Fall Out: War and Conflict in the British Council Collection

26 March – 30 May 2010

Gallery 7

The final exhibition from the British Council Collection at the Whitechapel Gallery focuses on art made in response to conflict and war. Entitled Fall Out, it has been selected by Theodor Ringborg (26), from Stockholm, Sweden, who was the winner of the British Council’s international competition to find ‘The Fifth Curator ‘.

The four previous exhibitions drawn from the British Council Collection have beencurated by well-known figures in the art world: Michael Craig-Martin; Tim Marlow; Jeremy Deller and Alan Kane; and Paula Rego. Each has taken a completely individual stance: Michael Craig-Martin focusing on ‘great early buys’; Tim Marlow on sculpture’s gradual dematerialisation from the mid 1960s to today; Jeremy Deller and Alan Kane on the look and feel of Britain’s urban landscape; Paula Rego on the narrative thread that runs throughout 20th century British art. in the 20th century.

To select the fifth and final display, the British Council, in partnership with the Whitechapel Gallery, initiated an international competition to find a young curator living outside Britain. The aim of the competition was to give aspiring curators an opportunity to work with one of the most significant collections of British art in the UK,(now numbering over 8500 works. ) and iIn the competition’sits inaugural year, 161 proposals from 47 countries were received. Six candidates were shortlisted (from Egypt, Israel, South Africa, Japan, India and Sweden), and each spent a week in London working with the Whitechapel Gallery and the British Council to develop their ideas. Following a day long presentation of the finalist’s proposals to a jury of leading art world figures, Theodor Ringborg was selected as the winner.

Theodor Ringborg, said “The British Council’s immense collection is a pure joy to work with and it will be an honour to conclude the wonderful series of British Council exhibitions at the Whitechapel Gallery. The Collection is one-of-a-kind and I couldn’t imagine a greater pleasure than to dig deep into its history and works of art. It is truly a wonderful opportunity that the British Council has given me."

Fall Out spans 90 years of artistic engagement with the war and conflict, from Paul Nash’senergetic lithographs (1918) produced from his sketches of the front line at Ypres, to Mat Collishaw’sDeliverance Daguerreotype’s (2008) inspired by reportage images from the 2004 school siege in Beslan, Russia.

Ringborg said, ‘From the perspective of Sweden, a neutral country for 200 years, it is striking how much of everyday life in Britain is populated by references to conflict and war; from museums to public memorials. This is substantially reflected in the British Council Collection, where you can see a powerful tradition of ‘war art’, developing from the early 20th Century through to the present day. ’’

Paintings, drawings and photographs by George Rodgers, Henry Moore, Albert Richardsand Rodrigo Moynihan depict the realities of the Second World War seen from close quarters; the 'Geometry of Fear ' sculpturesby Kenneth Armitage and Reg Butler express the anxiety and uncertainty of the aftermath and the works of Paul Seawright, Michael Sandle and Lea Andrews address the subject of remembrance and memorial.

Also on display are works by Mona Hatoum, Colin Self,Tim Head, Rita Donagh and Simon Norfolk, which offer contemporary engagements with conflict as artistic reportage, protest and a climate of fear, dominating popular and media culture.

Fall Out; War and Conflict in the British Council Collection, will run from 26th March to 30th May 2010.

Notes for Editors

The Whitechapel Gallery

  • This exhibition is presented in the Whitechapel Gallery’s new Gallery 7, a beautifully restored room with top lighting and now dedicated to the display of works of art from important public and private collections. It will provide unprecedented access to important public, private art collections and important artists’ holdings which are rarely seen, presented to the public for a minimum of one year.
  • The British Council Collection displays at the Whitechapel Gallery are organised by Diana Eccles, Head of Collection, The British Council Collection, and Andrea Tarsia, Head of Exhibitions, Whitechapel Gallery. [s1]
  • The presentation of the British Council Collection is supported by specialist insurer Hiscox which has a long and established association with contemporary art and was one of the first UK insurers to offer art insurance as a stand-alone policy for private collectors, museums and galleries. Hiscox’s sponsorship of presentations of great collections underlines its commitment to promoting and protecting the very best in contemporary art.

The British Council

  • The British Council Collection spans the 20th Century and includes works by early modernmasters suchStanley Spencer, Wyndham Lewis, Paul Nash and Walter Sickert, Barbara Hepworth, Graham Sutherland, Henry Moore and Ben Nicholson. Post-warit includes, among others, artistsfrom theSchool of London; painters from StIves and from the Kitchen Sink groups; exponents of the New Generation in the 1960s;conceptual and experimental artistssuch as Gilbert & George and Richard Long;the New British Sculptors of the 1980s, including Tony Cragg, Richard Deacon, Antony Gormleyand Anish Kapoor. Tracey Emin, Gary Hume, Damien Hirst, Mark Wallinger and Sarah Lucas are among the YBA generation represented and artists including Jeremy Deller, Douglas Gordon, Tomma Abts and Roger Hiorns bring the Collection up to the present day.
  • First formed in 1934 as a voluntary organisation The British Council works in over 100 countries and territories worldwide to build intercultural understanding between the UK and other countries through the arts, education and training, science and technology, sport, and good governance. First art acquisitions date to 1938, when a small legacy enabled the British Council to purchase a group of works on paper. Since then it has acquired more than 8000 works spanning the late 19th to the early 21st Century. Many of the artists included in the Collection gained important international exposure and reputation through the work of the British Council – through exhibitions, grants, study visits overseas, lecture trips and displays in prominent venues worldwide.

The Fifth Curator

  • Theodor Ringborg is a freelance curator based in Stockholm, Sweden. He studied at StockholmUniversity and has recently completed a Masters in Critical Writing and Curatorial Practise at Konstfack University College of Arts, Crafts and Design, Sweden. In recent years he has worked at Färgfabriken Gallery, Stockholm as an assistant curator and presented his MA exhibition Spatial Works there in 2009. This exhibition, which explored the various manners of installation art, featured work by Jason Dodge, Alicja Kwade, Olafur Eliasson and Tris Vonna-Michell.

Theodor Ringborg continues working as a curator and together with Meriç Algün Ringborg, is co-founder of AntrepoAB; a company dedicated to assisting artists and institutions in producing and constructing exhibitions and works of art.

  • The other shortlisted entrants for the competition were:
  • Fatma Hendawy, aged 23, from Alexandria, Egypt with a proposal titled Everything is Connected, exploring the human element in contemporary art.
  • Latika Gupta, aged 32, from New Delhi, India with a proposal titled The Outsider, looking at ideas of inclusion and exclusion in art and society.
  • Maya Shimony, aged 33, from Ganey Tikva, Israel with a proposal titled The Empire Strikes Back, exploring the idea of ‘Britishness’ in contradictory notions of tradition and innovation.
  • Mika Iwasaka, aged 30, from Tokyo, Japan with a proposal titled Close to Me, an exhibition of works related to the East End of London and journeys within the city.
  • Ntando Ayanda Xorile, aged 36, from Soweto, South Africa with a proposal titled New Beginnings – Old Land, exploring identity and nationhood.

Press Information

For further press information please contact:

Rachel Mapplebeck on 020 7522 7880, 07811 456 806 or email

Elizabeth Flanagan on 020 7522 7871 or email

For further press information regarding the British Council contact:

Eleanor Hutchins on 020 7389 4981or email

For further information regarding Hiscox contact:

Erica Gilson on 01206 773 877 or email

[s1]Change to ABH or SS now AT has left?