Exhibitions
Albrecht Dürer's Material World
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Edward Wouk is academic lead on the landmark exhibition Albrecht Dürer’s material world at the Whitworth (30 June 2023-10 March 2024), together with Professors Sasha Handley and Stefan Hanß, both of the Department of History, University of Manchester, Whitworth Curator (Historic Fine Art) Imogen Holmes Roe, and an international team of researchers based in Manchester, Melbourne, and Europe.
The exhibition, which developed out of a major research project funded by the Australian Research Council, reconsiders how a changing Renaissance material world, characterised by increasing globalisation, sparked artistic creativity and major innovations in the production of art and craft in Dürer’s native Nuremberg and beyond.
Generous support from the Getty Foundation’s Paper Project initiative and other funders underwrote costs associated with conservation, loans from major UK and European partners, and the innovative display of close to one hundred works, bringing visitors face to face with the Whitworth’s outstanding Dürer collection for the first time in over half a century.
Nicholas Wroe, writing in The Guardian, praises the exhibition as a show of ‘both familiarity and wonder’. ‘It's almost disturbing to see so many of his great printed pictures’, states Jonathan Jones in another stellar review in The Guardian, praising the balance of between the Whitworth’s ‘selection of some of his greatest prints, with excellent loans’.
Jones concludes that this exhibition is ‘a mesmerising encounter with an artist so far from us in time, yet so shockingly close’—'the prince of prints’, as Richard Holledge puts it in his exhibition review in The New European. In Northern Soul, Desmond Bullen applauds this ‘magnificent new retrospective’: ‘Beautifully considered, every minute of the five years’ research underpinning the composition of this enthralling exhibition is manifest in its Dürer-like attention to detail’.
Wouk, together with Jennifer Spinks, edited the accompanying catalogue, published by Manchester University Press.
Marcantonio Raimondi, Raphael
Marcantonio Raimondi and Raphael (30 September 2016 - 23 April 2017) was not only the first-ever UK exhibition devoted to the work of the foremost printmaker of the Italian Renaissance, but also the first major historic exhibition in The Whitworth since its reopening in 2015.
This major international exhibition at The Whitworth was the outcome of intense collaboration by curators, academics and, exceptionally, undergraduate and postgraduate students.
Marcantonio Raimondi (c 1480–c 1532) is best known for his groundbreaking collaboration with the artist Raphael, which resulted in such famous images as the imposing Judgement of Paris (see photo).
Curated by Dr Ed Wouk, Lecturer in Art History, and David Morris, Head of Collections at the Whitworth, alongside colleagues at the John Rylands Library, the exhibition was notable for bringing together research, teaching, public engagement with research and impact.
BA and MA students from Art History played an important role in the exhibition, including contributing entries for the exhibition catalogue, which has been published by Manchester University Press. This level of student involvement is unusual for an exhibition on this scale.
Ed Wouk said: “As a scholar of early modern print culture, I have found this project intellectually and professionally stimulating. It showcases some of the ways the University is singularly positioned to combine teaching, research and impact, and it will, I hope, make a lasting contribution to the field and to the practice of teaching with objects here in Manchester.
“The dozen Art History students who took my ‘Renaissance Print Cultures’ module in 2016 have become indispensable partners in the endeavour, contributing to planning the display and writing entries for the catalogue. They will all finish their degrees at Manchester with gallery experience and as published authors with a major academic press!”
The exhibition aimed to engage multiple audiences and was accompanied by a programme of tours and events, plus a substantial and lavishly illustrated catalogue, and a special volume of the Bulletin of the John Rylands Library.
Previous exhibitions
- Imprinting the Imagination: Northern Renaissance Prints from the Holtorp Collection is on view at the John Rylands Library, Deansgate (until Sunday, 26 October 2014). The exhibition has been curated by Edward Wouk (Lecturer in Art History and Visual Studies, The University of Manchester), and Renaissance Print Culture students.
- Coral: Something Rich and Strange, was on view at the Manchester Museum from 29 November 2013 - 16 March 2014 and was organised by Marion Endt-Jones.
- Subversive Spaces: Surrealism and Contemporary Art at the Whitworth Art Gallery was organised by David Lomas and colleagues. The exhibition attracted record attendance and the catalogue remains in high demand.
- Colin Trodd and students from his Blake seminar organised the exhibition Burning Bright - William Blake and the Art of the Book at the John Rylands Library, which was on view from 8 February - 3 June 2013.