The John Hansard Building was originally located in building 50 in the University of Southampton building coding scheme. It is named after benefactor John Hansard, a member of the family which originated the daily reports of proceedings in the Houses of Parliament. It was built in 1959 and was originally designed to house a tidal model of the Solent.[1] The architect was Ronald Sims.[2] The building was converted to gallery use in 1979-1980.
Relocation
In 2018 the gallery moved to a new location in the centre of Southampton, opposite Guildhall Square, as part of a new arts complex.[3] The new gallery opened on 12 May.[4] The new building was designed by CZWG while the interior was designed by Glenn Howells.[5]
From 11 February to 31 March 2012, the gallery hosted an art exhibition of new cutting edge 3d technology by designer David Cotterrell. David is an installation artist and launched this new exhibition entitled 'Monsters of the Id.' using a new 3d technique of creating art work. This interprets his experiences through image manipulation, staging, CGI, 3D scanning, 3D printing and new projection techniques.[6]
The opening exhibition in the new building consisted of works by Gerhard Richter, followed by "Time after Time", curated by Stephen Foster, gallery director, including works by artists shown in Foster's previous exhibitions including John Latham, Caroline Bergvall, Charlotte Posenenske and Hamad Butt.[7]
^O’Brien, Charles; Bailey, Bruce; Pevsner, Nikolaus; Lloyd, David W. (2018). The Buildings of England Hampshire: South. Yale University Press. p. 651. ISBN9780300225037.
