpture to paintings,
prints, photography and books. Contemporary art and design is purchased,
donated and commissioned, and underpins the thriving contemporary
programme. Relationships with today's artists and designers flourish as
staff and artists exchange knowledge and support.
The growth of the collections is enabled by generous public and private
funding sources, by gifts, bequests and acceptance in lieu of inheritance tax.
Objects are often obtained for a specific reason - discovered and purchased
for new exhibitions or galleries. The range of new acquisitions is
demonstrated in the
Acquisitions Gallery.
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Dress, 1931, Madeleine Vionnet
Funding from the Friends of the V&A, the V&A Director's Circle, the Art Fund
and an anonymous donor made it possible for the V&A to buy four out
of nine haute couture gowns acquired in partnership with The Fashion
Museum and The Bowes Museum, after an export stop (the first to be
placed on examples of 20th-century couture) was put on them. The nine
dresses were designed by French couturier Madeleine Vionnet for a wealthy
British socialite. This dress is made from printed, bias-cut silk chiffon and
showcases Vionnet's mastery of cut and construction.
Consumer's Rest Lounge Chair, designed 1983, made 1990,
designed by Stiletto Studios and manufactured by Siegel
Purchased for the forthcoming V&A exhibition Postmodernism: Style and
Subversion 1970-1990, this chair was designed by the foremost German
radical design group of the 1980s. The group often incorporated found
objects in their designs as a critique of late capitalist mass production.
This chair, a customised shopping trolley, was a wry response to the
rampant consumerism of the decade.
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Left: Consumer's Rest Lounge
Chair, designed 1983, made
1990, designed by Stiletto
Studios and manufactured
by Siegel
Right: Lacquer panel,
1640, Japan
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Left: Free Essence-6; Ku-6, 2009, Niyoko Ikuta
Right: Educational specimen box, about 1850, England
Below: One of the Hamilton Beckford Candlesticks, 1787, Charles Aldridge
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The Hamilton Beckford Candlesticks, 1787, Charles Aldridge
These silver-gilt candlesticks are based on the Roman bronze lamp stand
from the collection of Sir William Hamilton, acquired by the British Museum
in 1772 for study. They were commissioned by William Beckford (1760-1844),
who is regarded as the first European patron to commission metalwork in
historical styles.
Six porcelain notebooks, 1982-1991, Iraq,
Halim al-Karim
As a young artist, Halim al-Karim recorded his thoughts and sketches in
a series of notebooks from 1982-1991. On graduating from the Baghdad
Academy of Fine Arts in 1988 he hid in the desert to avoid serving in the
Iraq-Iran War. Before fleeing to Jordan in 1991, he decided to 'protect his
testimony'. He coated the pages of his notebooks with porcelain mixture
and fired them to 1250 degrees, thereby destroying the original notebooks
but creating these fragile symbols of war and censorship. The notebooks
were acquired with funding from Travel with the V&A: Syria.
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Lacquer panel, 1640, Japan
This panel was almost certainly the top of a chest. It bears many striking
similarities in subject, style and technique to the top of the Mazarin Chest,
one of the most important Japanese items in the V&A's collection.
Purchased with the support of the Friends of the V&A, it belongs to a small
group of extremely high quality lacquer made in Japan for the European
market in the 1630s and early 1640s. The Mazarin Chest has recently been
the centre of a groundbreaking conservation project supported by the
Toshiba International Foundation, and international V&A conference
(30-31 October 2009) funded by the
Getty Foundation.
Free Essence-6; Ku-6, 2009, Niyoko Ikuta
The craft fair COLLECT gives the V&A the opportunity to build on its
holdings of contemporary work. The V&A was one of four winners of Art
Fund Collect 2009. It used this prize to consolidate its contemporary
Japanese glass collection with a piece of sculpture by Kyoto-based artist
Niyoko Ikuta. Intrigued by the complex properties of both light and glass,
Ikuta has succeeded in transforming harshly cut glass into this sensual
and fluid form.
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Left: Design for wallpaper,
1862, Willian Morris
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Right: Dress, Spring/Summer 2010, Alexander McQueen |
Giltwood Stools, about 1705, England
These stools, from the State Bedroom at Warwick Castle, were reputedly
given to the 1st Earl of Warwick (1719-1773) by George III. They have a very
unusual method of upholstery, with a cushion resting on a one-piece
valance that is secured by ribbon bows placed under the cushion. We are
currently investigating this upholstery, together with the documentary
evidence for the stools' original commission. Purchased with support from
The Art Fund (with a contribution from the Wolfson Foundation), The
Brigadier Clark Fund, and the
London Historic House Museums Trust in
memory of Wendy and George Levy.
Educational specimen box, about 1850, England
This mahogany box is filled with compartments containing specimens for
use in the classroom. These include objects as diverse as India rubber, cloves,
horn and a fir cone. In the mid-19th century when mainstream education
advocated learning by rote with punishment for those who disobeyed, these
boxes based on those pioneered by educationalist Johann Heinrich
Pestalozzi (1746-1827), represent the alternative, child-centred method
where children learn by exploration, using a range of skills and senses.
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Design for wallpaper, 1862, William Morris
Loose pencil sketching visible under the gouache demonstrates Morris's
working method in the early stages of developing a new design. The
resulting wallpaper (already in the V&A's collection) shows how the design
evolved, with fruit rearranged and the olive branch replaced by oranges and
peaches. The design relates directly to the painted panels that form part of
the decoration of the Green Dining Room at the V&A, carried out by Morris,
Marshall, Faulkner and Company in 1866. This design was purchased with
the support of the Art Fund.
Sunday Christ, 1475-1500, England
This alabaster carving is the only known sculptural representation of the
Sunday Christ. The Sunday Christ differs from traditional images of Christ:
he is not shown with stigmata as an object of devotion. Instead he is a
moralising figure, admonishing those who work on Sundays. He is flanked
and often pierced by workman's tools. The object was bought with
funds from the Hildburgh Bequest, Mr John Studzinski CBE and Paul and
Jill Ruddock.
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1001 Pages, 2008, Afruz Amighi
This work won the inaugural Jameel Prize for contemporary art and design
inspired by Islamic tradition. Amighi hand-cut the openwork design in
woven polyethylene - a material used in tents for refugees. The work is
suspended and illuminated with projected light that casts shadows of the
pattern on the wall behind. Purchased with support from the Travel with the V&A: Syria. .
The George Speaight Punch and Judy Archive
George Speaight (1914-2005) was one of the most distinguished historians
of popular entertainment in Great Britain. His Punch and Judy Archive is
probably the world's best paper archive on the subject, representing a
lifetime's research. A star piece is the earliest known photograph of a Punch
and Judy show (about 1860) and is one half of a stereoscopic photograph.
The archive was acquired through the Acceptance in Lieu scheme.
Left: Sunday Christ, 1475-1500, England
Right: 1001 Pages, 2008, Afuz Amighi
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Dress, Spring/Summer 2010, Alexander McQueen
This printed silk 'snake' dress is from Alexander McQueen's penultimate
collection, 'Plato's Atlantis'. The show's underwater theme was inspired
by McQueen's passion for scuba diving. Each digitally engineered pattern
is unique and printed to fit the complex form of
the dress.
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