A collection of nine artworks from the Laing Art Gallery collection in Newcastle, including Norman Cornish’s Pit Road, have gone on display in 10 Downing Street’s corridor leading from the famous black door through to the Cabinet Room.
The display will showcase the talent of artists from the North East to world leaders and industry bosses as well as high-profile guests, philanthropists, front-line workers, and charitable and civic leaders attending events in the building.
The artworks will remain in the corridor for a year, as part of the Government Art Collection’s Number 10 Museum in Residence project.
For the past twenty years, the Government Art Collection has instigated an annual partnership with a museum or gallery across the UK to display artworks from their collection.
Previous galleries include the Glynn Vivian in Swansea, The Whitworth Art Gallery in Manchester and The New Art Gallery in Walsall.
The nine chosen works from the Laing Art Gallery, situated in the centre of Newcastle upon Tyne, are representative of the city and the wider North East of England.
Five of the paintings showcase Newcastle’s cityscape, while the others point to the diverse art scene of the North East.
All of the works are by influential artists from the area, who taught at its art schools, or who have been inspired by its landmarks and landscapes. As well as Cornish, paintings in the display include a large oil painting by Edward Dickey, depicting the iconic Tyne Bridge mid-construction, and Caravans, Figures and Helter Skelter, a work from 1930 by Byron Dawson that shows a scene from the long-running travelling fair The Hoppings, which sets up on the Town Moor annually.
Cornish’s Pit Road captures the scene of a miner returning from work through a dramatic colour palette and vigorous, bold paint strokes.
In its background details it gestures to the source of Newcastle’s wealth in coal, a heap of which is visible beyond the fence. Julie Milne, Chief Curator of Art Galleries at Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums, said: “We have enjoyed working with the Government Art Collection team in selecting paintings from the Laing Art Gallery.
“It has enabled us to see the works from a fresh perspective – to hone and highlight narratives about the North East. We are delighted that our wonderful pictures will be seen by a range of people, from the UK and around the world, as they pass through the doors of Number 10.”
Spennymoor's local community newspaper.
