Victorian Scrapbook

By Jude Ramm, Library and Digital Assistant For day 6 of our Advent Calendar, we’ll turn the Christmas spirit up to eleven with our Victorian Scrapbook. This incredibly beautiful scrapbook was donated to the Art Library in the 1990s. It’s packed full of a variety of Christmas cards, scraps, and cut-outs from the Victorian era…

Leeds in The Builder

This week we hear from Library Officer Kiera Falgate on images of historic Leeds in the Central Library’s collection of The Builder, an architectural journal that begin in the mid-19th-century… The Art Library on the first floor in Leeds Central Library holds the complete collection of The Builder from volume 1 in 1843 to the final volume…

Andy Goldsworthy at Hyde Park Picture House and the Art Library

Kiera Falgate, Library Officer on the Central Library’s Arts Floor, tells us about the art of Andy Goldsworthy. Andy Goldsworthy, who grew up near Harrogate, is one of the most influential and fascinating living British artists, and his work can be found from New York to Wakefield, in pristine galleries and in sheep fields. In…

Dances, Death Rites and Dedications: The Art of Dying

by Adam Barham, Art Library. Throughout history, death has inspired artists to create stirring and thought-provoking work. As death affects us all and invokes a whole range of emotions, there are myriad examples of death-inspired art. These include explorations of the nature of death, depictions of deaths and funerals, as well as dedications and monuments…

The Big Book of Shakespeare

Back in April, the Secret Library took a look at some of the most beautiful Shakespearian art books in the library collection. Now we’re sending Polly Clare-Hudson, guest blogger from the University of Leeds, back to the stacks for a closer examination of a particularly gorgeous example… This enormous book, comprising of two volumes in one,…

Shakespeare and the Art world

by Adam Barham, Art Library. Many artists have felt compelled to depict the plays of Shakespeare. Some are attracted to Shakespeare’s universal themes and complex characters, which inspire them to produce stirring representations of the plays’ inner meanings. Others appreciate his combination of exotic locations and sparse scene descriptions, which leave them free to create…