Over 90,000 visitors see Laing Art Gallery exhibitions in Newcastle and 10 Downing Street, London

Over 90,000 UK and international visitors enjoyed two high profile exhibitions by the Laing Art Gallery in the last year, with 50,000 visitors seeing the Museum in Residence display at 10 Downing Street in London and 40,153 visitors to the Turner: Art, Industry & Nostalgia exhibition in Newcastle, part of the National Gallery’s National Treasures exhibition programme across the UK.  

The Museum in Residence display showcased the talent of artists associated with and 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 who have attended events in the building. 

The artworks were displayed for a year, as part of the Government Art Collection’s  ‘Number 10 Museum in Residence’ programme. 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.  

The nine chosen works from the Laing Art Gallery are representative of the city and the wider North East of England. Five of the paintings showcased Newcastle’s cityscape, while the others pointed to the diverse art scene of the North East. All of the works are either by influential artists from the area, who had taught and studied at its leading art schools, or who had been inspired by its landmarks and landscapes. 

A significant painting on display was the large oil painting by Edward Dickey, depicting the iconic Tyne Bridge mid-construction, hung in pride of place over a mantelpiece. 

The Turner: Art, Industry & Nostalgia exhibition was centred on a work that the British public once voted as their favourite painting - The Fighting Temeraire (1839), on loan from the National Gallery. The loan formed part of National Treasures, a programme that shared the Gallery’s most beloved paintings with partners across the UK as part of its Bicentenary celebrations. 25 additional works by Turner were also on display alongside works from artists such as John Constable (1776-1837), James McNeill Whistler (1834-1903), L.S. Lowry (1887-1976), Tacita Dean (b.1965), and photographers John Kippin (b.1950) and Chris Killip (1946-2020).  

Turner: Art, Industry & Nostalgia explored the connection between the iconic image of The Fighting Temeraire and the history of Tyneside, highlighting the North East’s history and industrial heritage as seen through art.  

Turner depicted a number of North East views during his lifetime and the exhibition included several examples, including Holy Island, Northumberland (about 1829, V&A), Newcastle-on-Tyne (1818, Tate), Dunstanburgh Castle (1798, Laing Art Gallery), Warkworth Castle, Northumberland (1799, V&A), Brinkburn Priory, Northumberland (1801, Laing Art Gallery), and Tynemouth, Northumberland (1829, Tate).  

The exhibition also explored connections between the Thames and the Tyne during the industrial revolution. While Turner may not have based the steamboat in The Fighting Temeraire on a specific vessel, it is particularly pertinent to the North East and its industrial heritage that the two steam tugboats that towed the Temeraire in reality – the Samson and the London – were both manufactured on Tyneside.  

The image of a retired naval vessel on its last journey carries ideas of industry and nostalgia, something that was exploited in 2012´s James Bond film Skyfall, where Bond meets the new Q in front of the painting. To add to this idea of nostalgia, the exhibition even included a piece of oak from the Temeraire ship itself. This theme extended through to the end of the exhibition with John Kippin’s video piece ARC (2010), which documents the Tyneside-built warship the Ark Royal leaving the River Tyne for the last time. This video piece was displayed alongside 19 other works that explored the continuing story of the industrial landscape in art. 

Julie Milne, Chief Curator of Art Galleries at Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums, says: 

“We are delighted that over 90,000 people have seen these exceptional and inspiring displays both in Newcastle and in London in the past year. 

We are so proud to have shared stories of the North East’s heritage with a wide range of audiences within and beyond the geographic boundaries of our region, highlighting the North East as a special place with a unique history and vibrant culture at its heart.”