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Leeds City Art Gallery Leeds
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Reviews
Museums in Leeds
- Leeds City Centre
The Headrow
, Leeds City Centre, Leeds, LS1 5RG
+44 (0) 113 247 8248
http://www.leeds.gov.uk/artgallery
Leeds Art Gallery houses a collection of 20th century art work as well as boasting a shop and cafe area. Space is also available for hire. Please call for details.
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gift shop
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Leeds City Art Gallery
Leeds
Reviews
The 'Art' Gallery - Since I moved to Leeds from London, I became very aware of how much I didn't do there. People would ask me, did you see the waxworks at Madame Tussauds? Did you see the majestic views of the London Eye? Did you enculturate yourself into the word of art at the Tate Modern?
To these questions, I could only respond "No. But I can tell you where to get cheap vodka!"
So I have decided to make the most of living in Leeds by seeing as much stuff as I can here, starting with the Art Gallery.
The first plus point is that it's free to get into, which I always enjoy. At the moment (Jan 2009) there are a load of exhibits of some prize winners and nominees or something.
Now, I'm not the arty type; I know nothing about art and never have. I've always thought that I'm missing that gene or brain area or whatever that allows people to evaluate the aesthetics and 'artistic value' of things. And after walking around an art gallery, I'm seriously wondering whether *anyone* has it.
Come on! Seriously? This rubbish is what's called 'art'? One piece has a row of purple rectangles of different sizes. What the hell is that?
Maybe there's some art 'experts' reading this and thinking I'm rather naive, but I'm reminded of a scene in Ayn Rand's 'The Fountainhead' where a load of high society people start giving high praise to terrible pieces of art, because they know that the public will just fall in line with their opinions no matter what they are.
I thought art was supposed to be a display of skill. The product of a person's unique effort - practice, blood, sweat, toil and time - that only they can produce. In that way, if there's an 'art' behind this esoteric rubbish, it's in the act of somehow getting it to be seriously displayed in an art gallery, and convincing other people that it is good.
That little rant out of the way, there is also a load of great stuff in there! The best area is the blue room, straight ahead as you go in. There they have all the old paintings, massive, fantastic things that look like they took months do complete; real demonstrations of skill. That's my favourite part. There's also a man made of little tiny bricks. You can look at him and pretend they are normal size bricks and that you are a giant. Take one of those minature cans of Diet Coke with you for added effect. Hours of fun!
Dotted around in and amongst the randomness are some really good paintings. It's kind of nice that the rubbish is there, it makes it more special when you do find something good.
I definitely recommend going, especially on a Saturday when there's people around, so you can strike up a conversation about the pieces there (feel free to recite my rant above - spread the word!). I didn't look around the whole thing as I want to return another day and look at more stuff. I didn't even like art. I thought art was for pansies. And even I enjoyed it. So you'll probably like it too. The cafe is nice and reasonably priced also!
19-01-09
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art gallery cafe free entry
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