The Hidden Lives of Plants: Botanical Illustrations from the V&A

The Hidden Lives of Plants: Botanical Illustrations from the V&A 22 June – 10 November 2024 There are almost 1,000 botanical illustrations in the Victoria and Albert Museum’s collection – ranging from scientific diagrams documenting medicinal plants to merchandising images that adorn seed packets. Many of these illustrations also exist as objects of beauty in their own … Read more

Unstill Life: Global Mobility and Consumerism in Still Life Paintings

Unstill Life Global Mobility and Consumerism in Still Life Paintings 22 June 2024 – 26 January 2025 Still life paintings have often been considered as impressive assortments of inanimate objects. However, there is also a dynamic and mobile history intrinsic to their production: the expansion of global trade and rise of consumerism. The emergence of … Read more

Online | Fragments of Devotion

Fragments of Devotion: A Sensory History of Illuminated Manuscript Cuttings Online exhibition Launches 30 June 2025 Explore the exhibition here Devotion leaves traces—on parchment, in song, through touch. Across centuries, acts of worship have imprinted themselves on sacred manuscripts, transforming them into deeply personal objects of connection and belief. Fragments of Devotion invites you to … Read more

Scent and the Art of the Pre-Raphaelites

Scent and the Art of the Pre-Raphaelites 11 October 2024 – 26 January 2025 Scent is a key motif in paintings by the artists of the Pre-Raphaelite and Aesthetic movements. Fragrance is visually suggested in images of daydreaming figures smelling flowers or burning incense, enhancing the sensory aura of ‘art for art’s sake’. Scent was … Read more

Women in Power: Coins from the Barber Collection

Women in Power: Coins from the Barber Collection 22 June 2024 –  26 January 2025 Spanning nearly 2,000 years and more than 5,000 miles, the Barber’s forthcoming coin exhibition explores historical women who have appeared on coins. From London to Beijing, and from representations of gender-fluid deities from the 3rd century BC to Elizabeth II … Read more

Sights of Wonder: Photographs from the 1862 Royal Tour

Sights of Wonder: Photographs from the 1862 Royal Tour Pyramids, temples, sphinxes and shrines: breathtaking images of these ancient and often iconic landmarks, captured by pioneering photographer Francis Bedford, provided new insights for Victorians into the historic and biblical sites of the eastern Mediterranean. Generously lent by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, these remarkable photographs … Read more

A Golden Jubilee: 50 Years of the Barber Coin Collection

In 2020, the Barber celebrates the golden anniversary of its coin collection – one of the most significant in the world. Scholars and numismatists, Geoffrey Haines (1899 – 1981) and Philip Whitting (1903 – 1988), each left their vast collections of a combined 15,000 pieces to the Barber with the condition that the coins were … Read more

CORNWALL AS CRUCIBLE – Modernity and Internationalism in Mid-century Britain

Remote and picturesque, St Ives in Cornwall became an unlikely hotbed for avant-garde art in the mid 20th century. Painters and sculptors made it their home, either permanently or as temporary exiles, bringing with them their preoccupation with international modernity. Taking as its inspiration the Barber’s recently acquired Constructivist sculpture, ‘Linear Construction in Space No. 1’ … Read more

The Rhythm of Light: Scottish Colourists from the Fleming Collection

Immensely appealing works by the four artists known collectively as the ‘Scottish Colourists’ – SJ Peploe, JD Fergusson, FCB Cadell and Leslie Hunter – are shown together for the first time in the West Midlands in this exhibition of works lent by the important Fleming Collection. Painted in the early 20th century, their cityscapes, still … Read more

WATER LILY POND 2017

Claude Monet One of the most recognisable motifs of Impressionism – the Japanese bridge over the water lily pond in Monet’s garden at Giverny – is the subject of this spectacular painting, on loan to the gallery this summer from the Art Institute of Chicago. In 1890, Monet, a keen gardener, purchased the house at … Read more

More real than life: 19th-Century Portrait Photography

19th-Century Portrait Photography The dawn of photography in the mid-19th century made portraiture accessible to a much wider public. This exhibition explores early photographic studio portraiture, including the popular carte-de-visite format. The exhibition discusses how photographic techniques, backdrops, props, costumes and poses enabled public figures – ranging from Oscar Wilde through Ellen Terry to Queen … Read more

Excavating Empire: David Talbot Rice and the Rediscovery of Byzantium

David Talbot Rice and the Rediscovery of Byzantium From the 1920s through to the 1950s, renowned archaeologist and art historian David Talbot Rice conducted some of the first examinations of the ruins of the Byzantine Empire. Exhibited here for the first time, photos, drawing and field notes from these studies mark his contribution to bringing … Read more

Works of Mercy: Photographs by Attilio Fiumarella

A painting by the great Italian Baroque artist Caravaggio, depicting the seven corporal acts of mercy of traditional Catholicism, is the inspiration for this outstanding series of 14 dramatic images. Like his predecessor, Birmingham-based photographer Fiumarella uses real people as his models – in this case, the homeless and prostitutes from the streets of Porto … Read more