The Robert Cripps Gallery
The College opened the new Robert Cripps Gallery at Magdalene College in November 2021 and is delighted with this new gallery space for visiting exhibitions and for occasionally displaying parts of the College art collection to the wider community.
The Gallery has been named in honour of Mr Robert Cripps AM, a passionate art collector, generous supporter and Honorary Fellow of the College since 2005. The Robert Cripps Gallery forms a key part of the award-winning New Library, a purpose-built space for Magdalene students and staff to meet, work, relax and find inspiration.
Current Exhibition
Dreams of the Soul: Paintings, Prints and Textiles
Ebu Estandar
16 January – 1 March 2025
Ebu Estandar hails from Namasia, an Aboriginal village nestled in the mountains of Taiwan. One of eleven children, she spent much of her childhood in the village where she was born. As a teenager, she left to attend school in the city of Tainan. It wasn’t until her early twenties that she discovered her passion for painting, a pursuit she has embraced wholeheartedly ever since.
Drawing on her life experiences, emotions, memories, and inspirations, Ebu channels her unique perspective onto canvas. Over the years, she has lived in Mexico and the UK, where her ever-shifting surroundings have continued to shape her artistic journey. Primarily working with oil on canvas, Ebu has also explored various other artistic mediums. Her exhibitions in Taiwan, Mexico, and the UK reflect the diversity and uniqueness of her life and work.
Ebu is an active member of the Cambridge Arts Studio and the organisation of female Taiwanese artists. Her paintings can be viewed on her website: www.ebuart.com.
'Many people ask me why I am always so happy and optimistic. I think it is because of the life I’ve lived. Growing up in the mountain jungle of Namasia, Taiwan, steeped in tradition, surrounded by nature and full of magic and mystery. My childhood way of life filled my soul with ideas and ideals. Today I live a more modern existence. The vivid experiences that moulded me so long ago have faded to memories, stored away in a corner of my mind, there but not there, like dreams. They surface every now and again, coming to me like dreams in a mix of light and sound, words and pictures, poetry and paintings. Like pieces of a puzzle I put them back together to create my paintings.' - Ebu Estandar
Opening Times
16 January – 1 March 2025
Open: 14:00 - 16:00, Monday - Saturday
Closed: Sunday
Information for Visitors
- to access the exhibition please call in to the Porters’ Lodge on Magdalene Street
- entrance will be to the Gallery only
- visitors are requested not to enter other parts of the New Library
Next Exhibition
Arthur Christopher Benson, Diarist
A Centenary Exhibition
12 March - 21 March 2025
Arthur Christopher Benson, son of Archbishop Edward White Benson and his remarkable wife Mary (Minnie) Sidgwick, was Fellow of Magdalene from 1904, President from 1912, and the College’s greatest and most generous Master from 1915 till his death in June 1925. From 1897 onwards, he kept a diary which at the time of his death had swelled to 180 volumes and almost 5 million words: for comparison, the complete diary of Samuel Pepys is just over one million words, the Authorised Version of the Bible a mere 783,137.
Benson’s published works are now mostly forgotten: if he is remembered at all, it is as the lyricist of “Land of Hope and Glory”. A brilliant conversationalist, he himself admitted that “In my books I am solemn, sweet, refined; in real life I am rather vehement, sharp, contemptuous, a busy mocker.” In his diary Benson gave free rein to his sharp observation and conversational talent, with all the “flippancy & brutality” lacking in his published works. It vividly evokes the life of the Edwardian social, literary and academic elites, to all of which Benson had privileged entreé, and an England still criss-crossed with railway branch lines and dusty unmetalled roads, where “my brother the bicycle” was the favoured means of travel. It gives a fascinating picture of Cambridge before and during World War 1, when it was effectively taken over by the military, and when Benson on a walking holiday was mistaken for a German spy. It has a fascinating and harrowing treatment of Benson’s bi-polar disorder and five-year breakdown. And it provides an unrivalled window into early 20th century Cambridge, and the life of Magdalene in a crucial period of transition, from a tiny and obscure late Victorian backwater to a thriving institution attracting staff and students of the calibre of the scientist David Keilin, the literary critic I A Richards, and the linguist and philosopher C K Ogden.
The exhibition, which will be inaugurated with a lecture by Professor Eamon Duffy, co-editor of a new annotated edition of Benson’s diary, illuminates Benson’s remarkable family background, the Edwardian literary scene in which he was a significant figure, and the academic world before, during and in the aftermath of the First World War.
Image: From 1885 to 1903 Benson taught at Eton. This cartoon by 'Spy' (the artist Leslie Ward (1851-1922)), entitled ‘Fasti Etonenses’, appeared in Vanity Fair in June 1903.
Past Exhibitions
Line, Edge, Shadow: drawings and sculpture
Line, Edge, Shadow: Drawings and Sculpture, presents Nigel Hall RA's acclaimed abstract sculptures and drawings. Explore Hall's exploration of form and light in both three-dimensional and two-dimensional works at the Robert Cripps Gallery.
George Mallory: Magdalene to the Mountain
A homage to the life and legacy of George Mallory (1905). Beginning with his Magdalene days, his academic, athletic, and social pursuits. Delving into his WWI experiences, his Everest expeditions and American lecture tour, culminating in a poignant commemoration of Mallory and Irvine's tragic end on...
The Perspective of the Medieval Scribe
Exhibition of Medieval Manuscripts from the libraries of Magdalene College. A unique double exhibition revealing medieval perspectives on the physical world, on other worlds, and on the creative potential of image and word with the natural world, with music and with science.
The Personality and Legacy of Fox (1923-2023)
Sir Cyril Fred Fox (1882-1967) was one of the most distinguished archaeologists to have graduated from Magdalene. 2023 is the centenary of his celebrated book The Archaeology of the Cambridge Regio. The exhibition draws Fox'e publications and other materials, to look at Fox’s personality and the...
The world according to Jiří Kolář
Jiří Kolář (1914-2002) was a prolific Czech artist across media: a poet, writer, and translator who expanded the boundaries of modern art by deconstructing the printed image and word. In re-assembling and constructing images in collage, he created often absurd commentaries on modern life and the...
Duncan Robinson In Memoriam
Duncan Robinson CBE (1943 - 2022) was a leading authority on British art from the eighteenth century onwards. He was also a well-loved Master of Magdalene College, 2002 – 2012, a highly respected teacher and a witty, engaging and very warm man. This exhibition reflects aspects of his remarkably full...
Cross-Connections: Paintings by Ruth Rix
A selection of work by Ruth Rix from sixty years of painting, shown alongside prints by her mother Helga Michie, a Kindertransport refugee from Vienna.
Will Carter - Man of Letters
An important retrospective featuring the wide-ranging portfolio of one of Cambridge’s most respected and much-loved resident artists, including many examples of his calligraphy, letter carving, printing, and typefaces.
From Southwold to Alice Springs
From Southwold to Alice Springs: Selected works from the Collection of Robert Cripps, showcased a small snapshot of the paintings, drawings and engravings acquired over many years by a remarkable collector, reflecting both his deep roots in the countryside and coast of East Anglia and his...
Fragile Planet - Watercolour Journeys into Wild Places
Fragile Planet was a major exhibition of watercolours by Cornwall’s world-renowned wilderness artist, Tony Foster. Fragile Planet - Watercolour Journeys into Wild Places, highlights the precariousness of the world’s wildernesses and endangered environments, many of which Tony visited and painted...
Everest 1921 - A Reconnaissance
Pioneering works in the history of photography! With the kind permission of the Royal Geographical Society (with IBG), this exhibition showcased a selection of prints of the approaches to Mount Everest, taken in 1921 and reconstructed from newly digitised fragile silver nitrate negatives.