Our hidden collection

MENTION the words modern art to many people and their first thoughts would be of Damien Hurst's controversial severed sheep in a tank or Tracey Emin's My Bed.

But not all modern art is as strange and confusing as that.

Swindon is home to one of Britain's most extensive and renowned modern art collections, featuring works by Lowry, Henry Moore and Ben Nicholson.

The only problem is that the collection is so big that only a small number of works can be displayed at a time.

Because of this, councillors are studying options to move the Art Gallery and its collection a mile down the road into the former railway museum in Faringdon Road as part of a £2.6m project.

The collection, officially called the Swindon Collection of 20th Century British Art, it is made up of around 280 pieces spanning the last 100 years. Although not the largest art collection owned by a council authority, it is recognised as one of the finest municipal collections of its kind, having been established in a very short space of time.

Rosalyn Thomas is the Art Gallery officer for Swindon Council. She has a scientific mind about how the gallery works.

She said: "The art collection is one of the gems of Swindon and extremely accessible. Modern art has become very popular. You just need to look at the success of the Tate Modern gallery and the new Saatchi gallery in London's former County Hall to see that.

"The beauty of contemporary art is that in most cases the artists who have produced these paintings are still alive and are able to talk about why they painted the piece and how they felt when they were producing it.

"Museums and art galleries are not just dry and dusty places. We are prompting lively public debate.

"Everyone can enjoy the Swindon works, making up their own ideas and keeping an open mind. Children are the most interesting of visitors they make up their own ideas about the pictures."

The collection was started shortly after the opening of the Arts Centre in Devizes Road in 1946 when local collector and philanthropist HJP Bomford donated 15 modern works to the council.

A far-sighted council employee snapped up the paintings and displayed them in the Civic Offices, and the collection began to grow.

As the number of paintings rose, so did the need for a proper building to house them in. In 1964, the present gallery was completed and opened next door to the Swindon museum.

Many things have to be taken into consideration when looking after paintings in the gallery. Rosalyn said: "There are so many things to consider behind the scenes. All the paintings are carefully stored in racking, ready to be brought out for exhibitions.

"The room has to be kept at a constant temperature and humidity otherwise climate changes in the room can ruin the paintings that's why there are no radiators.

"We have to consider the height of the paintings, and where the labels go so children can read them and adults don't have to hurt their backs to study them."

Larger works like Small Objects by Lisa Milroy, which is nearly two metres wide and just over two metres tall, need four people simply to lift them into position.

"The lack of room is a problem," said Rosalyn. "We could use temporary displays in the middle of the room, but people like space, to be able to stand back and admire and figure out what the paintings mean. It would also mean we have less room for school parties and activity sessions."

The collection's latest painting, The Stripping of London by Timothy Hyman, went on display for the first time last month. It is designed to be a thought-provoking work depicting the destruction of London's culture and architecture by modern development.

The city is personified as a human figure lying across the landscape of Central London being pulled apart by men in suits. The painting cost £4,500, and was bought with a 50 per cent grant from the Resource/ Victoria and Albert Purchase Grant Fund.

Many of the paintings in the collection are acquired with grants from National Art Funds, through grant aid and sponsorship. More than 60 have been donated.

In 2001, the Art Gallery received a generous bequest of works by the visionary British artist Cecil Collins from the estate of his late wife Elizabeth.

The nine works were bequeathed to the National Art Collections fund, which administered the distribution of the gift to Swindon. The collection already had an important oil painting by Cecil Collins, the Sybil completed in 1964.

The Swindon Museum and Art Gallery is located on Bath Road, Old Town. It is open from Monday to Saturday, 10am to 5pm and on Sundays from 2pm to 5pm. Entry is free.