After closing for extensive renovations in 2016, the Burrell museum, home to one of the greatest personal art collections ever bequeathed to the public, reopened in March 2022. Now, as its first major exhibition opens, it’s hard to avoid the fact that in those six years the political and cultural landscape in Britain has radically changed.
There is much greater focus on issues of provenance, gender and ethnicity, especially in the context of the decolonising public spaces – which is basically about ridding these places of the inherent racism that is a direct result of Britain’s imperial endeavours.
The new exhibition looks in detail at the lives of its benefactors, Sir William and Lady Constance Burrell, through the curation of more than 100 pieces taken from their collection. The Burrells’ Legacy: A Great Gift to Glasgow (which runs till April 16 2023), contains rarely seen works of art including two entirely new additions, a beautifully rendered painting called The Mallard Rising (see main image above) by Joseph Crawhall, and an exquisite bronze sculpture called l'Implorante by little-known French sculptor Camille Claudel (see final image below).
