Toovey's choice - Worthing Museum and Art Gallery
Who would turn down an invitation to browse the stores of Worthing Museum and Art Gallery's celebrated fine art collection and make their own personal selection for our new Norwood Gallery display? Our long term champions and supporters Toovey's Antique and Fine Art Auctioneers and Valuers certainly wouldn't, and they had a lot of fun doing it!
To mark our appreciation of Toovey's continued sponsorship and support of the museum and its collections, we asked Nicholas Toovey if he would like to hand-pick personal favourites, telling us why he chose them. The results form a charming exhibition of oil paintings, watercolours and prints, further enhanced by Nicholas' specialist knowledge as a book and painting expert.
His aim was to create an exhibition celebrating Sussex, the county which he knows and loves, by choosing artists with strong links to the county; names such as Ernest Howard Shepherd, Frank Brangwyn and Ivon Hitchens.
He also selected views of the county by famed artists, like Anthony Vandyke Copley Fielding, William Callow and William Wyllie, who chose to paint our beautiful towns, villages, coast and landscape, immortalising them forever.
Nicholas is a print enthusiast, hence he has chosen a selection of prints relating to Sussex that highlight and explain the difference between various printing techniques from engravings to etchings.
"Toovey's are always keen to support the arts in Sussex," says Nicholas,
"It was a wonderful honour to be asked to choose the works for the exhibition and I hope that visitors will share my enthusiasm for the beautiful art on display. Local museums are often overlooked in favour of more publicised galleries in London, but with the array of work on display and this exhibition focussing on Sussex, I believe that there has never been a better time to visit Worthing Museum and Art Gallery - the 'hidden gem' that is on our doorstep".
Nicholas Toovey's choices can be seen at Worthing Museum and Art Gallery from Janurary 30th - July 17th 2010