#university

On hope in modernism

Look at what came in the post! 😍 I completely missed this exhibition, but when I found an sample in a gallery a few weeks ago, Leeds University Library Galleries were kind enough to dig out and post to me an original copy of “Another Brick In The Wall”, the exhibition programme filled with a brief history and gorgeous pictures of 1960’s new universities, one of which I went to (although that one was not featured in this exhibition). I’ve already been to Leeds, but Sussex and East Anglia are definitely on my bucket list.

I really enjoyed this passage from exhibition curators Darren Umney and Simon Phipps:

The buildings, and the stories behind their planning and construction, embody a number of concepts that are increasingly scarce: an architectural sensibility which reflects a shared emphasis on social equality; the academic aspiration for a broad holistic educational experience; and a political environment where policies strived to support a sustainable and equitable democracy.

(…)

It is of some comfort that the curation of these buildings and their histories continues. It is however an uncomfortable truth that the aspirational vision of postwar Britain – to create a fairer society and a thriving democracy supported by innovations in design, technology and education – was to be diluted and diverted.

That vision is now often framed as unachievable and utopian. An ideal upheld only by derided stereotypes of the socialist, the bleeding heart, the artist. Whereas it was once held together in an (albeit fragile) consensus, it increasingly seems to be a vision that was based on a currency which is no longer valued and imbued with values that are no longer current.

This is part of the attraction of modernism for me – where it certainly failed in some respects (for various reasons. just and otherwise, better documented elsewhere), it was at least filled with an aspirational vision of hope, although perhaps this is only a nostalgic view.

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Assorted Leeds, 2024

A Leeds University Public Art trail Mooch [10/08/24]

In order:

Roger Stevens Building

Perhaps my new favourite university building, sorry to the Renold Building x

Barbara Hepworth – Dual Form

I believe there’s also a Barbara Hepworth sculpture in one of the courts at Lancaster University, which I didn’t find out about until last year, due to my minimal attendance on campus while I was a student 🥴

Mitzi Cunliffe – Man-Made Fibres

A gorgeous stone carving, commissioned as part of the Clothworkers Building South to reflect the progress in the field of synthetic fibres.

Juanjo Novella – Curtain

Detail shot.

Staircase at the Henry Price Building

An unnecessarily extra, geometrically askew staircase, especially delightful coming west from St George’s Field.

School of Chemical and Process Engineering building

Staircase detail shot.

School of Healthcare

Staircase detail shot at the rear of the building.

Quentin Bell – The Dreamer

Inspired by a magician’s trick that Bell saw as a child. There’s something melancholy about the sculpture at situated in a quiet courtyard, surrounded by leafy vegetatation. It’s been moved several times but this feels like the right place for it.

P H Y S I C S

At the rear of the Physics Research Deck.

Bank House

And finally, away from the campus, en-route to the train station, the striking former regional headquarters of the Bank of England. Via British Listed Buildings:

Inverted ziggurat of in-situ reinforced-concrete construction with grey Cornish granite and bronze cladding. 5-storeys plus basement

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The Public Art Trail at the University of Leeds is inexplicably only available to download as a PDF, but is well worth it. I far prefer architecture to sculpture, but luckily this has both, and anything which gets me on a guided walk is a win in my book.

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