Our Year 12 History of Art students enjoyed two wonderful trips last week to central London.

On Saturday the group attended the annual Ways of Seeing Conference for A Level students and teachers. The conference run by the Association for Art History is held in partnership with The National Gallery in London. Since its first event in 2004, this annual event has provided a unique opportunity for those teaching or studying History of Art or Art & Design at A level to come together to discover and discuss art and ideas. The day includes talks, discussions and workshops on ways of thinking about art in relation to a specific theme.

The theme this year was Nature in Art and Architecture. Speakers this year were Dr Matthew Morgan, Museum Director at Turner’s House in Twickenham and art historian, writer and broadcaster Dr James Fox.

Our art historians returned to London later this week to visit a number of galleries and Tomorrow’s Tigers 2022 at Sotheby’s, a selling exhibition from Artwise Curators and the WWF featuring specially commissioned, limited-edition rugs designed by 12 celebrated artists from around the world, including Peter Doig and Ai Weiwei. Profits from the sale of the rugs went towards tiger conservation globally. The group also visited these galleries – Ben Brown Fine Art, Timothy Taylor, White Cube, Hauser & Wirth and Pace.

Here’s how our students found their recent gallery and exhibition trips:

Clemmie B

“I found the tour of Sotheby’s very interesting as it gave an insight into how the company works and what it would be like to work there. Looking at all the artefacts was fascinating, and I enjoyed seeing how an auction works. The private galleries were also interesting as we saw art that was less well known and that we may not have ever seen before. Overall, the day was very enjoyable and I would recommend taking a tour of Sotheby’s.”

Clem G

“I really enjoyed seeing the Tomorrow’s Tigers exhibition and Sotheby’s as I thought it was very topical, given the importance of conservation, and it was also very beautiful and inspirational! I also really enjoyed seeing David Altmejd’s work at White Cube because it was so abstract and aesthetic in a very horrifying way.”

Magnolia L

“Our trip on Tuesday with our HOA class and the Art class was very mind opening and allowed us not only to discover new works of art we had not heard of before yet also career paths in the large industry of Art. Having the opportunity of talking to many employees at the Sotheby’s gallery gave us an inside of their exciting career and how it can be applied to us as well. This whole trip was inspirational to many of us and I personally know it has given me a lot of motivation for my studies in History of Art and also my future. We had the opportunity to visit more than five galleries in a day and discover a range of outstanding artworks and artists. It was a very fun day!”