As well as looking after 100 collections of rare books and unique primary sources the Archives and Special Collections team have responsibility for the University’s Art Collection.

Over the last year our Art Collection Audit Officer David Wootton has not only been working hard to audit and catalogue the collection, but he has also been advising on the selection and display of artworks in various buildings across the campus.

With the much appreciated help of our colleagues in the Estates and Portering teams various artworks have been installed across campus. The most recent installation took place in the AA Building in the corridor that gives access to the teaching rooms for the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. David chose these particular artworks as they show aspects of the built environment, historically in the views from ‘Buck’s Antiquities’ and contemporary, and more engaged, in Roger Dellar’s Boat Shed on the Thames.

The eight engravings from ‘Buck’s Antiquities’ are from the Sir William Mullens Collection of more than 100 topographical prints, almost all of which depict places in the historic county of Surrey. Mullens was the first Treasurer of the University of Surrey, and he bought the prints during the late 1960s with the specific purpose of donating them to the University. They comprise the first significant donation to the University Art Collection.

Roger Dellar’s Boat Shed on the Thames is one of four works by the artist in the University Art Collection. His other three images depict musicians in performance during the Guildford International Music Festival, and he manages to instil his depiction of a boat shed with a similar sense of vitality, though it contains no figures. The confident handling of intensely coloured pastels creates a dynamic rhythm of angles and forms across the picture surface.

We love being able to share artworks from the collection and we hope these will be enjoyed by all who see them.