Art Gallery: The Art of Advertising

Our new art gallery space launched this year. It will showcase an exciting programme of temporary exhibitions from our unseen art collection, and artworks from across the world, inspired by the railways.

Our art collection comprises 11,200 posters, 3061 prints and engravings, and 1049 paintings.

The Art of Advertising | Upcoming exhibitions | Previous exhibitions | Further reading

The Art of Advertising

15 October 2011 – 3 January 2012
FREE. Art Gallery

Explore the subtle art of advertising in this exhibition of posters commissioned by the London Midland & Scottish Railway Company (LMS) in 1924 from 16 Royal Academicians.

Comparing and contrasting the artists' usual work (on loan from the Tate and other Yorkshire collections) to the poster artwork, this exhibition looks at the effectiveness of taking a fine art approach to poster design. It will be displayed in the National Railway Museum’s brand new Art Gallery, and forms part of the Art in Yorkshire supported by Tate project.

Art in Yorkshire - supported by Tate is a year long celebration of the visual arts in 19 galleries throughout Yorkshire. Works from Tate's Collection of historic, modern and contemporary art will be showcased through a compelling programme of exhibitions and events.

Exhibition artists

Between now and the gallery opening, our curators are adding details about the artists to Wikipedia, where anyone can edit or add to the information.

The list of artist pages is below. Remember anyone can edit Wikipedia, so if you spot an error or have something to add, don't tell us – go ahead and edit.

• John Arnesby Brown
• David Young Cameron
• Bertram Mackennal
• David Murray
• Leonard Campbell Taylor
• Adrian Scott Stokes
• George Henry
• Algernon Talmage
• Charles Sims
• Frederick Cayley Robinson
• William Orpen
• Stanhope Forbes
• George Clausen
• Richard Jack
• Maurice Greiffenhagen
• Julius Olsson

Upcoming exhibitions

Fear and Fascination: Art from the dawn of the railways
11 February – 13 May

This intriguing exhibition features some of our earliest prints, cartoons, drawings and paintings. These historic images of Britain’s railways capture the mood of a nation conflicted about this new technology.

Previous exhibitions

Japan's First Railway (Jul - Sep 2011): Colour woodblock prints from the 1870s. More info

Further reading

For more on our art collection, see the National Railway Museum blog – which features regular posts about our Art Gallery and art conservation, including:

• Painting conservation for The Art of Advertising exhibition
• Edward Bawden, printmaker
• Norman Wilkinson and the pictorial poster
• Moving Terence Cuneo's painting of Waterloo Station

Art Gallery funded by The Foundation for Sport and the Arts