Pages from these faces 1(neat)

these faces

Photographs and drawings

by Timothy Neat

Scotland, England, France, Spain, 1947-2013

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Spain

In the summer of 1963, Neat spent a month at the International Student Work Camp, at Cortes de la

the brutalities of mechanised civil war – yet imbued with a classic tense calm.

Frontera, in Andalucia. There, aged 19, he took a series

And in these photos, from the beginning of Neat’s

of photographs that, 50 years on, look like classics of

career, we see a combination of features which will remain

documentary reportage – four reels of 35mm film, shot on

unchanged: fellow-feeling with the subjects of the work;

a small Zeiss-Ikon. He hitched-hiked south from Dieppe, on

the unsentimental depiction of lives to which most pay

the back of a Vespa driven by a London art teacher whom

little heed. Perhaps we should add a third – which is the

he met on the night ferry (David Hockney, resplendent in

under-acknowledged gift of earning the trust of those he

his gold laime jacket, made the same crossing). Riding

depicts. How else can we account, again and again, for

pillion across France, he took the road-photos that open he

these faces that look out at us with an almost restful, wry

next chapter.

self-acceptance – faces that trust themselves to show us

In Spain, Neat travelled by third class train. Settling

who they are, without self-consciousness? Like all of his

into Cortes de la Frontera, amidst the mountains west of

work, these pictures demonstrate Neat’s accord with the

Ronda he found the brilliant light, the almost medieval

worlds he is proud to document: One and All as the Cornish

lifestyle, the unself-conscious openness of the people

say.

- in a still carless pueblo blanco – a thrilling and deeply affirming human experience. These photographs, captured in the evenings and at weekends, document his relationship with the people of the village. The lack of young men and women is notable.

Somewhat surprisingly these images excited no interest until 2010, when Ana Cabrera (a director of Edinburgh’s Hispanic Festival) heard of them, looked at them, and organised a small exhibition in the Music Library of the City of Edinburgh. Encouraged by this interest, in October 2011, Neat drove to Spain with a set of one hundred photographs, and offered them to village via the Ayuntamiento. A display was quickly mounted in the village hall; grandly labelled the Museo de Pablo Ruis Picasso. The whole community soon turned out to view an an exhibition recognised as an ‘historical group self-portrait’. These images remind us of how much Spain, and Europe, has changed over the last fifty years. It is almost as if these photographs show us another country, outside time, an ancient nation scarred, just a generation previously, by

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Spain Guardia 1

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Spin Seated Matador

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Spain J.Toms

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The Victorian Market and the City of Leeds

In October 1963, Neat began a four-year Honours

Neat also took photographs in the city’s parks and

Degree course in Fine Art at the University of Leeds, where

wrestling halls, in the museum, in the university art class -

Professor Quentin Bell led a small department. After

and the images captured reflect his unease at the contrast

an experimental First Year, Neat began to specialise in

between the cultured world of university study and the

history and film making. John Jones was his tutor. One

harsh world beyond. By strange chance Jimmy Saville was

project centred on the city’s Victorian Market and, making

one of the wrestlers he documented – and their watching

use of unused 16mm Bolex, made a 27 minute B/W film,

him from the front stalls was a girl, hands clasped together

entitled ‘Six for a Bob’ (1965). At the same time, using the

in adoration and a kind of ecstacy... The bearded giant

departmental Contraflex, he took the photographs shown

photographed amongst the pine trees in Adel Woods was

here. Neither the film nor the photographs attracted

an Irishman who had done sixteen years active service in

contemporary interest but, looking back, today, we can

the British Army. - not least against the Mau Mau in Kenya.

see that these photographs, like those from Spain, capture

His name was Joseph Costello. Completing his twenty

an extended historical moment and carry compelling

one years service and disgusted by killing he became a

authority.

tramp, and amongst his service medals he was proud to

Here is an almost Victorian working class Northern

wear badges of Lenin and Fidel Castro. He acted in one

England: here are communities untouched by either Harold

of Neat’s student films, ‘The Edge of the Forest’. He died

Macmillan’s ‘consumer society’, or the ‘the white heat of

shortly afterwards, having been hit by a car. There is

the Technological Revolution’ advocated by the then Prime

certainly evidence of brutality in these Leeds photographs

Minister Harold Wilson (whom Neat had met in Cornwall,

yet they also, clearly, celebrate human goodness. Here,

and heard speak at great rallies in the Leeds and Bradford

the ‘chiaroscuro’ John Constable saw bringing beauty to

Town Halls, in 1964). These Market photos show us the the

ditches brings beauty and wonder to the faces of children

ravages, in human terms, of industrialisation; the hardship,

and England’s sidelined poor.

stoicism and resilience of England’s working people. The impact of mass post-war immigration is also clear and Neat was obviously fascinated by the frequent beauty and energy of strangers, as by the embittered despair of those he describes ‘as a dispossessed, English underclass’.

Like any serious photographer, Neat sometimes treads a fine line between sympathetic acknowledgement and exposure. Not for the first time in his art, we see some darker places. Poverty can be picturesque and characterbuilding, the discipline of industrial labour socially affirming, but these photographs must also be seen as an indictment of many of the values and processes by which British society has been constructed over the last three hundred years.

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Poets, artists and friends.

In 1968 Neat took up a teaching post at Lendrick

from the School of Scottish Studies in Edinburgh, Murray

In 1994 Neat’s his major art historical work, ‘Part Seen,

Muir School (a boarding school for maladjusted children

and Barbara Grigor of Inverkeithing, and the Alva Film

Part Imagined: Meaning and Symbolism in the Art of Work

of high intelligence) in Perthshire, Scotland (home to

Workshop. When his documentary, ‘Hallaig’, about the

of Charles Rennie Mackintosh and Margaret Macdonald’,

his mother’s maternal ancestors). Visits to Edinburgh

Gaelic poet Sorley MacLean, won prizes including a

was published. In a sense, these two artists had been his

nurtured a friendship with the poet and folklorist Hamish

Christmas Day showing on C4 Television, Michael Kustow

companions for half a lifetime; so, when, many years later

Henderson, whom Neat had met in Cornwall the previous

(Commissioner of Arts at C4) began to support his work.

he began to draw seriously - he felt impelled to place them,

year whilst filming Padstow’s archaic MayDay festivities.

Consequently, ‘The Tree of Liberty’ (about the Songs

like the living, in his drawing books. Neat has long been an

It was to prove a lifelong relationship and Neat found

of Robert Burns), won Best Documentary at the Celtic

avid letter writer and his drawings can, also, be seen, he

himself ‘gradually integrated into the cultural life of

International Festival in1987. In 1988, ‘Time is a Country’

says, ‘as forms of correspondence, as working notes, as

Scotland’. He got to know writers, singers and artists, and

(about the life and times of the redoubtable Margaret

celebrations of permanent companions and comrades: as

several joined him to work on both practical projects and

Gardiner, founder of the Pier Art Centre in Stromness) won

acts of recognition, as a hand offered to artists who helped

cultural campaigns. Always interested in art as a social

him a second Christmas Day showing and, in 1989, ‘Play Me

shape their time’.

phenomenon, collaboration now became integrally part of

Something’ (an experimental feature film made with John

his working methods as a film maker and writer. And, over

Berger), won the Europa Prize as best film at the Barcelona

the Edinburgh sculptor, Eduardo Paolozzi: and the painter

the years, students, artists, colleagues found themselves

International Film Festival.

Andrew Ward leaving Inverness station in 2013 – to join

his subjects – objects of artistic scrutiny - as he put them

Neat’s long collaborative friendship with John

in notebooks or drew them out on the stage of Scotland.

Berger has had a defining influence on many of his

Neat enjoys reciprocity: the giving of honour where

later achievements. For example it was Berger who

honour is due. Thus, on the following pages we find

suggested that this book - be a book of drawings as well

drawings of Hugh MacDiarmid, the poet whose Memorial

as photographs. ‘There are plenty of ruined buildings in

Sculpture in Langholm, Neat did so much to get erected.

the world but no ruined stones’, Hugh MacDiarmid had

We see photographs of Ian Hamilton, the law student who

written in the thirties – now Berger suggested that there

brought the Stone of Destiny back to Scotland, in 1950.

have been plenty of good books of photographs but none

We encounter Tilda Swinton personified as Michelangelo’s

of photographs and drawings, by the same artist. Henri

David. We read poems dedicated to Hamish Henderson,

Cartier Bresson had done great things in both fields but

Eleanor Bron, and the great Russian cameraman and film

tended to keep his two arts apart... It was the kind of

director Vadim Yussoff.

suggestion that once encouraged a ill man to take up his

From 1973 till 1989 Neat was lecturer in the History of Art at Duncan of Jordonstone College of Art, Dundee. These

his wife and young family in Germany: leaving Scotland for other soils, like so many before him.

bed and walk.

Portrait photographs, by their nature, are images of

were the years of Alberto Morrocco, Scott Sutherland,

living people: drawings, however, can conjure the dead and,

David McClure, Jack Knox, Will MacLean and it was in

amongst Neat’s drawings, the dead certainly appear. They

Dundee that Neat’s career as a film maker took off: again,

feature because they exist prominently amongst those

he made use of an unused Bolex. His prime interests

to whom he wishes to pay homage: thus, amongst Neat’s

were anthropological, literary or musical, and strangely,

many living friends and collaborators we find Michelangelo,

it during the Thatcherite eighties that Neat gathered the

John Keats, Zadkine, W.B. Yeats, Delescluze - the leader

only sustained patronage of his career. He got support

of the Paris Commune, angels, and an anonymous skull.

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The last photos, here, show plaster heads carved by

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Tig! For the Morn’s the Fair Day

Memes

(for Hugh MacDiarmid, 19th July 2012)

(For Sorley MacLean, speaking of MacDiarmid, on Norman MacCaig’s 85th birthday, 1996)

Last night I walked With Hugh MacDiarmid The narrow streets O the Muckle Toun: How he sang and bowed his fiddle ‘The Bonnie Woods o’ Craigie Lea.’

In the Crook o’ Devon I met a man, His name was Mr Young, He had, he said, met Robert Burns And I, in meeting him could claim - with certitude until my death – Acquaintance with Proud Scotia’s bard, at three remove.

He walked easy Like a gypsy To a platform In the square And in the dappled sunshine debated Reading to the students there.

Three times deep, The drum was beat And then was beat again Before, behind the band, We processed, arm in arm The Bonnie Woods o’ Craigie Lea. Where waters meet He said, ‘That Tune!’

And the silence in the hills Was eerie, as dead voices In the trees began to sing And Hugh stuck out his tongue.

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Bird watcher (for Vadim Yussof, May 1992)

Balanced, Thai, a dancer, Vadim climbed upon his tree To show us what the Buddha saw when he sat down: Vladimir! Georgio! The Vadim Zoom!

The tiger’s eye is skin on water, Leaves fall slow through veils of air.

Sasha, at the market stall stands saffron, sunlit joy, Tarpaulin blue, a mango stained with amethyst; Tin trays, corn-on-the-cob, old bikes, a water-girl.

The pitcher breaks! O see the water sculpt Two pointed breasts, a belly, and a triangle of hair: Such fulcrums level tests the man no level knows.

The moment is, the living is and he, heir To Rublyov, and painted backlit skin.

Was it Crook o’ Devon, or Dornoch, Saw the last witch in Scotland burned?

And was it naked, on a donkey, she was brought From Brora to be tried?

And did she kneel Before the sticks to warm her hands Or light the fire?

And was it picking dulce she did: Or walking with her cat above the heath?

Her name was Janet Horne.

Such templates are cut permanent As litmus turning blue, as stones To mark a grave, as Roman arch, and entropy - Miss Cranston’s High Back Chair – The spur to dance in Bog an Lochan, The Venus, Titian fingered to his wall.

Dunfermline Toon (for Ian Hamilton)

Iron frae the veins o Calvin Is rusting yet in Scotland’s heid – Sic Bluid and bane nae sword can sever, Armour stains the marriage bed.

Lours Scotland - as she did theday?

Shed pearls lie moonlit in the river: Rise wounded heid and welcome now An hour of sin and victory!

‘A torchlight procession of one,’ you said, And Valda dropped the small white rose Upon the oak and brass around the son you bore.

O Hokusai – your wave was pale to this – And distant Fujiama plain beside great Suilven’s head.

O see the mountain come: - pin-pricked with light – The human hand will burn or rot But permanent the line the mind will draw Between two stars; and in the words ‘the rain’, See children skipping, happy, home from school.

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