Celts

This will be the first major exhibition of Celtic art in Britain in 40 years. It will draw on the latest research on the Celts in Britain, Ireland and Western Europe and explore the long history of Celtic art and what that the objects tell us about the people who made and used them.

“Celts” and “Celtic art” are terms which are widely used in many different contexts. They do not all relate to the same thing – and in particular, they do not relate to any single people or culture. This exhibition will explore how making and using Celtic art has shaped identities from the Iron Age through to the Medieval period, and how these powerful objects and styles have continued to play a role in creating modern Celtic identities in Britain.

The first Celtic art in Britain is part of a clear western and central European tradition, but it is also distinctly British. Later the art helped defined new complex and shifting Celtic identities in Britain that were neither Roman nor Anglo Saxon/English.

The rediscovery of the ancient artistic tradition in the 18th and 19th centuries played a key role in creating new images of the Celts. These new descriptions by artists and politicians helped define what it meant to be Irish, Welsh, Scottish and British. This artistic tradition and the objects it
produced have always been intimately linked with questions around the identity of the Celtic peoples who made these objects.