black eyes & lemonade: curating popular art at whitechapel gallery

airedale fireplacetile fireplace in the form of an airedale, stuart tile works, 1951courtesy of the design museum collection

black eyes & lemonade: curating popular artwhitechapel gallery, london, UKon now until september 2013

in 1951, artist, designer and writer barbara jones organized an exhibition at the whitechapel gallery to coincide with the festival of britain. ‘black eyes & lemonade’, named after a thomas moore poem ‘intercepted letters of the two-penny post bag’ (1813), presented a selection objects which would typically not be shown in the setting of a cultural institution–from idris the talking lemon, to a dog-shaped fireplace to an edible model of st. paul’s cathedral, as well as a number of graphics and illustrations by british artists. the pieces were divided into such categories as home, birth-marriage-death, man’s own image and commerce & industry, reflecting jones’ ideas on popular art and museum practices, establishing cultural value for certain objects, regardless of whether or not they were handmade or machine produced.

today’s ‘black eyes & lemonade’ archive exhibition includes original exhibits from the 1951 exposition, as well as material from historical design chronicals, the vogue archives as well as the whitechapel gallery’s own collection, accompanied by ephemera from barbara jones’ surviving studio, highlighting her curatorial approach towards popular art, and the connections she made between image and object.

on thursday, may 16th, 2013, design critic of the international herald tribune alice rawsthorn will debate the changing and oftenproblematic relationship between design and art with design historian and curator emily king. more info here.

illustration by barbara jonesfor the design education publication ‘this or that’ published by the scottish committee of the council of industrial design in 1947courtesy of the university of brighton design archives

black eyes & lemonade gallery poster 1951design by barbara jones, print by shenval press courtesy whitechapel gallery archive.

idris the talking lemon

model of st paul’s cathedral made by senior-aircraftsman brown in 1951 raf school of cookery, halton courtesy whitechapel gallery archive

installation viewblack eyes & lemonade at the whitechapel gallery, 1951 courtesy whitechapel gallery archive

black eyes & lemonade exhibition at whitechapel gallery, 2013courtesy of whitechapel gallery