HAND bags, hat bags, carrier bags, carpet bags, embroidered bags, tea bags, suitcases and travelling trucks – bags of all shapes, sizes and styles are the inspiration behind the Liverpool Academy of Arts’ latest exhibition.
Called – yes, you guessed it – Bags and Baggage, the show places paintings next to real-life objects all on the same theme.
They include Bag lady by Carl Hodgson, a white- haired women in a canary yellow dress feeding pigeons in front of department store TJ Hughes. In the background, two women walk on precarious heels, weighed down with shoulder bags, while a hunched man reaches into a plastic bag for bird seed.
Margaret Walton’s Bags in a Boot depicts the familiar scene of a car loaded up with shopping, while Some Like it Hot, by Sydney Jarrett, is based on an image from the 1959 film starring Marilyn Monroe, Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis.
“The only essential was that bags must be the central theme of their work,” says June Lornie, the gallery’s director. “We also have a large collection of bags and luggage of all sizes on view, many with interesting tales associated with them.”
BAGS and Baggage is at the Liverpool Academy of Arts, Seel Street, from February 2-18.
