THE RUGBY COLLECTION - EIGHTY YEARS IN THE MAKING: Rugby Art Gallery and Museum, UK
Encounter artistic icons and hidden gems in this landmark exhibition of the entire
Rugby Collection! Over 250 remarkable works, including artworks by Paula Rego,
Lucian Freud, L.S. Lowry, Lubaina Himid, Gillian Wearing, and some of our newest acquisitions. This rare display unveils the collection’s full breadth, spanning eight decades of artistic exploration. Eighty Years in the Making is your chance to
experience The Rugby Collection like never before!
This definitive exhibition celebrates the richness and ambition of the Rugby Collection, presenting more than 250 works that span over eighty years of artistic exploration. Established in 1946 with the aim of collecting work by artists of both established and emerging reputation, the collection has grown into one of Britain’s most distinctive assemblies of modern and contemporary art held by a regional museum.
The scope of the collection is wide, encompassing paintings, prints, drawings, photographs, and video. Among its notable holdings are works by Paula Rego, Lucian Freud, L. S. Lowry, Stanley Spencer, Paul Nash, Bridget Riley, Barbara Hepworth, Graham Sutherland, J. D. Fergusson, Walter Sickert, John Minton, Edwardo Paolozzi, and many others whose practices shaped twentieth-century British art. The collection also champions contemporary voices, including Lubaina Himid, Gillian Wearing, and more recent acquisitions such as Barbara Walker, reflecting the museum’s ongoing commitment to representation, diversity, and new artistic directions.
By presenting the entire collection together, Eighty Years in the Making highlights the dialogues that emerge across time, between modernist experiment and contemporary critique, between large cultural narratives and the intimate, personal gestures of individual artists. The exhibition demonstrates how generous donations, careful acquisitions, and visionary curation have shaped the collection into a living document of British creativity.
Among the works featured are three important drawings by Eamon O’Kane, which contribute a contemplative architectural dimension to the exhibition. His monumental The Place of Three Bridges II (2008), a 150 × 300 cm pencil drawing, creates an expansive spatial and structural meditation, evoking the layered histories of landscapes shaped by human intervention. The two complementary works, Tripontium Study I and Tripontium Study II (both 2008), offer intimate reflections on the Roman site of Tripontium near Rugby. Their precise lines and close attention to detail echo archaeological processes of uncovering and interpreting fragments of the past. Together, these pieces situate O’Kane’s practice within broader themes of memory, place-making, and the traces of history embedded in the built environment.
Through its diverse range of artists and ideas, Eighty Years in the Making reveals the Rugby Collection as a dynamic, evolving testament to artistic innovation. It opens a window onto the shifting concerns, complexities, and creative energies that have shaped British art for more than eight decades, and continue to shape it today.
