Proceedings and Notes 2014
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THE ART WORKERS’ GUILD PROCEEDINGS AND NOTES · NO. 29 · JANUARY 2015 What is the Guild For? This question has been asked more and more initiative, the revived plans for an apprentice- in the last few years, mostly by new or prospec- ship scheme, and the various projects all cap- tive members. It became particularly urgent to italise on this enthusiasm, and go part of the have an answer when we started to ask for large way towards answering the opening question. chunks of money from outside sources, who, Outreach projects included: reasonably enough, would like to know. And • Three events in collaboration with Bro. we ourselves need to know the answer, so that Roger Kneebone funded by the Wellcome the palpable energy which is so often felt when Trust: one (titled ‘The Intelligence of we gather, can be harnessed and the aims of Touch’) for an audience of students and our founders be fulfilled in ways that are rele- educators (both arts and medical); two vant now. for detailed discussions of craft techniques In 1886, J.D. Sedding asked ‘What is the (such as ‘thread management’), between Guild?’ and answered: ‘If we rest content with clinicians and craft practitioners. social meetings for self improvement, we are doomed’. • A joint event with East London Textile Perhaps the Guild’s greatest strength is also Arts (a successful community project), its greatest weakness; nowhere else do all art with presentations and discussion around and craft disciplines meet regularly, on equal how ideas are conjured up, and come to terms, discussing common concerns and inter- fruition. ests, in an atmosphere of sociability. The dan- ger is that pleasure in sociability makes us for- • An event organised jointly with the get that out of that fellowship grows a sense of Courtauld Institute for PhD students want- common purpose, on which we should build. ing to acquire a physical understanding of The Guild was founded by young Turks the material culture they are studying. who wanted to shake things up. Their average age was 37; the average age in 2014 is 63. The • Initial collaboration with Grizedale Arts, ‘buzz’ often remarked on by older members leading to possible longer-term projects; in the last few years comes, most obviously, funded jointly by the de Laszlo Foundation from the number of much younger members and the Guild Outreach budget. who have been joining. They value what the There are several projects and events planned young have always valued in the Guild – the for next year; we need more members to get in- sense of continuity, and interaction on equal volved – the rewards are two-way. And we need terms with those of greater experience – and the young – bring them on!It has been a huge the young in turn are valued for bringing fresh privilege to be part of all this, working with peo- ideas and approaches, and equally, for the ple so full of ideas and energy. This year is the sense of continuity. centenary of the mastership of the remarkable Bro. Stephen Fowler’s astonishingly suc- and delightful Thomas Okey, basket-maker, cessful Table-Top Museum event was a blast whose words I echo: ‘I owe more than I have of fresh air which upturned any notion of skill to express to my generous friends and fel- the Guild’s stuffiness (a journalist on the Art low members of the Guild. Vivat!’ Newspaper commented ‘Stuff Frieze; this is where it’s at’). PM George Hardie’s mentoring Prue CooPer, Master for 2014 16 January 2014 · orDINarY MEETING nor did she. It was time to find other ways of making a living. Guild Business Heathcote saw an advertisement in a sweetshop Julian Bicknell entered the Hall for the last time as window saying: ‘Art dealer requires assistant’ and Master, and swiftly moved on to the introductions of Prue got the job. The dealer was a slightly shady two new Brothers: John Benjamin and Nick Carter. character, who needed Prue to write letters to As is customary on Master’s Night, a bowl was Emile Littler, a theatre impresario and collector of passed round to raise money for the Guild Chest, Jacob Epstein bronzes, who was fed up with buying bringing in a little over £800. Hon. Sec. Rachael bronzes from the same person. Prue’s job was to pre- Matthews thanked Julian Bicknell for a wonderful tend to be other people, with different reasons for year, and in turn he praised the committee members selling bronzes and the dealer posted the letters from for the smooth way the Guild is run. He exited the his contacts in different parts of the world to main- Hall to a round of applause. tain the fiction. One evening Littler was interviewed Five minutes hence the bell rang for Master Prue on television by Cliff Michelmore about his bronzes Cooper who entered a full Hall, to yet more applause. and he said, ‘People write to me from all over the world offering them to me’. Years later, The Sunday Lecture · Master’s Night · Master Prue CooPer Times ran an article stating that Epstein’s widow had The Master started to explain how much she had been churning out bronzes, after someone noted appreciated the advice of Past Masters in compiling that eleven busts of Churchill existed out of a limited her programme for the year, and hoped her chosen edition of six. subjects would interest Brethren of all disciplines Excited by the saleroom, Prue left and started buy- and draw them together. ing and selling 18th and 19th century drawings and She explained how the Guild’s recent fund-rais- watercolours. She worked from home and put on an ing initiatives have thrown up questions about how exhibition every 18 months, at the Alpine Club (in the Guild can be of use to the outside world, thus those days the only gallery available to hire) and she re-enthusing our obligation to educate. She stressed invented an employer for herself: a louche character the importance of our continued work on appren- she named Roland Beckett. He was always having ticeships, mentoring schemes with colleges, and pro- motorbike accidents, which was why he never ap- posed talks and workshops with other organisations. peared, and five years on Prue was confident enough One hundred years ago, our predecessors had the to kill him off. foresight to raise the money to buy 6 Queen Square, We then had a show of artworks Prue had col- knock it into shape and build the Hall. We must re- lected or sold, and there were two exhibitions she re- member that our building is ‘The Goose that Lays gretted not having put on. One was ‘Good Drawings the Golden Egg’. We are responsible for keeping it by Awful Artists’, another was to be an exhibition of in good condition. Members were encouraged to see drawings of disputed authorship – with betting slips the Master afterwards to find out how they can get attached, and priced according to the odds. Some involved. of the paintings contained unidentified buildings, It took years for the Master to discover clay. We which led her to research at the National Buildings started with a charming photo of her family before Record where she met Hon. Archivist Nicholas she was born. Her father stood for Parliament four Cooper, pictured in his youth: the next slide was of times for both Liberal and Labour, but sadly for their wedding day. him he never won. He thrived on conflict and shout- Prue came to pottery by chance, when they moved ing and would have loved the House of Commons. into their house and she joined an evening class to Prue’s mother, known as The Great Enjoyer, taught make tiles for the kitchen. Luckily the tutor encour- her the joy of making things. Prue’s brother, the aged her to use slip clay and lots of pennies dropped. writer Heathcote Williams, was very much part of the Prue loves the directness of slipware as it shows the counter-culture of the 60s and 70s, and his utopian potter’s immediate touch. Red clay is straight forward, vision led him to co-found the Albion Free State, and pressed dishes are made like jam tarts. Brushing also known as Frestonia: three streets in Shepherd’s slip onto newspaper cut-outs, she sgraffitos the inter- Bush which declared independence from Britain. We nal lines with a porcupine quill. It then gets trans- saw the Master’s passport. ferred onto the damp clay and the paper is peeled Prue entered the Byam Shaw School of Art, ‘an off. The usefulness of the dishes is what appeals, art school for students with clean fingernails’, at and to make things that communicate through their a young age, and fortunately while Maurice de function. Large dishes for food can’t help but convey Sausmarez was Principal and writing his book Basic sociability and common purpose. Design which was illustrated with students’ work. Words on her dishes are all quotations, because Completely absorbed, she revelled in the classes, literature is freely available, which in itself inspires a but on leaving college at the age of 19 had read that sense of sharing. We then saw an entertaining slide- Roger Fry recognised that he would never be a great show of dishes, with charming and funny quotations painter ‘because he never forgot to have lunch’, and and drawings, some of which looked like Prue and 2 Nicholas throwing a jolly good party. The Museum of Folklore has since carried out To end, the Master showed us a newspaper clip- evaluation strategies and has come up with a busi- ping of a Japanese man waiting on a railway plat- ness plan.