Collection: Sainsbury Centre

Collection-level records:

• Collection history (Collection development policy)

  The Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts (SCVA) opened in 1978 with the support of one of the nation’s great philanthropic families. Sir Robert and Lady Sainsbury donated one of the most extraordinary yet non-conformist art collections in the world which includes works dating from prehistory to the present day and from all across the globe. Robert Sainsbury had started collecting around 1929 and in 1937 he married Lisa van den Bergh from which point the collection became a joint one. They said that a person’s relationship with a work of art was more akin to the relationship with another person than with an inanimate object. In 1973 Robert and Lisa donated their art collection to the University and their son, David (Lord Sainsbury of Turville), funded the museum building on the university campus. The building was designed by Norman Foster (Baron Foster of Thames Bank) and now has grade II* listed status. For the Sainsburys, the power of art was universal and amplified by the active conversations between works across time and culture of origin. To achieve this alternative way of ‘doing art’ they ended up needing an entirely different type of art museum to be built.

  Today the Centre holds one of the most impressive art collections outside of the national institutions. Alongside the works donated by Robert and Lisa Sainsbury the Centre’s holdings have continued to grow and now form some 5,000 works in total. Shortly after the Centre opened in 1978, Sir Colin Anderson a friend of Robert and Lisa donated a collection of works related to the Art Nouveau movement. A collection dedicated to Abstract and Constructivist Art had been established by the University in 1968 and was fully absorbed into the Centre’s holdings in 1990. The Sainsbury Centre has since benefited from a number of benefactors who have supported the growth of the art collection. The collection continues to grow in a judicial and sustainable manner. The Sainsbury Centre is committed to the collaborative study and presentation of its collection.

  Source: Collection development policy

  Date: 2022

  Licence: CC BY-NC

• Collection overview (Collection development policy)

  The Sainsbury collections are of international importance and consist of works of human creativity dating from prehistory to the present day from across the globe, celebrating the universality of art and human creativity. There are major holdings of art from Oceania, Africa, the Americas, Asia, the ancient Mediterranean classical cultures of Egypt, Greece and Rome, and medieval Europe. The Centre is particularly strong holdings of Twentieth Century Art including significant number of works by Pablo Picasso (5 works), Jacob Epstein, Francis Bacon (13 works), Henry Moore (34 works), Alberto Giacometti (36 works), Elisabeth Frink (29), Amedeo Modigliani (3 works), Leonora Carrington, Edgar Degas – including his famous sculpture, Little Dancer Aged Fourteen, one of the most important works in the collection. The collection is perhaps most notable for its collection of sculpture from ancient to modern. However, there is a significant body of paintings not least from the School of London and École de Paris of the post second world war period. There is a strong preference for lyrical abstraction and Tachism, art movements that flourished in France from 1945 to roughly 1960 and exhibit an expressive calligraphic style, away from the hard-edged geometric abstraction of the pre-war period. Notable artists included in the collection are Jean Fautrier, Charles Maussion, Mübin Orhon, André Lanskoy, Léon Zack, Bernard Dufour, and JeanMarie Calmettes. From the School of London, there are outstanding works by Frank Auerbach and a remarkable group of 13 paintings by Francis Bacon, perhaps the single most important British painter of the last century. Full details on all of the individual works in the collections is publicly available through the online catalogue that is actively promoted and includes all available information on provenance and history.

  There are significant and extensive holdings of Abstract Art, notably those artists associated with Constructivism, the English Vorticists, the Russian Suprematists, the Dutch De Stijl Group and the German Bauhaus School. There are international artists working in the field of abstract and Constructivist Art such as Josef Albers. Lygia Clark. Sonia Delaunay, Sofie Taeuber-Arp, Eduardo Chillida, Raoul Dufy, Jean Tonguely, Cesar Domela, Charles Biederman, John Ernest and Hans Hartung.

  The highlights by British artists include works by Victor Pasmore, Mary Martin, Gillian Wise, Kenneth Martin, Anthony Hill, Anthony Caro, Stephen Gilbert, Michael Kidner, Winfield Nicholson, Tess Jaray. There are a significant and important group of sculptures by the important British artist Robert Adams. The collection includes furniture and architectural models as well as paintings, sculpture, reliefs, multiples, and works on paper.

  There are significant and extensive holdings of studio ceramics. The collection includes a major group of work by Lucie Rie and Hans Coper of national and international importance. It also includes major works by Bernard Leach and Shōji Hamada, James Tower, Ewen Henderson, Claudi Casanovas, Rupert Spira, Jennifer Lee, Julian Stair, Sara Radstone, Gabriele Koch, and Ian Godfrey.

  There is notable collection of works relating the Art Nouveau period of national importance. It represents the French exponents of Art Nouveau associated with the École de Nancy and makers who, both in France and Britain, worked across a range of disciplines and materials such as glassware and furniture, metalware and jewellery. The collection includes pieces by leading exponents of Art Nouveau such as Louis Comfort Tiffany, Émile Gallé and René Lalique.

  The permanent art collection is principally displayed across the ground floor of the museum. The collection extends outside across the campus Sculpture Park. In the 20th Century, the Sainsbury Centre was one of the first museums in the world to display art from all around the world and from all time periods equally and collectively. In the 21st Century it is the first museum in the world to formally recognise the living lifeforce of art. It continues to break boundaries with how the power of humanity is encapsulated and communicated to anyone who comes to visit. The Sainsbury Centre is an institution that transcends traditional barriers between Art, Architecture, Archaeology and Anthropology and focuses collectively on shared essential questions within which the material manifestations of human creativity are given voice to answer them.

  The creation of the Living Area display in the 1970s was one of the first times in any museum setting that different works of art from across the world were displayed equally and in conversation across a contemporary gallery platform. We welcome this platform of equality and open engagement with the power of works of art activated to address issues of meaningful human learning and understanding. In 1978 an unencumbered relationship with art was prioritised above telling people how they should enjoy it. Releasing the anima of works of art through views from lived experience, practitioner and scholarship can help engage people in sharing stories and building relationships with works of art. The Sainsbury Centre is committed to making sure that all collection information, provenance research and diverse interpretations are publicly accessible. This is how stories can be shared and art can help engage people with the fundamental questions of humanity. Acquisitions to the collection are an important part of this equation.

  Source: Collection development policy

  Date: 2022

  Licence: CC BY-NC