surya bowyer
@suryabowyer.com
curator & historian
linktr.ee/suryabowyer
linktr.ee/suryabowyer
Pinned
surya bowyer
@suryabowyer.com
· Nov 25
State of the (Future) Field: The History of Collecting and Its Institutions
This article considers the state of the field of the history of collecting and its institutions. Following on from a 2021 ‘state of the field’ article, also published in this journal, the present pie....
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
"The history of collecting has sometimes been understood as the history of individual collectors. But collecting institutions (e.g., museums) are worthy of attention because they profoundly impact why we, as historians, look at some things and not others." onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....
why is google search so good but google books search so bad?
July 15, 2025 at 11:49 AM
why is google search so good but google books search so bad?
I am giving a (free!) talk at the V&A Museum on 3 June with @shreyagupta.bsky.social @libertypaterson.bsky.social & Niti Acharya, on the history of institutional collecting. Sign up to attend here: www.vam.ac.uk/event/Yq2NZK...
V&A Provenance Research Seminar: State of the (Future) Field - Talk at
V&A South Kensington · V&A
This talk will consider the state of the field of the history of collecting and its institutions, looking forward also to the future of this evolving field of study.
www.vam.ac.uk
April 10, 2025 at 1:13 PM
I am giving a (free!) talk at the V&A Museum on 3 June with @shreyagupta.bsky.social @libertypaterson.bsky.social & Niti Acharya, on the history of institutional collecting. Sign up to attend here: www.vam.ac.uk/event/Yq2NZK...
Today I'm looking at: Remedios Varo's "Simpatía (La rabia del gato)" aka Sympathy (the cat's rage).
April 2, 2025 at 1:39 PM
Today I'm looking at: Remedios Varo's "Simpatía (La rabia del gato)" aka Sympathy (the cat's rage).
Today I learned that @theguardian.com is running a contest for “Invertebrate of the Year”. At a time of increasing climate crisis, of course the tardigrade—which has survived all 5 great extinction events—should win www.theguardian.com/environment/...
‘Lego and tardigrades’: when humans finally destroy the world, what will remain?
Milnesium tardigradum is only 0.5mm long and has survived all five great extinction events – plus it’s cute
www.theguardian.com
March 26, 2025 at 1:33 PM
Today I learned that @theguardian.com is running a contest for “Invertebrate of the Year”. At a time of increasing climate crisis, of course the tardigrade—which has survived all 5 great extinction events—should win www.theguardian.com/environment/...
In Waterstones. What’s the story here then
March 19, 2025 at 10:51 PM
In Waterstones. What’s the story here then
And here’s the research article in The British Art Journal britishartjournal.co.uk/recovery-of-...
March 18, 2025 at 8:36 AM
And here’s the research article in The British Art Journal britishartjournal.co.uk/recovery-of-...
Great bit of art detective work this www.theguardian.com/artanddesign...
The art expert did it: LGG Ramsey revealed as 1951 thief of Van Dyck painting
Exclusive: How one historian’s investigative work led to artwork finally being returned to ‘English Versailles’
www.theguardian.com
March 18, 2025 at 8:35 AM
Great bit of art detective work this www.theguardian.com/artanddesign...
Does Norman Foster think Manchester United are relocating to Dubai? www.theguardian.com/football/202...
Manchester United to build new 100,000-capacity stadium next to Old Trafford
Manchester United have confirmed their intention to build a new 100,000-capacity stadium ‘footsteps’ from their Old Trafford home of 115 years
www.theguardian.com
March 11, 2025 at 4:58 PM
Does Norman Foster think Manchester United are relocating to Dubai? www.theguardian.com/football/202...
Some of us will go to an art gallery this weekend. Maybe it will help us reflect or inspire us. Isn’t that part of a life well lived? ... But what if you didn’t? What if there were no galleries, theatres, publishers or concert halls? What if we got rid of art? www.theguardian.com/books/2025/m...
The big idea: should we abolish art?
Down with expensive trophies at art fairs: it’s time to reclaim a more radical vision of creativity
www.theguardian.com
March 10, 2025 at 1:33 PM
Some of us will go to an art gallery this weekend. Maybe it will help us reflect or inspire us. Isn’t that part of a life well lived? ... But what if you didn’t? What if there were no galleries, theatres, publishers or concert halls? What if we got rid of art? www.theguardian.com/books/2025/m...
Today I'm thinking about Ceal Floyer's Working Title (Digging), a stereo sound installation that aurally represents the act of shovelling dirt. freunde-der-nationalgalerie.de/en/blog/acqu...
March 7, 2025 at 5:34 PM
Today I'm thinking about Ceal Floyer's Working Title (Digging), a stereo sound installation that aurally represents the act of shovelling dirt. freunde-der-nationalgalerie.de/en/blog/acqu...
A sad day: RIP to the @britishlibrary.bsky.social's vaguely Italian-sounding, impressively laconic sign which greets visitors on the entrance piazza. Replaced with this much more conventionally grammared yellow sign. Interesting to note the continuing commitment to capitalising "piazza".
March 5, 2025 at 2:24 PM
A sad day: RIP to the @britishlibrary.bsky.social's vaguely Italian-sounding, impressively laconic sign which greets visitors on the entrance piazza. Replaced with this much more conventionally grammared yellow sign. Interesting to note the continuing commitment to capitalising "piazza".
"The painting had been hanging in the National Museum in Gdańsk, when on 24 April 1974, a cleaner knocked it from the wall, the frame broke, and she discovered the painting had been replaced with a photograph." www.theguardian.com/world/2025/m...
Brueghel painting stolen from Poland in 1974 found in local Dutch museum
Art detective and magazine help crack case of Flemish masterpiece thought to have been stolen by Polish agents
www.theguardian.com
March 4, 2025 at 10:38 PM
"The painting had been hanging in the National Museum in Gdańsk, when on 24 April 1974, a cleaner knocked it from the wall, the frame broke, and she discovered the painting had been replaced with a photograph." www.theguardian.com/world/2025/m...
I would bet on this being a verbatim play at the Almeida within 10 years
www.theguardian.com/environment/...
www.theguardian.com/environment/...
‘It’s like solving a murder’: who dumped 30 tonnes of rubbish on Lichfield?
The city is determined to solve the ‘whodumpedit’ mystery after a huge pile of refuse was discarded, blocking the road. But with fly-tipping across the UK on the up, will it be possible to find the cu...
www.theguardian.com
February 5, 2025 at 1:58 PM
I would bet on this being a verbatim play at the Almeida within 10 years
www.theguardian.com/environment/...
www.theguardian.com/environment/...
To the tune of “we found love in a hopeless place”
January 28, 2025 at 3:02 PM
To the tune of “we found love in a hopeless place”
Wow, these paintings by Eric Tucker are extraordinary.
www.theguardian.com/artanddesign...
‘Secret Lowry’: the ex-gravedigger who painted northern life, from factory to fuggy pub
www.theguardian.com/artanddesign...
‘Secret Lowry’: the ex-gravedigger who painted northern life, from factory to fuggy pub
‘Secret Lowry’: the ex-gravedigger who painted northern life, from factory to fuggy pub
He repaired his car with Sellotape and kept his trousers up with rope. But Eric Tucker had a hidden life – painting drinkers, smokers and factory-workers without saccharine or sentiment. Now a book ce...
www.theguardian.com
January 23, 2025 at 12:34 PM
Wow, these paintings by Eric Tucker are extraordinary.
www.theguardian.com/artanddesign...
‘Secret Lowry’: the ex-gravedigger who painted northern life, from factory to fuggy pub
www.theguardian.com/artanddesign...
‘Secret Lowry’: the ex-gravedigger who painted northern life, from factory to fuggy pub
If you told me this, an image of the Horsehead Nebula captured by telescopes, was a promo image for the film Wicked, I would believe you www.eso.org/public/image...
The Horsehead Nebula*
The Horsehead Nebula*
www.eso.org
January 21, 2025 at 3:46 PM
If you told me this, an image of the Horsehead Nebula captured by telescopes, was a promo image for the film Wicked, I would believe you www.eso.org/public/image...
These are very good
I promised you guys more of these. Here is one that I find particularly great.
Materials: plastic, metal, wiring, and human tears. (See ALT text for full transcript of the sign).
Materials: plastic, metal, wiring, and human tears. (See ALT text for full transcript of the sign).
January 21, 2025 at 3:28 PM
These are very good
Reposted by surya bowyer
'The feeling of the show, then, is of provisionality, of history in the process of being digested and rewritten.'
Wonderful encapsulation of what History is and how it 'works'. (And NB the exhibition itself is also a real treat).
Wonderful encapsulation of what History is and how it 'works'. (And NB the exhibition itself is also a real treat).
‘Hew Locke asks us to consider imperial power as a grim yet alluring excess of the symbolic, not just as the exercise of brute force.’
Esther Chadwick on a response to empire at the British Museum: www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Esther Chadwick on a response to empire at the British Museum: www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Esther Chadwick · At the British Museum: ‘what have we here?’
Hew Locke asks us to consider imperial power as a grim yet alluring excess of the symbolic, not just as the exercise of...
www.lrb.co.uk
January 12, 2025 at 12:18 PM
'The feeling of the show, then, is of provisionality, of history in the process of being digested and rewritten.'
Wonderful encapsulation of what History is and how it 'works'. (And NB the exhibition itself is also a real treat).
Wonderful encapsulation of what History is and how it 'works'. (And NB the exhibition itself is also a real treat).
Like just LOOK at this panopticon... Wonder what Foucault would have thought
January 7, 2025 at 5:07 PM
Like just LOOK at this panopticon... Wonder what Foucault would have thought
This is a great, Pynchon-esque story:
Secretive underground exploration group assists with missing museum artefacts in Melbourne.
Members of clandestine group retrieve objects from drains after burst pipe at Australian museum’s storage facility. www.theartnewspaper.com/2025/01/06/s...
Secretive underground exploration group assists with missing museum artefacts in Melbourne.
Members of clandestine group retrieve objects from drains after burst pipe at Australian museum’s storage facility. www.theartnewspaper.com/2025/01/06/s...
Secretive underground exploration group assists with missing museum artefacts in Melbourne
Members of clandestine group retrieve objects from drains after burst pipe at Australian museum’s storage facility
www.theartnewspaper.com
January 7, 2025 at 5:00 PM
This is a great, Pynchon-esque story:
Secretive underground exploration group assists with missing museum artefacts in Melbourne.
Members of clandestine group retrieve objects from drains after burst pipe at Australian museum’s storage facility. www.theartnewspaper.com/2025/01/06/s...
Secretive underground exploration group assists with missing museum artefacts in Melbourne.
Members of clandestine group retrieve objects from drains after burst pipe at Australian museum’s storage facility. www.theartnewspaper.com/2025/01/06/s...
Escape from the terrordome: how Netherlands panopticon prisons are being reborn as stunning arts hubs.
They were built to instil fear. Now these giant domed jails, which date back to the 1700s, are being turned into creative centres www.theguardian.com/artanddesign...
They were built to instil fear. Now these giant domed jails, which date back to the 1700s, are being turned into creative centres www.theguardian.com/artanddesign...
Escape from the terrordome: how Netherlands panopticon prisons are being reborn as stunning arts hubs
They were built to instil fear. Now these giant domed jails, which date back to the 1700s, are being turned into creative centres – complete with cells for rent and escape rooms
www.theguardian.com
January 7, 2025 at 4:59 PM
Escape from the terrordome: how Netherlands panopticon prisons are being reborn as stunning arts hubs.
They were built to instil fear. Now these giant domed jails, which date back to the 1700s, are being turned into creative centres www.theguardian.com/artanddesign...
They were built to instil fear. Now these giant domed jails, which date back to the 1700s, are being turned into creative centres www.theguardian.com/artanddesign...
hi @willpooley.bsky.social just to say I really enjoyed "Sheet Happens" and have found it helpful in my own work. so thank you
January 6, 2025 at 3:23 PM
hi @willpooley.bsky.social just to say I really enjoyed "Sheet Happens" and have found it helpful in my own work. so thank you
Reposted by surya bowyer
El Greco’s portrait of the great renaissance miniaturist Giulio Clovio in 1570, holding one of his masterpieces. Today has been his day.
January 6, 2025 at 2:02 AM
El Greco’s portrait of the great renaissance miniaturist Giulio Clovio in 1570, holding one of his masterpieces. Today has been his day.