Art at Jesus 2021-2022

Dr Jessica Berenbeim, Fellow and Curator of Works of Art

Exhibitions

This year ’ s exhibition programme in the West Court Gallery has seen a successful continuation and development of the curatorial themes of visible language, archival inspiration, and the intersections of text and image. Following from Art & Language: Now They Are, at the end of the last academic year (Summer 2021), we had two further exhibitions in the gallery this year: Shahzia Sikander: Unbound (Michaelmas Term 2021 to Lent Term 2022) and Casting Letters: Art, Books, Chance (Easter Term to Summer 2022). The exhibition Unbound, a collaboration with FAMES, brought together work by Sikander in a wide range of media – including sculpture, painting, mosaic, and animation – all engaging, in one way or another, with the written word and the continuing presence of the past. Casting Letters exhibited the work of fifteen artists, again in a wide range of media – print, sculpture and installation, film – and again engaging with the nature of writing, visible language, and the enduring (indeed, ever-expanding) afterlife of the great experimental work A Roll of the Dice Never Will Abolish Chance, which celebrated its 125th anniversary in May 2022, when the show opened.

In addition to the West Court Gallery exhibitions, this year ’ s programme also included Svalbard (Michaelmas Term 2021 to Lent Term 2022), an exhibition of Professor Sir Bruce Ponder ’ s photography of the artic islands of Svalbard (Spitzbergen). You can see an example of his work in the Articles section of this Report.

Loans

The academic year 2021–2022 saw the departure of several important works that had been on loan to the College. After several years, the Coleridge Maquette came to the end of its loan to College, and Anselm Kiefer ’ s Lasst Tausend Blumen Blühen left the place it had occupied since 2018 in the Quincentenary Library. The College was

Promiscuous Intimacies 2020. Patinated Bronze. 42 x 24 x 18 inches. Courtesy of the artist and Sean Kelly Gallery

Tooth & Claw

extremely lucky to have the benefit of these loans and is grateful to the lenders.

We will especially miss Tooth & Claw, a work by Honorary Fellow Alison Wilding RA; this is a sculpture with particular meaning for the College, which returned to the artist’ s studio this summer.

We have, however, reached an agreement to renew the loan for Roger Hiorns ’ s Untitled (pictured below), and we are very happy that we will be able to enjoy its continued presence in College.

Financial

The financial position of the College ’ s arts programme has significantly improved over the last year. Most recently – to everyone ’ s great delight and immense gratitude –our situation was further improved by a gift from an extremely generous benefactor, who wishes to remain anonymous. As this gift is particularly directed toward Works of Art exhibitions, it could hardly be more welcome, and will make a critical difference to supporting the development of the College ’ s distinctive exhibitions programme. n