North Tilley Curve
© The Family of Tom McGuinness


The Canch Drillers
© The Family of Tom McGuinness


Miners Passing the Return Wheel
© The Family of Tom McGuinness


Recently conserved tub

Current Special Exhibition: The Working World of Tom McGuinness: A Miner and His Art

12th October 2009 - 10th January 2010

Bevin Boy, coal miner and artist Tom McGuinness recorded the mining world in his own unique style. This exhibition explores that world using his own artwork and objects from the museum's collections that would have been familiar to him during his working life in the coal industry.

Tom McGuinness began working as a miner in 1944 after been called up as a Bevin Boy. For the next thirty nine years he continued to work in the Durham coalfield before retiring in 1983. Throughout his working life he created artwork which reflected his experiences of working underground, which he continued after his retirement. Tom is highly regarded as one of the major influences in British industrial art.

His style of work often combines bright colours with distorted environments and hunched over figures. In much of his work Tom McGuinness depicted miners travelling underground with their tools and equipment. In this exhibition, objects from the museum's collection have been used to complement and draw out aspects of the artwork. Hand tools and personal protective equipment have been displayed alongside larger objects including a recently conserved tub and lift cage.

We would like to thank Robert McManners and Gillian Wales, two experts on coal mining art, who brought many of these pictures together. We would also like to acknowledge the assistance of the family of Tom McGuinness, who gave the museum permission for the reproduction of his work.