Fun Day in Birmingham: Pre-Raphaelites

Lately I’ve been really into mid-late 19th century art and that influenced the creative process and design of the book cover for Crime of the Century (available to buy now and the books should be arriving at my house this week or next week! I’m so excited!). For a while there, the Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery has been closed for maintenance, but slowly it’s been opening back up and the first thing to open up was their Victorian Radicals exhibition, which had a homecoming this year after 6 years on the road in the USA with the collection of paintings and art pieces being loaned out to various museums. Now this exhibit is open for a limited time only until Halloween of this year, so if you wanna see some Pre-Raphaelite art in Birmingham, make sure to plan it in the next coming months! I would definitely recommend the Victorian Radicals exhibition for any fans of art from that era and in this case I’d say it’s worth the £11 entry fee. If you’re travelling from further afield, there’s plenty of other things to check out in Birmingham so you can still have a fun day trip. The Bullring shopping centre is a decent sized mall. There’s the world’s largest Primark, still haven’t been there though but I’m not into fast fashion. The Back to Backs in Birmingham is worth visiting too, especially if you have an interest in history. Near the canals there’s the Black Sabbath Bridge. If you like going to markets and love shopping on Etsy, the Red Brick Market in Digbeth is great – reminds me a lot of going to Snoopers Paradise in Brighton.

In the exhibit you’ll see artwork by Simeon Solomon, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, William Morris, Elizabeth Siddal, Kate & Myra Bunce, Edward Burne-Jones, John Everett Millais, among others. So if you’re a fan of their artwork, you’ll love it. The name Pre-Raphaelite is a bit deceptive because if you know your art history, you’ll know that Raphael was from the Renaissance and lived from 1483-1520. They thought that Raphael was going too far so they wanted to bring it all back to before that time. Bring it back to the Italian art of the 14th and 15th centuries. They were rebelling against this unimaginative and artificial style of painting dominant at the Royal Academy. In 1848, three young Royal Academy students formed the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood: Dante Gabriel Rossetti, William Holman Hunt, and John Everett Millais. Later, artists like Edward Burne-Jones and William Morris got to know Rossetti. William Morris’s wife Jane Morris was a model for Rossetti and you can see her depicted in the famous Rossetti painting Proserpine. I just love the colour schemes and that dark academia look in the Pre-Raphaelite paintings.

So here’s a look at some of the highlights:

Not only were there paintings, there was also some textiles, stained glass, metal work, sculptures, and other works of art so I’ll share a few things I liked:

The one critique I have of the exhibition is that the gift shop doesn’t seem to be accessible unless you’ve bought a ticket, when usually even if you haven’t bought a ticket to the museum you can still access the gift shop, and that’s nice in case you want to buy a gift for someone – I know that when I travel I like buying magnets and putting them on my fridge (you know I had to get one with Proserpine on it!). Prices in the gift shop were pretty fair. I’m guessing it might like that because the museum is still undergoing maintenance, but correct me if I’m wrong!

After going to the museum, we went to get lunch at a small chain restaurant called Bundobust, which is a 100% vegetarian Indian restaurant that’s known for their craft beer selection and street food approach to Indian cuisine. I wanted to try something different from the usual, going to Cafe Soya, I love that place but I was in the mood for Indian food. Now I know some people can get really pretentious about chain restaurants and turn their nose up at them, but I’m someone who’s willing to give anything a try. I’ve had great food from chain restaurants and I’ve had some not so great food from independent/small business restaurants. I’m not a snob, if it’s good, it’s good! One thing I like about Bundobust is that the food is served tapas style and is perfect for family style dining, my favourite way of dining. Can’t make up your mind on what you want? No problem! Order a few dishes for the table so everyone can try a bit of everything. I know whenever I get Indian food, Middle Eastern food, or Chinese food, I’m like that Queen song “I want it all!”

My husband and I ordered four dishes for the table. I could have all of them except for the paneer, which is cheese of course. The vegan dishes were the dal, bhaji, and okra chips. I enjoyed all the food I tried. I especially loved the dal and okra chips. The portions are kinda small but I didn’t mind because I don’t have the biggest appetite in general. My husband and I both love chai so we ordered chai for ourselves. The chai was delicious and had a lot of flavour and was definitely a highlight. It’s definitely a restaurant I’d be happy to return to and I think it’s a place that my family would like.

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