Acquisitions of the month: October 2017

A round-up of the best works of art to enter public collections recently

National Museums Scotland

The Galloway Hoard

National Museums Scotland has successfully raised £1.98 million in order to acquire the Galloway Hoard on behalf of the nation. The collection of more than 100 Viking-era artefacts, including gold and silver jewellery and ingots, was discovered in Dumfries and Galloway, and is one of the richest of its kind. Donations from the National Heritage Memorial Fund, the Art Fund, the Scottish government, and the general public secured the acquisition.

The Galloway Hoard

Towner Art Gallery, Eastbourne

Sedibeng, it comes with the rain (2016), Dineo Seshee Bopape

Dineo Seshee Bopape’s multimedia installation is inspired by her South African heritage and questions the politics of race, gender, and spirituality. The Sfeir-Semler Gallery presented the installation at Frieze London, where the Contemporary Art Society’s Collections Fund acquired it. The scheme aims to support the acquisition of contemporary works for Contemporary Art Society museum members across the UK. Bopape’s work has garnered considerable attention recently: last year she was the subject of a solo exhibition at the Palais de Tokyo, Paris, and this year she has been awarded the Pinchuk Future Generation Art Prize and a Sharjah Biennial Art Prize.

Sedibeng (It Comes With the Rain) (2016), Dineo Seshee Bopape

James Joyce Centre, Dublin

It’s Fireworks, Gerald Davis

The James Joyce Centre has acquired Gerald Davis’s painting It’s Fireworks through a generous donation from the artist’s family. Inspired by the ‘Nausicaa’ episode in James Joyce’s most celebrated novel, Ulysses, the piece was recently displayed as part of an exhibition at the Olivier Cornet Gallery. Davis, who died in 2005, was one of Ireland’s foremost semi-abstract painters, as well as being a gallery owner, art critic, and James Joyce expert.

It’s Fireworks by Gerald Davis