Influential exhibition acts as artistic gateway to the Lakes

Mid January 2009 will see The Abbot Hall Art Gallery in Kendal, gateway to the Lake District, staging the first solo exhibition of the work of Robert Bevan since the 1960s, when it opens its doors to the ‘Robert Bevan and the Cumberland Market Group’ exhibition. The work of one of the 16 founder members of the Camden Town Group will be on show from January 13 to March 21 2009, giving insights into the work of the most important British Post-Impressionist movement.

The Abbot Hall exhibition will consider Bevan’s artistic development and key influences. The horse – his most familiar subject - will be prominent within the exhibition and witnessed in examples of his cab-yard and Camden horse sale paintings.

The Cumberland Market Group – an offshoot of the Camden Town Group – has never been investigated through an exhibition that probes its achievement, or impact on its members’ art practice. Bringing this exhibition to Kendal, from Southampton where it was originally on show, is a stroke of genius on Abbot Hall’s part.

Bevan’s work will be displayed alongside that of other Cumberland Market Group members, including John Nash, Harold Gilman, Spencer Gore and Charles Ginner.

Bevan will be shown to have been a prime mover of the British Post-Impressionist movement, whose work was interrupted prematurely by the First World War.

The Camden Town Group provided their audience with a fascinating fusion of French Modernist aspiration and quintessential Englishness, particularly in terms of their subject matter. This is the intriguing blend that gallery-goers in Kendal will be able to experience, to form their own critique of the work of one of the leading protagonists of the British art scene.

Abbot Hall opens at 10.30am and closes at 4pm, during the winter months in which this exhibition takes place, Monday to Saturday. Admission costs £5.75 (£6.35 Gift Aid) and is free for young people up to the age of 18 and students in full-time education up to the age of 25.

South Lakeland District Council Tourism Officer, Dawn Hunter-Ellis, says: “Kendal is the gateway to the beautiful Lake District and we are delighted that this exhibition provides a perfect opportunity for lovers of art to visit Lakeland whilst enjoying the work of Bevan and the Cumberland Market Group. Abbot Hall is making another huge contribution to the tourism offer in the South Lakes by staging this important exhibition.”

For further information about the exhibition visit abbothall.org.uk.

Accommodation in Kendal and the rest of the South Lakes can be found by visiting golakes.co.uk.