A selection of magnifying glasses are fanned out across a tiny table placed at the entrance. A gallery attendant kindly explains, in excruciating detail, that the prints I’m about to see are very small. I notice few visitors employing these props. Instead, almost everybody uses their eyes, crouching next to the prints we’re all here to see.
Somehow, this perfectly reflects the prevailing attitude of Birmingham’s Museum and Art Gallery (BMAG), which is currently hosting the exhibition ‘Rembrandt: Masterpieces in Black and White.’ BMAG’s curatorial staff seem to feel an anxious need to sell through gimmick what should simply sell itself — after all, this is Rembrandt we’re talking about.
Flags bearing his captivatingly grumpy self-portrait have flown across central Birmingham, from Colmore Row to St Paul’s Square, advertising the exhibition. It is a shared effort involving BMAG, the American Federation of Arts, and the Rembrandt House Museum in Amsterdam — with the majority of the prints borrowed from the Netherlands, with additions from Birmingham’s collection. The exhibition, which has a ticket price of £15.50, was curated by Epco Runia, head of collections at the Rembrandt House, and Antonia Harrison, a freelance curator with form in the West Midlands, having been senior curator at Compton Verney House in Warwickshire.
The Dispatch has already published appraisals of BMAG’s new look. One piece, by Ruth Millington, claims that BMAG has been attempting a democratisation of the museum: “[They] hope to work more collectively with its assets and not be too protective, and to allow the space to be used by community groups.” Another article, by Alexander Anderson, argues that BMAG feels like: “a space…committed to decline.” As the museum and art gallery get back into the swing of things, these first impressions will mature and change — as of 2025, it doesn’t feel like the city has come to a firm opinion about the reopened institution.
