Fig. 1. Artist Sep Waugh looks at panels by Harry Harvey. Photo by Megan Stacey.
On Saturday, 22 November The Stained Glass Centre launched its first exhibition, ‘Light in the North: Modern Glass-Painters of York’, showcasing work by the York artists Harry Stammers (1902–1969), Harry Harvey (1922–2011), Sep Waugh [Fig. 1], Ann Sotheran and Helen Whittaker. The exhibition takes place in the historic parish church of St Martin-cum-Gregory in York, until recently one of the city’s most important ‘lost’ buildings. As ‘The Stained Glass Centre’ the building is developing as a national resource for the discovery, enjoyment and interpretation of stained glass.
The exhibition has been curated and mounted by a volunteer team of history of art students from the University of York, and on display, in addition to the artwork, are the results of new historical research on the fabric of the church and the parishioners commemorated in it, undertaken by a graduate student archaeologist and interns funded by the Institute for the Public Understanding of the Past (IPUP) [Fig. 2].
Fig. 2. View of the exhibition. Photo by Megan Stacey
The exhibition complements the outstanding stained glass in the church itself, underlining the unbroken continuity of glass-painting practice in the city of York. As well as the work by the artists mentioned above, visitors are afforded the rare opportunity to see a recently conserved piece by 18th-century artist William Peckitt.
A review of the opening of the first exhibition will feature in a future issue of Vidimus.
There will be further opportunities to visit the exhibition, which will be open from 10.00 – 13.00 on the following Saturdays: November 29, and December 6, 13 and 20.
