The Grundy Art Gallery, Blackpool has an interesting take on the art exhibition.

Sir Jacob Epstein, by George Charles Beresford. Image in the Public Domain.

At first glance you would think they had relocated the town’s Local History library to the ground floor gallery, and given it a lick of paint. Yet their ‘Jacob Epstein and Blackpool’ exhibition, which closes today, is a rare delight.

The show presents press cuttings from the national and regional newspapers charting the journey Epstein’s huge Derbyshire alabaster sculpture ‘Adam’ took to reach public display in the town in the Summer of 1939. A tale of money, power, morality and quite a few sixpence pieces.

A complete and widely representative story is presented – From the news of the plan breaking, support and opposition for it, to the installation of the stone colossus in a converted (and tastefully re-decorated) high-street shop. Press and public response to the show, tales of long queues, floorboards under the strain (of people, not stone) and vast sums of money then follow. Finally, they show where Adam went next, and of the creation of the sculpture’s counterpart, Eve.

The story’s shot through with class and regional divisions, the sensational amounts of money outlayed by the sculpture’s owner and by the eager public queueing to see it, and the artist’s own concern over the appropriate setting for the commercialisation of his work.

Through a Northern Window - Adam and Stonehenge

Comparisons are made with Stonehenge (would you take that on tour?), and the horror of vandalism is widely reported.

It also presents a fascinating insight into late 1930′s Britain. Newspaper opinion pieces were as diverse and popular as they are now. One cutting (written by a clergyman, and clearly no fan of Epstein) refers to the great work Hitler had done in dealing with ‘degenerate’ art.

The exhibition is enriched with a video installation and examples of newspaper mock-ups advertising this, and the promoter’s other Blackpool attractions.

This was my first visit to the Grundy, but it’s clear from this and the other exhibitions in the current programme that they’re worth keeping an eye on.