Gallery marketing officer Laura Page looking at Clive Barker’s Francis Bacon Head, 1978
Cultural Curiosities from the Collection has opened at the Lichfield Street gallery and runs until December 11.
The gallery is home to a wealth of art, artefacts and archaeology with some of the more unusual objects featuring in this show.
Objects have been chosen with a link to Wolverhampton’s famous Pop Art collection to show how some artists like Roy Lichtenstein are inspired by the everyday, throwaway and cheap novelty items.
Featured in the exhibition is one of the gallery’s more renowned pieces which, when it was first shown nearly 40 years ago, caused some controversy and made headlines.
Clive Barker’s Francis Bacon Head, 1978, is a brass box supporting a ribbed hose-like form with dentures emerging from the end. Clive Barker made the mould for this work from a vacuum cleaner pipe and a set of false teeth, which he cast in brass.
Roy Lichtenstein Reflections on Girl 1990. ARTIST ROOMS Tate and National Galleries of Scotland. Lent by The Roy Lichtenstein Foundation Collection 2015. © Estate of Roy Lichtenstein / DACS 2016.
The show also complements the gallery’s winter blockbuster show ARTIST ROOMS: Roy Lichtenstein which runs until February 26.
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Cultural Curiosities from the Collection is at Wolverhampton Art Gallery, in Lichfield Street, from October 17 to December 11 and is free. The gallery is open Monday to Saturday 10.30am-4.30pm and Sunday 11am-4pm.
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