New Medievalist visions Exhibition at the Maughan Library

30 January - 22 May 2013, The Weston Room, The Maughan Library, Chancery Lane

How have modern artists, architects, designers and dramatists visualised medieval culture?  How do these works negotiate ideas of historical authenticity, cultural translation and appropriation, personal and political identities?

A new exhibition, running from 30 January to 22 May at the Maughan Library, Medievalist visions explores how the art and literature of the European Middle Ages, as well as medieval events, ideas and people, have been represented in post-medieval Britain.

It draws on material from across the disciplines of art and design, literature, theatre, cinema and architecture to explore ideas of historical authenticity, cultural translation and appropriation, and the formation and subversion of cultural and historical, personal and political, identities.

The exhibits range from world class works of art and extremely rare books to modern ephemera and Victorian children's toys.  Items displayed include a copy of William Morris' Kelmscott Press edition of The history of Reynard the Foxe and a pair of gloves worn by Laurence Oliver in the 1944 production of Richard III.

Items have been loaned by the Victoria & Albert museum, Lambeth Palace Library, King's Foyle Special Collections Library and the Geffrye Museum, and also includes a selection of specially commissioned work by young artists.

Medievalist visions is a collaboration between King's College London's Foyle Special Collections Library, CLAMS and the Department of English, and will be housed in the Maughan Library's dedicated exhibition space, the Weston Room, which is built on the medieval site of the Rolls Chapel and Henry III's Domus Conversorum.

For more information contact the organisers Josh Davies, Bea Wilford, and Sarah Salih at: medievalist.visions@kcl.ac.uk