The Big Head Man
Karol Radziszewski: QAI/GB-NGM Mar - May 2022
Reactor: Here, the Gold Ones flatter Mar - May 2022
Bonington Vitrines #18: Story Cloth Sep - Dec 2021
Bonington Vitrines #17: Andrew Logan, Alternative Miss World Sep - Dec 2021
Andrew Logan: The Joy of Sculpture Apr - May 2021
Reactor: Here, the Gold Ones meet Oct - Dec 2020
Sophie Cundale: The Near Room Feb - Mar 2020
Matt Woodham: Sensing Systems (streaming online) Jan - Jan 2020
Nick Chaffe: Motif Residency exhibition Nov - Feb 2020
Motif Sep - Nov 2019
Waking the witch: Old ways, new rites Apr - May 2019
The Big Head Man Sep - Nov 2019
Bonington Vitrines #13: Wayne Burrows – Works from the Hallucinated Archive Apr - May 2020
Bonington Vitrines #16: The Captive Conscious (POSTPONED) Feb - Mar 2020
Bonington Vitrines #15: Nomadic Vitrine with Mick Peter (CLOSED) Nov - Feb 2020
Bonington Vitrines #14: Journeys to Nottingham from the Windrush Generation Apr - May 2019
Bonington Vitrines #12: Complaint Jan - Feb 2019
Bonington Vitrines #10: Jewell Feb - Feb 2019
UKYA City Takeover Apr - May 2019
C/J
Chloé Maratta and Joanne Robertson Mar - Mar 2019
The Community Live in Nottingham Nov - Dec 2018
THE SERVING LIBRARY V DAVID OSBALDESTON Nov - Dec 2018
Bonington Vitrines #9: Towards The Serving Library Annual Nov - Dec 2018
Emily Andersen Portraits: Black & White Book launch and exhibition Sep - Oct 2018
BONINGTON VITRINES #8: HOUSE OF WISDOM Jan - Feb 2019
DICK JEWELL: NOW & THEN Sep - Oct 2018
THE ACCUMULATION OF THINGS Apr - Apr 2018
Video Days Preview Apr - May 2018
Video Days Apr - Apr 2018
Video Days: Week One Screenings Apr - Apr 2018
Video Days: Week Two Screenings Apr - May 2018
Video Days: Week Three Screenings May - May 2018
Video Days: Week Four Screenings May - May 2018
Video Days: Week Five Screenings Apr - May 2018
Bonington Vitrines #7: The Bonington building, est. 1969 Feb - Mar 2018
Bonington Vitrines #6: One Eye on the Road – festival and traveller culture since the 1980s Feb - Mar 2018
LACE UNARCHIVED Jan - Feb 2018
Bonington Vitrines #5: Communicating the Contemporary – The ICA Bulletin 1950s to 1990s Nov - Dec 2017
Bonington Vitrines #4: Sara MacKillop publications, 2008–2017 Sep - Oct 2017
Bonington Vitrines #3: London’s Calling Jan - Feb 2018
Ruth Angel Edwards: Wheel of the Year
! EFFLUENT PROFUNDAL ZONE ! Nov - Dec 2017
Sara MacKillop: One Room Living Sep - Oct 2017
It’s Our Playground: Artificial Sensibility Apr - May 2017
YOU’RE GONNA NEED A BIGGER BOAT Sep - Oct 2016
MOULD MAP 6 — TERRAFORMERS Oct - Dec 2016
KRÍSIS Jan - Feb 2017
ALL MEN BY NATURE DESIRE TO KNOW Jan - Feb 2017
Bonington Vitrines #2: Marbled Reams Oct - Dec 2016
Bonington Vitrines #1: Selections from the Raw Print Archive Feb - Mar 2017
SHAPELESS IMPACT NOT TIME SLOW IS (FLITS BY)
5 Apr - 11 May 2019
The Big Head Man
Work by Lawrence Gleadle
Curated by Godfrey Gleadle
in collaboration with Kendal James
Location: Bonington Atrium
*Bonington Gallery will be closed for the Bank Holiday from Friday 18 to Tuesday 23 April (inclusive). We will reopen on Wednesday 24 April at 10 am*
Lawrence Gleadle was a lithographic artist for Stafford and Co., Netherfield, Nottingham, in the 1920’s and 1930’s; at the time the largest printer of posters in England. After a long apprenticeship and years of experience he became ‘The Big Head Man’, the artist who drew the portraits of the cinema stars and advertising characters. It was a title given to him by the other artists, of which he was very proud, as the ‘Big Head Man’ was regarded as the most skilled of the artists.
He kept samples of his work but left in WW2 and never returned to the trade. The posters were put away and forgotten for many years until given to his son Godfrey (Goff) Gleadle in the early 1980’s.
At that time it was very difficult to find out about or reproduce the posters and it wasn’t until 2015 that Goff was able to identify and date them and get them scanned on to computer files so prints could be made. Kendal James, a Portsmouth artist, was able to repair and restore damage on the computer files. She and Goff teamed up with the aim of getting Lawrence’s work and talent recognised. Together they have held successful exhibitions in and around Portsmouth where they live, and even had a piece on the BBC One Show.
However, Lawrence was a Nottingham man and it is very much a Nottingham story, so it has always been an ambition to bring his story and his work back to Nottingham. It is particularly fitting to have this exhibition here at Nottingham Trent University, because before he began his apprenticeship aged 16, he had attended the Nottingham Municipal School Of Art, which later became the Nottingham College of Art and is now part of Nottingham Trent University.
In this exhibition you can see some of the original posters, prints of others, and see and read Lawrence’s story, the story of Stafford’s and the printing process, and the story of the posters themselves; how they were lost, found and restored, and their importance and place in British cinema history. There are also interesting stories attached to individual posters.