Winter 03 2010 £4 BackChat Sir // Christopher Frayling Flesh In the Studio Ken Howard // // Alberto // Giacometti

RWA // Rural Rural // Dreamer Howard Jacobson:  Howard Jacobson: David Inshaw

ISSN 2044-2653

Howard Jacobson issue // David Inshaw RWA // Alberto Giacometti // Ken Howard // Sir Christopher Frayling 03 Winter 2010

Contributors

What a pot pourri of delights awaits the reader of this, our third issue of ART. Repressed sex is the subject // Richard Storey took a BA // Jodie Inkson’s obsession with // Simon Baker is an RWA of Simon Baker’s illuminating Honours degree in Drama from typography began at school when Trustee and a solicitor on the interview with Man Booker Bristol University (2006). He worked she painstakingly hand cut every cusp of celebrating 40 years in for the Bristol Evening Post for letter of a project. Climbing the practice. An avid enthusiast of prize winning novelist, Howard 12 years and is author of Perfect design ranks in London, she formed the visual arts since discovering Jacobson, who celebrates the way Persuasion. He is a former Board Wire Sky in 2003, winning awards that books with “pictures and Victorian artists depicted the member of Bristol Arts Centre and a position in Who’s Who. She conversations” were the best, and Travelling Light Theatre sees her beloved modernist chairs he is too much of an impulse frustration of non-consummation Company. as art, not sure whether she prefers buyer to qualify as a collector. in their shockingly fleshy sitting on them or looking at them. paintings. Alberto Giacometti’s stick- like sculptures are well known. Less well known is the story of his life-long association with the Fondation Maeght in Saint-Paul // Jilly Cobbe has a degree in Fine // Peter Ford is Vice President // Francis Greenacre was Curator de-Vence. Adrien Maeght shares Art Drawing and is a practicing of the RWA. He has travelled widely of Fine Art at Bristol Museum with us memories of his teenage artist living near Stroud. She has to art events and exhibitions and Art Gallery from 1969 to a life-long fascination with the where his etchings, woodcuts 1997. Together with Douglas years, living and working among history of art, especially the artist and paperworks have been shown. Merritt he has just completed some of the most seminal artists behind the art. Since 2004 he has organised five Public Sculpture of Bristol which of the post-war years. exhibitions for the RWA including will be published by Liverpool the 2009 Open Print Exhibition University Press January 2011. Signs of regeneration are in and ‘Celebrating Paper’ in Francis Greenacre’s sights. Shop January 2010. signs, that is. Once a visual aid to the illiterate in late medieval and eighteenth century shopping streets, gloriously eccentric metal signs are now creeping back onto Bristol’s streets. Go seek them out. // Cliff Hanley was born in // Alice Hendy studied Fine Art // Ali Heywood works as a David Inshaw RWA is one Glasgow, where he studied at at Exeter College, learning to use costumier and theatre designer of Britain’s best recognised Glasgow School of Art. He later photography to capture ideas and and is passionate about the value took up design and writing document her work at Kingston of the Arts to bring about change, artists, highly regarded for the as a sideline to a career in music. University, where she studied particularly for young people. powerful intensity of his English Gave up guitar session work in Sculpture. Alice has always Ali is a founding member of landscapes. Tristan Pollard met London to return to painting loved cameras – her current beau Stand+Stare Collective who create and more recently, writing. is a Canon D500; it makes her interactive and immersive theatre rural dreamer Inshaw to explore heart sing. performances. what it is that informs Inshaw’s elemental, brooding and highly charged images. As if this isn’t enough, we round off with equally revealing meetings with surreal photographer, Hannah Starkey;

// Michael Liversidge was // Hugh Mooney is an art // Kate Morgan is the RWA master of the studio nude, Ken Head of History of Art and photographer and recently studied Exhibitions Manager. After Howard; and some pithy BackChat Dean of the Faculty of Arts at Fine Art at the University of the completing a History degree from Sir Christopher Frayling. Bristol University. He co-curated West of England. A physicist by and an MA at the University of ‘Canaletto and England’ for profession, he spent 30 years Bristol, she has worked in the Birmingham City Art Gallery in the aerospace industry prior cultural sector for the last ten and ‘Imagining Rome: to retiring in 1998. A camera years. Beginning in the world British Artists and Rome is his constant companion. of museums, she moved into the in the Nineteenth Century’ realm of visual arts six years ago. for Bristol City Art Gallery.

Richard Storey Managing Editor

// Tristan Pollard is a Senior // Nicky Stone is a ceramicist // Sheila Yeger has written Front-of-House Assistant at the based in Falmouth. She makes extensively for stage, radio and RWA where he has worked for ‘exquisite female figures’ from television. She is at present in twelve years. He studied Fine Art porcelain clay using her own the second year of the Diploma in to Foundation level and has also body as a reference. The figures Art and Design at Queens Road, worked for the civil service and are celebratory and refer to Bristol. When not writing plays Bristol Museum. A keen writer ancient archetypal depictions of or making Art, she can be found and occasional artist, he lives in Goddesses and Queens. Nicky is wild swimming, or dancing the Bristol with his wife and son. a mother of sons and sometimes Argentinian Tango. a teacher. art Summer 2010 1 Inside

Cover Detail from David Inshaw’s Goldfinches 2003/4 oil on canvas 91 x 91cm. EDITORIAL Publisher Editorial, Contributors 1 Royal West of England Academy Managing Editor Richard Storey Exhibitions 4 & 5 Art Director Jodie Inkson – Wire Sky Editorial contributors Diary – events, lectures, workshops, tours 6 & 7 Simon Baker, Jilly Cobbe, Peter Ford, Francis Greenacre, Cliff Hanley, Ali Heywood, RWA news 9 Michael Liversidge, Hugh Mooney, Tristan Pollard, Gregory Reitschlin, Nicky Stone, Sheila Yeger Academicians’ news 12 Specialist photography Alice Hendy Flesh: eroticism, prudery & British art 16 RWA news Kate Morgan Simon Baker meets novelist Howard Jacobson to discuss [email protected] his programme, Flesh, made for the Channel 4 series: Academicians’ news Louise Holt ‘The Genius of British Art’. [email protected] Friends of the RWA news [email protected] Rural Dreamer: David Inshaw RWA 21 Tristan Pollard and photographer Alice Hendy visit Academician David Inshaw at his Wiltshire studio ADVERTISING Anouk Mercier for this exclusive interview. t: 0117 973 5129 e: [email protected] Leza Jagroop Signs of Regeneration 26 e: [email protected] Francis Greenacre celebrates the return of Bristol’s t: 07770 888 456 three dimensional shop signs.

COPY DEADLINE Giacometti and the Fondation Maeght 30 Spring 2011 issue: 28 January Adrien Maeght remembers his post-war upbringing among the Surrealists. FRIENDS OF THE RWA Friends annual subscriptions Single £25 Portrait of the Artist: In search of Gwen John 34 Joint £36 Writer Sheila Yeger re-visits her play Self Portrait, Individual life £375 Joint life £500 about the life and times of Gwen John. Student £13 Country single £20 Country joint £30 Close-up: Hannah Starkey 36 See membership application form Hugh Mooney interviews one of Britain’s most influential page 43 artist-photographers of contemporary life.

Royal West of England Academy, Inside the artist’s studio: Ken Howard OBE RA RWA 38 Queens Road, Clifton, Bristol BS8 1PX t: 0117 973 5129 Richard Storey and photographer Alice Hendy visit Ken Howard, General enquiries e: [email protected] “last of the Impressionists”, at his London studio. Magazine e: [email protected] Registered Charity No 1107149 Friends of the RWA notes and news 41

The opinions in this publication do not necessarily reflect the views of the Letters, Reviews 44 & 45 Royal West of England Academy. All reasonable attempts have been made to clear copyright before publication. Listings 47

To read an electronic version of ART, BackChat: Sir Christopher Frayling 48 or to visit the RWA online: www.rwa.org.uk Follow us on Facebook and twitter.com/rwabristol

ART is printed by WPG on sustainably sourced FSC certified paper using vegetable inks. www.wpg-group.com

art Winter 2010 3 Exhibitions

Matisse: Inside-Out Open Association of Sebastian Smith Selected But Drawing Sharples, Winterstoke Photography 2 Contemporary Bringing it all Back Home Hung Later with Scissors and Stancomb Wills Main Galleries Jewellery Methuen and Milner City 16 January – 15 February Galleries 5 February – 2 March Free of charge; all works for sale Galleries 20 February – 5 April Free of charge 8 January – 8 February 26 November – 24 December The standard of work submitted 8 January – 6 February After its success in 2008, Free of charge Ex Bristol artist working in to the Friends Annual Exhibition Inside-Out: a cross discipline the RWA Open Photography Provence returns after 14 years was high and the selectors The French painter, sculptor exhibition from Jamaica Street returns this spring. With over ACJ Bristol and invited guests with a new series of abstractions – Anne Hicks RWA, Peter Swan and designer, Henri Matisse Artists highlighting their 400 photographs on display by return to the RWA with a selected that continue to deal with his RWA and Patrick Daw RWA – (1869-1954) was one of the 20th vibrancy and diversity. We amateurs and professionals alike, exhibition of challenging new exploration of the horizon as a chose more works than we could century’s most influential artists. showcase a number of emerging this exhibition has something work exploring the human scale necessary hinge between reality and hang in the space. This Selected His vibrant works are celebrated and established artists, and for everyone. The work on display in a city perspective and the urban spirituality. Works will include a But Hung Later exhibition is for their extraordinary richness ex-studio members who have will be truly wide-ranging, from environment. 8m panel worked in situ. See Diary. the result. and luminosity of colour. Matisse: gone on to achieve international the controversial and provocative Drawing with Scissors, features 35 success. By feeding the public’s to the traditional and serene. Of equal calibre to the high lithographic prints of the famous intrigue and fascination with the Invited artists include Barry standard of work shown in our cut-outs, produced in the last four studio’s secret world of creativity Cawston, Richard Cox and Sachiyo Glo Williams RWA Abigail McDougall Friends Annual Exhibition we are years of his life, when the artist was it recreates the artistic cycle of Nishimura. For more information Art for Sustainable Transport sure that this show will provide confined to his bed, and includes evolution, generating a feeling on submitting please email a great start to the New Year. many of his iconic images, such of movement and dynamism that [email protected]. 6 January – 2 February as The Snail and the Blue Nudes. mirrors the RWA’s first steps Free of charge 5 March – 6 April into the new-year and exciting Free of charge changes in its programme. Glo’s effervescent work kick A series of talks, workshops and starts the New Year in the New Art for Sustainable Transport screenings will be delivered in Gallery with a colourful, lively features landscapes and cityscapes conjunction with the exhibition. exhibition of figurative paintings reached by sustainable means: Please see the RWA website. and drawings covering a variety walking, cycling or by train. Held of subjects and media. This in conjunction with the charity Bristol artist will be pushing the Sustrans we show sumptuous boundaries on recurring themes new watercolours and oils. Artist such as her ever popular florals. led watercolour workshops will be taking place during this show. Please see the RWA website.

Main Galleries New Gallery Friends Room

art art 4 Winter 2010 Winter 2010 5 DiaryEvents, Lectures December 2011 Workshops, Tours // to March © Max McClure © Max McClure

December // Sunday 16th // Thursday 27th 3pm // Thursday 24th March 2pm 2 – 3pm 7pm 6pm Matisse Gallery Tour Open Photography 2 // Saturday 4th Colour in the Home Bill Viola: The Eye The Making of // Tuesdays 1st Gallery Tour 2pm – An Inspirational Talk of the Heart (2004) Led by Heather Maclennan RWA. Landscape Photography / 8th / 15th / 22nd by Joa Studholme Free with exhibition admission fee. A talk by 10.30am – 12.30pm Led by Tamany Baker, member A film by Mark Kidel, A Calliope of the selection committee. Free 158 Autumn Exhibition Charlie Waite with exhibition admission fee. ROYAL WEST OF ENGLAND ACADEMY RWA Fedden Gallery £10 (£8 Media Production in association Gallery Tour with BBC and ARTE France, How to get the best out for RWA Friends), includes tea/ February £6 per person. Please call the 60mins RWA Fedden Gallery £6 of your digital camera – Patron coffee and exhibition entrance RWA to book your place Led by John Eaves RWA. Free with per person (including exhibition Her Majesty the Queen fee. To book please call the RWA 0117 973 5129. Widely revered Stephen Morris exhibition admission fee. entrance fee). To book please call // Saturday 26th Reception on 0117 973 5129. internationally as the doyen of 0117 9735129 11am – 12.30pm Board of Trustees See colour in a new light with this // Saturday 5th English landscape photography, RWA Fedden Gallery. £50 per Chairman illustrated talk by Joa Studholme, 10am – 1pm Charlie will be using the RWA person (£40 for RWA Friends). Dr Norman Biddle HON RWA // Saturday 11th International Colour Consultant Open Photography as a starting To book please call 0117 973 Talk by Tamany Baker Honorary Treasurer 2pm to paint and wallpaper specialist, // Saturday 29th Character Design for point to discuss the making of 5129. A four-week course with a Bob Barnett Farrow & Ball. Learn how to create landscape photography. practical, need-to-know approach Photographer and member of Trustees the perfect scheme by developing 11am – 12.15pm Children with Tom Plant to overcoming the technology the selection committee for Open Simon Baker 158 Autumn Exhibition your knowledge of colour families, and Leah Heming and making it work for you Photography 2. Elizabeth Boscawen Gallery Tour paint finishes and wallpaper. Friends Lecture creatively. A laptop with photo- Jennifer Bryant-Pearson www.farrow-ball.com Threads of History: RWA Fedden Gallery. Free of // Saturday 26th editing software is desirable but not essential. 2 – 2.30pm Stewart Geddes RWA Led by Trevor Haddrell RWA. The World of the charge however booking is 11am – 12.15pm Simon Quadrat PRWA HON RA essential. To book please call Free with exhibition admission fee. Bayeux Tapestry Paul Wilson 0117 9735129. Professional Friends Lecture A Series of Portfolio illustrators and character Review Sessions with Masterpieces // Friday 4th President Coffee and refreshments 10.15am. designers Leah Heming and Tamany Baker Simon Quadrat PRWA HON RA January 3pm £6 (visitors £8) Tom Plant work in the world of the Twentieth Century 7pm Immediate Past President of children’s publishing, comic RWA Annual Dinner Both events free of charge; Derek Balmer PPRWA Rupert Willoughby is a historian books and animation. Today they Coffee and refreshments and Auction Past Presidents Matisse Gallery Tour who specialises in the domestic and introduce the basics of character booking is essential. Please book 10.15am. £6 (visitors £8) online at www.bfop.org. Peter Thursby FRBS PPRWA // Saturday 8th social life of the past and author design with games and drawing Led by Janette Kerr RWA. A limited number of tickets Leonard Manasseh OBE RA FRIBA 2pm of the best-selling ‘Life in Medieval to inspire the group to produce Professor Anthony Slinn studied FCSD PPRWA Free with exhibition admission fee. England’. Commissioned by the expressive and interesting visual are now available. For more at Liverpool College of Art, spent information, or to purchase Mary Fedden OBE D LITT RA PPRWA Bishop of Bayeux who fought at characters that they could use 30 years teaching and then set up Running throughout this period Bernard Dunstan RA PPRWA Inside-Out Gallery Tour Hastings, and executed by skilled for their own stories. See www. a ticket, please contact Anouk his ‘Roadshow’ in 1983 to share Mercier on 0117 973 5129 or will be the RWA Art History Day English craftsmen, the Bayeux tom-plant.com and www.leah- his enthusiasm for Art and artists Schools. Please keep an eye on the Led by Vera Boele-Keimer from at [email protected] Academicians’ Council Tapestry is the last survivor of a heming.com. giving around 200 presentations RWA website for more details or Jamaica Street Artists. // Saturday 22nd President vanished art form. In this illustrated a year. Now that we are no longer sign up through the Latest News Free with exhibition admission fee. 2pm Simon Quadrat PRWA talk Rupert will present a lively 11 – 5pm in the 20th century we can stand page to receive information. Vice President introduction to the tapestry in which and look back. Anthony chooses // Saturday 5th Peter Ford RE RWA Inside-Out Gallery Tour he unravels some of its mysteries a major work from each decade, Honorary Architectural Advisor Painting in-situ Registration // Sunday 9th and places it in the context of its age. taking us through a fascinating Michael Jenner FRIBA FRSA RWA – Sebastian Smith variety of artists and genres, 10am – 12 noon April Council Members 3pm Led by Rachel Milne from Jamaica Street Artists. Free with exhibition 2pm including Cubism, Sutherland, Professor Paul Gough PHD MA The New Gallery RWA. Lichtenstein and Warhol. Photo Marathon 2011 FRSA RWA admission fee. Matisse Gallery Tour Admission free. As a prelude to Margaret Lovell FRBS RWA Inside-Out Gallery Tour his exhibition ‘Bringing it all // Saturday 2nd Peter Swan RWA 2 – 5pm 2pm £7 in advance, £10 on the day. Led by Kate Lynch RWA. Back Home’, Sebastian Smith Don’t worry, there’s no running 11am – 12.30pm Led by Anthony Garratt from Free with exhibition admission fee. will be putting himself under involved. The event is a day to Director Jamaica Street Artists. Free with Food Illustration pressure to complete a painting Open Photography 2 challenge you to think creatively, Film Photography in Trystan Hawkins exhibition admission fee. 8m x 2.5m in 6 hours. Gallery Tour Facilities Manager Workshop with meet new people and have some the Digital Age – Martin fun. Each entrant will receive a Nick Dixon // Saturday 15th Emma Dibben Edwards Gallery Assistant 12 – 4pm Led by Dr Blu Tirohl, member disposable camera and a list of 2pm of the selection committee. Free topics to capture. This event Ben Harding RWA Fedden Gallery £15 per // Sunday 30th Personal views on the use of Senior Front of House Assistant with exhibition admission fee. will be run by Second Look. person (including entrance to 10am – 12 noon Bristol Drawing Club For booking information silver-based and alternative Tristan Pollard Inside-Out Gallery Tour exhibition and materials). To book photographic processes plus a Senior Front of House Assistant at the RWA please visit www.bfop.org or please call 0117 9735129. Food Bristol Drawing School The RWA is pleased to be www.secondlook.org.uk look at analogue photography Lorraine Guest Led by Andrew Hood from Jamaica illustrator Emma Dibben’s hands- and processes from a selection Creative Apprentice Life Drawing Class Join the Bristol Drawing Club working in partnership with Street Artists. Free with exhibition on workshop covers drawing of local photographers. Ben Giles for an afternoon of free drawing Bristol Festival of Photography 2pm admission fee. techniques, colour theory, and a this year. The RWA and BFOP Exhibitions Manager £10, materials provided. A unique activities and workshops around demonstration in painting with will be hosting a number of Kate Morgan opportunity to draw from life in the RWA galleries. Please 2 – 2.30pm gouache, providing an opportunity exciting workshops and talks Open Photography 2 Exhibitions and Collections Officer 3 – 4pm the stunning RWA Main Galleries, visit www.bristoldrawingclub. for everyone to produce their own during the show. For more Louise Holt taught by artist Carol Peace from blogspot.com for more Gallery Tour vegetable painting. Emma’s work details please keep an eye on the Colour Management Acting Membership the Bristol Drawing School www. information on the Bristol JSA Artist Talk – can be seen gracing the pages of RWA website www.rwa.org.uk and Events Manager drawingschool.org.uk Drawing Club. Led by Peter Ford RWA. – Andy Johnson from Vera Boele-Keimer many well-known publications. or visit http://bfop.org Anouk Mercier See www.emmadibben.com. Free with exhibition admission fee. Calumet Marketing and PR and Jan Blake

Louisa Davison Join Andy Johnson who will be Front of House Assistants Free of charge, to book call 0117 973 discussing colour management Annabel Page 5129. Jan’s sculptural installations // Sunday 23rd // Saturday 19th from a photographer’s perspective. Joe Tymkow are concerned with light, movement 3pm 2pm Learn how to maximise the Adam Hancher and transformation. Jan will create potential of your images and use Accountants new work in response to the RWA’s RWA Friends AGM colour profiles to prepare images Hollingdale Pooley majestic sense of space. Vera’s Matisse Gallery Tour for printing. abstract paintings demonstrate a Royal West of England Academy fascination with natural processes Led by Lucy Willis RWA. Both events RWA Fedden Gallery, Queens Road, Clifton, Bristol BS8 1PX and structures. Jan and Vera offer Free with exhibition admission fee. free of charge; booking is essential. an in-depth look at their practice. Please book online at www.bfop.org. See www.veraboelekeimer.co.uk and www.janblake.co.uk. 6 art art 7 Winter 2010 Winter 2010 // RWA Director: Trystan Hawkins Practice Open Photography Launch of the RWA based Introducing CALL FOR ENTRIES Where there’s Patrons Scheme the RWA’s new Exhibition 2011 will see the launch of the RWA Patrons master programme of a will... Scheme (formerly the RWA Benefactors 20 Feb - 5 Apr 2011 I have been in post for over three Two extraordinary ladies... one RWA Scheme). Patrons can support the RWA at classes master classes months, getting to know everyone, Without the foresight and generosity different levels, with a choice of three types of A call for work with finding out more about the RWA of Ellen Sharples and Augusta Talboys, membership: Silver, Gold and Platinum. As well contemporary approaches and developing our future plans. the RWA may never have gained such as priority access, Patrons will benefit from Soon, the RWA will have a new café, a prestigious building or extensive a range of exclusive opportunities, including Painted Land to photography in art improved physical access and dedicated permanent collection. enjoying relationships with key movers and Stewart Geddes RWA and artwork involving spaces for younger people, bringing In 1849 Mrs Sharples left a gift in her shakers of the RWA and a bespoke programme Monday 18 – Wednesday 20 April 2011 more visitors than ever into this will allowing the RWA to start building of events. photographic processes. Stewart Geddes, until recently Head of Painting at Cardiff prestigious building. its beautiful galleries. In 1941 a gift in Leading on from Benefactors, our Patrons School of Art and Design, looks at developing landscape We have also been refining our plan the will of Mrs Talboys set up a fund to will continue to play a vital role in supporting painting as an equivalent to experience and sensation: to upgrade our galleries in order to allow the RWA to buy work each year to the realisation of projects and events at the an extension of observation. exhibit work from collections which build its collection. RWA and, in doing so, ensure the success

to date, we have been unable to show. Today, you can help the RWA with a and growth of the Academy. As work begins Revised Impressions I’m seeking new ways to involve gift in your will. Any size of gift will help on new and exciting projects, including the Peter Ford RE RWA IAPMA artists at different stages in their bring the most talented visual artists into introduction of climate controls in the Main careers through a number of innovative the daily lives of the people of the West of Galleries, the development of a new Education Monday 11 – Wednesday 13 April 2011 For further information on submitting membership initiatives which I will be England. It will mean that your children, Programme and the building of the new café, Chance and risk-taking as routes to new images in etching, please email your details to: [email protected] relief printing and constructing collagraphs. Includes announcing in February. grandchildren, and even their children it is more than ever an exciting time to become printing without a press and an introduction Finally, I have been looking at will be inspired to come back again an RWA Patron. to bookplate design. Royal West of England Academy safeguarding the future of the RWA and again. If you are interested in becoming a Patron,

Queen's Road • Bristol BS8 1PX for generations to come: Find out more about leaving a legacy or to find out more information about the Arts School 9.45am – 5.00pm: £150/£90 (conc) per person by contacting Anouk Mercier: scheme, please contact Anouk Mercier: (£10 materials supplement for the printmaking course). 0117 973 5129 0117 906 7600 [email protected] t: 0117 906 7600 e: [email protected] Hotel discounts available. Please call 0117 973 5129. w w w . r w a . o r g.uk

158 Autumn Open Exhibition // visitors thoughts

There’s a lot I think it’s Some I think the I really like I was here I really like I’ve been of work here very good very good 158 RWA this year’s last year and the artwork coming Hire the RWA Galleries that I really, and I like the stuff here, Autumn Open show, one of this show but some here for ten really like. ones that have surprisingly. Exhibition is the strongest is so much of them I years and A friend and I meaning. Much better better than for the past more vibrant. don’t really I think it’s for your special event were playing I like the than some the 157. few years. When I came understand. particularly the game of: drawing of the Opens I like (no 71) There are in, I could I like quite excellent this Hold your special event and entertain your which one (by Helenka I’ve attended. I think it’s plenty of immediately a few of the year. More guests in the magnificent RWA building, • Award ceremonies would you Janeckova) More quality well worth strong works feel the sculptures modern, quite with exhibitions acting as a unique backdrop. • Receptions have most I also like the work, and £1200. to see, in difference; and the a lot of Cubist liked to have painting with much more It’s very all kinds the work painting work. Overall The galleries offer a flexible space and full • Weddings done, and the robots work on show. enigmatic; of mediums. seems to have of the trees though, it’s facilities which can be tailored to suit your which would and the cities, I just wish I reminds me I’ll have to been hung shown from too eclectic event, from day-time business meetings • Conferences you most like showing how had the dosh of Giacometti. come back very carefully. a distance. and difficult to evening functions for up to 400 people. to take home much they are to buy it and I might buy it. and spend My work was to take in all Hire costs from £150 to £2000 per event. • Lectures and she chose developing. the space to more time; hung last Lydia Ness: the styles the same hang it. Corinne it’s impossible year, and this Student, 11 on show. It’s Contact Anouk Mercier on 0117 973 5129 • Dinners painting for Jonjo Cordy: Fitzpatrick: to see year. I shall great to be or at [email protected] each category. Student, 11 John Architect, 46 everything return to see able to buy I haven’t Callaghan: in one visit. more of the work as well. decided yet. Artist, 59 show. Merhrdad Paul Wild: Sophie Bordbar: Helenka IT specialist, Howard: Artist, 27 Janeckova: 42 Sculptor, 53 Artist, 31 art art 8 Winter 2010 Winter 2010 9 Outside the Studio // Inside the Gallery

The RWA will be starting concept of the studio outside the New Year with a bang, its traditional sphere and celebrating the diversity and transplanting it into the very creativity of Bristol based public space of the gallery. artists in an exhibition entitled Inside-Out is strengthened Inside-Out. We have invited by an enlightening narrative Drawing and painting courses studio group Jamaica Street of Jamaica Street Artists in a beautiful light, airy space Artists to exhibit throughout impressive history, from three of the galleries, running its disparate beginnings www.drawingschool.org.uk alongside its exhibition of to the gradual formation Matisse’s découpage. of its current coherent The exhibition displays identity. Highlights include the heterogeneous nature international art fair Retox, of Jamaica Street Artists, its numerous Open Studios, paying equal respect to the and 2009’s successful auction multitude of mediums and and exhibition at Bristol City disciplines housed within its Museum and Art Gallery. walls. Amongst the array of An accompanying painting, illustration, ceramics, programme of screenings, sculpture, photography and talks and tours from some of film will sit several unique the studio’s well-known names installations, including plans also provides an additional to recreate an interior space insight into the secret life of from the studio. The proposed the studio, bringing the art replica will allow a different and exhibition to life. For more artist to work from within information please visit the Andrew Hood – Ashok Road, New Delhi the RWA each day, taking the RWA website – www.rwa.org.uk.

BRISTOL’S JAMAICA STREET ARTISTS TAKE OVER THE RWA ALONGSIDE THE LATE WORKS OF Open Photography 2 THE MASTERLY MATISSE (1950-1954) CREATING A DYNAMIC CONTRAST OF OLD AND NEW. 2008 marked a new Conceptual and Constructed’ For more information on these era at the RWA with photography at the Sony please keep an eye on the RWA An eclectic exhibition including workshops, tours and talks World Photography Awards website – www.rwa.org.uk. Private view 7th January 2011 the galleries being 2009), Philip Searle (organiser Awards this year include Opens 8th January to 8th February 2011 taken over entirely by of the Bristol Festival of an editorial feature and a Photography and owner of Printmaking photographers for the subscription to AT THE ROYAL WEST OF ENGLAND ACADEMY Photographique), Trystan Today for one year, a free Queen’s Road, Clifton, Bristol BS8 1PX / 0117 973 5129 / www.rwa.org.uk very first time. Due Hawkins (RWA Director), place on a two-day polymer to the popularity of Simon Quadrat (President photogravure workshop at of the RWA) and Peter Ford Spike Print Studio and a £500 Also by Jamaica Street Artists this exhibition it will (Executive Vice President of cash prize and two years free THEARTBOX be returning in early the RWA). membership of the Friends of A unique Christmas pop-up shop and gallery With thanks This year’s invited artists the RWA. Opening night and private view 1st December 2010 6-9pm to our supporters: 2011 with some new include Barry Cawston (winner Opens 1st December to 23rd from Wednesday to Sunday exciting developments. of the 2008 RWA Purchase CALL FOR ENTRIES 11am-6pm and Thursday late nights 11am-9pm Prize), Richard Cox and 31 COLLEGE GREEN, BRISTOL Over 400 works will be Sachiyo Nishimura. Selection will be made by displayed by amateur and The RWA is very pleased digital image. Each artist may professional photographers to be working in partnership submit up to four works online alike, producing an array with Bristol Festival of for £20 (£18 for Friends). of colour and variety in the Photography this year. To register your interest in RWA galleries. The works Although the main festival submitting and to find out will be chosen by a panel of will not be returning until more please sign up through FOR FURTHER INFORMATION esteemed judges including 2012, the festival organisers the RWA website (see the Dr Blu Tirohl (Senior will be putting on a number of open exhibitions page) or

AN EXHIBITION Please contact Jamaica Street Artists at [email protected] Lecturer in Photography at exciting workshops and talks email openphotography@rwa. 39 Jamaica Street, Stokes Croft, Bristol, BS2 8JP friends UWE), Tamany Baker (1st throughout Open Photography org.uk quoting ‘RWA Open prize winner for ‘Fine Art – to launch next year’s festival. Photography exhibition 2011’.

art art 10 Winter 2010 Winter 2010 11 news Academicians’ Following on from his SW1Y 5AG. Contact School and The Anglo- are events. They are successful one-man t: +44 (0)20 7451 2500 French Art Centre’. also to be meditated exhibition in the New for further details. This exhibition will on and to be enjoyed Gallery this summer, RWA Vice-President celebrate the rise of this by the senses, to be Martin Bentham’s Peter Ford is one of influential school and felt through the eye… catalogues are available three artists receiving the artists who studied Paintings are not to Peter Reddick RWA exhibited regularly and had several one-man in the RWA shop for £6. the main prizes at and taught there. The be reasoned with, (1924 – 2010) shows in Bristol (1980/ 1982/ 1996) and a Chris Dunseath will the 1st International exhibition will run they are not to be recent Retrospective at Spike Island. His last be presenting work Biennale of Small from 19 November – 24 understood, they are Remembered by George Tute MA (RCA) one-man show of wood engravings that I alongside artists: Chooc Prints to be held in December 2010 at the to be recognised.” RWA (Hons) RE had the pleasure of seeing was at Newnham Ly Tan, Geraldine Cox, Guangzhou, south Boundary Gallery 98 Independent Eye runs Peter was one of our foremost artist/wood on Severn in August, where Peter quietly

Sam Knowles and Agata China. Guangzhou, Boundary Road from 16 September – 1 engravers, one of the new generations of sitting on his chair, enjoyed the homage of Agatowska as part of a port on the Pearl London NW8 0RH 2 January 2011 at the artists following on from the great pre-war many admirers, a rare achievement to have ‘Beyond Ourselves’. River, formerly known t: 020 7624 1126 Yale Centre for British period of wood engraving. in one’s own lifetime. This exhibition, which as Canton, is one of e: [email protected] Art 254 College Street Peter’s time at the Slade School of Fine A major archive of his work is held in is coinciding with the seven partner cities www.boundarygallery.com New Haven Connecticut Art gave him a thorough grounding in the Library of Manchester Metropolitan British Art Show in twinned with Bristol. Ken Howard’s one- 06511 United States drawing, composition, an understanding University. Nottingham, will bring In December 2010 Peter, man exhibition, ‘An t: (203) 432-2800 of tone and colour and of craftsmanship. Peter will be sadly missed but the together five innovative who is now a member Artist’s Odyssey’ will Sarah van Nierkerk The scintillating quality of his engraving memory of him will always kindle warm contemporary artists, of the Bristol China display 70 paintings will feature in an was a feature giving his work a thoughts and a sense of optimism and demonstrating their Partnership, will attend including recent works exhibition at Bedales characteristic signature. example amongst those who knew him different emotional the prize awarding from India, Crete, Gallery titled PRINTS. Peter, with his wife and children, left and his work will be a lasting memorial. responses to ceremonies, the opening Venice, London and As a former pupil of to work in Ghana (1960-1962) as lecturer understanding the banquet and subsequent Cornwall. Ken Howard Bedales Schools, Sarah in commercial design at Kumasi College. Frances Seymour RWA natural phenomena conference. An article will also be launching van Nierkerk has He embarked on wood engravings of the in our universe. The in Chinese about Peter’s his autobiography, agreed to show a small Ghanaian scenery and it was through (1931-2010) 2 varied works respond prints and paperworks ‘Light and Dark’ selection of her work these and other work for Penguin books Remembered by Mike Jenner FRIBA FRSA RWA directly to man’s quest is concurrently with a signing on alongside work from for example, that the public in the UK Frances Conway, initially trained in to understand the world appearing in the 26 January 10am – 5pm. John Howard Print first knew his work throughMotif No 7. business, had no formal art education. and his place within it, latest issue of Chinese Exhibition opens 26 Studios in Cornwall. Peter returned to Britain in 1962 She was married first to Robert Hurdle, with some marvelling Printmaking – surely January – 12 February Exhibition runs from and took up a lecturing post in design who was then on the staff of the Bristol Art at our physical laws a first for an RWA 2011 from 10am – 5pm 8 November – 4 December, at Glasgow School of Art (1962-1967), School, with whom she had two sons and a and others playfully member. at the Richard Green Mon – Fri 2 – 5pm finally settling with his family in Bristol daughter, and during that time she began to imagining how these Further east, in Gallery 147 New Bond Sat 10am – 1pm with as lecturer in illustration on the Diploma paint. After the marriage was dissolved she might be overturned. September 2010, a Street London W1S free admission. The in Art and Design Degree course (now BA, married the late writer John Seymour, with Exploring man’s large relief print 2TS t: 0207 493 3939 exhibition will be Fine Art and Design). whom she had a daughter. passionate engagement on handmade paper e: paintings@richard- closed 2 October and Parallel with his teaching career Peter She was elected an Associate of the with both physics was accepted for the green.com 20 November. Bedales made wood engraved illustrations for many RWA in 1963, and a full Academician in and philosophy on an collection of the Wonju, Work by Honorary School Church Road notable publishers such as the Folio Society, 1993. She exhibited at the Arnolfini in everyday level, ‘Beyond S.Korea Hanji Paper Academician, John Steep Petersfield GU32 Readers Digest, the Limited Editions Club Bristol and at a gallery in Biarritz, had a 3 Ourselves’ aims to Research Institute. Hoyland, will be 2DG t: 01730 300 100 of New York, The Fleece Press, The Old Stile one-woman show at Bristol Arts Centre inspire a new approach This work had been on celebrated during www.bedales.org.uk Press, the Gregynog Press, of which he was and was a finalist in Courage’s ‘Bristol 600’ for contemporary exhibition in Wonju an exhibition at Yale Maxine Relton will made Gregynog Fine Arts Fellow between competition. In 2003 she served on the artists. 16 November where Peter attended an Centre for British be leading another 1979- 1980. Notable among his output were selection and hanging committee for the – 2 December 2010 international congress Art. ‘The Independent small group trip illustrations for the novels of Hardy and ‘Tooth and Claw’ exhibition. at Nottingham Lace on traditional Korean Eye: Contemporary through South India Trollope published by the Folio Society. Fiercely independent, she developed a Market Gallery paper. Also in August British Art from the on 12 – 27 February However distinguished Peter was unique style which reflected her interest 25 Stoney Street 2010, three small Collection of Samuel 2011, in support of as artist and wood engraver, it did not in people, who appeared in almost all her The Lace Market etchings were accepted and Gabrielle Lurie’ the Tamil Charity overshadow his other strengths – the paintings. In her sixties she travelled Nottingham for the collection of will display works by SCAD (Social Change attributes of generosity and kindness, alone to Morocco, returning with masses NG1 1LP from Mon – prints and drawings post-war British artists, and Development). his desire to involve himself with students of drawings and watercolours. On one Fri 9am – 4.30pm held at the famous including Patrick ‘Sketchbook Journey to in, as well as out of, College, his ambition occasion, when she was drawing a group t: 0115 9 10 4 747 Pushkin Museum in Caulfield, John Walker, India’ is an opportunity to promote printmaking. He had a very of children in a remote village, she was www.beyondourselves.eu Moscow. R.B. Kitaj and Howard to get close to the heart 4 heightened sense of social responsibility, suddenly surrounded by their increasingly The Exhibition will Peter Ford with Hodgkin and marks the of Indian culture, wanting to give back his experience, his angry and incomprehensibly shrieking also travel to The Royal Stewart Geddes will be first museum exhibition beyond the tourist trail, 1 Chris Dunseath, Corrugated Space, knowledge, and his skill as a craftsman, mothers. She was saved by the local Imam Society 16 February – presenting the first of a of selected works from and to develop your mulberry paper, 45cm x 29cm x 48cm to those who did not necessarily have the who fortunately could speak a little English April 2011 as part of series of practice based the Lurie collection of drawing skills. Non- 2 Ken Howard, Lake Palace Hotel, Udaipur, benefit of a full time art education. He did and explained what she was doing. The their 350th anniversary RWA master classes British art, which will sketchers and beginners oil on board 25.4 x 30.5cm this without monetary reward and in doing upshot was that the Imam and his wife celebrations and is in April 2011 – see be gifted to the Yale are equally welcome. 3 Ken Howard, S. Giorgio Maggiore, so followed the tradition of the Quaker invited her to dinner, and for the rest of her one of the first art advertisement page 8. Centre for British Art. Contact Maxine Summer Light, oil on board 101.6 x 121.9cm movement, of which he had been a member stay she was lionised by the whole village. exhibitions to be held Alfred Rozelaar John Hoyland said t: 01453 832 497 or 4 Exhibition opening, Hangu, N.E. China since the age of sixteen. In her seventies, after an adult lifetime there. The Royal Society Green will feature in an this about his medium: e: maxine.relton@ Peter Ford Peter was a founder member of the in Clifton, Bristol she uprooted to Liverpool London 6-9 Carlton exhibition dedicated to “Paintings are there to tiscali.co.uk Bristol Art Space and Chairman of the Spike where one of her daughters lived, and House Terrace London ‘The St. John’s Wood Art be experienced, they Island Printmaking workshop. He was a opened the Atelier Gallery in which she member of the Society of Wood engravers exhibited her own work and that of and a retired member of the Royal Society of many others. Frances Seymour died Painter Etchers. Throughout his career he on 25 September after a long illness.

art art 12 Winter 2010 Winter 2010 13 // Academicians’ news Art Blogs

Internet art blogs are ten a penny. Greg Reitschlin selects some of the best:

UK Street Art Graffiti, street art, exhibitions around the UK. www.ukstreetart

Things Magazine An online journal about objects and meanings. AUREA www.thingsmagazine.net

Jonathon Jones on Art Established Guardian art critic speaks his mind www.guardian. co.uk/artanddesign/ ANTIQUES • FURNITURE • LAMPS • TABLEWARE • GLASS • ACCESSORIES • FABRICS • CURTAINS jonathonjonesblog

Saatchi Online tv, magazine, videos, features, news, reviews and interviews AUREA 15 King’s Road • Clifton • Bristol • BS8 4AB • 0117 973 8585 • 07989 581 799 mon - sat : 10:30am - 6:00pm www.saatchi-gallery.co.uk/ [email protected] • www.aurea.co.uk sunday : 11:30am - 4:30pm blogon/ Our shop is the only jewellery gallery in Bristol to offer it’s customers The Royal West of The British Arts Council England, Interest Free loan - OWN ART HHHH Telegraph www.dianaporter.co.uk Architecture, art, jazz… 33 park street bristol bs1 5nh t: 0117 9090 225 England Academy it’s all here. Blogs.telegraph.co.uk The Bristol Academy of Painters, sculptors unhappy mixture of Hirst’s originally virile /culture/art RWA 1.4page_xmas_2010.indd 1 26/10/2010 10:18:21 and architects was founded in 1844. In but now emasculated upper floor and attic, 1845 it received a gift of £2000 from Ellen and a routine Edwardian-French base. The The Art Blog Sharples, wife of a painter and mother of alterations were a disaster, but produced Named as one of the top art another, and on her death in 1849 she left two great internal benefits. The building blogs by Art In America a further £3400. These sums, works much better magazine then very large, decided the than it did before, – reviews, thoughts, gossip academicians to build their and the stair and www.theartblog.org own premises. Two architects entrance hall is a submitted designs and the “ major triumph. The ArtMoCo trustees decided to build to This is one rather sombre but Modern contemporary design Charles Underwood’s plans immensely dignified and architecture and J.H. Hirst’s elevations (a of the three marble stair rises to www.mocoloco.com/art dreadful decision which must a landing and then have been a nightmare for both or four finest divides to ascend Art Culture of them). The building, with on each side up to International art and design Underwood’s superb top-lit classical the newly-enclosed news, tailored towards the galleries, and with uninspired loggia. Above the creative mind façade sculptures by the over- interiors in stair is a dome, www.artculture.com prolific John Thomas (almost and in the lunettes certainly the work of an Bristol. lovely murals by The Acrylic Painting Course assistant) was opened in 1858. Walter Crane. His An acrylic painting blog, Hirst’s façade was highly colourful decorative offering hints, tips and lessons attractive, with the still existing five arches style is the perfect foil to the cool marble www.apaintingcourse. on the first floor then open as a loggia, below. This is one of the three or four finest blogspot.com and a huge monumental double flight of classical interiors in Bristol; the whole external steps leading up to it. By 1909 the building is superior to the rather leaden Peter Swan RWA academicians were forced to recognise that municipal museum and art gallery. Our very own Peter Swan’s blog having to run up and down stairs in the www.peterswanrwa. rain was absurd, so the free services of the Abridged from Bristol’s 100 Best Buildings blogspot.com architectural profession were called upon by Mike Jenner, published by Redcliffe again. The resulting dull façade was an Press, November 2010. Softback £16.95

art art 14 Winter 2010 Winter 2010 15 Howard Jacobson talks to Simon Baker Flesh: eroticism, p rudery & British art

I am meeting novelist Howard Jacobson, soon to be Man Booker prize-winner, at the Groucho Club in Dean Street. It is 5pm on a fine September day and serious conversations are gearing up in the bars of Soho. A few yards down, where Soho gives way to Chinatown, pink paper hangings promise a less cerebral entertainment. We are discussing his programme, made for the Channel 4 series: ‘The Genius of British Art’, featuring six personalities celebrating British art from the 16th to the 21st Centuries.

1

art 2 16 Winter 2010 1 (overleaf) 2 (overleaf) 3 Candaules 4 The Mermaid Howard Titania and Gyges 1857 To prepare for the programme This is a long way from the art of oneself and taken into a fascinating Jacobson 1866 c 1830 Frederick John Simmons William Etty Lord Leighton Jacobson visited Manchester City Art Sickert and Stanley Spencer. He speaks irrational world. The Victorians were Gallery where there is a wall of Etty’s emphatically of the importance, as art, of interested in young girls and recognised nudes including Ulysses and the Sirens, Spencer’s nude portraits of Patricia Preece desires which they could not act on. extravagant both in its size and sensuous and of his unsparing depiction in them We are back again with the issue of An art, Jacobson tells me, that“ figure painting. Two pairs of pictures, of unattainable passionate desire and the taboo and the question: who truly are English and French hanging together sheer cruelty of voluptuousness. He fears the stereotypical Victorians? celebrates richness, fullness, in the gallery, made the point for him, that the Spencer family will not let the As I take my leave and plunge into Jacobson explains. I say that a Renoir programme makers use the image of the the street, my mind is buzzing with the plenty and excess. To be nude, which he describes as “fruit”, “leg of mutton” portrait whose influence themes of our conversation: the power seems to me much less significant than can clearly be seen in the work of the “icy” of the provincial; the genius of British embarrassed by it, he argues, is a Sickert nude which the programme Lucien Freud. painting; the debt we owe to those shows alongside. He swiftly adds: “ ...and How comfortable is Jacobson about the philanthropic Victorian patrons and to be embarrassed by life itself. as a thinking woman, more enticing”. Victorian love of fairy painting? His visit industrialists, their investment and Comparison between the second pair, to Bristol City Art Gallery, where he sees their ideals. In the broader sweep of a “come on” Sappho by the French painter Leighton’s Titania, is the point at which he the history of our art, is not our lack Flesh sets out to celebrate the most telling Charles-August Mengin of 1877 and considers this. He acknowledges that it is of self-confidence in our provincial cities emanation of the British art of sexual Syrinx by Arthur Hacker of 1892, with edgy and foreign to our imaginations. But and galleries unjustified? desire, its wild fleshiness and torments, its awkwardness at the unwanted surprise seeing women as bewitching is not seeing its sweets and sorrows. It is to be found of sex, shows the English picture to be them as wicked; beautiful but not horrible. where we least expect it – in the art of the the more interesting, complicated and Rather it is the masochism of male desire Victorians. An art, Jacobson tells me, that alluring. This, Jacobson says, shows the and that sense of being separated from celebrates richness, fullness, plenty and advantage of a good collection. It gave him excess. To be embarrassed by it, he argues, the script for the programme. is to be embarrassed by life itself. For such provincial collections we His literary heroes include Tennyson, have to thank our philanthropic Victorian Dickens, George Elliot and Hardy all of businessmen and industrialists. Jacobson whom wrote about sensual passion and says that he wanted to celebrate those desire. For them and their contemporaries provincial movers and shakers, their love sex was no small matter. Contrary to our of art and their belief in its educational stereotypes of the Victorians, for them value. They were not abashed by the sex was an obsession not an aversion. sensual nature of the art which they gave The great subject of Victorian art and to the institutions which they founded. literature is thraldom, thraldom to desire. They were people of high ideals and To demean this is a slur on the English. Jacobson is fascinated by what they Puritanical may not be the right word for felt would edify their fellow citizens. the Victorians but – so what if it is? And They were not inhibited by taboos. what if we are shocked by their depiction William Lever presented the museum he of passion in art? “When the English built in memory of his wife with Alma ‘do sex’ ”, Jacobson says, “we feel that Tadema’s highly suggestive Tepidarium it is something which will disturb us.” which Jacobson describes as a witty I ask him about what seems to be his and insolently knowing painting. There starting point, namely the work of the was no cant there. I tell Jacobson that, 3 Yorkshire born William Etty (1787-1849) when he turns to camera and delivers and his picture of Candaules and Gyges. his polemic championing the provincial, Etty started painting in the 1820s. After he has me out of my seat and cheering. spending two years in Italy he returned (“It is to be impervious to the winds of Jacobson’s programme the myth, No sex please home, dedicated to the art of the nude. fashionable modernity which shake capital is entitled, with blunt we’re British – we take it Jacobson says that Etty changed the cities, to be independent and intransigent “temperature of British painting”. and alive to the genius of a particular frankness: Flesh. too seriously to enjoy He is a hero of the programme. place, not a citizen of everywhere and Jacobson first stumbled on the nowhere”.) Creating universal art out As he says: “If you it. The genius of the Candaules picture 20 years ago. He explains of a single place is genius. it is “about looking” and was important Jacobson also cites his admiration want to understand a British is that we don’t to him in the writing of his second novel, for John William Waterhouse and his Peeping Tom. Is seeing an act of possession, Manchester picture Hylas and the culture, see how its art just do the fires of or theft? Is there a right and wrong Nymphs shown at the RA in 2009. kind of seeing? Should we be looking at He cannot understand the difficulty 4 tackles the subject of love today. We think all? Etty’s picture depicts the shocking which his friend Waldemar Januszczak story, told at the beginning of Heroditus’s has with this picture while championing sex. Whatever we claim about how we will feel Histories, of the King of Lydia, so erotically the work of Jeff Koons, which is known to to think about sex, it is tomorrow. Our art of obsessed with his wife that, at the risk be pornographic but accepted because it is of all their lives, he arranges for another ironic. Hylas succumbs, not to the femmes “ only in our art that we the nude is not less man, his general, covertly to see her as she fatale, but to the erotic love in which he When the English ‘do sex’ undresses. Jacobson says that today “we drowns and which the artist depicts with tell the truth. British sensual for taking sex just don’t get it”. It is not an act of male such colour and sensuality. Jacobson says, we feel that it is power and dominance but of obsessive The human body, he says, is not art and literature deny seriously, but more so.” desire that beauty should be looked at. celebrated in contemporary British art. something which will disturb us.

art art 18 Winter 2010 Winter 2010 19 Beatrice Phillpotts 1983 / 2004 oil on canvas 175 x 122cm The RWA is seeking a Deputy Editor for ART magazine

This unpaid, voluntary role will suit an enthusiastic lover of Fine Art who has a writing background.

If you have the time to devote to help further develop this magazine, please contact: Richard Storey, Managing Editor [email protected] by 15 January 2011.

SUBTLY STRIKING QUIETLY SHOUTING INTANGIBLY DEFINED EVOCATIVELY STARK AUDIBLY SHINING CLEVERLY SIMPLE DRAMATICALLY CALM UNASSUMINGLY BOLD WWW.WIRESKY.CO.UK David Inshaw Rural Tristan Pollard we are designers, listeners, thinkers. Dreamer art 20 Winter 2010 David Inshaw’s home, One of this country’s leading In 1966, soon after he’d a converted 18th painters, Inshaw has work in taken up a post in Bristol, private and public collections teaching printmaking, he met century Quaker including the RWA, Bristol Christine Butler who gave meeting house, is a City Museum and Art him a copy of Thomas Hardy’s Gallery, the Department of Tess of the D’Urbervilles; haven of airy calm. the Environment and the a gift which was to have a Carefully placed Tate Gallery: work often seen considerable influence on his paintings and to embody a quintessential future painting. “The thing Englishness, a distillation I liked about Hardy was the drawings rest on the of all that is great about this way he used landscape as a floor or are ranged country. metaphor for human emotion, Born in Wednesfield, describing the way people felt. in neat rows along Staffordshire in 1943, Inshaw I thought that was a fantastic shelves with his own never thought he would clue to what I wanted.” collection of artworks, become an artist. “When I was At the same time, Inshaw at school I stuttered badly, so was sharing a flat with while tidy stacks of I occupied myself by drawing Alf Stockham, who was also photographs, sketches rather than talking. In my undergoing a transitional fourth year a new, dynamic phase in style. Together and other reference teacher asked three of us if they would drive to Dorset, material cover most flat we had thought of going to searching for Hardy country art school. We said we never and immersing themselves in surfaces. His studio knew there was such a thing, the dramatic scenery: “Not to space is equally tidy, so he said “I’ll take you down paint, but just to seek a new with tubes of paint to have a look”. When we went beginning, to find the end in it was full of beatniks: men of the piece of string which lined up, a palette of with beards, sandals and jeans had eluded us”. From then oils waiting, a large and women with fishnet tights on Inshaw’s work became a and high-heeled shoes; a den celebration of the power of canvas sitting on an of iniquity and we said – our Nature, with his landscapes easel. Elgar, Tallis and parents will never let us come encapsulating the various Mozart CDs lie close to here.’’ Fortunately Inshaw’s moods of the Wiltshire and teacher was as persuasive as Dorset countryside; brilliant his stereo, while a large he was dynamic, and following blue skies and golden model Spitfire, the envy a meeting at the school sunshine; dark and brooding parents’ evening, Inshaw was thunderheads; long, dramatic of any schoolboy, sits permitted to attend art college. shadows; darkening skies rent on the shelf close by. “The first person I can by lightning. remember, as a painter, was An impressive example Samuel Palmer, because we of Inshaw’s Romantic style lived at Biggin Hill, not far can be seen at Bristol City from Shoreham where he Museum and Art Gallery, used to paint. Another early in All our days were a Joy. influence came from a visit to A young woman wearing a the Tate Gallery as a schoolboy, long dark dress, stands alone seeing Stanley Spencer’s Christ in a country graveyard. The Carrying the Cross. People grass around the graves is lean from a window, curtains well maintained, the greenery billowing out like angel’s growing over the graves is wings behind them. A fantastic rampant and unkempt, trees painting; one of my earliest surround the graveyard, silent influences.” sentinels. Towards the right Although Inshaw found of the painting, a large, dark the training at Beckenham Art tree appears to be encroaching School invaluable, acceptance upon the cemetery, Nature by the Royal Academy and regaining her foothold. exposure to the work of Every blade of grass and leaf is American artists such as “ painted in precise detail. This Rauschenberg, Jasper Johns When we went in it was full of beatniks: work encompasses many of the and the Pop Artists, made him themes that were to become question the style he had been men with beards, sandals and jeans and Inshaw’s own; the woman is Photographs taught. “I spent the next three alone, but could be waiting for years trying to find a way of women with fishnet tights and high-heeled someone, or turning as she by Alice Hendy producing pictures that had hears a sound; dark clouds the kind of immediacy I felt shoes; a den of iniquity and we said, reveal a narrow strip of blue the art world needed.” sky, a hint perhaps that hope – our parents will never let us come here. is on the horizon.

art art 22 Winter 2010 Winter 2010 23 ‘I think “the only ingredient that pulls it all together is sex. That’s the only thing Sky Blue Framing & Gallery that matters.’ Big Christmas Exhibition The perfect place to find an original present or gift – featuring a We laugh, but huge collection of new artworks by all of our most popular artists: • Ten newly released Quentin Blake/Roald Dahl collectors edition prints. his observation • Recently released Limited Edition prints from Mary Fedden, John Knapp- Fisher, David Brayne RWS, Stephen Hanson, Michael Ogden and a isn’t entirely number of new faces. • Silk screen prints by the ever popular Susie Brooks and Jane Ormes without truth. with etchings by Veronique Giarrusso and Sue Brown. She Did Not Turn 1974, oil on canvas 137 x 183cm • Curvaceous sculptures by Cathy Judge. • Framing service for artworks purchased here or sourced elsewhere. • Beautiful designer jewellery and Art Christmas cards. Inshaw is careful not to analyse his Felix the Cat was a favourite childhood you can see evidence of that, but you can 27 North View, Westbury Park, Bristol BS6 7PT work too much. “Things do happen and cartoon character and Inshaw always also see that Nature does eventually take Email: [email protected] www.skybluefineart.com I’m aware of them happening, but I don’t identified with the anxious creature who over again, and I quite like that idea.” EASY PARKING NEAR WAITROSE try to make a plan of how they should “seemed to be striving to work out the Despite a difficult year, new themes happen. It’s a question of moments; I’m meaning of life”. Eventually the character are beginning to appear in the unfinished always looking out for things, aware that made his way into a painting as a figure canvases that line his studio space. “I felt at any moment something could happen on a rucksack, from then on appearing that I’d lost direction, come up against that might be useful.” Although certain in several paintings. However, not happy a brick wall and didn’t know how to get landmarks, such as Silbury Hill and with having his childhood hero stuck through it, but I’m gradually beginning the cliffs of West Bay, remain favourite as a luggage logo, Inshaw decided to to find a way. I’m interested in tents and subjects, Inshaw’s work often branches emancipate Felix by painting out the trees and hill figures and WWII pill-boxes, out into more whimsical and humorous rucksack. “He was gone, free to express but how you pull that lot together, territory, with images of fairies, himself”, laughs Inshaw. “That’s what God knows.” He grins mischievously. mermaids and Felix the Cat making their happens when you’re painting, you can “I think the only ingredient that pulls appearance. The emergence of a lighter think, whimsically. I like humour in it all together is sex. That’s the only side to his work partly came about as the painting, a sort of slight, wry humour. thing that matters.” We laugh, but his intensity of working on complicated, large It’s to do with the fact that we’re not here observation isn’t entirely without truth. works began to take its toll, physically forever, the transitory nature of things. Many of his paintings contain elements and artistically. ‘After about ten years of We might as well have a laugh.” ranging from restrained eroticism doing carefully constructed paintings, The transitory nature of man is through to open sexuality, from the it became a mannerism. It was just a another of Inshaw’s recurring themes; voyeuristic to the dreamlike surrealism process, which had lost its point. I had Nature dominates to such an extent that of the West Bay paintings. to find a new way of working, while at times it seems to overwhelm the canvas. “I do try to give a sensuous feeling retaining that intensity. In The Cricket Game at Little Bredy, when I paint a picture. I like to convey “I would suffer terrible stomach aches the landscape appears to envelop the a sensuality, which I don’t think much from just sitting and painting. Then I cricketers, the human figures dwarfed art does today. I think painters are stood up to paint, walked backwards and by the massive trees and rolling hills, voyeuristic; it goes with the job. You’re forwards to the painting – that made a lot while in The Raven, a girl, sitting in a always waiting for something to happen, of difference. It created a whole new brush chair, apparently waiting for someone that connection to be made, so you’re mark which developed as gradually the or something, is surrounded by looming, always looking, in a way which most images became simpler. I stopped telling sculpted trees that have the solidity of people aren’t.” He smiles, apologetically, constructed stories. rocks and mountains. “I’m always daydreaming; at school, “I became interested in other things “Nature always has the upper hand, my best subject was daydreaming.” and incorporated them into my work. coating man’s endeavours, layer upon I like painting figures. On the beach layer. For example, one of my favourite at West Bay, you see all sorts of things, places, Cornwall, has been raped and so I just made them into fantasies.” pillaged by man over the centuries and

art art 24 Winter 2010 Winter 2010 25 regeneration Signs of Bristol City Council’s regeneration schemes of the 1990s revived one of the most attractive features of later medieval and eighteenth century townscapes – imaginative 3-dimensional shop signs. Shops come and go and their signs are inevitably ephemeral. In the hope that these shop signs will inspire successors Francis Greenacre draws attention to some recent examples.

1 Steve Joyce, Pet Shop sign, 1992, East Street, Bedminster

2 Richard Fox and Benedict Whybrow, Radford Mill Farm Shop sign 1982/3, Picton Street 1 Francis Greenacre 2

art art 26 Winter 2010 Winter 2010 27 At the bottom end of Picton Street are the pedestrianisation of a section of East the genre. Before going to art college in can be a greater insult than burning the Bell’s Diner and the Radford Mill Farm Street, was the assistance given to shop Bristol, he had completed an engineering American flag. Neither the dragon nor Shop, two surviving and pioneering keepers with the enlivening of their shop apprenticeship and he later worked for the restaurant has survived in St Mark’s providers of good food, cooked and fronts. Hugh Nettelfield of Quattro Design Dorethea Restorations. He had a wide Road; nor has the travel agent who had uncooked, from the 1970s. Early in the Architects gave Steve Joyce his first range of traditional metal-working skills a shop sign of winged leather suitcases following decade, the owner of the farm commissions for shop signs. Of the five and experience of working in a great covered with travel stickers for faraway shop, the American Richard Fox, and the signs he designed for East Street, only one variety of materials. He also got on well places. Shops come and go and the signs engineer and artist Benedict Whybrow continues to serve its original purpose, with Ian Collinson, the Planning Officer often go with them. Sadly but inevitably created an ambitious shop sign, an today. Above a pet shop, five parrots and brought in to the Housing Department the crucial corner stone of St Mark’s articulated row of pumpkins climbing several mice still perch on four rabbits to manage these schemes. Collinson Road, the Sweet Mart, has this September up the façade. It was partly inspired by supported on the paws of three cats, understood the need to integrate “art and obliterated the decorative patterns on the Covent Garden’s water clock in Neal’s Yard which stand on two terriers sitting on craft work into the fabric of the place, as it façade, which is now a harsh white. The erected in 1982 and thus also by the shop- Woofie, the sculptor’s own Airdale terrier, is attention to detail, not grand gestures, fascia boards are now an enamel black clock automata of the nineteenth century. who stands on two bags of dog biscuits. which will have the most profound effect”. applied with swish plastic motifs and the It belongs, too, to the long The work is in self-coloured cast resin Those are the words of the sculptor Peter canvas shop signs are photographically tradition of ornamental shop and, most impressively, it holds its own Randall-Page in his preliminary report printed. Opposite, on the corner of 4 5 signs that adorned our cities, before the superb cast terracotta winged on Castle Park in 1990. Thus in St Mark’s Henrietta Street the long mural of a deep of which the spectacular dragons and flowers above the Edwardian Road, Easton, radical changes to sea scene has also recently been painted watering can, once at traffic management and street over, although happily the excellent 12 St Nicholas Street and “ lighting were supported by coastal scene with lighthouse on the first illustrated here, is an apt Collinson understood the need painted cast-iron bollards, whose floor of the next door building remains. example. The animated distinctive design has now been No regrets, however, for regeneration pumpkins were also a piece to integrate ‘art and craft work patented. The upper stories should be a passing process and in St Mark’s of kinetic sculpture, but of the shops were decorated Road it has worked triumphantly. like most pieces of public into the fabric of the place, in uniform colours but with Mina Road in St Werburgh’s retains the sculpture that are dependent individual motifs. And there best sequence of Steve Joyce’s signs, some upon electricity or water, it as it is attention to detail... were a wide variety of shop signs. painted by Jon Bentley. They include the ground to a halt quite quickly. The shop keepers made considerable outstanding ear of wheat above the bread It is still there, however, as contributions to the costs of these signs shop, but the wittiest of Steve’s works is also is Richard Fox, who is determined to entrance to the old Imperial Tobacco and consultation and agreement was arguably the delicate sheet of copper with restore it. And it was itself an inspiration Company building opposite. sometimes a long and fragile process. the cut-out pattern of scissors above Roud to the revival in Bristol of the ancient Before 1996 Steve Joyce was to The dragon over the Chinese fabrics in Stapleton Road. In Ashley Road, tradition of 3-dimensional shop signs in complete at least another dozen shop signs restaurant proved especially demanding. St Paul’s, the City Council’s improvement the 1990s. for environmental improvement schemes For Steve, an exotic dragon was scheme led to the discovery of the most East Street, Bedminster’s busiest in St Mark’s Road, Easton, Stapleton Road, essentially a Welsh dragon, a beast impressive Victorian shop sign of Jenner thoroughfare, was in sharp decline even Mina Road and Grosvenor Road, St Paul’s. wholly unrelated to the more ancient and & Co, Drapers and Milliners. It was in before process was hastened by the arrival He had already completed three major legendary Chinese dragon. No wonder remarkably good condition and it was duly of a vast supermarket in 1988. Bristol City public sculpture commissions in Bristol, that his first draft design caused much retained and excellently restored – another Council responded and amongst the many including the bronze statue of John Cabot offence. The nine forms of the Chinese aspect of a great tradition that deserves components of a programme of urban on the quayside by Arnolfini, and he was dragon are very precise in their various to be fostered. renewal, the most obvious of which was ideally suited to the complex demands of details and to depict them inaccurately

2 ...not grand gestures, which will have the most 6

profound 1 Steve Joyce 2 Steve Joyce, 3 Steve Joyce, 4 T. L. 5 Victorian 6 Steve Joyce, and Jon Shop signs Shop sign Rowbotham, shop front, Shop sign Bentley, c.1995, for Roud St Nicholas Ashley c.1996, effect’ Shop signs St Mark’s Fabrics Street Road, St Mina c.1996, Road, c.1995, looking Paul’s Road, St Mina Easton Stapleton west, 1825, Werburgh’s Road, St Road watercolour, Werburgh’s detail, 1 3 Bristol Museum and Art Gallery 28 art M2262 art 29 Winter 2010 ” Winter 2010 Homme qui marche 1, 1960

His pared“ down figures epitomised the Giacometti and the existentialism of post-war Fondation Maeght Europe. He will be remembered Renowned the world as one of the over, open every day of the year and twentieth welcoming 200,000 century’s most visitors annually, the Fondation Maeght significant in Saint-Paul-de-Vence artists – an has never once closed its doors to the public extraordinary since it opened in painter, sculptor, 1964. Designed for draughtsman Aimé and Marguerite Maeght following and engraver. the death of their youngest son, the Fondation owns one of the most exhaustive collections in the world of sculptures by Alberto Giacometti. This includes two versions of Walking Man, of particular interest in that the artist painted the bronze, rather than using a patina finish. Richard Storey recently met Adrien Maeght (born 1930), son of the founders and current President of the Fondation, and invited him to recall his relationship with Giacometti. © Archives Fondation Maeght © Archives Fondation Maeght, C. Germain Succession Alberto Giacometti, ADAGP Paris 2010 art Winter 2010 31 As a student in Nimes, my father, Aimé, each approved impression. Afterwards, was an ardent admirer of Surrealism, we would often go for a coffee together, founded in 1942 by Marcel Duchamp and in a bistro on the corner of Rue Alésia. André Breton. After the Liberation, Pierre We’d sit and discuss engraving techniques, Bonnard and Henri Matisse encouraged the precision of a line to be reproduced, my father to open a gallery in Paris. He the quality of paper that would lend itself stationery did so, and it quickly became the preferred to the lightest covering of ink. Many years meeting place of artists, poets and writers. later, in 1959, I opened my own gallery WORLD When he eventually met Duchamp in at 42, Rue du Bac, in Paris where of Manhattan, my father suggested bringing course, Alberto regularly exhibited. inc Entwistle together all those involved in Surrealism In 1964, my parent’s Fondation since 1985 – and so the International Surrealist Maeght in Saint-Paul-de-Vence finally Exhibition was born. Aimé Maeght began opened. My father had offered Giacometti Stationery World is an independent Arts, work on the project with Breton, who somewhere to show his work that was on introduced him to his friend and witness a par with the artist’s ambitions for it: the Graphic, Design material and Stationery at his wedding, Alberto Giacometti. Fondation’s central courtyard that opened retailer/supplier to businesses in Bristol My father was immediately drawn to onto the hills of the Cote d’Azur. And in Giacometti and invited him to take part July of that year, Alberto installed his in the exhibition which had a world wide sculptures in the courtyard, named Cour impact and guaranteed Galerie Maeght Giacometti. a place at the forefront of avant-gardism. Alberto had a complex personality. 15% off The two men shared the same He cared about the impact his exhibitions For all RWA members and staff vision. Giacometti didn’t have a gallery had on collectors; he wanted his work to to represent him, but felt that Galerie be shown at a price comparable with other Maeght was THE gallery where he could stars of the day. But, for him, money was For any information please contact us: belong, and so my father became his simply the means to creative freedom. agent. At the time, many of Giacometti’s It meant that he could travel, take care of plaster models were still waiting to be his mother, return to the Swiss mountains T: 0117 929 8099

cast; my father, so convinced of Alberto’s and draw the landscapes of his childhood. ! E: [email protected] genius, immediately decided to make He was very modest, but at the same time bronze casts of all his work. Aimé Maeght fully aware of his worth and position in art. W: stationeryworldclifton.co.uk was young and courageous, as in those Giacometti liked luxury, yet insisted 63 Park Street Bristol BS1 5NU days it cost a fortune to cast a sculpture. on living in a studio in Paris with a clay Giacometti’s first Paris exhibition floor. My father offered to buy him an at Galerie Maeght was held in 1951. apartment above Schubert’s, a cabaret on

© Archives Fondation Maeght He showed 36 sculptures and 18 paintings the boulevard du Montparnasse. Alberto Fondation Maeght alongside drawings that echoed the refused: “I don’t want to risk being taken sculptures’ force. This was Giacometti’s hostage by comfort.” Despite his odd public debut as a painter; he produced appearance and perpetually crumpled three original lithographs for the issue raincoat, despite his miserable studio, of Derrière le Mirroir that accompanied Alberto was extremely elegant. His genius, the exhibition. Hailed as a success, the talent and intelligence were such that exhibition was a huge commercial flop. he would have succeeded come what may. As for me, a young“ Only one sculpture was sold. Friend of thinkers and philosophers of the As for me, a young man of 17, you time – Picasso, Simone de Beauvoir and man of 17, you can imagine what extraordinary good Jean-Paul Sartre – his pared down figures fortune it was to be able to talk and epitomised the existentialism of post-war can imagine what spend time with such exceptional men as Europe. He will be remembered as one of Bonnard, Matisse, Miró, Chagall, Calder, the twentieth century’s most significant extraordinary good Kandinsky, Legér or Duchamp. But it artists – an extraordinary painter, was with Giacometti that I most discussed sculptor, draughtsman and engraver. fortune it was to art history and the role of the artist. In the early years I did a bit of everything Giacometti & Maeght 1946 – 1966 be able to talk and at my father’s gallery, including being 184pp, 161 colour illustrations. an intermediary between Alberto and Librairie de la Fondation Maeght spend time with Mourlot, the firm that printed our 06570 Saint-Paul-de-Vence, France lithographs. Alberto used to work on www.fondation-maeght.com such exceptional special paper with a lithographic pencil and I would take these drawings over to men as Bonnard, Mourlot where they were transferred to lithographic stones. Mourlot would make Matisse, Miró, two or three proofs using more or less ink. Then I had to get Alberto to sign Chagall, Calder, Kandinsky, Legér or Duchamp © Archives Fondation Maeght Succession Alberto Giacometti, ADAGP Paris 2010 art Le Chien, 1951 art 32 Winter 2010 Winter 2010 33 Art scene, but also aware, as I think of the work of Tracey Emin or Louise Portrait of Bourgeois, of how their Art both reflects I was reluctant“ to and debates their role in society, their the Artist: personal passions and dilemmas. Emin typify her simply subverts the traditionally female craft of embroidery, and uses it to express her In search as the lover of a own darkest, most private emotions. It’s hard to imagine John exposing herself of Gwen John great man. like that, yet I learnt to see intimate reference in almost every portrait she Gwen John (1876- 1939) is painted, realising that many were veiled I first encountered Gwen John at an self portraits, showing, through the now regarded as one of the exhibition at the Anthony d’Offay Gallery tormented gaze of her models, her own foremost women artists of last in London in 1982. Her paintings, though inner torment. century, highly acclaimed unobtrusive and often muted in tone, spoke But times do change. Gwen John to me so powerfully that I could feel her only painted women and children. Fiona for her delicate and subtle presence in the room. I was determined Banner, at Tate Britain, exhibits a Jaguar paintings and drawings. to learn more about the woman who had and a Harrier Jump Jet. And John’s made such idiosyncratic and personal correspondence with Rodin might now be Yet, in her lifetime, she work. That marked the beginning of a expressed in texts and emails, rather than was overshadowed by search, which culminated in June 1987, letters, becoming thus more ephemeral and her flamboyant brother in the premiere of my play Self Portrait less available to the prying eyes of posterity. at Theatr Clwyd. Why else would she have taken off on Augustus and her world My quest led me first to Tenby and the road with her brother’s lover, the wild famous lover Rodin. In her Haverfordwest, where John spent her and beautiful Dorelia, hoping to reach ...she threw the childhood and where I walked on the Toulouse, though they only managed play Self Portrait, Sheila windswept beaches depicted in her to get to Paris. En route, they slept in draft up in the air, Yeger draws her portrait of painting Landscape at Tenby with Figures. hedgerows, selling portraits to pay for I travelled to Cardiff and Aberystwyth, food. Her love for Dorelia shines out in so that the pages the artist and the woman, and where her diaries, letters, notebooks and the portrait Dorelia in a Black Dress. using the device of a modern sketchbooks gave me a further insight into My search for Gwen John became a fell down in no setting, explores the tensions her working methods, her passions and very personal journey. I became aware, obsessions. that, in delving into the life of one particular order. and dilemmas faced by creative From Susan Chitty’s biography, creative woman, I must inevitably reflect women both in John’s lifetime, I learnt of her relationship with Rodin, on the lives of others like her, both past “Then write it,” which I knew I must investigate, though and present. and in more recent I was reluctant to typify her simply as the My first draft of the play, she said. times. ART invited lover of a great man. So I went to Paris to a straightforward dramatic biography, Sheila Yeger read the 3000 love letters she wrote to the when presented to Annie Casteldine, the sculptor over a period of 10 years. Written Director, was greeted unenthusiastically. One question I asked myself was – if I to share her ” in schoolgirl French and explicitly erotic, She asked what I was really writing about, met this woman, would I like her? I knew experience. they revealed her desperate and largely and my first answers failed to satisfy. that I must admire her for her tenacity, unrequited passion for the man she When I finally admitted that I was writing her determination to paint whatever her called her Master. But equally telling was about women and their creativity, and the personal circumstances but felt that I the wooden hut in Meudon, a suburb of conflict between work and passion, might find her cold, uncompromising, Paris, where she spent her last years in she threw the draft up in the air, so that humourless, obsessive. In the end, increasingly bizarre pursuits, sometimes the pages fell down in no particular order. perhaps it is only the work that really hiding in a hedge outside Rodin’s house, “Then write it,” she said. This was in matters. And the work has survived, stood waiting to catch a glimpse of him. She the late eighties, when we women spoke the test of time, gained respect and value. painted feverishly, sleeping with her a great deal of the very real difficulties The woman I portrayed in my play, is a feet outside the hut so that she would of developing a creative life in a male fiction, the product of my imagination, wake in time for Mass. On the same day dominated world. By giving my play a fed by my research, but influenced, as is I was there, in an example of astonishing contemporary dimension, I was able to every writer’s work, by my own history synchronicity, the house in whose explore through the fictitious character and predilections. I offer my portrait grounds the hut sat was up for auction. of Barbara (a would-be novelist) the cautiously, and I give the artist the last Around the corner I found the conflicts felt by both her and Gwen, word. At the end of the play, John stands four-square home of Vera Oumancoff, between work and love, and the struggle beside the Self Portrait in a Red Blouse, a respectable middle-aged woman, for whom to find a voice in a patriarchal society. which has been such a strong motif in John developed a reckless love. In my play, Looking at my play in 2010, I ask the play, and, facing the audience with I toy with the idea that her attentions myself how Gwen would be regarded courage and defiance, says: “Do not ever were not entirely unreciprocated. This in the world of Art today. Would she be ask me to apologise.” is a prime example of how the writer’s considered at all controversial in either imagination can embroider and embellish, her work or her lifestyle? Would she Self Portrait by Sheila Yeger and however inadvertently, add to the find her place more readily? Would her Amber Lane Press Ltd, 1990 myth. Gwen John, for all she appeared creative voice resonate more loudly? I am demure, was, I decided, a woman of huge conscious of the hugely significant part Keeping the World Away passions, undaunted by convention. played by women in the contemporary Margaret Forster, Vintage, 2007

art art 34 Winter 2010 Winter 2010 35 Untitled – October 1998 The Dentist, 2004 // Close-up Hannah Starkey our urban culture, Starkey’s images stand distracted by her own thoughts or merely attempt to empathise we feel a sense of out not only because of the situations bored? Starkey allows us, with no risk of unease. We all accept sanitized, modern which are enacted but also because of discovery, to pry on these two people and environments like this as normal but an aesthetic which frequently displays provokes in us a sense of intrigue at their seen in Starkey’s image, they hardly seem Hannah Starkey is one of Hannah Starkey is such a photographer. thoughts, memories and associations. her fascination with the architecture of relationship and their conversation. places for vital and responsive human today’s most influential artist- Her exploration of aspects of contemporary Through them, the experiences of modern interior spaces. Starkey invariably The street scene outside the window beings. life has made her one of today’s most strangers become our own. Other images uses female actors in her work, although firmly sets its urban location. We have As to the future, Starkey emphasised photographers of contemporary influential photographic artists. Born in dwell on the appearance of modernity, she admitted that this is a largely all been in such a place before. We feel it. her commitment to the continuing life. Hugh Mooney met her Belfast in 1971, her work is exhibited in with its pervasive visual culture and its autobiographical device which permits We remember our silent thoughts. development of her photographic New York, Tokyo and in London, where she influence on what we accept as the norm. her to draw on her own experiences. Many Starkey has also developed a suite of language. What more can a serious artist recently to discuss her work. lives, and is included in collections in the Taken as a whole Starkey’s work becomes of the situations she portrays and the works which ruminate on our corporately- say? There is little doubt that her special Tate and the V&A. a converging locus of the outside world personal responses they elicit are common styled and sometimes high technology talents will ensure that she will continue The photograph, as art, can put before Starkey is fascinated by the mental and the deeply personal. The painter to us all. urban environments. Rather than show to meet with critical acclaim. us an inexhaustible variety of possibilities, spaces which we inhabit and by the Edward Hopper, with whom Starkey is As with the work of many humans as protagonists in a minor drama its completely realistic representation photograph’s capacity for allegory and compared, was similarly preoccupied and contemporary photographers, a Starkey or relationship, these works often have Recently published: of the world giving it unique power. The illusion. Using actors, she makes series we react with fascination to his portrayal image is best appreciated within the them as mere components of a constructed Hannah Starkey Photographs latter is most effective in its renderings of images of carefully staged situations of lonely urban dwellers adrift in the context of the series of which it is a part. world. 1997 – 2007 (Steidl) of our social and personal spaces, where which reproduce the ordinary events transient places of 1940’s America. Many Typical of some of her work, however, A classic example shows a woman in a its authenticity allied to an ability to and predicaments of everyday life. Set of Starkey’s photographs exert the same, is an image in which we see two people very clinical waiting room. The minimalist Images courtesy Maureen Paley, London evoke rather than merely describe, permit invariably in urban locations, many of powerful appeal. We are all, unavoidably, apparently deep in conversation in a café. composition is immaculate and evokes it to embrace that portion of our minds these images hover between reality and voyeurs at heart. One, presumably the speaker, is facing a quality of stillness rather than that Spring issue Close-up: where the everyday and the intangible fiction and often give the impression that Staged settings are often employed away from the camera, her face hidden of a moment seized from the flux. The Thomas Joshua Cooper meet. Crafted by an artist-photographer we have intruded, unseen, on the private by modern artist-photographers because and wreathed in smoke: her posture is woman seems reduced to an elaboration of insight such a photograph taps deeply moments of other people. By hinting but they permit complete directorial control alert but her expression is unknown. The of the room itself much like the computer into our psyche and, as viewers, we are leaving matters unresolved, they tantalise over what is to be achieved. Borrowing other, central to the composition, is sitting paraphernalia beside her and there is little compelled to prolong our gaze. us, creating resonances with our own from the visual language and codes of back in a languorous pose – is she rapt, scope for the creation of narrative. As we

art art 36 Winter 2010 Winter 2010 37 Inside the 1 artist’s studio Ken Howard OBE RA RWA

Although well Richard Storey and he designed it. I feel a great accurately but without being when a painting’s finished? different inspiration. When I known for glittering photographer Alice Hendy, met affinity with Orpen. Like me he too ‘tight’. I never place objects It’s finished when it gives you turn up at a studio, I don’t take Howard at his London studio. was a Royal Academician and within the painting. I let back the sensation that made clothes, I don’t take paints; beachscapes and an official war artist on the things grow organically and you want to start it. If I don’t everything’s there, I know atmospheric rain-swept Climbing the stairs in Ken Western Front. (Howard was find the composition within get that sensation back, I’ve precisely where things are. Howard’s house resembles a official war artist to Northern what is already there. And I lost it. That’s not a problem I just arrive and get on with cityscapes, it is always visit to a Victorian art gallery. Ireland, 1973 – 78.) I’m also a never paint from imagination; with the small paintings, my painting. But this London to his cluttered studios Every inch of wall space is great collector of things. That’s I employ models, and friends but my larger canvases are studio is my favourite. that Ken Howard covered with paintings, not Orpen’s paint box over there, pose occasionally, as well altogether different. I’m a The reason that I paint one his own. His work lives and here’s the famous convex as Dora. bit of a stickler; when I see a studio interiors is because returns to produce above, in the gargantuan round mirror, in which he To set up a painting I’ll painting start to slip away, I spend an enormous part his best-known work studio space, stacked ten deep was reflected painting at his book a model for a three-hour I fight it. I once fought a of my life in one, so not to against the wall, or in his easel (The Mirror, 1900), I’ve session, during which I get picture for two years and in paint the studio would be – large-scale, backlit London gallery, or on the walls got a chair and easel he owned the composition I want by desperation put a glaze over something lost. A painter images of the studio of the homes of hundreds of and I’ve even got his medals positioning her in relation to it – linseed oil and raw umber. should paint what his life is interiors themselves. Howard fans throughout the somewhere. I love collecting the window, mirror, table. For And it revived it instantly. about. But it wasn’t always world. We mount the second these things. Sickert and the next sitting, I’ll concentrate I subsequently entered it for so with me. I lived in this Often including highly flight of stairs and begin to William Holman Hunt owned on her and her reflection so the Royal Academy Summer studio for seven years before personal motifs and smell the studio: turps, oil, these two paint boxes and this that when she’s not here I’m show, one of those years when I painted it. It took me all paint, canvas, wood. And is Pissarro’s water container. able to work around her shape. the critics really have a go at that time to truly see it and a nude figure, always when we arrive, we enter the They’re all bunged in this I avoid putting too much the RA, but one said “There’s what it had to offer. I had executed with a definitive artist’s bohemian cupboard; I’m not precious detail around the edges, or a painting in Gallery Three been doing a lot of travelling, hang-out, filled by luminous about the stuff I collect. outside the window, in order to that’s alone worth the price of painting in several countries high degree of tonal northern light and crowded I was raised near railway encourage the viewer’s eye to entry – The River at Kingston and after one such trip I precision, Howard’s with easels (several), brushes tracks which have much stay within the painting . by Ken Howard”. If only returned here to Orpen’s old work is informed by the (dozens), bottles and tins and influenced how I observe the I’m quite a prolific worker. they knew what a desperate studio and looked around seemingly random pieces of world around me, and because I’ve just sent seventy paintings struggle it had been. me. I thought: what the hell lines within the studio furniture. We settle down I’m Professor of Perspective at to my gallery, many of them Apart from this studio I am I doing, travelling the – vertical, horizontal, to tea provided by Howard’s the Royal Academy, perspective small ones that I call ‘one have two others. I made the world when it’s all in here? Italian wife, Dora, as he comes in to my pictures a lot. wet’ – done in a single sitting. old village hall in Mousehole, The studio is the one place linear. The model enthusiastically takes us on When I’m doing an interior I When I paint outdoors I’m an Cornwall into one. My parents where you can set up a 40 x is incidental; these an auto-biographical journey. always have a set place where alla prima painter; I complete moved down there in the 50s, 60 canvas and paint what’s paintings are all about “I’ve lived and worked here I stand. Then I line up what ‘at once’, in one go and never got what I call ‘pixie-lated’ in front of you, undisturbed. in this quiet Arts and Crafts I see outside the window and touch them again, and stayed on, so Cornwall Go away, come back – the the studio atmosphere studio for the last thirty years, mark up the window frame The larger paintings can has become a second home. subject’s still there. The itself. “I am,” he says, paying £6.50 a week rent until and glazing bars with coloured take up to two months to I’ve got a third studio in environment is weatherproof, I was finally invited to buy it. tape. For a self-portrait, I’ll complete and I’m constantly Venice, a mansarda – an the light constant. And above “the last of the The studio was formerly owned square up the mirror just kicking them around. They attic. All three are large and all else, that’s what I’m about Impressionists.” by the Irish society painter, as Camille Corot would do, don’t always work; you win airy; I’m a bit of a nut for big – light; whether it’s Venice, Sir William Orpen (1878 – capturing the scene exactly. some, you lose some. Someone spaces. Each studio gives me a Cornwall or here, in my Richard Storey 1931) and it remains much as I mostly paint that way – asked me: how do you know different sensation and offers beloved Orpen studio.”

art art 38 Winter 2010 Winter 2010 39 Friends of the RWA Chairman’s Column

FINE PAINTINGS • ESTABLISHED 1955 Do let us know what you think of Your feedback on the Soirée, send in any art related stories the winning exhibit for the Friends coffee table and other activities to Carolyn Stubbs at Richard Green is the sole worldwide agent for sculpture prize, which was awarded is welcomed by the Friends [email protected]. to Michael Werbicki for ‘Sevenfold’, Committee together with It is encouraging that the Ken Howard OBE RA catalogue no 614. suggestions for fundraising Friends Exhibition has attracted Another prize, sponsored by events. We depend on the an impressive number of The Old Harbour, Newlyn, low water (detail) the Friends, is ‘Your Choice’, which willingness of our supporters to submissions and we are running Signed. Oil on canvas: 24 x 20 in / 61 x 51 cm provides the opportunity for visitors plan and organise new services a follow up show – ‘Selected Asking price: £12,000 to the Autumn Exhibition to vote so please contact Volunteers But Hung Later’. The lecture for their favourite work. Coordinator Mary Drown if programme for 2011, organised Early in 2011 there will be you are not one of our regular by Wendy Mogford, is now in An Artist’s Odyssey an RWA Open Photography volunteers and would like to help. place and details of forthcoming Exhibitions and the Friends will We are keen to know about talks are included in Diary page 6. An exhibition of 70 recent oil paintings be sponsoring two prizes. We your art activities: it might be a I look forward to hearing look forward to seeing entries prize that you have won or a new from you. Opens Wednesday 26th January until submitted by our members. direction with your work. Please Maureen Fraser – Chairman Saturday 12th February 2011

FRIENDS COMMITTEE 2010 – 2011

Chairman Maureen Fraser The Genius of e: [email protected]

Treasurer William Samuel www.richard-green.com Tony Merriman t: 01934 833 619 Morris Email: [email protected] e: [email protected] 147 NEW BOND STREET, LONDON W1S 2TS Vice Chairman & Friends Exhibitions Friends outing to Kelmscott TELEPHONE: +44 (0)20 7493 3939 Gillian Hudson t: 0117 973 5359 Manor 17 July 2010 e: [email protected]

2010 1-2pg RWoAM v2.indd 1 12/11/2010 13:38 Vice Chairman Alongside the gently meandering clock hangs, and on into Jane’s bedroom Roland Harmer t: 0117 924 5638 Thames on Oxfordshire and where the wallpaper is a modern BRISTOL FRAMING e: [email protected] Gloucestershire border, nestles William reproduction of one of Morris’s most Samuel Morris’s “Heaven on Earth”, popular designs ‘Willow Boughs’. Cultural & Educational Visits Tom Western-Butt the embodiment of his utopian dream, Morris’s bedroom contains a four SUPPLIES e: [email protected] Kelmscott Manor. Here, on a gorgeous poster bed of Elizabethan and Jacobean Lectures July morning, the Friends arrived for woodwork. The bedspread was made by MATERIALS Wendy Mogford their visit. Jane and her friend Augusta de Morgan, 7500 metres of picture moulding from the best UK and t: 0117 950 0712 e: [email protected] Kelmscott is a Grade I listed Tudor sister of the potter William de Morgan. European manufacturers: comprehensive range of farmhouse which, from 1870, became Woodblock by Albrecht Dürer hang on Volunteers coordinator the beloved summer home of the writer, the walls. mountboard: glazing: backing: finishing paints: waxes Mary Drown e: [email protected] designer and political thinker and his In an extension to the original house wife Jane, their family guests including can be seen tapestries depicting the SERVICES RWA magazine liaison computerised mounting: all materials cut to size: Carolyn Stubbs Dante Gabriel Rossetti. biblical story of Samson. These date from drymounting: bare rim and chop service on mouldings e: [email protected] Entering through the oldest part the Civil War and line a room which was of this magical house, the Screens used by Rossetti as a studio. Here a paint Liz Clarke t: 0117 977 2573 Passage, one arrives in the Old Hall, box the artist left behind in 1874 can Richard Broome is a Fine Art Trade Guild qualified framer e: [email protected] used as a dining room by the Morris still be seen. providing framing services for artists and galleries from Simon Holmes family. Strawberry Thief design fabric A split stepped staircase leads to his workshop here at Bristol Framing Supplies. e: [email protected] adorns its walls. The North Hall, which the extensive attics display of textiles,

Linda Alvis contains furniture designed for Morris’s including samples from Morris & Co’s Unit 2 Midland Road Business Park t: 0117 973 0268 Bexleyheath house, leads into the panelled showrooms. These richly worked fabrics Staple Hill Bristol BS16 4NW e: [email protected] White Room with portraits of the Morris are a testament to Morris’s love of 0117 957 4457 Also: family and the Millefleurs tapestry. nature and are examples of his famously [email protected] Friends Room Exhibitions Off the White Room is The Closet repetitive designs which the gardens of Marion Roach www.bristolframingsupplies.co.uk t: 0117 929 0310 which houses Rossetti’s famous portrait Kelmscott inspired. 9am-5pm Mon to Fri 10am- 4pm Sat e: [email protected] of Jane Morris. The Blue Silk Dress The Society of Antiquities own and (1866-68) and finally, on the ground manage the house and gardens. They Membership Secretary Jac Solomons floor, the Green Room containing family have left the newly opened Old Kitchen t: 0117 973 5129 souvenirs and a magnificent carved stone unreconstructed to preserve its essential e: [email protected] fireplace decorated with Morris tiles. architectural qualities. A walk around Committee members can also be The early rustic stairs, which the abundant gardens and meadow was contacted by post addressed: c/o Royal West of England Academy enchanted Morris, lead to the landing, a delightful finale. Queens Road, Clifton, Bristol BS8 1PX where Rossetti’s 18th Century tavern Linda Alvis

art art 40 Winter 2010 Winter 2010 41 // Friends News Join the New Volunteers’ Co-ordinator for Friends Simon Roberts: With adventures galore and more RWA Friends than a few breakdowns – he achieved his Friends enjoy: free entry to RWA exhibitions; The Road to goal, making many new friends along private view invitations to all exhibitions; a lecture the way. As he said, it was a journey of programme with professional speakers; cultural Kathmandu Mary Drown has taken on the visits and painting trips; an opportunity to submit challenges and contrasts, of excitement work to Friends’ exhibitions; preferential rates with and discovery, during which he crossed role of Volunteers’ Co-ordinator. discounts on submissions of work to the Autumn Saturday 18 September 2010 deserts, battled ice and snow, trekked in Open Exhibition; discounts on artists’ materials at Bristol Fine Art and ART magazine each quarter. in the Fedden Gallery the Himalayas, ate and drank a variety of Volunteers are an essential part of our As the fund-raising activities of the Your membership will help the RWA to serve the unidentified substances, and saw sights support for the RWA. You will often see Friends develop, so will the role of the region and artistic community by raising funds that most of us can only dream of. To volunteers at the RWA – they help with the volunteers. Mary says, “It is important for for the Academy. Hot foot from his interview with Radio while away the lonely evenings he began handing in and selection processes of the Friends to be there to help in any way we Bristol, graphic artist Simon Roberts to keep a journal of each day’s events with Autumn exhibition, assist at the larger can. I’m looking forward to helping people title (optional) arrived on his trusty BMW – the bike that accompanying comic strip illustrations. private views, and act as stewards at the become more involved by drawing on their had taken him on his epic journey – to This became a fascinating book entitled Friends’ exhibitions. As coordinator, Mary talents and experience.” first name face a full house of Friends and visitors. ‘Tea with Bin Laden’s Brother’ – it did liaises with the RWA on their needs and If you’d like to become more involved, surname He spoke movingly of the tragic actually happen. Simon, a natural and matches up the work to be done with the you can phone Mary on 01454 414433 or sudden loss of his wife Julie to cancer – engaging storyteller, had us all captivated. people who want to do it. She then puts e-mail her on [email protected]. title (optional) his motivation for renting out his house Wendy Mogford together rotas for the different events. Eileen Elsey first name and taking to the road for the solo seven Mary’s background is in medical month life-affirming trip. His journey Some signed copies of his book are and scientific photography. She worked surname took him across Europe to Istanbul, available at £15 from the RWA. for the Wellcome Foundation before address Simon, Monica and the BMW around Turkey to Iran and the Persian Contact Friends Secretary becoming the first woman photographer Gulf, up through Pakistan as far as the Jac Solomons for details for Bristol Police in the 1960s. As a Chinese border and then around India woman, she wasn’t allowed to cover to Nepal and finally Kathmandu. murders or anything grisly; but she was asked to develop those photos for other postcode photographers. She later worked in the telephone research laboratories of Berkeley Power Titian: openly admits that the finest biography Station, using large format cameras and e-mail of Titian was written back in 1877 by high-speed cine film. More recently, she types of membership The Last Days L.A. Crowe and G.B. Cavelcaselle, but still followed in her daughter’s footsteps to by Mark Hudson he pursues his quarry like a dedicated the University of the West of England, single annual £25 detective and in doing so encounters and successfully graduated with a B.A. joint annual £36 cranks, detractors and closed doors. in Drawing & Applied Arts in 2007. On the 20th of November There is much information in this individual life £375 book; not all of it necessary to the central Mark Hudson gave a Friends joint life £500 thrust of the investigation, but for all Lecture on the last days of Titian. that, the enthusiasm for his subject never Visits planned // March 12 student (NUS card max three years) £13 Dr Derek Balmer PPRWA falters as the complexities, atmosphere Ashmolean and a college, Oxford. For those living outside the Bath (BA), Bristol (BS), for the Friends Gloucester (GL) and Swindon (SN) postcode areas and very smell of Sixteenth Century // May we offer these rates: reviews his recent book. Venice is gradually brought to life. during 2011 A five day visit to Paris by coach from For successful artists, the Renaissance, Bristol. Proposed outings include the country single annual £20 Henry Ford said history is more or less as it came to be known, was by no ‘artist’ village of Barbizon, Monet’s house An exciting and rewarding country joint annual £30 bunk. That said, one questions the wisdom means a time of creative introspection. acknowledged as little more than artisans. and garden at Giverny, Fontainebleu. of such a statement and leads one to ask A studio such as Titian’s would be How times have changed as we in our number of excursions are being Details later. total if there is any justification for such a akin to a high level factory production day elevate the trivial to a level of celebrity prepared for the Friends in 2011. // June / July sweeping generalisation. line with its succession of brilliantly unheard of in the past. Painting Vacation. Details to follow. Certainly in Mark Hudson’s book executed Madonnas, Crucifixions, Pietas, I enjoyed this unusual book and // July 12 We can claim an extra 28p from the Inland Revenue for every £1.00 you give us – if you are a UK taxpayer. Titian: The Last Days, there are Altarpieces and Martyrdoms; supported was grateful to be reminded of my Gloucester Cathedral and ‘Art in Nature’, I am eligible as a UK taxpayer and consent to the Friends qualifying adverbs such as ‘maybe’, by endless commissions for portraits of three favourite Titian paintings: – The Twigworth. of the RWA claiming Gift Aid on subscriptions or donations I make. You can cancel this declaration at any time by ‘possibly’, ‘perhaps’ and ‘supposing’ the great and the good. Then there were Flaying of Marsyas, Pope Paul III with // September notifying the Friends of the RWA in writing. You must pay an amount of income tax and/or capital gains tax equal to which indicate the frustrations of a the Cinerama epics featuring many a his Grandsons and the sexually charged Severn Valley Railway and Museum. the amount recoverable on your total gift aid donations. historian who, genuinely obsessed busty maiden with delicate pink thighs Venus of Urbino. This last painting // November Should your circumstances change and you no longer pay sufficient tax, you should cancel your declaration. with his subject, cannot claim with any and rotund cherubs zooming about in comes in for some remarkably naive and Birmingham Art Gallery and the Barber certainty what happened five hundred attendance and all made respectable pompous observation from none other Institute. signature date years ago. The fingerprints are wiped by titles relating to classical myth. than Mark Twain, whose ignorance // 2011 clean, the footprints gone for ever and the Andromeda, Diana and Venus were the in matters of female independence is Painting Days with Roma Widger Please make cheques payable to: Friends of the RWA and return this section to: gossipmongers long dead in their graves. upmarket page three girls of yesteryear. unbelievable. For these few pages alone will continue during the year. The Membership Secretary, Nevertheless Mark Hudson resolutely Often tasteless, never dull and all the Mark Hudson’s revelation of the mindset Musée Rodin, Paris For further details contact: Linda Alvis Friends of the Royal West of England Academy Queens Road, Clifton, Bristol BS8 1PX plods the alleyways of Venice with better for it. of the author of The Adventures of Tom e: [email protected] optimistic determination and we follow Yet for all his genius and remarkable Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn is worth t: 0117 973 5129 www.rwa.org.uk Registered Charity No 1107149 him in pursuit of evidence that will fill in consistency, Titian and his peers sat the cover price of the book. Data protection: information given will be used solely for maintaining the gaps of Titian’s life and times. Hudson well below the salt and were socially Derek Balmer See pages 4 – 7 for our membership list and administering activities for Friends. / / full details of Friends art exhibitions and events art 42 Winter 2010 Winter 2010 43 quotations Artful // Letters // Reviews

Your news and views are important to us. Please send letters to ART, Royal West of England Academy, Queens Road, Clifton, Bristol BS8 1PX or email [email protected]. Unfortunately we are unable to reply to all correspondence individually. We reserve the right to edit letters.

I have just read the I’d like a better set mind conceives and sensations Autumn 2010 issue of distinctions about house, printing workshop and autobiography, beginning in a that are physically perceived? “What is important is to create of ART. art, curating and gallery that have carried the working class house in Wigan, These are the questions an object capable of conveying galleries to use in name ‘Curwen’. The Curwen 1933, will be of greatest François Quiviger’s book a sensation as close as possible It is gorgeous. It discussion. Studios were established in interest to readers of ‘a certain explores with lucid originality. to the one felt at the sight of looks fabulous yet 1958 and the Tate gallery age’. Stanley Jones’ story The middle ages believed that the subject.” is very accessible Looking forward to marked the 50th anniversary demonstrates the formative sensation was dominant; Alberto Giacometti with clear layout and the next issue. // BOOK with this book and an power of an obsession, in his // BOOK Renaissance science (natural distinction between exhibition. Alan Powers, an case with lithography and philosophy) elaborated a its different parts. Carol Walker Art and Print: architectural and cultural other techniques of original The Sensory World of more sophisticated model in “Believe it or not, I can The Curwen Story historian, manages the printmaking. The book Italian Renaissance Art which reason and imagination actually draw.” The content is varied Alan Powers narrative well. Much helped includes many examples of François Quiviger acquire greater autonomy as from the snapshot to Illus 176pp: Tate Gallery Publications, 2008 by plentiful illustrations, often the writer’s own artworks 206pp: Reaktion Books, London, 2010 faculties through which the Jean-Michel ISBN 978 1 85437 721 0 ISBN 9-781-86189-657-5 Basquiat the more considered Dear Hugh (Mooney) in colour, I was entranced and photographs of Stanley senses stimulate the intellect. (the Barry Cawston Stanley Jones and by the graphic design and providing his expertise How artists represented the article) with plenty of My God you are good. the Curwen Studio illustrative work of artists for artists such as Moore, Why did artists become senses thus provide a key to “Nothing is more foreign to current information Stanley Jones such as Edward Bawden, Eric Hepworth and Ceri Richards. interested in representing understanding Renaissance me than an art that serves about what’s going I really do mean it. Illus 154pp: Herbert Press Ravilious, Paul Nash and the senses (sight, touch, ideas about the nature of an imprint of A&C Black, London, 2010 other purposes than those on at the RWA. The I cannot remember ISBN 978 14081-02862 Barnett Freedman. Both books are specialist hearing, taste and smell) at art. Altogether a fascinating of art alone.” interviews were any piece written publications but anyone who the end of the middle ages, enquiry into Renaissance Giorgio Morandi interesting and I about me so elegantly. These two books tell, from Stanley Jones, now 77, artist enjoys art and design from and what do their images vision and communication. wonder if this could different perspectives, the and founder of Curwen the 20s and 30s will want to reveal about Renaissance Michael Liversidge be extended into You asked me in complex story of the Essex Studios is an unparalleled buy or borrow ‘Art and Print’. attempts to understand the “The beautiful is in nature, an artist talking your letter if I found and London based publishing expert in lithography. His Peter Ford relationship between what the and it is encountered under at length about it acceptable. I most the most diverse forms of their work, or certainly do. reality. Once it is found it similar, or two or belongs to art, or rather three academics’ Much gratitude to to the artist who discovers it.” perspectives on one you for sending me Gustave Courbet artist’s work, or on the copy and I do a type of art. hope our paths may cross once again “Sometimes I’ve believed as Having talked about one day. // BOOK // BOOK // BOOK // BOOK // BOOK many as six impossible things all that lofty stuff my before breakfast.” favourite piece was Cheerio for now and A Terrible Beauty: British Taizo Kuroda Keeping the World Away 13 Sculptures Children A Year In Art: Lewis Carroll ‘Alice Hendy meets all warm good wishes Artists in the First World War Philip Jodidio Margaret Forster Should Know the activity book some visitors’. Nice Paul Gough Illus 144 pp: Prestel Publishing Ltd, 2010 352 pp: Vintage, 2007 Angela Wenzel Christine Weidemann ISBN 978 3 79 135003 5 ISBN 978 0099496861 to read some others’ Charlie Waite 366 pp: Sansom & Company Ltd Bristol, 2010 45 pp: Prestel Publishing Ltd, London, 2010 376 pp: Prestel Publishing Ltd, London, 2009 ISBN 978 1 906593 00 1 ISBN 978 3 79134 355 6 “The flat sound of my clogs on experiences, felt a ISBN 978 3 7913 7010 1 the cobblestones, deep, hollow bit like having gone Jodidio’s monograph explains Tracing the progress of an and powerful, is the note I to the cinema and This book describes the clearly why Taizo Kuroda imaginary Gwen John painting The cover says it all. This beautifully produced seek in my painting.” talking about the film Issue number 2 is plate-spinning act British has devoted the past 40 years through the lives of a chain of Michaelangelo’s David, activity book about art does Paul Gaugin afterwards. Maybe even better. Further war artists in WW1 had to to making ceramic vessels. women, Forster conveys John’s Oldenburg’s Giant Toothpaste not patronise children. It congratulations. master: dealing with the Despite Kuroda’s insistence awareness of light and colour. Tube and Smithson’s Spiral offers a painting for every trauma of the battle, their that his work is not concerned John’s avoidance of marriage Jetty. A quick, eclectic dip day of the year, and includes “Fantasy, abandoned by John Sansom painting techniques, army with Spirituality, readers may somehow cornered her creativity in to the world of sculpture, plenty to discover and interact reason, produces impossible politics, ‘pulling strings’, the well be drawn into a Zen like chiefly into portraits and introduces children to works with on each page. Artists monsters; united with it, censor, being mistaken for state and left contemplating self-portraits of mournful, from Samothrace (c.190 BC) from across centuries and she is the mother of the arts spies, staying alive. This is an the existential question of pale-faced women. The title through Brâncusi to Anish cultures are well represented and the origin of marvels.” all-round sensual experience how we human beings occupy confirms the impression of Kapoor. Accessible information by works chosen to fascinate Francisco Goya as much as a history book. physical space. Exquisite a reclusive artist: “Rules to about the work and the artist, any enquiring mind. Highly Many paintings are referred photographs capture Kuroda’s Keep the World Away – do not and colourful photographs will recommended for the over to and well-described but are skilful mastery of porcelain listen to people, do not look at whet the appetites of young sevens (and probably lots of frustratingly not reproduced, clay as well as the tension he people…” from this isolated readers; games and puzzles grown-ups too). but this is made up for by its creates in the rims, cracks viewpoint, John created her enhance this introduction Alison Heywood Chosen by Jilly Cobbe epic scale. Cliff Hanley and openings of the beautiful calm and safe world. to three-dimensional forms. Nicky Stone Greg Reitschlin masterpieces. GR

44 art art 45 Winter 2010 ” Winter 2010 INK DRAWINGS // Listings ARBS Citerna, Umbria, June 2011. www.lizvibert.co.uk [email protected] or 0117 9738772 for a chat about this & other 2011/12 events.

LIZ VIBERT PAINTING HOLIDAYS The Architecture Centre The Clifton Hotel Group Jean Jones Gallery Nature in Art Sky Blue Framing Tate Liverpool Narrow Quay (The Rodney, The Square 13 Clifton Victorian Wallsworth Hall & Gallery Albert Dock, Liverpool Friendly multi-level group, versatile & inspiring guidance on Bristol BS1 4QA & The Clifton) Shopping Arcade, A38, Twigworth 27 North View L3 4BB t: 0117 922 1540 Julian Cox ARBS Boyce’s Avenue Gloucester Westbury Park t: 0151 702 7400 watercolours and other media from tutor Bob Ballard. e: info@ On-going exhibitions of Clifton Village www.natureinart.org.uk Bristol BS6 7PT Until 1 April 2012 architecturecentre.co.uk sensual original Indian Bristol BS8 4AAt: 07926 Tues – Sun 10am – 5pm t: 0117 973 3995 DLA Piper Series:

JULIAN COX JULIAN Lovely hill-top village, comfortable rooms & delicious food, Opening hours ink drawings by Bristol 196 978 16 November – Mon – Fri 9.30 – 5.30 This is Sculpture www.juliancoxartist.co.uk swimming pool... & Piero della Francesca on your doorstep. Tues to Fri 11am – 5pm based artist. www.jeanjonesgallery.com 19 December Sat 9.30 – 4.30 Sat and Sun 12 – 5pm www.juliancoxartist.co.uk Tues – Sat 10.30am – 5.30pm British Contemporary Starting on 20 November [email protected] Singles £718, doubles £599 pp excl. travel. Closed all day Monday Fine Art Original Crafts: The Variety The Big Christmas Non-painting partners welcome. To 24 December Paintings, Jewellery of Life Mixed Exhibition Tate Britain m.07814556936 Breuer in Bristol and Cards All items are for sale featuring some of our Millbank A brief 3 year period Create Centre 22 January – 31 March and your favourite London SW1P 4RG in the mid thirties put Smeaton Road 2011 artists. New limited t: 020 7887 8888 Bristol on the Modernist Bristol BS1 6XN Wildlife Photographer edition prints from Until 16 January 2011 map. The collaboration t: 0117 925 0505 The John Leach Gallery of the Year Quentin Blake (Roald Eadweard Muybridge between Bauhaus www.createbristol.org Mulchelney Pottery Dahl collection), John Until 16 January 2011 architect Marcel Breuer To end December nr Langport Knapp-Fisher, Mary Rachel Whiteread and Crofton Gane, Bristol Opening times Monday – Som TA10 0DW Fedden, David Brayne Drawings furniture manufacturer. Saturday 10 – 4.00 t: 01458 250 324 Pallant House Gallery RWS and gallery owner Until 3 January 2011 Bristol 2020: vision for a www.johnleachpottery. 9 North Pallant Mike Ogden; along with Turner Prize 2010 carbon smart city. Please co.uk Chichester new silk screen prints check website for details. 15 November – West Sussex PO19 1TJ from the ever popular Bath Fine Art Supported by the Arts 26 January 2011 t: 01243 774 557 Susie Brooks, Jane 35 Gay Street Council, England. Andrea Clark: All www.pallant.org.uk Ormes and a sprinkling Tate St Ives Queen Square Creatures Great & Small Until 10 January 2011 of new artists. Porthmeor Beach Bath BA1 2NT Original paintings, Gods & Monsters: John St Ives t: 01225 461 230 drawings and prints. Deakin’s Portraits of Cornwall e: gallery@bathfineart. Gallery Nine British Artists TR26 1TG com 9b Margarets Buildings Iconic portraits of British Sladers Yard Until 8 January 2011 www.bathfineart.com Bath BA1 2LP artists by legendary West Bay, Bridport Peter Lanyon Mon – Fri 10am – 5.30pm t: 01225 319 197 Lime Tree Gallery Vogue photographer Dorset DT6 4EL Until 23 January Sat 10am – 5pm e: [email protected] 84 Hotwell Road John Deakin (1912 – t: 0138 459 511 Tenmoku: Leach/Hamada/ and by appointment. www.gallerynine.co.uk Bristol BS8 4UB 1972) wwwsladersyard.co.uk Marshall 12 November – Mon – Sat 10am – 5.30pm t: 0117 929 2527 Until 6 March 2011 Weds – Sat 10am – 5pm 4 December Most Sundays 2 – 5pm www.limetreegallery.com Contemporary Eye: Sun 12 noon 5pm Window to the Soul 12 November – 8 January Tues – Sat 10 – 5pm Crossovers To 9 January 2011 A celebration of the most 2011 Sunday 10 – 4pm Interventions from Sea Light V&A talented artists in the Exhibition of paintings December major private collections Paintings: Alex Lowery, Cromwell Road West of England. by June Miles Christmas Exhibition by international Stephen Jacobson London SW7 2RL Michael Clark, Vivienne contemporary artists RWA, Rufus Knight- www.vam.ac.uk Williams, Peter King, exploring traditional Webb, Jeremy Scrine Open 10am – 5.45pm Philip Richardson craft. – Furniture: Petter Fri 10am – 10pm Bristol Drawing School Innocent Fine Art Southall – Sculpture: Until 16 Jan 2011 Unit 5.3 7a Boyces Avenue Caroline Sharp – The Art of Noh Paintworks Clifton Automata: Ian McKay – Free admission Bath Road Bristol BS8 4AA Martin’s Gallery Richard Green Glass: Lindean Mill. Until 3 April 2011 Bristol BS4 3EH t: 0117 973 2614 Imperial House 147 New Bond Street Richard Slee: From t: 0845 680 1409 www.innocent 3 Montpellier Parade London W1S 2TS Utility to Futility www.drawingschool.org.uk fineart.co.uk Cheltenham GL50 1UA t 020 7493 3939 Free admission. A not-for-profit private Monday – Saturday t: 01242 526044 www.richard-green.com Somerset Guild of arts venue offering 10am – 5.30pm e: ian@martinsgallery. e: paintings @richard- Craftsmen drawing courses and 19 November – co.uk green.com The Courthouse Gallery workshops throughout 11 December 11am – 6pm 26 January – Market Place the year. School of Paris exhibition Wed – Sat or by 12 February 2011 Somerton TA11 7LX Enrolling now for 2011 Braque, Chagall, arrangement Ken Howard OBE t: 01458 274 653 Cézanne, Cocteau, Dali, Closes 11 December RA RWA: An Artist’s www.somersetguild. Gilot, Hellau, Matisse, Art of Vietnam Odyssey co.uk Miró, Picasso, Renoir, A mixed exhibition 70 recent oil paintings. Open six days a week City Museum Utrillo. illustrating the influence 10am – 5pm & Art Gallery of French Impressionism Admission free Queen’s Road and the Asian culture on 13 November – 8 January Bristol BS8 1RL this exciting emerging Royal Academy of Arts Reflections of Nature www.bristol.gov.uk/ Jamaica Street Artists market. Burlington House The wealth of Somerset museums 37–39 Jamaica Street, Piccadilly country life is brought Extended until 30 Stokes Croft 5 Feb – 5 March 2011 London W1J 0BD alive through a January 2011 Bristol BS2 8JP Mixed ’11 t: 020 7300 8000 wonderfully diverse Flight: BAC 100 t: 07766 221 266 Eight artists of varying www.royalacademy.org.uk array of craft. Exhibition Contact: Gemma Brace media and subjects Until 19 December A century of aviation in at jsadevelopment09@ including Victor Ambrus, Artists’ Laboratory 02: the West of England. yahoo.co.uk Pierce Casey, Diana Stephen Farthing RA Weds – Sun 11am – 6pm Matthews, Rory Morrell, The Back Story To 24 December Janet Nathan, Michael Tate Modern THEARTBOX Norman, Anthony Until 23 January 2011 Bankside The Clifton Arts Club 31 College Green, Bristol Slessor and Karl Taylor. Pioneering Painters: The London SE1 9TG Bristol School of Art A unique pop-up shop Glasgow Boys t: 020 7887 8888 (Adjacent to RWA) and gallery. 1880 – 1900 www.tate.org.uk Queen’s Road 8 January – 8 February Until 16 January 2011 Bristol BS8 1PX 2011 Nails Gallery 22 January – 7 April Gauguin www.cliftonartsclub.co.uk Inside-out Lower Exchange Hall, 2011 Until 3 January ‘Daffodils’, hand-coated print in platinum and palladium. Inviting new members, RWA Bristol (see Diary Entrance to St Nick’s Modern British Sculpture Turner Prize 2010 join our busy programme pages) Market Corn Street, The first exhibition for Until 2 May of events, £25 per year An eclectic exhibition Bristol BS1 1LJ 30 years to examine The Unilever Series: We have lectures, includes workshops, t: 0117 929 2083 British sculpture of the Ai Weiwei workshops, gallery tours and talks. Mon – Sat 9.30am – 5pm twentieth century. Ian A Foster visits, annual exhibition New Work: from best- and painting days. Visit selling artists Tom our website or contact White, Alexander Korzer- Recipient of the 158th RWA Autumn Exhibition Di Western 01454 Robinson and Abigail Best Newcomer Award 2010 776916 for further McDougall. Also new information. work from Rich Murphy, Colin Vincent and For more information on the current collection, Rebecca Howard. private commissions and representation, visit www.ianafoster.co.uk

art art 46 Winter 2010 Winter 2010 47 Back Chat

Richard Storey

Sir Christopher Frayling born 1946

Which painting would you like His book, Emile, is all about a PhD on Mickey Mouse – to own? learning by performing, using there’s nothing intrinsically I co-curated an exhibition your hands and the value of trivial about that sort of at the Tate called Gothic a practical education. I’d love subject matter, it’s how you Nightmares; Henry Fuseli’s to chat through with him how approach it”. You can do The Nightmare was the we could introduce that idea Media Studies in a good or centrepiece – a painting of back into education today. That a bad way. Degrees train a lady lying on a bed with a would be a journey well spent. you to use your eyes, how to squab sitting on her chest and marshall an argument, about a horse’s head coming through Which has been your most the use of sources, developing the curtains. I’d like to own satisfying job? a way of thinking about the The Nightmare; it would Rector of the Royal College of culture that’s around you. remind me of the darker side Art. I believe so much in what People tend to say that the of life. it stands for. This is the sexiest media are trivial; I really don’t job in higher education by a believe that. It’s become the What music are you listening long way. I had no time for my Sociology of the 21st century: to at present? own work so I like to think if you want to bash University When I’m working and of the RCA as my own work education – bash Media thinking I prefer the soothing of art. So for me it was just Studies. I hate the dumbing sounds of Mozart and chamber as creative as producing art down which says there are music. When on the road, works. some art forms up here and there’s nothing like driving up others down there. the M4 with Mozart’s Requiem Which play about art have at full whack. you most enjoyed? Most over-rated art critic? Red by John Logan. About Wild horses wouldn’t Who do you think is the most Rothko, it did this very rare encourage me to say Brian over-rated artist, living or dead? thing of convincingly putting Sewell – but I’m going to. Keith Haring. I find this whole over someone at work on a elevation of graffiti to art painting; normally you don’t A selection of books by gallery status very peculiar; believe a word of it, they Christopher Frayling: I don’t get it at all. Graffiti is can’t do the hand movements not necessarily art, indeed it properly, but they actually had Henry Cole and the Chamber of very seldom is. him treating a canvas prior Horrors: The Curious Origins to doing one of his great red of the V&A (2010) Who would you most enjoy paintings, and I believed it. sitting next to on a long haul The Royal College of Art: flight? Media studies – are they worth One Hundred Years of Art The 18th century philosopher the paper…? and Design (1987) Jean-Jacques Rousseau, who The philosopher Umberto Eco invented modern art education. once said to me: “You can do

art 48 Winter 2010

Winter 03 2010 £4 BackChat Sir // Christopher Frayling Flesh In the Studio Ken Howard // // Alberto // Giacometti

RWA // Rural Rural // Dreamer Howard Jacobson:  Howard Jacobson: David Inshaw

ISSN 2044-2653

Howard Jacobson issue // David Inshaw RWA // Alberto Giacometti // Ken Howard // Sir Christopher Frayling 03 Winter 2010