Free Trade

Background

The idea of Free trade is fundamental to the city of Manchester. In 1812 the anti-corn law league set out to break the restrictive practices of the aristocratic landowners, and their ability to lobby Parliament to impose import duty on grain. The middle class merchants and manufacturers who advocated Free trade understood that cheap food would mean cheap labour and increased profits. The subsequent triumph of Free trade enabled Manchester to become the largest import/export and distribution centre in England, and subsequently the British Empire. Throughout the mid 19th century the expansion of trade enabled the city to evolve into the second largest centre for commercial banking and joint stock trading; transforming itself from a manufacturer into the centre of a global market-place

Of course, the explosion of trade and extrusion of wealth began to find expression in a different kind of ‘cultural’ capital.

A stunning example of the complex web of financial and cultural exchange in Manchester, and a perfect vehicle by which to trace their movements is the Beatson Blair Bequest. George Beatson Blair was one of three brothers -James, Alexander, and George- who were all partners in a cotton import/export and shipping company. And like other newly wealthy middle class merchants, James and George turned their financial profits into cultural goods.

On George’s death, the executors of the estate estimated the collection to consist of around 30,000 artefacts, of which 5,000 were paintings. The collection filled the five entertaining rooms, twenty bedrooms, offices for staff, bathrooms, attics, halls, landings, staircases, workshops and even the pig-sty’s of the brothers house in Whalley Range. Each room was overflowing. An inventory of 4894 objects exists in the gallery archive, of which around 458 objects were eventually accessioned by the Manchester Gallery.

Free trade is not only a historical event, it is the origin of the forces of globalisation.

Through the idea of free trade it's possible to trace how national interests have been superseded by corporate priorities, and cultural goods have moved from being a by-product of economic wealth, to its source. In Manchester for instance manufacturing has been replaced by music and television industries, sport has become business, and museum and gallery visits -linked to tourism – have become beacons of economic regeneration.

Installation

After a year of research, we identified in the Beatson Blair Bequest a beautiful example of Manchester’s particular social, economic and cultural history, as well as a device with which to explore the history and conventions of the Manchester Art Gallery itself.

For the first time ever, the remains of the Beatson Blair Bequest –all the paintings, fine furniture, ceramics, silver, hardstones and bric-a-brac - have been brought together into one room. The extraordinary installation piled into the centre of the gallery challenges the conventions of museum exhibition. These precious objects are not sorted into type, period or manufacturer; the rhetoric of the museum classification, nor are they isolated in vitrines for distant aesthetic connoisseurship. Displayed as if in transit, the objects are momentarily arrested, on route elsewhere - from store to exhibition? The installation hints at the chaotic interior of Blair's house, and the huge quantity of all manner of goods that moved continually through Manchester.

Before objects become part of Gallery or Museum collections they participate in circuits of exchange. In this instance bought by the Blair's at auction and from dealers in Manchester; and in an inversion of conventional gallery labeling, each object from the Bequest carries the one piece of information that visitors are most curious about, its 1941 price. These artworks, as well as being objects of trade, were also purchased from the profit of trade.

We have turned the most complete inventory of the Bequest -4894 objects – into Gallery wallpaper. Standing Inside this ghost of the collection, you can grasp the extent of the original bequest, and notice how it was edited to fit the museum's image of itself; rather than represent the taste of the collector. See what was sold at auction, and wonder why that painting was disposed of, and this pewter tankard accessioned.

Films

Two film-loops run continuously in the exhibition, edited from amateur film found at the North West Film Archive at the Metropolitan University. One film records goods and materials pouring into Manchester via the Ship Canal for distribution via the various produce-exchanges and markets. While another pans the endless stream of products manufactured in the city for subsequent export.

Walks

A series of gentle walks took place –lead by local historian Steve Little- around and through the Free Trade exhibition, the Gallery and then out into the city. The legacy of Free trade still dominates the architecture of Manchester; visit the Free Trade Hall (1840)-now a luxurious hotel The Royal, Coal, Corn and Produce Exchanges - all shopping malls, the bridgewater canal, various magnificent wholesale warehouses -currently speculative loft-living appartments and a suite of beautiful 19th century Banks –now extravagant bars.

Lectures

Art Wealth and Riches
Sunday 10 November

A lecture by writer and critic William Morris, was first delivered at a joint conversazione of Manchester Societies at the Royal Institution, Manchester 6th March 1883.' It will be recreated by actor Steve Whitehouse.

In this brilliant and provocative lecture, writer, craftsman and socialist William Morris challenges the merchants and manufacturers of Manchester. With uncanny prescience, Morris describes our current confusion; between art and fashion, art and celebrity, and art and shopping.

Art and globalisation
Sunday 24 November

Writer and critic Julian Stallabrass will upgrade the themes of the William Morris lecture. As Free Trade is subsumed by vast exchanges of corporate capital, Julian explores the success and failure of contemporary art, amidst the commodified cultures of globalization.

A Joy Forever
Sunday 26 January

A lecture by writer and critic John Ruskin, to coincide with the Art
Treasures Exhibition was first delivered at the Manchester Athenaeum, July 10th 1857. Recreated by art historian and former actor Paul O'Keefe.

John Ruskin's extraordinary lecture attempts to build a political economy for art. He suggests that all economies could easily be divided into three components.

1. applying your labour rationally

2. preserving its produce carefuly

3. distributing its produce seasonably.

With devastating effects, this ideal economy is then laid over the production (artist), storage and distribution (museum/gallery) of the art of his time; a model that seems unchanged and relevant today.

Free Trade
Sunday 9 February 2003

Artists Neil Cummings and Marysia Lewandowska, who devised Free Trade, talk about the project in relation to other recent work

catalogue Free Trade

Edited by the artists, with previously unpublished archive material alongside photographs of the gallery installation; features rare lectures previously delivered in Manchester by John Ruskin (1857) and William Morris (1883) and commissioned essays by historian Julian Stallabrass, artist and writer Dan Smith and investment manager Toby Nangle.

Neil's research for the lecture series was assisted by a Research Grant from Chelsea College of Art and Design.

For more information visit the  Manchester Art Gallery. Free Trade was sponsored by Axa Art Insurance