Hard work and full disclosure: Encountering Reynolds at Peninsula Arts Gallery

By Heather Smith, on Friday, February 5, 2010

Medal of Joshua Reynolds

The Encountering Reynolds exhibition at the Peninsula Arts Gallery is not about the Plympton-born painter at all. As you wander around the gallery you realise that this exhibition is more about the effect of his legacy on the way we view and consume art.

The exhibition includes three works by Victoria Hall, who explores the way history is created and consumed through period drama, museums and the heritage industries.

Hall sweeps away the myth and artifice of the ‘genius’ artist, highlighting the process and endeavour in 16 behind-the-scenes images that are displayed close to the finished photograph. Perhaps Reynolds, who believed that hard work rather than innate ability was the key to artistic success would have approved of this disclosure.

Read the rest of Heather Smith’s review on Arts+Culture

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After years in denial, Heather Smith has finally conceded that she is a writer, willing to exchange the products of many hours of blood, sweat and crossing-out for the chance of being published. In addition to PRSD and Art+Culture she has written for Art Cornwall, iwalkdevon and Behind the Spin. She also blogged about her life as a mature student on Later Study. In her spare time she enjoys watching her bantams think up new ways of destroying her veg patch, camera-less photography and making jewellery with found objects. Her ambition is to become a mad old woman and own an alpaca called Gerald.

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