Hatton Gallery launches touring contemporary art commission on Baltic Square

Photo: Richard Hakin

The Hatton Pavilion is a major new art installation and programme of events launching on BALTIC Square, Gateshead Quays on Friday 28 April.

Glasgow-based artist Toby Paterson has been commissioned to work with Newcastle-based architects Harper Perry to create a touring pavilion, or temporary architectural structure, inspired by the Hatton Gallery’s history of teaching, exhibition making and collections.

The Hatton Pavilion will tour venues in Newcastle and Gateshead from April – August 2017. It launches on BALTIC Square on Friday 28 April, where it will remain until 21 May 2017. Subsequent tour venues include Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne; Saltwell Park; Gateshead; Monument, Newcastle upon Tyne and the Blue Carpet, Newcastle upon Tyne.

Photo: Johan Nieuwenhuize

Toby Paterson is a Glasgow-based artist whose paintings, reliefs, and sculptural installations reflect upon the visual experience offered over time by the art and architecture of post-war Britain. Paterson’s previous work has responded directly to the work of artist Victor Pasmore, who taught in the Fine Art Department at Kings College, Durham University (now part of Newcastle University) along with artist Richard Hamilton in the 1950s-60s.

Paterson’s design for the Hatton Pavilion consists of a vertical steel frame emerging from several concrete blocks that double up as seating areas. A slatted roof encloses the structure, and three abstract aluminium planes create walls that carve up and give the pavilion its volume.

Paterson uses the principles of display that Pasmore and Hamilton explored in seminal works presented in the Hatton Gallery, such as An Exhibit (1957) and Man Machine and Motion (1955).

The walls of the pavilion will display a series of archival posters promoting historic Hatton Gallery exhibitions dating back to the 1950s, alongside a series of posters designed by Toby Paterson. Gallery staff on site will paste posters directly on to the structure so that the artwork continually evolves throughout the tour. A programme of special events will allow visitors to explore the architecture of the space in different ways and discover more about the Hatton Gallery.

The Hatton Gallery at Newcastle University is currently closed for a £3.8million refurbishment funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund, and will reopen in autumn 2017. The Hatton Pavilion has been supported by money raised through Arts Council England’s Catalyst Arts: capacity building and match funding scheme and the Heritage Lottery Fund.