Chris Ingram, founder of The Ingram Collection

In Picturing People, The Ingram Collection takes us on a journey through over 100 years of artists representing people. From Modern British sculpture to contemporary paintings, the works are introspective, revelatory and autobiographical. This week on the blog, Chris Ingram, founder of The Ingram Collection, chats about what a few of the pieces mean to him. 

Henry Moore, Seated Girl (1947-49)

 

The thing about Moore is that he doesn’t just do a figurative sculpture or a painting of a person. His work somehow means something much bigger, and even with this little piece you can’t help feeling that it is something more than just a girl sitting there.

 

Jacob Epstein, Italian Peasant Woman (1907)

 
Jacob Epstein (1880-1959) Italian Peasant Woman, 1907 Bronze © The Estate of Jacob Epstein

This woman has a special relationship with me because for years she sat at the end of my breakfast table. She said nothing but always has that slight smile on her face. What she has seen I couldn’t possibly comment on!

 

Edward Burra, Hop Pickers Who've Lost Their Mothers (left, 1924)

 

The thing about Burra is that almost whatever he paints to seems to produce a feeling of tension and mystery. Even this idyllic painting of Hop Pickers has that feeling underlying it.

 

William Roberts, The Party (left, 1971)

 

William Roberts is a great favourite of mine and his style of painting seems to have grown in appeal as time has gone by. Certainly he is not like most of the other artists who are seen as part of Modern British art. But as time has gone by his works has become more and famous and admired.

 

Barbara Hepworth, Two Figures (1947)

 
Dame Barbara Hepworth, Two Figures (1947) Pen and black ink, green crayon and pencil © The Estate of Barbara Hepworth

This is from a series Barbara Hepworth did which is very different from the pieces she did for outside public spaces. She got to know the surgeon who was operating on her child extremely well.

 

Aleah Chapin, The Tempest (1986)

 
Aleah Chapin (b. 1986), The Tempest, 2013, Oil on canvas © Aleah Chapin, Courtesy of Flowers Gallery London and New York

The fact that Aleah is American and one of the few non-Brits in the the collection shows that I regard her as having a huge talent.

 

Leon Underwood, Atalanta (1938)

 

Underwood has used the greek myth rather well. and his showing Atalanta bending to pick up a golden apple while trying to run is a very nice image.

 

Lynn Chadwick, Sitting Woman in Robes II (1987)

 
Lynn Chadwick, Sitting Woman in Robes II (1987), Bronze with a black patina © The Estate of Lynn Chadwick

If somebody said they were making heads into triangles and squares you would think it wouldn’t work. Yet Chadwick achieves it in his sculptures!

See these pieces and much more in Picturing People, open now till 1 April 2018.

Picturing People: The Ingram Collection