JAMES TOWER
JAMES TOWER Ceramics, Sculptures & Drawings 7 - 30 September 2022 15 Royal Arcade, 28 Old Bond Street, London, W1S 4SP www.ehc.art | mail@ehc.art | +44 (0) 207 491 1706
The majority of the works in the exhibition have come directly from the Tower family, with the earliest dating from 1952 and the latest from 1986. Interwoven with his works are his own words which we have drawn from the family archive of his papers, a fascinating resource that reveals the artist’s creative perspective and making process, as well as the complex life he led. Some of these writings have appeared in the two important books on Tower by Timothy Wilcox: The Ceramic Art of James Tower (2012) and James Tower, Ceramics, Sculptures and Drawings (2019). We have only included the tip of this iceberg in our exhibition, but very much hope that in time these resources will be more deeply explored.
This exhibition aims to present the many sides of James Tower’s artistic explorations. It encompasses not only his ceramics, but also sculptures, bronzes and works on paper that help to remind us of his beginnings as a painter.
This is the second solo exhibition by James Tower at Erskine, Hall & Coe, and as with the first it is a team effort with the Tower family who have helped in many different ways. In particular, we are grateful that Tower’s children, Theresa and Nicholas have contributed a text looking back at the extraordinary experience of growing up with Maureen and James.
Matthew Hall
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James Tower’s Artist Statement
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An extract from typed notes
This became a published essay in 1988 in The Designer-Craftsman (Journal of The Society of Designer Craftsmen).
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This became a published essay in 1988 in The Designer-Craftsman (Journal of The Society of Designer Craftsmen).
An extract from typed notes
This became a published essay in 1988 in The Designer-Craftsman (Journal of The Society of Designer Craftsmen).
An extract from typed notes
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JTR-0031
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This became a published essay in 1988 in The Designer-Craftsman (Journal of The Society of Designer Craftsmen).
An extract from typed notes
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James Tower describing his work in 1981. This text was written for the catalogue of the UK touring exhibition, ‘Making Good,’ organised by South East Arts.
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The quality which I aim for is perhaps best defined as a sense of completion. We all of us feel incomplete. Inner tensions, anxieties, aspirations leave us feeling a need for wholeness. A longing for a serene harmonious whole which contains dynamism and vitality, satisfying our intellectual and spiritual needs. Forms which satisfy this need, alleviate the sense of angst and release us into a world where abounding energy is held in a calm restraint. The reconciliation of the self and nature Hymns to the beauty of the world. extract from handwritten notes, c. 1980s
An
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Maureen and James Tower with their two children, Nicholas and Theresa Corsham, Wiltshire, late 1950s
As children, we were fascinated by their discussions and ideas, and there was always a very active social and entertainment life around students and staff. A memorable masked ball at Corsham Court inspired James to make beautifully painted papiermâché cat masks that covered our heads.
We companionably shared a bedroom, where Nick would console Theresa when the sound of breaking pottery and raised voices rose up to us at night — it was a passionate marriage in many ways!
There were daily visits from other artists working in Corsham, including Kenneth Armitage (with his pet raven), Howard Hodgkin, William Scott and Peter Lanyon.
James’ first job, setting up the Pottery School at Bath Academy of Art, led to the young family moving to Wiltshire where the Academy was housed by Lord Methuen in Corsham Court. They rented from Lord Methuen a tiny medieval cottage built for the Flemish weavers. James converted an outhouse to contain a bath when Maureen was pregnant with Theresa, as the tin bath hanging on the outside wall was not ideal.
Our parents had to teach to make a living. While teaching art was poorly paid, they took it very seriously and were deeply appreciated by their students. Maureen taught adult education classes, also at a remand home and a finishing school. She most enjoyed the open energy of the ‘naughty girls’.
James Tower, remembered by his children Our beautiful, clever and volatile mother first fell in love with our handsome, shy and thoughtful father through seeing his paintings. Though he was a year ahead of her at the Royal Academy Schools, they soon became inseparable, accompanied by his friend, Richard Hamilton, who also loved Maureen. But she only ever loved one man in her life, and that was James. Maureen was extremely talented in her own right, a gifted etcher and illustrator, and an excellent poet. She, like many of her generation, sadly gave up her own artistic career as she believed James to be the better artist, and devoted her life to him. He suffered from the ‘black dog’ throughout his life, and it’s doubtful that he would have lived long or created such a fine body of work if it were not for her fierce encouragement. She had a fine, original mind, and while her acute criticism was often too painfully spot on for us children, it inspired him to persevere with his somewhat lonely chosen path of painterly and sculptural ceramics, very different from the mainstream of the pottery world in the ‘50s and ‘60s and one that never really made him any money while he was alive. Indeed, in the ‘70s Howard Hodgkin had to write to the tax authorities to persuade them to accept that James’ pottery expenses were real, and not the hobby they declared it to be.
The lavatory was at the end of the little yard with no electricity (Theresa remembers standing, hesitating in her wellies and nightie with a torch on stormy winter nights...).
James, when he wasn’t teaching or doing his own work, enjoyed being with us children. He and Nick would spend hours together constructing planes out of balsa wood and tissue paper which, at a picnic on the Downs, would be launched into the winds to the inevitable crash. He put cardboard into the spokes of Theresa’s first bicycle so she could pretend it was a motor bike. He excavated medieval kilns and studied Romano British pottery, leading to both of us having a lifelong interest in archaeology. We remember happy hours of walking up and down ploughed fields looking for Roman coins. We visited country churches together and learnt about architecture. We went to London galleries and exhibitions in a shaky old car, where every trip was a matter of luck. We were taught to look at a few things well rather than everything badly.
The two of us got scholarships to good schools but both preferred the Technical Colleges where we did our A levels. We were strongly encouraged not to follow in their artistic footsteps (Theresa wasn’t even allowed to do O Level art). We were determined to do well and earn enough so we would not have to worry and argue about money like our parents. We were very aware of the stresses of the artistic life and the critical role of public opinion. Nick became a doctor and Theresa went into publishing, a poorly paid profession at the time but her salary quickly surpassed James’, which shows how badly he was paid. He taught until he was 66 to support himself and Maureen, and died at 68 of heart failure. They sold off a piece of garden of the Knowle, the rambling 17c house in Sussex that they were finally able to buy in their mid-forties (Nick helped James restore it during his holidays — there was an earth floor and hand pump for water in the kitchen). They also sold a cherished portrait of them by Howard Hodgkin. Both of these sales were made to finance us in our further studies. They sacrificed so much to ensure our futures. Theresa Hallgarten and Nicholas Tower
Although money worries were always very present, our parents created homes that were full of beautiful things, such as furniture and objects picked up in junk shops for a few shillings and restored by James, wonderfully arranged (and frequently rearranged) by Maureen. She dressed us all exquisitely, for example buying scraps of Liberty material in the sale and making lovely dresses. Music was always playing: Britten, Shostakovich, Messiaen. There was much reading: art books, books of philosophy and the latest novels borrowed from the library, and lively discussions of them at simple delicious meals, conjured out of nothing by them both. There was a bottle of wine at Christmas and another at Easter.
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1919Chronology
Hove Museum and Art Gallery, James Tower 1919-1988: A Retrospective Exhibition 1998 De La Warr Pavilion, Bexhill-on-Sea, James Tower 1919-1988: Shape and Surface 2003 Gimpel Fils, London, James Tower 2004 Peter Scott Gallery, Lancaster University, James Tower: Sculptural Ceramics 2019 Victoria Art Gallery, Bath, James Tower Ceramic Artist: A Centenary Celebration
1989Retrospectives
Born in Sheerness, Kent on 13 May 1936-37 Voyage to Australia, returned to Europe via Tahiti 1938-40 Studied painting at the Royal Academy 1939 Won the Gold Medal for painting at the Royal Academy 1940 Showed at the Royal Academy Exhibition 1940-45 War service in camouflage; Polish Government 1944 Married Maureen McManus 1946 Enrolled at Slade School of Art, was introduced to English slipware 1948-49 Studied at the London Institute of Education, where he was a student of British potter, William Newland 1949-66 Set up pottery school at Bath Academy of Art, Corsham 1951 First solo exhibition at Gimpel Fils in London 1956 3-month Steuben-Corning Fellowship in the USA 1962 Leverhulme Fellowship, travelled to Greece 1966 Became Head of Fine Art at Brighton College of Art, where he set up a sculpture course 1975-76 Visiting Professor at Alfred University, New York 1980 Solo show in New York at Art Latitude 1988 Died of heart failure in Barcombe, Sussex on 12 April 2012 Solo show at Gimpel Fils in London 2014 Solo show at Erskine, Hall & Coe in London
2012Publications
Public Collections
The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago Arts Council Collection, London Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, Birmingham Buckinghamshire County Museum, Aylesbury City Art Gallery, York Crafts Council Collection, London Harris Art Gallery and Museum, Preston The Hepworth, Wakefield Leicester Museum and Art Gallery, Leicester Middlesborough Institute of Modern Art, Middlesborough National Museum of Wales, Cardiff Nottingham Castle, Nottingham Paisley Art Gallery and Museum, Paisley Pallant House, Chichester Peter Scott Gallery, University of Lancaster, Lancaster Portsmouth Museum and Art Gallery, Portsmouth Royal Pavilion, Art Gallery and Museums, Brighton and Hove Sainsbury Centre for the Arts, University of East Anglia, Norwich Shipley Art Gallery, Gateshead Victoria and Albert Museum, London Victoria Art Gallery, Bath
The Ceramic Art of James Tower, Lund Humphries, ed. Timothy Wilcox 2019 James Tower, Ceramics, Sculptures and Drawings, Arnoldsche, ed. Timothy Wilcox Further information can be found at www.ehc.art and www.jamestower.co.uk.
JTR-0046 Oblong Form, 1978 tin-glazed earthenware 35 x 60 cm JTR-0123
Oblong Plate with Cock, 1952 tin-glazed earthenware 41.5 x 35 cm JTR-0116
Pod Form, 1980 tin-glazed earthenware 50 x 36 cm JTR-0058
Vessel, 47tin-glazed1986earthenwarex46cm JTR-0133
Study for sculpture: Layered Form, c.1960-65 pen and ink, brown wash and white bodycolour on paper 17.6 x 22.5 cm (unframed) JTR-0088
Fish Dish, 46.5tin-glazed1957earthenwarex52cm
Long Platter, 1955 tin-glazed earthenware 7 x 90 x 22 cm JTR-0014
Fish Dish, 49tin-glazed1979earthenwarex45cm JTR-0051
Fish Shoal, 1979 tin-glazed earthenware 35 x 60 cm JTR-0064
Pod Form, 1986 tin-glazed earthenware 55 cm high JTR-0065
Study for sculpture with deep channel, c. 1960-65, pen and ink, brown wash and white bodycolour on paper 21.3 x 37.9 cm (unframed) JTR-0092 Waving Reeds, 1980 tin-glazed earthenware 33 x 58.5 x 18 cm JTR-0169
Winged Form, 1960 40terracottax87x23 cm JTR-0165 Sculptural study, c. 1965-66 black and white chalk and wash on 46paperx56 cm (unframed) JTR-0074
Sculptural study, c. 1960s black and white chalk, graphite and wash on paper 46.5 x 33 cm (unframed) JTR-0163 Long Form, 1981 tin-glazed earthenware 33 x 62 cm JTR-0139
Two studies, c. 1965 graphite, ink and gouache on paper 38 x 56 cm (unframed) JTR-0075 Two studies for Copse, c. 1965-67 black chalk and watercolour on paper 46 x 58 cm (unframed) JTR-0079
Concave Form, 1960s 47bronzex78.7 x 25.4 cm JTR-0031 Currents, Large Dish, 1981 tin-glazed earthenware 54 cm diameter JTR-0059
Dish, tin-glazed1978 earthenware 50 x 40 cm JTR-0154 Facetted Sculpture, c. 1965-67 41terracottax42x22 cm JTR-0145 Rectangular Form, 1980 tin-glazed earthenware 45 x 35 cm JTR-0124 Two studies of plant forms, c. 1963-66 black chalk, wash and watercolour on paper 46 x 58 cm (unframed) JTR-0080 Spray, 55tin-glazed1980earthenwarex38cm JTR-0140 Copyright Erskine, Hall & Coe Ltd. Design by Erskine, Hall & Coe Ltd. www.ehc.art Printed by Park Communications All photography by Stuart Burford, with the exception of JTR-0031, which was photographed by Michael Harvey.
