'Groundbreaking' Diego Velázquez’s The Rokeby Venus arrives in Liverpool Walker Art Gallery

A new groundbreaking display has arrived at The Walker Art Gallery.

Diego Velázquez’s The Rokeby Venus has come to Liverpool as part of a nationwide celebration of the 200th birthday of the National Gallery in London.

It is mainly focused on challenging male desire in art.

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The Toilet of Venus by the Spanish artist Diego Velázquez is said to have “long been a topic of public conversation and interest”. The display follows on from this and questions traditional views on the painting by setting it alongside a range of unexpected artworks by women and non-binary artists.

The painting is Velázquez's only surviving female nude. Over the centuries, it has become symbolic and has often been held up as an example of the objectification of women in art.

National Treasures: Velázquez in Liverpool considers new ways of seeing, focusing on gender and gaze through a range of artworks that have rarely been displayed before.

The work comes to the Walker Art Gallery as part of National Treasures, a programme celebrating the National Gallery's bicentenary.

The painting is one of 12 of the “most beloved works from the collection in London” which are travelling to museums and galleries across the UK, each curating and creating around their painting.

Alongside Velázquez's masterpiece, the display includes The Spanish Gesture by Scottish artist Ethel Walker. Long held in the Walker Art Gallery's collections, the painting is an example of Walker's alluring paintings of women.

She is celebrated as one of the earliest lesbian artists to openly express their sexuality in their paintings.

Other works include Puck by Harriet Goodhue Hosmer. Hosmer was an American sculptor working in Rome who actively rejected the norms and social conventions expected of women, and lived in romantic relationships with other women.

A selection of works that have recently been acquired by the Walker Art Gallery are also being displayed, including a selection of photographs by South African artist Zanele Muholi named Miss Lesbian VII (Amsterdam) and Miss Lesbian I (Amsterdam).

Rene Matić's Chiddy Doing Rene's Hair (2019), which considers race, beauty, and gender as a performance, is also being displayed at the Walker for the first time.

National Treasures: Velázquez in Liverpool opens at the Walker Art Gallery on Friday, May 10, and runs until the August Bank Holiday weekend.

Entry is free to the gallery, with donations welcome.

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