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Home , Eduardo Paolozzi, Festival of Britain, Reg Butler

General Introductory Guide

Following the trauma of the Second World War and prior to the vibrancy of the ‘’, Britain in the 1950s was caught between dark austerity and a renewed sense of optimism. and Optimism in 1950s Britain looks at how the varying mood of the nation was reflected in the art, design and wider visual culture during this period.

Art and optimisimBritain 21 February in 1950s - 29 June mima Festival Attitudes trauma people experienced stayed far more hidden. Art became a means by Celebrations of national culture like the which the psychological turmoil created 1948 Olympics, the Festival of by the experience of war, or the loss it had Britain in 1951 and the coronation of left families facing, could be expressed. Queen Elizabeth in 1953 all came to mark The head became a frequent subject in the 1950s as a period of jubilation. These artwork, as diverse artists like William celebratory events were heavily endorsed Turnbull, , David if not organised by the government in an Bomberg and Francis Bacon created effort to raise the national mood following fragmented abstract depictions of the the emotional and economic impact of head that seem to reflect the shattered the war. Britain still faced austere living mindset of the nation. The head is a conditions at the beginning of the 1950s, particularly persistent theme across but the new Labour government was keen William Turnbull’s painting, drawing and to look beyond this. The striking branding during the 1950s. His bronze of the Festival of Britain demonstrates sculpture Head 3 (1955) distorts the form the attitude of patriotism and optimism of the head to such a degree that it takes that the event promoted. By placing this on the appearance of a hand grenade. bright imagery in context, against both By merging the physical materials of the darker artworks of this period and the war – and specifically those to do with colourful pieces that followed, the explosions – with the psychological space Festival style is shown to have been both of the head, Turnbull’s sculpture makes an influence on later artistic approaches a direct association between physical and in conflict with the attitudes reflected destruction and mental disturbance. in the artwork surrounding it. The gulf between the festive attitudes and the Francis Bacon’s work is renowned for its economic austerity of 1950s Britain exploration of psychological darkness mirrors the climate of recent years, as and distress, and his painting Study events like the London 2012 Olympic for Portrait No.6 (1956-57) imposes and Paralympic Games and the Queen’s these themes on an unexpected figure. Diamond Jubilee stood in sharp contrast Although anonymous, the figure in his to the damaging effects of the economic painting wears a smart suit and as a result downturn. appears to represent a thoroughly modern man. Bacon cages the figure and depicts Underlying Trauma him struggling against this enclosure with his head blurred, as if to suggest that The scars of the Second World War it is the figure of optimism and modern remained visible across Britain throughout life who may hold significant internal the 1950s. These were both physical and trauma. Bacon also communicated the emotional: while bomb damage in towns effects of the war specifically on art in was still a common sight, the internal his work Study for portrait of Van Gogh VI (1957): this recreated Van Middlesbrough and the North East during Gogh’s The Painter on the Road to the 1950s further reflect the shift from Tarascon (1858), as the original had post-war austerity to optimism. Many of been destroyed in WW2 bombings. the works depicting Middlesbrough in this Bacon felt that the work’s haunted figure period by artists like Tom McGuiness “seemed just right at the time, like a and Ken Cozens focus on its image as phantom of the road”. The ghost of war an industrial town, and industry was, was a persistent theme in art well into the of course, important to the post-war 1950s, as artists continued to adopt dark, recovery. In contrast to the view of the heavy palettes and violent abstraction in region as the home of traditional industry, their work. Shown together these artworks the progressive new town developments at reflect on the austerity and trauma that Aycliffe and Peterlee in County the nation was experiencing, which was Durham led to the North East making not necessarily being addressed in the the Festival of Britain’s list titled ‘New optimistic national festivals and bright Towns: What to See and How to Get pop culture of the period. There’ (1951).

Middlesbrough in Basic Design and the the 1950s North East

It was during the 1950s that The North East’s participation in Middlesbrough got its first permanent art progressive art and design continued as gallery to display the town’s expanding the pioneering art education movement collection of works. Middlesbrough known as Basic Design began to be Art Gallery took over a former doctor’s taught by artists Victor Pasmore surgery purchased by the Council in and Richard Hamilton at Newcastle 1957 and remained open as the gallery School of Art (then part of King’s College, until 2003. The premises were located Durham University, which later became in the town’s emerging cultural hub Newcastle University) from 1953- of Linthorpe where Middlesbrough’s 1966. Basic Design was an innovative School of Art had also relocated to by approach to art training that was opposed the 1950s. Around these artistic spaces to the restrictive teaching methods of a cultural community was forming, and traditional British art schools and instead the important Friends group was set up looked to foster creative environments to support Middlesbrough Art Gallery. and experimental practice inspired by The Friends donated 14 major works . The course was concerned to the collection between 1957 and with stripping design back to its basics to 1966, including LS Lowry’s The Old give students the freedom to create. The Town Hall and St Hildas Church young artistic community that Hamilton Middlesbrough (1959). The art and Pasmore collaborated with led to collections and visual culture growing in many dynamic exhibitions at the university’s Hatton Gallery, as can Plan furniture and Formica kitchen be seen by the posters made to promote units combined with modern appliances them. Victor Pasmore gave a permanent to transform the home environment. presence to the principles of Basic Design in the North East through the creation of The variety of striking, colourful products his radically modern Apollo Pavilion, that began to fill British homes ran built for the new town of Peterlee. alongside an influx of popular culture, Basic Design and the active artistic as television and magazines advertising environment it created in the North East endless products – as well as the latest during the 1950s represents a sense of trends in music, fashion and cinema – optimism in art that was not nationally infiltrated modern life. British art was prescribed like the official festivals, but directly influenced by the bright burst was equally forward thinking. of popular culture and domestic design in the 1950s, as artists like Richard Pop Culture and Hamilton and Eduardo Paolozzi, Domestic Design who had both been associated with The Independent Group, pioneered the Pop The economic recovery and increased Art style. The amount of different media welfare standards taking hold in Britain appropriated by Paolozzi’s BUNK! towards the end of the 1950s led the Series of demonstrates the Prime Minister Harold Macmillan (later sense of ‘pulp’ that invaded British life in life created Earl of Stockton) to declare from the 1950s onwards. Peter Blake’s in 1957 that the majority of Britons had The Fine Art Bit (1959) directly “never had it so good”. People had addresses the way in which art began to more money to spend and, as a result of take its inspiration from the design of the increasingly innovative manufacturing world around it: the graphic block colours and mass production, there were also of the work’s rainbow stripes overwhelm far more products available to buy the postcards of traditional fine art that compared to the rationing of the war sit above them. The optimistic style of and immediately post-war years. This Pop Art persisted into the 1960s and increase in buying placed new emphasis 1970s and became thought of as an on material goods and product design, as American movement, but this exhibition people were keen to buy the latest items recalls the circumstances of post-war with the most stylish look. Nowhere was British recovery in which this renowned this truer than in the home, where boldly style developed. designed contemporary items like G The Festainival of Brit

“The Festival is the British showing themselves to themselves - and to the world.” , Labour MP and Leader in 1951

The Festival of Britain embodied the newfound sense of optimism that Britain was trying to adopt following the trauma of the Second World War. Organised by the government as a nationwide exhibition from 3 May to 30 September 1951, the Festival was originally devised to commemorate the staged 100 years earlier.

Art and opBritimisimtain 21 February in 1950s - 29 June mima

Showcasing Britain New Towns on Show

Although the Festival was inspired by the A major focus of the Festival was urban Great Exhibition of 1851, it was far more regeneration following the destruction concerned with celebrating the ideas caused by the Second World War. New of the future than remembering events town developments were opened to the of the past. Building on the growing public across the country, one of which tradition of world’s fairs and international was the in Poplar expos, the Festival became a showcase where visitors could see homes as they of modern Britain. Developments in were being built in an exhibition billed British manufacturing and innovation as ‘Live Architecture’. The Lansbury were at the core of the Festival’s site’s tagline – ‘New homes rise from message, with exhibitions showcasing London’s ruins...’ – emphasised the advances in science, technology and Festival as a bridge to optimistic design demonstrating the exportability recovery following the desolation of of British industry. In conjunction with wartime Britain. Social housing and town events like the 1948 planning were changing, and these new and Queen Elizabeth’s coronation in town developments became a popular 1953, the optimism and forward-thinking attraction to Festival visitors, as they of the Festival of Britain was meant to showed an entirely new urban landscape herald a new era in Britain’s history in and promised a better way of living. The sharp contrast to the wartime period that Festival’s map of ‘new towns’ included preceded it. the County Durham towns of Newton Aycliffe and the progressive development The heart of the Festival was the South of Peterlee. Bank exhibition site in London, which featured a variety of exhibition pavilions, The Festival in the new , the Dome of Middlesbrough Discovery and the Festival’s distinctive and the North East Skylon. The architecture of these new buildings was a striking The Festival of Britain was at once an example of International Modernism international, national and regional event. – a bold, minimal architectural style Alongside what became an exhibition of largely unseen in Britain prior to 1951. the nation at the South Bank site, local The pointed cigar-shaped Skylon tower communities also showcased themselves designed by Hidalgo Moya, Philip Powell through varied events programmes and Felix Samuely was the most radical marketed to both residents and tourists of all of the buildings. visiting their region. Middlesbrough’s programme detailed its aim to “clearly illustrate the Middlesbrough ‘way of life’” through a series of Festival events including a production of a play set in the Design and medieval period and tours of “the diverse Merchandise industries of the town”. Businesses like Hinton’s cafe and Clinkard’s shoe shop Branding the Festival of Britain was an on Corporation Road, as well as Binn’s exercise in national optimism: it aimed department store (now House of Fraser) to overcome the trauma and austerity on Linthorpe Road were presented as created by the Second World War and showrooms of design and manufacturing distance Britain from its crumbling to boost the local economy. A duplicate empire, instead promoting the country as of the main South Bank exhibition also a land of opportunity. This is reflected toured the country on HMS Campania, in the bright and bold graphic designs docking at a selection of ports including created for the Festival posters, pamphlets Newcastle upon Tyne on the 29 May 1951. and many other items of merchandise. Aiming to evoke a Britain of the future, Empire or the branding was distinctly Modernist in Commonwealth? style. The Festival star logo took elements of patriotism and tradition like the There was an attempt to rebrand symbol of Britannia and a red, white and Britain’s worldwide colonial legacy, with blue colour scheme and updated them, The Festival and the Commonwealth creating simple, bold designs combined exhibition, held at The Imperial with modern . The Festival Institute in London. This exhibition of Britain postcard is a reminder of the was not widely publicised and seems sense of occasion and national interest to have been intended to shed Britain’s that the Festival inspired. Visitors colonial past, as imperial attitudes were from around the country and across the increasingly acknowledged as outdated world travelled to the South Bank site, and negative in the aftermath of the with around 8.5 million people visiting Second World War. By constructing the the main exhibition pavilions in the idea of ‘The Commonwealth’ to describe five months they were open. Souvenirs Britain’s remaining overseas territories, like postcards, photographs and other the Festival was significant in presenting Festival memorabilia became popular Britain as a modern nation rather than an ways to commemorate a visit. The public empire. The Festival seemed to overlook clearly appreciated the significance of the uncomfortable truths of drawn out and the Festival and were keen to create a often violent struggles for independence personal visual record of their time there. from Britain that had occurred in India Sending or keeping a colour enhanced and would continue throughout the photo-postcard like this one continued twentieth century across the Caribbean, the promotion of the Festival as an South America, Asia and Africa. event of unrivalled optimism, as the brighter-than-life colours fixed it as a vibrant memory. Art and the Festival mirrored the playful style of Jones’ murals that were displayed in the Festival The Festival of Britain blurred the Pleasure Gardens in . The lines between commercial and fine Gardens offered a space of total fun and art. It may now be known for its focus celebration, contributing to the sense on futuristic science and technology, of the Festival as ‘a tonic to the nation’. but the Festival was initially conceived Jones’ light-hearted approach to art and along artistic lines. The idea to hold her appreciation of popular culture added an exhibition to mark the centenary to this tone, as well as being an important of the Great Exhibition originally forerunner to the Pop Art movement that came from the Royal Society of would soon follow. in 1943. Art remained a significant element of the Festival, as a wide range Domestic Design of exhibitions were held alongside it to showcase British artists and many Domestic design items presented at the created works for the Festival’s South Festival, like the iconic Ernest Race Bank site including Eduardo Paolozzi, Antelope chair, were also appreciated , , Lynn for their artistic style alongside their Chadwick and . Although commercial appeal. The chair combined the Festival ultimately had more a modern design with a new degree of commercial aims in its promotion of durability through its innovative use of British design, it became one of the first materials like plywood and a steel-rod platforms for the appreciation of popular frame resistant to corrosion – the chair art and material culture for their artistic was designed as furniture for the outdoor value. Barbara Jones was a key figure riverside terraces of the Royal Festival in bridging the gap between ‘high’ and Hall. The emphasis placed on design and ‘low’ art, as she created modern murals artistic quality at the Festival, and the and illustrations for the Festival whilst progressive art exhibitions surrounding it, also curating an exhibition of British served to cement Britain as a tastemaker popular art at the and a dynamic, cultural destination. The to run alongside it. Jones described Festival’s art and design exhibits, as well her exhibition, titled Black Eyes and as the design of the Festival itself and Lemonade, as a collection of “things its distinctive promotional artwork, all that people make or are manufactured to acted as a reflection of how Britain’s new their taste”. The objects displayed were optimistic attitude was visualised for the a wide-ranging mixture of popular and mass public. traditional British art. The exhibition Lucian Freud and Friends

Lucian Freud (1922-2011) is considered one of the most important artists of his generation. He painted people in a highly detailed, realistic manner that was psychologically penetrating and expressed a feeling of isolation. Freud was the grandson of the psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud and was born in . He emigrated with his family to England in 1933, when the Nazi Party came to power, to escape persecution as a Jew. Spending most of his life living in Paddington, London, Freud started attracting attention as an artist in the 1940s: in the 1950s he began to be an influential figure in British art.

Art and optimisimBritain 21 February in 1950s - 29 June mima

Influence and Style a group of artists working in a figurative style, who were later named The School Many artists in post-war Europe, such as of London. The group included, amongst Freud, were influenced by the philosophical others, Francis Bacon, Frank Auerbach theory of existentialism. Existentialism and Robert Colquhoun. emphasises the uniqueness and isolation of the individual in a hostile or indifferent Bacon and Freud world. It presents the person as a free agent responsible for determining their The renowned artist Francis Bacon was own development through their own free one of Freud’s closest friends. Bacon will. This philosophy was particularly turned to painting relatively late in life, influential following the devastation of the creating disturbing, emotionally charged Second World War. Feelings of anxiety, images of abstract figures. Freud was trauma and alienation were abundant, introduced to Bacon through the artist and painters used the isolated figure as , in the 1940s and a means to explore and express these from this point they formed a long- themes. lasting yet competitive friendship. Freud and Bacon drew and painted several Freud’s painting, Girl in a Green Dress portraits of each other throughout the (1954) conveys the sense of isolation years. Bacon’s triple portrait of Freud characteristic in 1950s painting. The from 1969 reached a record-breaking portrait of Lady Caroline Blackwood, price at auction in New last year Freud’s then wife, is a meticulously ($142.4m/£89.6m), highlighting the pair painted close-up study of her face. He as two of the greatest British artists of the has painted every detail, from the light twentieth century. freckles on her face and the lines on her top, to the delicate flesh tones of her skin. Whilst they both used the isolated figure Freud paints Caroline with a pensive as a subject in their paintings, their styles expression on her face in a moment of were very different. Bacon painted fairly private contemplation, her eyes staring quickly with expressive brushstrokes and out beyond the viewer or the artist. used photographs as inspiration for his paintings. Freud, however, worked very The School of slowly, painting in meticulous detail from London life models. Both Bacon’s Study for Portrait No.6 (1956-7) and Freud’s Freud had a wide circle of friends who Girl in a Green Dress depict figures in were fellow artists. The Colony Bar in an enclosed space to heighten a sense of London’s Soho became a haunt for the isolation. Freud achieves this by zooming post-war artistic set where artists would in to focus completely on the face, drink, gamble and discuss their art. excluding the girl’s surroundings. Bacon After the Second World War, Freud led places his figure inside a box, using dark oppressive colours and contorting with solitary figures. He was inspired the figure’s face to emphasise a sense of by Greek ancient history and the anxiety and entrapment. Mediterranean light and painted Greek Children (1946). Bacon’s Study for Portrait of Van Gogh VI (1957) uses a far more colourful The artist Keith Vaughan, also in Peter and optimistic palette: however, a dark Watson’s circle, made paintings that figure still haunts the centre of the image. explored the male form. Many of his This painting was one of a series of eight works involve compositions of figures in that Bacon made based on Van Gogh’s abstract environments such as Climbing self-portrait, The Painter on the Road Figures (1946) where two men almost to Tarascon (1858), which was destroyed dance across the canvas. Foreshore in Second World War bombings, making it and Bather (1958) is a sombre painting unlikely that Bacon ever saw the original: depicting a solitary figure standing in he probably painted from reproductions. front of a dark backdrop. The painting is This gave Bacon the freedom to interpret made with textured brushstrokes, and the the Van Gogh as he wished. The use of man’s face is blank, giving the painting a reproduced images reflects the trends melancholic feel. of Pop Art that were emerging at the same time. Freud and his circle of friends often met at the studio of the Scottish painter After many years of friendship, Freud and Robert Colquhoun. Colquhoun’s Man Bacon fell out after a heated argument. with Donkey Saddle (1950) uses the However, they greatly admired each subject of the agonised solitary figure, other’s post-war era art for the remainder typical in 1950s British painting. The of their lives. Bacon’s influence can colourfulness of most of the painting is be seen in Freud’s later work, which is in contrast to the face of the man, which less meticulous and adopts larger, more is painted in a sombre white and blue expressive brushstrokes. pallette with pursed lips and blank eyes. Colquhoun was influenced by Pablo John Craxton, Keith Picasso, and his cubist style can be seen Vaughan and Robert here, with the face and the hands stylised Colquhoun and fractured into geometric forms.

In the 1940s Freud and the artist John Frank Auerbach and Craxton shared a studio, provided by his Style their then patron and avid art collector, Peter Watson. Freud became good Like Freud, Frank Auerbach emigrated friends with Craxton and in 1946 visited from Nazi Germany as a child, arriving in him in Greece. Craxton is best known England in 1939. He paints portraits and for painting portraits and landscapes cityscapes using thick layers of treacly Post-war Sculpture

“In the fifteen years after 1945 avant-garde sculpture developed from an experimental art form with a tiny audience into a widely recognised genre.” Andrew Causey, Sculpture Since 1945

Art and optBriitaminsim 21 February in 1950s - 29 June mima The Development William Turnbull and . of Sculpture These artists exhibited together at the celebrated exhibition New Aspects of The period after the war was an exciting British Sculpture at the prestigious time for British sculpture. Many people Venice Biennale in 1952: it was hailed felt that traditional commemorative by many as the best exhibition at that depicting heroism, hope Biennale. The critic Herbert Read said and glory were no longer effective as that their work evoked a “geometry of memorials following the devastation of the fear”, expressing anxieties in a fractured Second World War and the exposure of post-war society in the age of the atomic the horrors of the holocaust. Figurative, bomb and the Cold War. large-scale sculpture was associated with totalitarian regimes, in particular So whilst design in the 1950s was the Soviet Union. In Cold War Europe positive and looked to the future, a more abstract style of sculpture began sculpture tended to represent horror and to dominate. Mainly using metal as a uncertainty. William Turnbull’s Head material and rejecting organic materials 3 (1955) is a solid mass of bronze with such as wood or stone, British post-war grooves scarred into its surface. Head sculpture was characteristically rough 3 has been compared to a grenade, and wounded in appearance, representing a bomb and wounded skin, reflecting the anxieties and morale of the time. memories of suffering and anxieties.1 The human head was an important theme In the 1950s, sculpture gained prestige in Turnbull’s work, “often abstracting it with international sculpture prizes being up to the edge of its legibility as a head”.2 set up, as well as playing a prominent role This can be seen in both his sculpture at the Festival of Britain: an associated and his paintings, and prints such as Open Air International Exhibition of Head (1956) and Head (1953), where Sculpture took place in Battersea Park. the form of the head is reduced to a series The development of outdoor exhibitions of marks. and collections opened up sculpture to a new audience outside the traditional The Independent gallery setting. Group

New Aspects of William Turnbull and the Scottish British Sculpture sculptor Eduardo Paolozzi were part of The Independent Group which included Britain was particularly strong in the artists, architects, designers, critics field of sculpture in the aftermath of the and theorists. It promoted a radical Second World War. A new generation of interdisciplinary approach to visual British sculptors had emerged including culture that incorporated art, science, Eduardo Paolozzi, , technology and popular culture. Like Turnbull, Paolozzi was interested Reg Butler’s Boy and Girl (1951) in the human form. Mr Cruikshank was forged and welded with iron. The (1950-59) combines his interests in sculpture of two figures is linear and the anguished human form, machinery skeletal, moving away from the solid and technology. The bronze sculpture forms of other sculptors such as Barbara was inspired by an article in National Hepworth and Henry Moore. Reg Butler Geographic Magazine with illustrations was the winner of an international of models used to test radiation on the competition to design a monument titled human skull. Paolozzi cast the head from the Unknown Political Prisoner, in a crash test dummy. The blank expression commemoration of “all those men and of the face is emotionally detached, women who in our times have given their referencing the dehumanising effect new lives or their liberty to the cause of human technology and machinery could have, freedom”.3 His wiry, abstract sculpture whilst expressing the difficulties artists beat the work of many renowned artists faced depicting emotion after the war. such as Paolozzi and Hepworth to win Paolozzi cut the sculpture up into sections the prize. and then reassembled it. The process of deconstruction and reconstruction Lynn Chadwick was an acclaimed sculptor became important in Paolozzi’s work and who won the prestigious International can also be seen in his BUNK! Series Prize for Sculpture in 1956. Like Butler, where he deconstructed images from Chadwick made linear sculptures, magazines and reconstructed them into often using the triangle as a key form. screen prints. Rad Lad (1961) is a bronze sculpture supported by a tripod of legs. The skin of Working in Metal the bronze clings to a linear framework, ressembling an emaciated skeletal figure. Due to its durability outdoors, bronze The Seasons (1956) is a welded iron dominated sculpture throughout the sculpture of a triangle supported on 1950s, despite its expense. However, legs. The sculpture, although abstract, many sculptors’ foundries had either alludes to the human figure with a spiky closed down or been used for the war branch reaching out like an arm. It is effort and were no longer available. characteristic of post-war sculpture and This resulted in many artists seeking its exploration of texture and roughness – new materials and methods for making where artists often gouged into the metal sculpture. Welding became a more they were working with. Drawing was common skill for artists, meaning important to Chadwick’s work. He trained sculptors could use cheaper materials as a draughtsman in an architect’s office such as scrap metal during a time of and the influence this had can be seen economic austerity. It was also a much in both his sculptures and drawings such quicker method than carving wood and as Three Studies for ‘The Seasons’ stone or casting bronze. (1956). His sculptures could be viewed as drawings in which metal 1950s Events at mima rods draft lines in space. The linearity and new methods of making used in the Curator’s Talk sculptures of Lynn Chadwick and Reg Thursday 20 and Saturday 29 March, Butler “became widely accepted and lit 12 – 1pm the way for the minimalists”.4 Join mima curator, Alix Collingwood, for a talk about the exhibition. A New Era Free, booking required Fashion in 1950s Britain: Anthony Caro’s Twenty-Four Hours (1960) signals the end of an era in Then and Now Saturday 29 March, 11am – 12pm post-war sculpture and the beginning A talk exploring the fashion of the of Minimalism. Minimalism was a era, its influences and influence. movement in sculpture and painting Free, booking required characterised by the use of simple, massive forms. Twenty-Four Hours Make Do and Mend is made from large pieces of scrap Saturday 29 March, 1 – 4pm steel welded together and painted with An up-cycling workshop – just bring household gloss paint. It was Caro’s along a piece of clothing you’d like first abstract work. Having travelled to revamp. to America in 1959, he was greatly £4, booking required influenced by the art he saw there. Caro rejected placing his sculpture on Easter Holidays Art Trolley a plinth and made them to sit directly 8 – 11 and 15 – 18 April, 11am – 12pm on the floor, removing a barrier between 1950s themed art activities for kids. the viewer and the sculpture so that it Free could be viewed from all angles and be interacted with. Middlesbrough in the Post-war Period Saturday 10 May, 1 – 2pm A discussion about the local social 1 http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/turnbull-head- 3-t05211/text-summary and economic changes after WW2. 2 http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/turnbull-head- Free, booking required 3-t05211/text-summary 3 http://venicebiennale.britishcouncil.org/people/ For further information and booking details reference/reg-butler for all these events, see visitmima.com. 4 http://www.pangolinlondon.com/ downloads/pangolinlondon/catalogues/ exorcisingthefearcatalogueemail.pdf Peterlee and the Apollo Pavilion

Following the devastation of the Second World War, many believed that the time had come to build a better society. The suffering endured during the war led to a belief that the government should provide basic care for its citizens, triggering social change and the birth of the welfare state. This included the establishment of the NHS, education reforms and the introduction of child benefit.

Art and optimisimBritain 21 February in 1950s - 29 June mima

The New Towns Act was produced for the Festival of Britain to showcase the exciting new developments One of the many problems post-war in social housing. The ‘New homes Britain needed to address was a housing rise from London’s ruins...’ (1951) crisis. The New Towns Act in 1946 poster, also from the Festival of Britain, allowed the government to build new represents the importance placed on new towns in designated areas. This was a housing in the 1950s. In the poster, a time of great economic austerity, but the house with a modern interior is being pioneering design of new towns attempted lifted up into bright blue sky away from to turn that austerity into optimism by the war torn ruins of London. The creating decent housing, raising living image projects feelings of hope and new standards, providing new jobs and beginnings in a time of austerity. forging social unity. Art and design was to play a key role in this new era of urban Peterlee regeneration. Architecture and Design Peterlee in County Durham was one of the proposed new towns. Whilst oil The Peterlee Development Corporation refineries were opening at the mouth of initially employed the Russian modernist the River Tees, many coalmines and architect to design railways in the North East of England the new town. Appointing a renowned were closing. Peterlee was built to Modernist architect such as Lubetkin replace mining villages in the area that (who had designed an inventive were no longer economically viable and to new penguin pool at London Zoo) provide an urban centre that would create demonstrates the importance that was further employment options. The Peterlee placed on innovative design. Lubetkin Development Corporation was founded in planned to build a modern town of high- 1948, and named after Durham Miners’ rise towers. However, his plan was leader, Peter Lee. New towns like this rejected because towers of such height were intended to be “self-contained could not be built on land that had been communities combining the convenience mined. If he had remained the architect of town life with the advantages of the of Peterlee, the town would have looked country. They would have their own local very different to how it does today. shops and amenities and art was regarded as a vital aid to ensuring that all classes After Lubetkin’s resignation in 1950 a new would benefit equally.”1 architect, Grenfel Baines, and the artist Victor Pasmore were employed to work on The pamphlet New Towns: What to the development of Peterlee. Pasmore’s See and How to Get There (1951) role was to work alongside the architect shows highlights from an array of new to add imagination to a project that could towns, including Peterlee. The pamphlet get weighed down with the restrictions of building regulations. Giving Pasmore, made to advertise exhibitions of students’ one of the most influential abstract artists work that showcased the new method of in Britain at the time, a vital part in the teaching art. development of Peterlee demonstrates the central role art played in Pasmore had collaborated with architects after the war. successfully on previous projects such as a wall mural at the Festival of Victor Pasmore Britain in 1951. His art had a close relationship with modern architecture Pasmore was born in Chelsham, Surrey and Pasmore was the kind of artist in 1908 and attended evening classes Peterlee needed for a modern, creative at the Central School of Art in London. vision. Pasmore’s influence can be seen Pasmore initially painted representational through the integration of buildings into landscapes and figures, but later made the landscape, a human scale and an non-representational paintings and elegance of design. The collaboration constructions out of contemporary between artist and architect to develop materials such as plywood and Perspex. Peterlee resulted in what is regarded His Construction in Black, White as one of the most successful post-war and Ochre (1961-62) is a relief made of new towns. different layers of materials that explores the possibilities of different visual planes. The Apollo Pavilion The arrangement of new materials such as plywood has similarities with the Pasmore designed a centrepiece for the planes of Modernist architecture. Sunny Blunts estate in Peterlee, the Apollo Pavilion. It is a concrete structure that From 1954 to 1961 Pasmore was head Pasmore described as “an architecture of the painting department at King’s and sculpture of purely abstract form”.2 College, Newcastle upon Tyne (then part The Apollo Pavilion spans a manmade of Durham University, later becoming lake and was one of Britain’s first large- Newcastle University), where – along with scale public art works. Pasmore wanted the artist Richard Hamilton – he created to incorporate the Pavilion into the an innovative art course founded upon the landscape and saw it as being integral to principles of Basic Design. Basic Design the estate’s design. Work began in 1969: was an experimental way of teaching art cast on-site out of reinforced concrete, it that was based on ideas from the German contained two painted murals and was art movement and school, Bauhaus. The completed the following year. He named teaching philosophy was particularly the Apollo Pavilion after the Apollo strong in the north of England and had space mission of 1969, drawing parallels a radical impact on art of the 1950s and between the optimism and hope for the 1960s. The posters exhibited, such as future expressed by the Pavilion and Work in Progress (1950s-1960s), were space exploration. As a focal point in the cheerfully named Sunny Blunts 1950s Events at mima estate “the pavilion showed the bold optimism of those building the new town Curator’s Talk of Peterlee”.3 The photographs and Thursday 20 and Saturday 29 March, a scale model of the Apollo Pavilion 12 – 1pm show Pasmore’s utopian vision and its Join mima curator, Alix Collingwood, manifestation at Peterlee. for a talk about the exhibition. Free, booking required The Apollo Pavilion, however, did not remain in its intended condition. By Fashion in 1950s Britain: the late 1970s it had started to fall Then and Now into a state of disrepair. It was not Saturday 29 March, 11am – 12pm properly maintained and became a site A talk exploring the fashion of the for vandalism. The Pavilion became a era, its influences and influence. point of controversy, attracting much Free, booking required local criticism, and by the late 1980s there were calls for it to be demolished. Make Do and Mend However, all was not lost for Pasmore’s Saturday 29 March, 1 – 4pm Pavilion. A steering group campaigned An up-cycling workshop – just bring to get the Pavilion restored and in 2009 along a piece of clothing you’d like a Heritage Lottery Fund grant enabled to revamp. work to begin on the Pavilion and £4, booking required the surrounding site. This included Easter Holidays Art Trolley resurfacing some of the concrete, 8 – 11 and 15 – 18 April, 11am – 12pm removing graffiti and reinstalling the 1950s themed art activities for kids. south staircase to allow access to the Free Pavilion. In 2011 the Apollo Pavilion was awarded Grade II* listed status and Middlesbrough in the is now in the top five percent of listed Post-war Period buildings in the country along with Saturday 10 May, 1 – 2pm Middlesbrough’s Transporter bridge. A discussion about the local social and economic changes after WW2. 1 http://www.apollopavilion.info/Pages/ Free, booking required NewTowns.aspx 2 http://www.bbc.co.uk/arts/yourpaintings/ For further information and booking details artists/victor-pasmore for all these events, see visitmima.com. 3 http://www.architectsjournal.co.uk/news/ daily-news/penrose-lists-pasmores-apollo- pavilion/5204998.article G Plan Furniture and the Rise of Domestic Design

“Just what is it that makes today’s homes so different, so appealing?”

The question posed by British artist Richard Hamilton in the title of his well-known 1956 Pop Art sums up the shift towards modern domestic design that occurred in Britain during the post-war period. The home environment and the way it was used were changing. These developments were largely the result of the modern materials, technology and outlook that the country had started to embrace by the 1950s.

Art and optimisimBritain 21 February in 1950s - 29 June mima

Showroom Shopping of its success was down to the way the company marketed its furniture as part of Modern domestic design became part of a modern lifestyle. G Plan was designed the national agenda in the 1950s. The with the modern home in mind, offering Council of Industrial Design (CoID) that items of furniture to suit increasingly was set up in 1944 began to promote open plan living and display the latest new British-made furniture, household conveniences. The G Plan ‘Librenza’ design and other consumer products in unit room divider, made from teak this period to encourage shoppers and and laminated plywood, was perfectly rejuvenate British industry following the suited to house a new television set and Second World War. CoID used large- sit as a feature separating a large, modern scale exhibitions like ‘Britain Can Make living room. A 1958 report on G Plan It’ at the Victoria & Albert Museum in was keen to emphasise that the furniture 1947 and the Festival of Britain in was “not only decorative, but eminently 1951 to showcase new design ideas to the practical and suited to the current way public. These showroom-style displays of living”1. Unlike the suite furniture were some of the first that allowed that preceded it, G Plan items were visitors to imagine design items in the interchangeable and could be bought home environment and the idea was soon piece by piece, allowing the consumer to replicated in the popular Ideal Home buy what they wanted when they wanted or Show and filtered down to new furniture could afford it. This aligned G Plan showrooms. Part of the success behind with the modern consumer mindset, as the iconic 1950s furniture brand G people looked to create homes uniquely Plan can be linked to the way in which styled to their tastes, breaking away customers were able to visualise the items from the prescriptive utility furniture in their home, picking out the pieces they imposed by the government to cope with liked, at The G Plan Gallery in London as wood shortages during the immediate well as regional showrooms. The range is post-war period. still popular today, with designer Wayne Hemmingway giving “a contemporary G Plan furniture combined modern style take on G Plan’s mid-century heritage”. with traditional materials, as it used woods like teak and mahogany to create Contemporary Style high quality items with a bold appearance using simple shapes and a non-decorative The High Wycombe-based furniture firm approach. G Plan became the most E. Gomme Ltd pioneered what became popular of a group of furniture firms known as the ‘Contemporary Style’ with that promoted this ‘Contemporary Style’. its highly popular range of G Plan Ercol, Stag and individual designers furniture. The new brand was launched like Robin Day and Ernest Race all under the slogan ‘The Gomme Plan, a contributed to the mass market success Plan for Living’ in 1952, and a large part of this new style of domestic furnishing in Britain. The ‘Contemporary Style’ was was the thermosetting plastic laminate originally an elite style sold at high-end of Formica. Largely used for kitchen department stores like Liberty & Co in unit work surfaces, or in pieces like the London, which opened a modern furniture late 1950s Formica table, the material department in 1950. Liberty sold items was durable, heat-resistant, wipe-clean such as the boomerang-shaped table and could be easily manufactured in with a plywood top and three detachable a wide range of patterns and colours to solid beech legs designed by A.M. Lewis, appeal to modern homeowners. Pastel- which was very progressive in its use of coloured Formica kitchens combined futuristic shapes to mirror the innovation with modern conveniences like the of the 1950s period. The simplicity of Newhome Kitchenette Gas Cooker the ‘Contemporary Style’ was also greatly gave homes a strikingly futuristic style influenced by Scandinavian design. and functionality, as innovative materials Items such as the stackable Jason and technology continued to make home chair, created by Danish designer Carl life easier. Jacobs, but manufactured by British firm Kandya, gained long-term popularity Modern Interiors from 1950 onwards. The distinctive curved wooden seat and steel legs of the To complement the simplicity of the ‘Series 7’ or ‘Butterfly’ stacking popular plastic and G Plan furnishings, chair designed and made in Denmark bright, bold and thoroughly modern in 1955 by designer Arne Jacobsen patterned designs began to dominate and manufacturer Fritz Hansen is interiors. Wallpaper, carpets, curtains another example of Danish design that and upholstery all came to reflect the was adopted in Britain from the 1950s growing optimism and forward thinking (although it is perhaps most associated of the nation. This area of design was with the 1960s, from the iconic Christine largely pioneered by women, with the Keeler photograph) and remains relevant contemporary patterns of Lucienne today. Day, Shirley Craven and Trinidadian- born Althea McNish, among others, Plastic and the transforming homes across the country. Formica Future The Festival of Britain was a key Alongside the traditional wood showcase of contemporary interiors, as it construction of the modern designs launched the careers of textile designers from G Plan and other contemporary like Lucienne Day and Terence Conran. manufacturers, developments in plastic Day’s patterns had a very creative style, and compound materials like lino taking inspiration from artists like created home design items with an Joan Miró and Alexander Calder, and even more futuristic feel. The most her distinctive designs soon became famous brand based on new materials bestsellers for Heal Fabrics. Part of the appeal behind her patterned fabrics was of consumer culture surrounding it, the way in which they were exhibited at had a direct impact on British art in the Festival. Her husband Robin Day this period. Artists affiliated with the was an equally progressive furniture Independent Group in London blurred designer and so the pair were able to the boundaries between art, design and create fully furnished and decorated mass culture through a wide range of interiors with a strong contemporary art projects. look. Terence Conran created the same winning formula when he later combined The architects of the group, Alison his talent for textile design with a range and Peter Smithson, took the trend of of furniture and household goods, innovative home design in a showroom opening the first in a long-running chain setting to its extreme, presenting an entire of Habitat shops in 1964. space age House of the Future at the 1956 Daily Mail Ideal Home Show. Artists Printed textile companies including Eduardo Paolozzi and Nigel Henderson Heal’s, David Whitehead Ltd, Liberty diversified by setting up Hammer Prints and Hull Traders all adopted the Ltd, which sold their artwork as designs ‘Contemporary Style’. David Whitehead on wallpaper and curtains through Hull Ltd was particularly keen to utilise Traders. The four combined at the modern methods of mass production to landmark ‘’ exhibition make previously high-end contemporary at the Whitechapel Art Gallery where design affordable, as its director John they created a surreal showroom area Murray outlined in an article titled titled Patio and Pavilion. Richard ‘The cheap need not be cheap-and- Hamilton’s domestic collage scene, nasty’. To fulfil this aim, the company Just what is it that makes today’s launched ‘Contemporary Prints’ in homes so different, so appealing? 1951 through which it commissioned (1956) became the promotional image designers like Jacqueline Groag, Marian for the exhibition, which, like Paolozzi’s Mahler and Terence Conran to create BUNK! Series, is seen as one of the innovative abstract designs that could be first examples of Pop Art. Pop Art is produced cheaply using roller printing often thought of as an American art form, on spun rayon. but artists like Hamilton, Paolozzi and later Peter Blake meant that Britain This is Tomorrow was equally at the forefront of this new art style directly inspired by the kitsch The bold optimism and futuristic elements domestic design and material culture of of domestic design, as well as the excess the 1950s.

1 Report on G Plan, Southern Gateway Magazine (March, 1958) paint, often scraping it all off and starting 1950s Events at mima again in his search for perfection. One of Auerbach’s teachers was the artist Curator’s Talk David Bomberg. Bomberg’s influence on Thursday 20 and Saturday 29 March, Auerbach can be seen when comparing 12 – 1pm his work Vigilante (1955) to Auerbach’s Join mima curator, Alix Collingwood, paintings, with their thick brushstrokes for a talk about the exhibition. and muted palette. Auerbach paints Free, booking required what he knows, mainly painting Camden in London near his home and focusing Fashion in 1950s Britain: on the same few models for his portraits. Then and Now He painted Primrose Hill many times Saturday 29 March, 11am – 12pm and in all different weathers and A talk exploring the fashion of the seasons. In Primrose Hill: High era, its influences and influence. Summer (1959), Auerbach contrasts Free, booking required dark shadows with bright summer light in his characteristic thick paint. He has an Make Do and Mend emotive, textured style of painting where Saturday 29 March, 1 – 4pm “even his landscapes of Mornington An up-cycling workshop – just bring Crescent and Primrose Hill seem like along a piece of clothing you’d like scarred battlefields of pigment”.1 The to revamp. Sitting Room (1964) is an intimate £4, booking required scene of the inside of Auerbach’s studio. Easter Holidays Art Trolley It explores the interior of a room, a theme 8 – 11 and 15 – 18 April, 11am – 12pm that was to become prevalent in Pop Art. 1950s themed art activities for kids. Free

Middlesbrough in the Post-war Period Saturday 10 May, 1 – 2pm A discussion about the local social and economic changes after WW2. Free, booking required

For further information and booking details for all these events, see visitmima.com.

1 http://www.theguardian.com/education/ 2001/sep/ 15/arts.highereducation1