Vincula: The Slade revisits UCL’s art collections

UCL Art Museum is delighted to present Vincula (8th May - 8th June), a group exhibition of new artworks made in response to past masters. Vincula began with a challenge to all current students at the UCL Slade School of Fine Art to develop their own practices while taking the time to consider and appreciate what has gone before. Over one term, students were given special access to thousands of remarkable and historically important artworks from the Museum's collections. They excavated deep to discover a number of hidden treasures: a rare portrait print by William Blake of the physiognomist Johann Caspar Lavater, an early chalk drawing of a lion clearly based on hearsay, carefully delineated elevations of UCL's main building by the architect William Wilkins, a bird's eye view of 17th-century Rome, a hand-coloured Japanese woodblock print of a flying bat - and more. UCL Art Museum now presents the work of twelve Slade students - all of whom have appropriated, undermined and/or re-interpreted past masters to create individual, contemporary works in a range of media, including painting, print, sound and video. Vincula marks the fourth annual collaboration between the Slade and UCL Art Museum. Previous collaborations include Sequel (2009), Transfer (2010) and Moreover (2011).