Who inspired this crowning achievement? The great British art quiz

The Crowning, 2007, Yinka Shonibare. Photograph: © Yinka Shonibare, all rights reserved, DACS 2020; Arts Council Collection, Southbank Centre

This quiz is brought to you in collaboration with Art UK, the online home for the UK’s public art collections, showing art from more than 3,000 venues and by 45,000 artists. Each day, a different collection on Art UK will set the questions.

Today, our questions come from the Arts Council Collection. Founded in 1946, it is the largest national loan collection of modern and contemporary British art in the world, and includes important examples by all of the UK’s most prominent artists. It is the most widely circulated of all of Britain’s national collections and can be seen in exhibitions in museums and galleries across the UK and abroad.

You can see art from the Arts Council Collection on Art UK here. Find out more on its website here.

1. 

   John Piper had two middle names. One is Egerton. What is the other?

   1. Easter

   2. Christmas

   3. Birthday

   4. Bank Holiday

2. 

   Yinka Shonibare's The Crowning takes inspiration from which French rococo-style painter?

   1. Jean-Antoine Watteau

   2. Jean François de Troy

   3. Jean-Honoré Fragonard

   4. François Boucher

3. 

   Jessica Dismorr was a member of which short-lived British art movement?

   1. Glasgow School

   2. Stuckism

   3. The Geometry of Fear

   4. Vorticism

4. 

   This self-portrait depicts a London-born painter known for his relationship with fellow artist Dora Carrington. Who is the artist?

   1. Mark Gertler

   2. Paul Nash

   3. Stanley Spencer

   4. Edward Wadsworth

5. 

   The sculptor Kim Lim was married to which other British sculptor represented in the Arts Council Collection?

   1. David Annesley

   2. Phillip King

   3. Anthony Caro

   4. William Turnbull

6. 

   In which country did Welsh artist Gwen John spend most of her working life?

   1. Greece

   2. Italy

   3. Spain

   4. France

7. 

   Can you name the artist behind this Arts Council Collection work, who will represent Britain at the 2021 Venice Biennale?

   1. Phyllida Barlow

   2. Sonia Boyce

   3. Sarah Lucas

   4. Cathy Wilkes

8. 

   Henry Moore was the first sculpture tutor at which London art school?

   1. Central Saint Martins

   2. Wimbledon School of Art

   3. Chelsea School of Art

   4. Royal Academy of Arts

Solutions

1:B - In the early 1930s, Piper exhibited with the London Group and became secretary of the Seven and Five Society, which included Henry Moore, Ben Nicholson and Barbara Hepworth. He also made a number of trips to Paris where he befriended Alexander Calder. Surrounded by these avant-garde artists, Piper's work of this period reflected the trend for abstraction but by the late 1930s he had returned to a more naturalistic style. Image: Abstract II, 1935, John Piper (1903–1992); © the Piper Estate, DACS 2020. Photograph: Arts Council Collection, Southbank Centre, 2:C - Shonibare’s The Crowning offers an oblique but critical commentary on postcolonial identity as well as the wealth and excesses of contemporary and historic aristocratic society. The postures of the figures, and their costumes – emblazoned with the logo of well-known luxury brand Chanel – are modelled on those of a romantic couple in Jean-Honoré Fragonard’s painting, The Progress of Love: The Lover Crowned (1771–72). Image: The Crowning, 2007, Yinka Shonibare (b.1962), © Yinka Shonibare, all rights reserved, DACS 2020; Arts Council Collection, Southbank Centre , 3:D - Jessica Dismorr participated in almost all of the avant-garde groups active in London between 1912 and 1937 and was one of only two female members of vorticism, a short-lived modernist movement in British art and poetry of the early 20th century, partly inspired by cubism. Image: Related Forms, c.1936–1939, Jessica Dismorr (1885–1939); Arts Council Collection, Southbank Centre , 4:A - Although influenced by 17th-century Dutch still life painting, many of Gertler's meticulous early works are portraits of members of his family and the Jewish community in which he lived, as well as his friends and fellow painter Dora Carrington. In 1920 he wrote to her brother, Noel Carrington, in relation to this portrait: ‘To pass away time, when there is no one to sit for me, I'm painting a small portrait of myself.' Image: Self Portrait, 1920, Mark Gertler (1891–1939); Arts Council Collection, Southbank Centre , 5:D - Born in Singapore in 1936, Kim Lim moved to the UK at the age of 18 to study at St Martin’s School of Art in London. After graduating in 1960, Lim exhibited her work widely. She also travelled extensively with her husband, the sculptor William Turnbull. Lim made trips to China, Indonesia and Egypt, finding inspiration in the visual cultures of ancient civilisations. Image: Trace II, 1982, Kim Lim (1936–1997), © Estate of Kim Lim, all rights reserved, DACS 2020; Arts Council Collection, Southbank Centre , 6:D - Gwen John moved permanently to France when she was 27, where she lived in solitude. In 1914 she moved to the village of Meudon on the outskirts of Paris, remaining there until her death. Near her home was an order of nuns who cared for orphan girls. The painting Bust of a Girl with a Bow before a Pink Background may be a portrait of one of them. Image: Bust of a Girl with a Bow Before a Pink Background, c.1915–1920, Gwen John (1876–1939); Arts Council Collection, Southbank Centre , 7:B - So Amazing is taken from the title of a Luther Vandross song and was commissioned as a print for Make it Happen in Art, a programme for young people in social care, produced by the Hayward Gallery and the Department of Health in 2001-2. Image: So Amazing, 2001–2, Sonia Boyce (b.1962), © Sonia Boyce, all rights reserved, DACS 2020; Arts Council Collection, Southbank Centre , 8:C - Helmet Head No. 3 (1960) is one of a series inspired by Moore’s studies of armour in the Wallace Collection, and informed by his experience of war. Henry Moore voluntarily signed up to serve in the first world war in 1917. He was subsequently invalided out of the army due to mustard gas poisoning, which would affect his health and voice for the rest of his life. Helmet Head No. 3, 1960, Henry Moore (1898–1986); © The Henry Moore Foundation, all rights reserved, DACS 2020, Arts Council Collection, Southbank Centre

Scores

1. 8 and above.

   A brush with greatness!

2. 7 and above.

   A great impression!

3. 6 and above.

   A good impression

4. 5 and above.

   A palatable score

5. 4 and above.

   A palatable score

6. 3 and above.

   You have some brushing up to do

7. 2 and above.

   You have some brushing up to do

8. 0 and above.

   You have some brushing up to do

9. 1 and above.

   You have some brushing up to do