Pallant House Gallery - Magazine No.36 (Full Version) by Pallant House Gallery

Sickert in Dieppe Sickert in Dieppe: The Art of Modern Life Katy Norris on Sickert's sustained engagement with the French seaside town St Ives and British Modernism

Adrian Dannatt remembers his Uncle George Kenneth Rowntree: A Centenary Exhibition Dr Alexandra Harris introduces one of Britain's best loved artists Nek Chand: The Rock Garden Sculptures Simon Martin meets the renowned Indian Outsider artist A Twist In Time

Michael Petry reflects on the historic setting for his new installation

ÂŁ2 Number 36 July â&#x20AC;&#x201C; October 2015 www.pallant.org.uk

MODERN BRITISH AND IRISH ART

VIEWING 5 - 10 June 2015

Wednesday 10 June 2015 New Bond Street, London

ENQUIRIES +44 (0) 20 7468 8297 britart@bonhams.com KEITH VAUGHAN (1912-1977) Standing Male Figure oil on board 49.1 x 40.1 cm. (19 1/4 x 15 3/4 in.) Â£25,000 - 35,000

bonhams.com/modernbritish

— Andrew Gifford New York Paintings

22 May – 12 June

John Martin Gallery 38 Albemarle Street London, W1S 4 JG

T +44 (0)20 7499 1314 info@jmlondon.com

catalogue available www.jmlondon.com

TOOVEY’S

Fine art, antiques and collectables valuations afternoon in support of Pallant House Gallery Monday 28th September 2015 A team of specialists from Toovey’s will be on hand from 12 to 4pm at Pallant House Gallery to offer free valuations and advice on the sale of your Pictures, Works of Art, European and Oriental Ceramics, Clocks, Watches, Jewellery, Silverware, Medals and Collectors’ Toys by auction. A third of the seller’s commission for items subsequently auctioned at Toovey’s will be donated to Pallant House.

TOOVEY’S

The leading antique and fine art auction house in West Sussex Spring Gardens, A24 Washington, West Sussex RH20 3BS 01903 891955 auctions@tooveys.com www.tooveys.com

PROUD SPONSORS OF PALLANT HOUSE GALLERY

Contents Features

Walter Sickert, Celebrations, Dieppe, 1914, Oil on canvas, Robert Travers, Piano Nobile Works of Art, London Front cover: Walter Sickert, L'Hôtel Royal, Dieppe, 1894 , Oil on canvas, Museums Sheffield

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Sickert in Dieppe: The Art of Modern Life Katy Norris Sickert and Me Celia Paul My Uncle George Adrian Dannatt Nek Chand: The Rock Garden Sculptures Simon Martin Kenneth Rowntree: A Strange Simplicity Alexandra Harris A Twist in Time Michael Petry Art Views Sandra Peaty

Friends

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You can find full details of our latest events programme in the What's On guide.

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The latest news, exhibitions and events can be found online at www.pallant.org.uk

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Chairman's Letter Peter Lomas Obituary Friends' Events

Co-Directors' Letter Exhibitions Diary Gallery News What's On: Events Bookshop Artwork in Focus

Contributors

With thanks

EDITORIAL Editor Anna Zeuner, a.zeuner@pallant.org.uk Sub Editor Beth Funnell Gallery Editorial Elaine Bentley, Simon Martin, Katy Norris, Sandra Peaty, Marc Steene Guest Editorial Adrian Dannatt, Dr. Alexandra Harris, Celia Paul, Dr. Michael Petry, Prof. Brandon Taylor Friends' Editorial Lady Nicholas Gordon Lennox, Mary Ambrose Design, Editing and Production David Wynn

SICKERT IN DIEPPE Generously supported by Daniel Katz Ltd Finnis Scott Foundation Toovey's Sickert in Dieppe Supporters’ Circle

ADVERTISING Booking and General Enquiries Paolo Russo +44 (0)207 300 5751

GALLERY SUPPORTERS

GALLERY INFORMATION Pallant House Gallery, 9 North Pallant, Chichester, West Sussex, PO19 1TJ, UK +44 (0)1243 774557, info@pallant.org.uk www.pallant.org.uk OPENING TIMES Monday Closed Tuesday–Saturday 10am–5pm Thursday 10am–8pm Sunday/Bank Holidays 11am–5pm

ST IVES AND BRITISH MODERNISM: THE GEORGE AND ANN DANNATT COLLECTION Supported by the George Dannatt Trust

Headline Sponsor of the Gallery 2015

PALLANT HOUSE GALLERY Friends

FRIENDS' OFFICE +44 (0)1243 770816 friends@pallant.org.uk BOOKSHOP +44 (0)1243 781293 shop@pallantbookshop.com www.pallantbookshop.com THE PALLANT KITCHEN +44 (0)1243 770827 thekitchen@pallant.org.uk

Willard Conservation Limited, The Priory and Poling Charitable Trusts, The Garfield Weston Foundation, and other Trusts, Foundations and anonymous benefactors. Pallant House Gallery makes every effort to seek permission of copyright owners for images reproduced in this publication. If however, a work has not been correctly identified or credited and you are the copyright holder, or know of the copyright holder, please contact the editor.

SICKERT Paintings, Drawings and Prints

THE F I N E A RT SOC I E T Y 148 New Bond Street · London W1S 2JT · WWW.faslondon.com +44 (0) 207 629 5116 · art@faslondon.com Walter Sickert Le Puits Salé. Rue de la Barre and the Café des Tribunaux c.1900–03 Graphite and coloured washes on paper, signed Sickert, lower left · 63/4 x 51/8 in · 17.2 x 13 cm Provenance: Jacques-Emile Blanche; Private Collection

A Centenary Exhibition

Sussex Landscape, 1959, oil on canvas, 203 x 127 cm

William Gear 7 July – 6 Aug 2015 20 Cork Street London W1S 3HL

•

1915-1997

T: 020 7734 1732

•

redfern-gallery.com

The Redfern Gallery Established 1923

Co-Directors' Letter

Walter Sickert, Au Café Concert, Vernet’s Dance Hall, 1920, Oil on canvas, Private collection, courtesy of the Daniel Katz Gallery, London

Looking to the future, we are keen to encourage new generations of visitors to Pallant House Gallery and so we are delighted to announce that for the first time we will be offering free entry to children up to the age of 16 when accompanied by an adult. In difficult economic times we hope that this will encourage parents and grandparents to bring children to see our collection and exhibitions, as well as take part in our year-round programme of activities for children, young people and families. This summer we have an exciting programme of new exhibitions, activities and events to offer our Friends, Patrons and visitors. In the historic townhouse, the American contemporary artist Michael Petry has created an ambitious new installation inspired by the curves of the carved 18thcentury staircase. Utilising traditional glass-blowing craftsmanship Petry’s interventions question notions of identity, gender and beauty. In the De’Longhi Print Room we mark the centenary of the birth of artist and illustrator Kenneth Rowntree (1915–1997) in a partnership exhibition with the Fry Art Gallery which brings together his memorable collages, landscapes and designs. In the townhouse we mark another centenary - that of the abstract artist George Dannatt (1915–2009) - with an exhibition of the collection of St Ives and British Modernist paintings and sculptures formed with his wife Ann, which was presented to the Gallery in 2011. Much of the collection is being shown for the first time

after a programme of conservation supported by the George and Ann Dannatt Trust, who have also funded a scholarly new catalogue of the collection. Another coastal artists’ colony forms the focus for our major summer exhibition, Sickert in Dieppe, which explores the formative influence of the French port and seaside resort on the career of the father of modern British art, Walter Sickert. This significant exhibition will bring together many of Sickert’s views of the town from public and private collections in Britain and France, demonstrating why the artist became known as the ‘Canaletto of Dieppe’. We are delighted to announce that Katy Norris has been appointed Curator, having worked as Assistant Curator, and this will be her first major exhibition at the Gallery. Making the most of the summer sunshine in the Courtyard Garden and Garden Gallery, we are presenting an installation of sculptures by the Indian Outsider artist Nek Chand, famous for his celebrated Rock Garden of Chandigarh in Northern India. These extraordinary figures constructed from concrete, mosaic and recycled materials are formed into Indian gods, humans and mythical beasts. Part of the Gallery’s award-winning Outside In programme, this installation will bring the exoticism of this remarkable Outsider art environment to the formality of a Chichester courtyard garden, providing a fantastical background for lunch or tea. Simon Martin, Artistic Director and Marc Steene, Executive Director 7

ay m Be ans dh Fit am tle Pu wo lbo rth W ro es ug RH t Su h 20 sse 1J x R 01 79 w 8 86 w w 52 in .ard 06 fo @ ena ar nd de an na st nd ru an the st ru r.co th m er .co m

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Summer at Zimmer Stewart Gallery

Summer at Zimmer Stewart Gallery 5-27 Jun: Manhattan, an exhibition of narrative and abstract hand woven tapestry works by master weavers, Caron Penney & Katharine Swailes. 4 Jul- 8 Aug: Summer Mixed Exhibition, A group exhibition featuring the original prints of Tom Hammick on the occasion of the publication of a new book on his work. 15 Aug - 5 Sep: Arundel Festival Exhibition featuring â&#x20AC;&#x153;Visual Musicâ&#x20AC;? paintings, sculpture and ceramics by Felix Anaut (see above).

Contemporary paintings, prints, ceramics & sculpture Open 10am-5pm Tues-Sat & occasional Sundays 29 Tarrant Street, Arundel, West Sussex, BN18 9DG 01903 882063 info@zimmerstewart.co.uk www.zimmerstewart.co.uk

SONIA DELAUNAY original watercolour and gouache fabric designs from the collection of Robert Perrier buy online at goldmarkart.com

goldmark Orange Street, Uppingham, Rutland, LE15 9SQ 01572 821424

TOOVEY’S

The leading antique and fine art auction house in West Sussex Spring Gardens, A24 Washington, West Sussex RH20 3BS 01903 891955 auctions@tooveys.com www.tooveys.com

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EXHIBITIONS DIARY

Walter Sickert, Coin de la Rue, Sainte Catherine, Dieppe, 1899, Oil on canvas, The Daniel Katz Gallery, London

SICKERT IN DIEPPE 4 JULY – 4 OCTOBER A major exhibition exploring how the picturesque French seaside resort of Dieppe proved to be such a formative setting for British painter Walter Sickert (1860–1942). A popular destination from the middle of the 1800s for British writers and artists including Oscar Wilde and Aubrey Beardsley, Dieppe held Sickert’s attention for over four decades, during which he was a regular visitor and a permanent resident from 1898–1905. Over 80 paintings, prints, preparatory drawings and etchings show Sickert’s vivid interest in everyday life in Dieppe - the town’s architecture, harbour and fishing quarter, the shops, café culture and its inhabitants. The exhibition also charts the development of Sickert’s pictorial technique during this period, showing the influence of European artists as diverse Degas, Whistler and the Impressionists. An accompanying display features works by artists who have been influenced by Sickert including Frank Auerbach, David Bomberg, Keith Coventry and Celia Paul. Rooms 12–16

ST IVES AND BRITISH MODERNISM: THE GEORGE AND ANN DANNATT COLLECTION 13 JUNE – 20 SEPTEMBER Marking the centenary of George Dannatt’s birth in 1915, this exhibition will explore one of the Gallery’s most significant donations, the George and Ann Dannatt Gift. The collection includes paintings, drawings, sculptures and prints by key figures associated with the St Ives Group of Artists such as Terry Frost, Roger Hilton, Peter Lanyon, Ben Nicholson and John Tunnard, as well as leading ‘Neo-Romantic’ artists such as Paul Nash, Robert Colquhoun, Robert MacBryde and Keith Vaughan. George Dannatt was himself an abstract artist and a selection of his own works will be on display. Rooms 3, 4, 7 and 9 KENNETH ROWNTREE: A CENTENARY EXHIBITION 22 JULY – 18 OCTOBER Touring from the Fry Art Gallery in Saffron Walden, this exhibition marks the centenary of the birth of Kenneth Rowntree (1915–1997), one of Britain’s best loved artists. A contemporary of Edward Bawden RA, Michael Rothenstein RA, and Eric Ravilious, with whom he became great friends, he was influenced by a generation of English artist-designers. Rowntree had a playful approach to depicting his surroundings, from the Essex countryside around Great Bardfield, where he lived from 1941, the Welsh hills and Sussex coastline to the Australian outback and wide landscapes of America. The exhibition features oil, acrylic, watercolour and gouache paintings, along with drawings, prints and posters, spanning the 1930s – 1980s. De’Longhi Print Room

Kenneth Rowntree, Kenneth Rowntree, Motel, 1950, gouache with ink, © The Artist’s Estate c/o Moore-Gwyn Fine Art and Liss Llewellyn Fine Art.

Studio Exhibitions FRIENDS OF CHARTRES CHAPTER 5: CHICHESTER & CHARTRES – LIGHT & DARK 2 JUNE – 28 JUNE A photography based exhibition, produced by local school pupils for our sixth annual Schools Art Competition in partnership with Friends of Chartres.

Nek Chand, The Rock Garden of Chandigarh © Simon Martin/Pallant House Gallery

NEK CHAND: THE ROCK GARDEN SCULPTURES 13 JUNE – 25 OCTOBER An installation of sculptures by internationally renowned Outsider artist Nek Chand (b. 1924), creator of the famous sculpture park The Rock Garden of Chandigarh in India. Over forty figurative concrete and mosaic works created from found objects on loan from the Nek Chand Foundation will be on display in the Courtyard Garden and Garden Gallery. A self-taught Indian artist, Nek Chand’s sculptures reflect his intuitive approach to creating and the display reflects the ethos of the Gallery’s Outside In project. Courtyard Garden and Garden Gallery MICHAEL PETRY: A TWIST IN TIME 4 JULY – SPRING 2016 A new contemporary installation in the Queen Anne townhouse by American multimedia artist Michael Petry (b.1960), featuring glass sculptures created in response to the forms of the grand staircase and historic mirrors that echo the story of ‘The Picture of Dorian Gray’. Utilising traditional glass-making techniques, Petry’s installation creates a dialogue with the Gallery’s historic glass collections, exploring questions of gender, craftsmanship and decoration. Room 2 and Stairwell

PICTURE THIS 30 JUNE – 26 JULY An exhibition of work by pupils from St Anthony’s School and Jessie Younghusband School, Chichester, in response to this year’s selected collection painting; Joe Tilson’s ‘1–5 The Senses’. THE ART OF PARTNERSHIP 28 JULY – 30 AUGUST An exhibition of work produced by two Partners in Art partnerships, showing the different ways each partnership can collaborate, inspire and support each artist’s creativity. SUSSEX ARTISTS’ AWARD 1–27 SEPTEMBER This exhibition will showcase selected works and winners of the 2015 edition of this nationwide open competition. The Sussex Artists’ Award is a collaboration between St. Wilfrid’s Hospice and Pallant House Gallery’s Community Programme, raising valuable funds for the two charities.

jonathan clark fine art Exhibitions 8 – 31 JULY 2015

Bryan Ingham (1936 –1997) COLLAGES

John Wells (1907 – 2000) CONTACT DRAWINGS FROM THE 1960 S

John Wells and Bryan Ingham, both pioneers of British modernism after the war, and both reclusives working in the far reaches of Cornwall. What they also shared was an extraordinary inventiveness and mastery of different media, from painting, printmaking and sculpture to collages and contact drawings, as explored in these two exhibitions which will run concurrently at the gallery during July.

jonathan clark fine art 18 park walk SW10 info@jcfa.co.uk +44(0)20 73513555 www.jcfa.co.uk

MODERN AND CONTEMPORARY BRITISH PAINTING AND SCULPTURE

WE LOOK FORWARD TO WELCOMING YOU TO OUR GALLERY IN HOVE. OPENING TIMES: MON—SAT 10.30AM—6PM SUNDAY/BANK HOLIDAYS 12PM—5PM CLOSED TUESDAY

FOR ENQUIRIES TELEPHONE 01273 727234 OR EMAIL CAMERONART@AOL.COM 1 VICTORIA GROVE, 2ND AVENUE, HOVE BN3 2LJ TWITTER @CAMERONART10

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Art in Mind

17/01/2015 10:12

Otter Gallery, 15 June - 27 September 2015

Otter Gallery University of Chichester College Lane Chichester PO19 6PE www.chi.ac.uk/ottergallery gallery@chi.ac.uk 01243 816098 For opening times visit www.chi.ac.uk/ottergallery Free admission Image: Flowers in a Shore Window (1968) by John Hitchens © The artist’s estate

Art in Mind is an innovative and collaborative project between the Otter Gallery, Coastal and West Sussex Mind Centres and the University of Chichester’s Fine Art Department. The exhibition combines paintings, ceramics and textiles from the Otter Gallery’s collection of Modern British Art, including John Hitchens, David Michie, John Bratby, Deirdre Burnett and Alice Kettle, with new mixed media interpretations by local mental health members, undertaken through a series of artist-led creative workshops.

GALLERY NEWS

ONE YEAR TO GO FOR THE CATALYST APPEAL Thanks to the Friends’ very generous response to our Appeal recently, we have now raised over £740,000 towards our £1million target for the Catalyst Endowment Fund. We are also very fortunate that the John Booth Charitable Trust and the Greenhalgh Family Trust pledged to double all donations received up to £27,500 before being match-funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund. Their generous support meant that all donations received were quadrupled. We now have until 30 June 2016 to raise the balance of £260,000 in order to receive the match-funding grant, increasing the value of our endowment fund by £2million and generating additional secure income of around £100,000 a year towards the Gallery’s core running costs. For more information on this Appeal, and how you can make a contribution to help us reach our target, please contact Elaine Bentley, Head of Development (01243 770844/e.bentley@pallant.org.uk). EXTERNAL LOANS FROM DORSET TO AMSTERDAM The Architects (1981) and Books and Ex-Patriot (c.1960) by R.B. Kitaj are currently included in the exhibition ‘R.B. Kitaj: Unpacking My Library’ at the Jewish Historical Museum, Amsterdam from 19 March to 12 July 2015. The accompanying catalogue can be found in the Art Reference Library. We have loaned seven works to ‘A Poetic Eye: John Craxton on Cranborne Chase and Crete’, 28 March to 19 September 2015 at Dorset County Museum, Dorchester. This includes Hare on a Table (1944–46) and Figure in a Grey Landscape (1945), both newly conserved prior to lending, as well as five works from the Mill House Collection. Other external loans include the three sculptural works by Claes Oldenburg: Geometric Mouse (1971), Soft Drumset (1969) and London Knees (1966), which will feature in the forthcoming exhibition ‘International Pop Art’ 25 July – 1 November 2015 at The Lightbox, Woking.

Henry Lamb, Plums on a Dish, 1939, Oil on canvas, Pallant House Gallery (Lucas Bequest) © Estate of Henry Lamb (1995)

NEW ART COURSE: MAKING SENSE OF MODERN BRITISH ART A new five-week art course ‘Making Sense of Modern British Art’ launches this August, placing the Gallery’s collection into the context of artistic developments in Britain and Europe. Led by Val and Frank Woodgate, who have lectured internationally for organisations including Tate Britain, Tate Modern and NADFAS, the illustrated lectures followed by discussion will focus on specific areas of early Modern British art including ‘Sickert and the Camden Town Group’, ‘The Art and Scandalous Lives of the Bloomsbury Group’ and ‘Piper, Sutherland and the Neo-Romantics’. Classes can be booked individually or as a complete course (see page 54). For more information contact Helen Martin, Groups and Hospitality Manager (01243 770838 / h.martin@pallant.org.uk). KIDS GO FREE! From 4 July 2015 children under the age of 16 will enjoy free entry to Pallant House Gallery, when they are accompanied by an adult. Making the Gallery’s collection of Modern British art and inspiring temporary exhibitions as accessible as possible to the younger generation is incredibly important for the future of the Gallery. Alongside the popular family trail and the existing programme of Children’s Workshops, Free Family Activities and Early Years Workshops, it is hoped that free admission will continue to make Pallant House Gallery an exciting destination for children and young people to learn and be inspired by the arts.

Christopher Le Brun, Virtue from Concours de L'Arbre, 2012, Lithograph on paper, Pallant House Gallery (The Golder - Thompson Gift, 2015) © Christopher Le Brun, Photographer Steve White.

ADDITIONS TO THE GOLDER-THOMPSON GIFT We have recently taken receipt of three new works as part of The Golder-Thompson Gift including a lithograph by Christopher Le Brun. Virtue, from the series ‘Concours de L’Arbre’, takes as its inspiration the traditions of an annually awarded prize for Historical Landscape initiated by the École des Beaux-Arts in 19th Century France. The second of three stages, ‘Concours de l’Arbre’ required the contestants to paint in isolation and from memory a picture with narrative subject matter that featured a tree as its dominant motif. Le Brun’s work draws upon the traditions of Romanticism, Symbolism and the imaginative landscape and as such provides opportunity to further investigate and draw parallels with the Graham Sutherland works in the collection. OUTSIDER CRAFT: SUBMISSIONS OPEN FOR OUTSIDE IN NATIONAL EXHIBITION Working in collaboration with Craftspace, Outsider Craft combines Outside In’s fourth triennial open art exhibition and Craftspace’s touring exhibitions programme. The exhibition will showcase creativity by artists who see themselves as facing barriers to the art world for reasons including health, disability, social circumstance or isolation. The work selected through this open callout will be displayed at Pallant House Gallery in 2016 alongside pieces by historically renowned and invited contemporary Outsider and self-taught artists, before touring nationally. Submissions are invited from UK based artists who align themselves with Outside In, whose work is two or three dimensional and centres around craft processes. The deadline for submissions is 5pm, Friday 30 October 2015. For more information, visit www.outsidein.org.uk. 18

WELCOMING THE MICHAEL WOODFORD BEQUEST We are pleased to announce the arrival of the Michael Woodford Bequest comprising some twenty-six works on paper by artists including Graham Sutherland, Pablo Picasso, Alan Reynolds and Gerald Leslie Brockhurst. Works include Sutherland’s The Village (1925), Pecken Wood (1925) and St Mary’s Hatch (1926). These early etchings form an exemplary group, together with Cray Fields (1925) and the later Hanger Hill (1929) from the Hussey Bequest, showing the influence of the artist Samuel Palmer and further underline the strength and depth of Sutherland works in the Gallery collections. Three etchings by Picasso are representative of his printmaking in his final years and are part of his two largest series of prints made in this period - namely, The 347 Series in 1968, and The 156 Series of 1970–72, completed within just over a year of his death. The Bequest is also formed in part by the donation of Michael Woodford’s Art Library, of in excess of 700 catalogues and texts including a wide range of publications on or relating to Picasso. Works from the Bequest will feature in a Print Room exhibition scheduled for the autumn.

Graham Sutherland, Pecken Wood, 1925, Etching on paper, Pallant House Gallery (Michael Woodford Bequest, 2015)

ART INSURANCE BROKERS Blackwall Green tel: 020 7234 4307 email: robert_hscott@ajg.com web: www.ajginternational.com/corporate-insurance/blackwall-green The Walbrook Building 25 Walbrook London EC4N 8AW Blackwall Green is a trading name of Arthur J. Gallagher (UK) Ltd, which is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. Registered Office: The Walbrook Building, 25 Walbrook, London EC4N 8AW. Registered in England and Wales. Company Number 1193013. www.agjinternational.com

PainteRS

Emma Alcock Ana Bianchi Annie Field Catherine Forshall John Hitchens George Hooper Justine Lois Thorpe Tuëma Pattie Stephen Palmer Lucy Powell Peter White Tanya Wood Paul Treasure Amanda Ward Thomas Sarah Warley-Cummings

Sculptors

Adam Binder Sadie Brockbank David Cooke Helen Denerley Olivia Ferrier Felicia Fletcher Penny Hardy Simon Hempsell David Klein Willow Legge Jonathan Loxley Anita Mandl Nicolas Moreton Will Spankie Jilly Sutton Clare Trenchard Lucy Unwin Paul Vanstone Dominic Welch

Sculpture & PaintingS for

Summer 2015 24th May–20th June 2015

online catalogue available now at www.moncrieff-bray.com

Moncrieff~Bray Gallery

Woodruffs Farm, Woodruffs Lane Egdean, Petworth, West Sussex rh20 1jx moncrieff.bray@btinternet.com Telephone 07867 978 414

DIV ERG ENCE WEST DE AN COLLEGE VI SUAL ARTS SUMMER S HOWS 2015

WEST DEAN COLLEGE 4 - 10 July, 10am-5pm Preview: Friday 3 July, 4-7pm

The Edward James Studios West Dean College, Nr. Chichester West Sussex PO18 0RX

THE BRICK LANE GALLERY ANNEXE 16 - 19 July, 11am-6pm Preview: Thursday 16 July, 6-9pm

The Brick Lane Gallery Annexe 93-95 Sclater Street London E1 6HR

Free entry

www.westdean.org.uk westdeanvisualarts.com

C U LT U R A L T O U R S F O R D I S C E R N I N G T R AV E L L E R S

ART ON THE FRENCH RIVIERA A FIVE NIGHT HOLIDAY | 7 SEPTEMBER 2015

Artists including Monet, Matisse, Chagall and Picasso began to discover the Côte d’Azur from the late 19th Century, drawn to the region for its natural beauty, mild climate and dazzling, clear light. We stay at the 3* hotel Villa Rivoli in Nice’s picturesque Old Town, from where we shall visit galleries in Antibes,Vence and St-Paul-deVence, as well as Nice itself. Highlights include the Marc Chagall Museum and the Maeght Foundation with its stunning collection of works by Picasso, Miró, Hepworth and many others. We see Picasso’s paintings at the Château Grimaldi in Antibes, most of which were donated to the town by the artist. Afterwards we go to Le Cannet where Pierre Bonnard lived for many years. Price from £1,448 for five nights including return flights, accommodation with breakfast, three dinners, one lunch, all sightseeing as described and the services of the Kirker Tour Leader.

Speak to an expert or request a brochure:

020 7593 2284 www.kirkerholidays.com

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Sickert in Dieppe The Art of Modern Life

As the major exhibition Sickert in Dieppe opens at the Gallery, Curator Katy Norris explores the depth of British painter Walter Sickert’s engagement with the French seaside town of Dieppe, and how this influenced his career.

Walter Sickert, Le Grand Duquesne, Dieppe, 1902, Oil on canvas, Manchester City Galleries/Bridgeman

Walter Sickert’s enduring fascination with the popular Normandy resort of Dieppe represents a remarkable aspect of his career. Having maintained close personal links from childhood, the British painter was a regular visitor for over four decades and a permanent resident from 1898–1905. In the memoires of his good friend Jacques-Emile Blanche, Sickert was likened to Canaletto, a comparison which emphasises that, more than any of his contemporaries, he produced a comprehensive topographical account of the town’s architecture. However the assumption that Sickert’s activity in Dieppe was limited to painting picturesque townscapes is to overlook the formative influence of this vibrant seaside town. The exhibition at Pallant House Gallery seeks to readdress this common perception, exploring his interest in the experience of everyday life in the town through the presentation of little known works from private collections as well as familiar and much-admired paintings from public museums. When seen together these works represent the extraordinary breadth of subjects that he tackled in Dieppe that ranged from the harbour and fishing quarters to rural landscapes, as well as its shops, café culture and inhabitants. The selection also charts the development of his pictorial techniques, for it was in Dieppe, influenced by his acquaintance with Degas and his proximity to Impressionist painters such as Claude Monet and Camille Pissarro, that Sickert formulated his individual painting style. These prestigious connections were to 23

prove highly important when Sickert began to socialise with a younger generation of London-based artists in Dieppe during the 1900s. As the painter Albert Rutherston recognised, through Sickert he ‘knew no other gateway to France than Dieppe’. By comparison with his visits to Venice that were concentrated to the distinct periods of 1894–5 and 1901–4, it was in Dieppe that Sickert sustained a longstanding connection to European culture and contemporary French painting that set him apart from his peers back in Britain. Sickert’s first significant visit to Dieppe as a practising artist was during his honeymoon in 1885. Initially he created ethereal harbour and beach scenes, lucidly painted in the manner of his teacher James McNeill Whistler. It was as a result of his growing friendship with Degas at Blanche’s home, the Châlet du Bas Fort Blanc, throughout the summer of 1885 that major changes occurred in his work. Degas encouraged him to emphasise the everyday realism of his subjects and his paintings became more representational, based upon rigorously planned squared-up drawings and featuring strongly delineated architectural patterns. Degas’ example also inspired him to broaden his range of subject matter to include racecourse and circus scenes, the latter an important forerunner for his 24

paintings of London music halls. During its heyday in the 1890s, the bathing resort of Dieppe was a magnet for British visitors. In addition to the established ex-pat community, a growing circle of British artists and writers visited each summer from across the channel including Oscar Wilde, Aubrey Beardsley, Max Beerbohm and Arthur Symons. Sickert successfully infiltrated the varied social groups that had grown up in the town, switching effortlessly between the roles of middle class respectability and bohemian artist. He chronicled Dieppe’s colourful social scene during the summer months, representing holiday makers strolling on the promenade or striding confidently into the sea dressed in the distinctive striped bathing costumes hired out by the nearby casino. The works created by Sickert during this time reflect a hybrid of styles, combining the everyday pictorial detail learnt from Degas with the vague atmosphere of Whistler’s ethereal compositions. His strange and unsettling imagery was paralleled in the work of ‘decadent’ writers and illustrators that typified the fatalistic attitude of the fin de siècle. In one painting of the Hôtel Royal created by Sickert in 1894 the eerie light of the setting sun echoes a description of the hotel’s facade in Symons’ poem ‘At Dieppe’ in which he wrote

Opposite page: Walter Sickert, L’Hotel Royal, Dieppe, 1894, oil on canvas, Collection of the Guild of St George, Museums Sheffield Left: The Façade of St Jacques, 1902, Oil on canvas, Private collection courtesy of The Fine Art Society

‘One stark monotony of stone / The long hotel, acutely white/ Against the after-sunset light / Withers greygreen / and takes the grass’s tone’. Featuring tricolour flags and elegant pleasure-seekers promenading on the wide lawns of the Boulevard Aguado overlooking the seafront, Sickert’s picture apparently represents a celebratory occasion or public festival. And yet, just as in Symons’ poem, the whole scene is tainted by the awareness of time passing, serving as a reminder of the inevitable impermanence of the summer tourist industry. For Sickert the perfect antidote to the temporary influx of seasonal visitors was Dieppe’s native fishing community that inhabited the quarter east of the harbour known as Le Pollet. In 1899, soon after his separation from his first wife Ellen Cobden, Sickert settled with a local fisherwoman named Augustine Villain and her family in Neuville, a suburb just beyond Le Pollet. The company that Sickert kept in Neuville and Le Pollet was very different to the circles that he mixed with in the west of the town. He learnt to speak the ancient dialect of the fishing community and he painted the harbour picturing the local fisherwomen making their way to and from the fish market on the Quai Duquesne.

In these scenes Sickert typically kept to a limited range of subjects, concentrating on the narrow roads leading off from the Arcades de la Poissonnerie that connected the working harbour with the picturesque and commercial districts of Dieppe. The juxtaposition of contrasting architectural spaces seemed to fascinate him. In numerous representations of the Rue NotreDame Sickert employed the same format of the narrow street leading to the cupola and tower of the Gothic church of St Jacques in the middle background of the composition. Between 1910 and 1912 he painted the same street of the Rue St-Jean from both ends, cutting through from workaday hand carts and lobster pots on the Quai Duquesne to the pretty houses in the Rue de la Boucherie. Above all it was the façade of St. Jacques that emerged as a prominent architectural motif in Sickert’s work. He interrogated the church from every possible vantage point and avenue, most notably representing the west front viewed from the Rue St. Jacques, as well as the church’s south portal viewed from the Rue Pecquet, which he painted in two distinct series created between 1900 and then again 1906 – 1910. In these later paintings Sickert adopted the bright palette and thickly encrusted surfaces that were characteristic of Impressionist and Post-Impressionist paintings. However he continued to paint from working drawings in his studio, a method contrary to the principles of the Impressionist method of painting en plein air. The execution of even his most spontaneous-looking pictures were nonetheless carefully calculated and rehearsed through preparatory drawings. Despite his notoriety for representing townscapes in Dieppe, it was in his landscapes that Sickert was to refine his painting techniques. In 1912 Sickert and his new wife Christine Angus Drummond bought the Villa d’Aumale in Envermeu, a village set in the valley of the Eaulne ten miles inland from Dieppe. Here during the summers of 1913 and 1914 he focused upon two subjects, the dovecot at the nearby village of 25

Torqueville and a stone monument known as the obelisk that was set upon rising ground close to the Forest of Arques. In these paintings Sickert moved beyond the use of thickly encrusted impasto advocated by Monet and Pissarro, as well as younger British painters such as Harold Gilman and Charles Ginner, developing his individual method of applying the pigment in a patchwork of flattened layers of colour. The First World War can be seen as a watershed in Sickert’s relationship with Dieppe. In the months leading up to the war he wrote a series of letters to the painter Ethel Sands from the harbour describing the exodus of British nationals. Eventually leaving himself at the end of August 1914, Sickert was cut off by the fighting in France and unable to travel to the continent. When he returned in 1919 it was with the intention of relocating permanently. However, this was disrupted when Christine’s ongoing battle with tuberculosis took a fatal turn. Sickert’s last compositions before Christine’s death in October 1920 were lush green landscapes painted around the outskirts of Dieppe such as the poignantly entitled The Happy Valley. The final years that Sickert spent living alone in Dieppe were marked by sadness following the loss of Christine. The period was characterised by his renewed 26

interest in figure painting focusing upon interiors rather than outdoor scenes. He made a significant group of pictures set in his seafront studio on the Rue Aguado and he revisited old Dieppe themes centring on popular entertainment. In addition to a painting of the circus troupe Cirque Rancy, Sickert continued working on pictures of performances at the cabaret-restaurant Vernet’s and a series based upon gamblers at Dieppe Casino that he started before Christine’s death. Filled with examples of pretence and play-acting, in these works Sickert seemed to be searching for a sense of belonging and meaning that ultimately could not be fulfilled amongst the unfamiliar throng of strangers. After his return to London in 1922, Sickert all but cut his ties with Dieppe. He was known to have visited on one further occasion, for the funeral of his former mistress Augustine in 1930. Despite this, it was with a Dieppe picture that the artist was to make his debut as an Associate of the Royal Academy of Arts in 1925. Sickert in Dieppe runs at Pallant House Gallery from 4 July – 4 October 2015. A programme of talks (see page 53) and a fully illustrated catalogue (available in the Bookshop) accompanies the exhibition.

Sickert and Me As Room, a soft-ground etching donated by Celia Paul, goes on sale exclusively at Pallant House Gallery, the artist explains her admiration for Walter Sickert and the enduring influence of his work on her own practice.

Opposite: Walter Sickert, Dieppe Races, 1920–26, Oil on canvas, Birmingham Museums Trust on behalf of Birmingham City Council, Image courtesy Birmingham Museums Trust Above: Celia Paul, Room, 2014, Soft ground etching on 300g soft white Somerset paper © Celia Paul Photo credit: Francis Ware © the artist

When I was at The Slade in the late 1970s, Lawrence Gowing was Slade Professor. I was taught by Euan Uglow and Patrick George. William Coldstream, who preceded Gowing, was a visiting tutor. Patrick George headed the formidable regime established in the ‘F’ studios where the strict code ‘We’re here to get things RIGHT’ was a rule to be followed by all. Cezanne was god and his principle that one must ‘treat nature by means of the cylinder, the sphere, the cone, with everything put in perspective so that each side of an object or a plane is directed toward a central point’ was also to be our guiding principle: to convey emotion was beside the point. I actually think that the best of the Euston Road School of painters did convey emotion all the more powerfully because of the tight restrictiveness of their method; I think William Coldstream particularly is a great painter, but his remark “I want to rid myself of the filth of expressionism” seems almost Jesuitical in its purity of purpose. Lawrence Gowing, when talking to me once about Sickert, said “he has this unique tendency to brown things over which takes all the joy out of flesh painting” and I thought to myself “But what about Rembrandt!” The figures in a Rembrandt painting loom out of the 27

dark in all their rich brown grandeur. I felt that Sickert, too, wasn’t afraid of the dark and that there was a sombre beauty in his work that connected him to Rembrandt. I also felt that there was abundant joy in a Sickert painting. I started to feel that there was a sort of genteel squeamishness in a lot of English art: Coldstream’s “filth” and Gowing’s aversion to brown; this seemed to me to be the antithesis of the liberating power of the art I loved. I felt that a similar genteel squeamishness was at the root of the emphasis on the abstract interpretation of the subject, rather than on an emotional one. It seemed symptomatic that the Euston Road School painters generally worked from a life model rather than the women they were intimately connected with. At the time, it seemed to me false, too, to imitate the pure colours of Cezanne who, after all, painted in the South of France, whereas here we were in dark and rainy London where the predominant colours are luminous grey and brown: if bright colours are seen, then they appear all the more intensely against the darkness, but not as in the fusion of light that pervades all the colours of a late Cezanne painting. Discovering Sickert in the middle of my Slade School studies was to discover a subversive spirit: his paintings are full of anarchic invention. If there are rules, then he’s the one to make them and to playfully break them. There is a great, humorous intellect in his work which I found instantly liberating. His approach is in direct contrast to the formal and abstract discipline that I encountered at The Slade. Here is a quote from his letter to Virginia Woolf where he is urging her to write a piece about an exhibition of his paintings: “I suggest that you sauter pas dessus all paint-box technical twaddle about art which has bored and will always bore everybody stiff. Write about it, the humour and drama you find in it. You would be the first to do so. I have always been a literary painter, thank goodness, like all decent painters. Do be the first to say so”. Inspired by him, I felt I could breathe again. I too wanted to do paintings that were ABOUT something: I wanted to record what mattered to me and to create a world that was my own, in a way that a story or poem can create a world. I started work on a series of paintings of my mother. She was to be my main subject for the next thirty years. Sickert has an intimate connection to his models and a deep empathy with them. He is at ease with his sitters and the naked women in his interiors feel at home. They are depicted with compassion. There is 28

nothing tortuous or perverted in the sentiment which is completely opposite in feeling to some of the great German expressionist painters (Otto Dix, for example) where you feel that there’s an almost religious revulsion for flesh. Sickert is delighted by flesh as a gleaming radiance in a dark space and also as a living, tactile substance. The mystery and poignancy of the human condition is something he conveys too. There is a strange, haunting loneliness and yearning in some of the interiors where the female nude appears isolated and inaccessible, as if enclosed within herself. It reminds me of the moving etching by Rembrandt The Virgin and Child with the Cat and Snake (1654) where the Virgin and Child form a perfect entity while Joseph watches them through the window: an alienated observer of their intimacy. Working, as I do, in Central London, not far from where he worked, I sometimes feel haunted by his spirit. I have been doing a series of paintings of the interior where I sleep, the room next to my studio, which looks directly onto the main gates of the British Museum. Behind the British Museum, to the left, I can see the BT Tower: it is a strange, almost voyeuristic presence outside my window. I contrast the horizontal of my bed with the vertical of the Tower and there appears to be almost a dialogue between the two. I hope it is a witty and subversive image, but also haunting. There is nothing in my room apart from a bed, so that the space is just a receptacle for the light. The tones are dark and luminous and very particular to London. Celia Paul’s limited edition soft-ground etching Room is available to purchase in the Bookshop, priced at £420 (inc VAT, edition of 50). An Artist’s Proof of the print has also been kindly donated by the artist for the Gallery’s permanent collection. We are grateful to Adam & Rowe (www.adam-rowe.com) who represent Celia Paul’s new prints and to the artist for their generosity.

Walter Sickert, L’ Walter Sickert, L'Armoire à Glace, 1921-4; dated 1924, oil on canvas, Tate: Purchased 1941 © Tate, London 2015.

My Uncle George

The George and Ann Dannatt Gift is one of the Gallery’s most significant donations of recent years. To tie in with the centenary of George Dannatt’s birth, works from the collection showing the Dannatts’ close connections with St Ives artists will go on display. Here curator and writer Adrian Dannatt shares his personal memories of his ‘Uncle George’.

Terry Frost, Black and White Movement, 1954, Oil on board, Pallant House Gallery (The George and Ann Dannatt Gift, 2011) © The Estate of Sir Terry Frost

The house of my uncle and aunt, George and Ann Dannatt, is inextricably linked to my own childhood, and like the books one reads at that age, whose vividness, whose spell can never be recaptured in any later reading, always seemed as much an imagined chimera of perfection, an ideal world now never to be recaptured, as actual place. Tucked away on an overgrown steep lane which no traffic took anyway, seemingly invisible from every angle, protected, nestled in its own sleepy hollow and so shielded by heights on either side, guarded by thick foliage and impenetrable bushes, here truly was the enchanted domain. And as in any fairy tale, I was never sure as a child whether I might not find some sort of despotic king or egocentric emperor, reigning over his private fiefdom within. This house seemed as much a literary construct, a work of what might be modishly deemed meta-fiction, as a real building, not least because I knew that my uncle and aunt had specifically chosen to live in this area because of the writings of Thomas Hardy, and to a lesser extent John Cowper Powys. To determine the location of one’s country house due to a love for various novels, short stories and poems seemed both very grand and very fantastical, as if refusing to acknowledge those banal boundaries between art and life. Likewise, I even imagined a curious connection with the equally fabled house of Jay Gatsby, located at West Egg as opposed to East Hatch - like an egg which hatched - though at Gatsby’s everybody was always 31

welcome and the host never seen, whilst at East Hatch it was hard to secure an invitation and the host was omnipresent. Yes, this house was built of books, was full of books, each room with its own packed bookcase, where they read books all the time, books about people like themselves living in houses just like this one, reading their own books. The life of these two aesthetes, and ascetics it should be added, living in their hidden house lost in the deepest English countryside was a novel waiting to be written, or rather a novel they were already writing themselves just by their continued existence, by the sheer artistry of their being. To what sort of novel did they belong? Here was a perfect parlour guessing game for all who knew them, some proposing Powell, others C.P. Snow or Ivy ComptonBurnett, or could it be Henry Green or Dorothy Richardson? Surely the ‘master’ himself Henry James was notably close to their own concerns, the life of the mind and controlled emotions, the life of perfect taste, of faultless furniture and objets d’art, but James was pitched at a slightly too lofty class, a social stratosphere of the oldest aristocracy and richest new wealth, and he was anyway still faintly tainted by Americanness. Instead, the obvious choice was the author who 32

filled an entire section of a bookcase upstairs, namely Virginia Woolf, whose work they read and re-read and annotated and noted and cross-referenced and read once more. And these books of Woolf are full of impossibly sophisticated, neurasthenically literate writers and artists and musicians and editors, living their cultured, self-consciously aesthetic lives in their lovely, perfect houses in which they read and re-read and annotated other novels. Yet the house of George and Ann was absolutely nothing to do with ‘Bloomsbury’; they openly loathed the entire decorative whimsy of the Omega Workshop and reserved particular scorn for the cozy flourishes of Charleston, a place they frankly felt should be pulled down rather than preserved for the nation. And perhaps the novel of English high-modernism, as opposed to highamateurism, has yet to be written, the exceptionally refined visual code of their own house rejecting Colefax and Fowler as much as Fry and Grant, refusing both classic ‘country house living’ and bohemian muddle, establishing instead a touchstone for an equally AngloSaxon abstract aesthetic. The smell of the studio was so specific, so resonant, a mixture perhaps of paper and glue, a hint of chalk, a dry, musky scent both clean and old fashioned,

redolent of filing-cabinets and wooden frames and Anglepoise lamps left lit through misty winter dusks, the smell of civilization somehow. The thoroughness of George’s life as artist and as his own archivist was apparent, the sheer neatness of these long rows of paintings, absolutely all things numbered, dated, titled, signed, photographed, filed, almost as if he actually enjoyed the act of documentation as much as the making of the work itself. Endless cabinets and boxes filled with possible materials for his work, and neatly labelled, the blue and white of Air Mail envelopes, sections of string, crushed cans, strips of photographs, intriguing shards of typography and collage-worthy bits of card. There was much of his own work, a great deal of it, but also postcards and images of other artists, sources of inspiration and of course here, as everywhere else, countless books and catalogues and pamphlets and journals all impeccably ordered. Though comparison has often been made with Kettle’s Yard, what I was always reminded of myself was the studio of the artist Robert De Niro Sr in downtown New York, preserved exactly as it was when he was working there, without the slightest alteration, by his actor son, kept this way decade after decade, only to be visited by his immediate family.

Much discussion has already swirled around the possibility of preserving this unique residence, maintaining it as a memorial not only to Ann and George’s life and work, the literal embodiment of an entire existence - ‘one way of seeing’, to quote his own title - but as a historic marker, proof of just how sophisticated, how rich, a certain English culture could be during a specific era. And as far as I am concerned it already exists as a protected, listed monument, regardless of its eventual fate. Even should it be bulldozed to make way for a hedge fund garage, it remains as real, as permanent, as indestructible as all those other magic places which continue forever outside the reach of time. St Ives and British Modernism: The George and Ann Dannatt Collection will run from 13 June – 20 September. This article is an abridged version of Adrian Dannatt’s essay ‘My Uncle George’, taken from the new accompanying publication available exclusively from the Bookshop. Opposite page: John Wells, Project, 1942, Gouache ink and pencil on card, Pallant House Gallery (The George and Ann Dannatt Gift, 2011) Above: Terry Frost, Blue, Black, White, 1960–61, Oil on canvas, Pallant House Gallery (The George and Ann Dannatt Gift, 2011), © The Estate of Sir Terry Frost

Nek Chand: The Rock Garden Sculptures

Artistic Director Simon Martin reflects on a recent British Council funded trip to Chandigarh, India, to meet Indian Outsider artist Nek Chand ahead of a display of his works this summer.

Nek Chand, The Rock Garden of Chandigarh © Simon Martin/Pallant House Gallery

Compared with the chaotic irregularity of most cities in India, Chandigarh in the north of the country is characterised by a sense of order. Known as ‘the city beautiful’ it was the first planned city in India following independence. Based on a city plan by the SwissFrench architect Le Corbusier, it boasts a grid-like road system and iconic modernist architecture. Le Corbusier conceived his plan as analogous to the human body, with the ‘intellect’ represented by a sector for cultural and educational organisations, the Capitol Complex housing the legislative and law-enforcing structures forming the ‘head’, parks forming the ‘lungs’ and the ‘heart’ being the commercial city centre with a circulatory system of roads and transport networks. Whilst undoubtedly inspiring and beautiful, arguably this supremely rational plan for the city did not allow for intuition and spirit. And yet, just outside of the formal town plan these more elusive qualities are palpably present in one of the most remarkable and fantastical gardens in the world: Nek Chand’s Rock Garden. There is something poetic in the fact that during the 1960s, whilst Le Corbusier’s grand, modern concrete city was being constructed, an unknown and self-taught artist was simultaneously building his own extraordinary environment in secret. Like the characters in Salman Rushdie’s magic realist novel ‘Midnight’s Children’ Nek Chand’s personal history is tied to the brutal history of the partition of India and Pakistan in 1947, and his life seems equally fantastical. Displaced by the drawing of national boundaries, the 35

young Nek Chand (b.1924) left behind his native village of Berian in what is now Pakistan and as a Hindu was forced to flee to India. Later after marrying he settled in Chandigarh in 1955 where he became a roads inspector for the city’s Public Works Department. He never forgot the village of his youth and so sought to recreate a version of the village in a secluded wooded area not far from the Capitol Complex, after a dream in which the area was revealed to have been the home to a ‘glorious dynasty’. Chand worked at weekends and at night, using found materials from villages that were being demolished to make way for the new modern city. Travelling on his bicycle he collected oddly-shaped rocks and stones from the foothills of the Himalayas, of which he has said ‘all the stones have a soul… They are alive… The stones are like gods and goddesses: there is life in them. Whenever I look at them or pass them, they touch my heart. When we look at them, they look at us too.’ He began to arrange the stones around a small hut, and sculpt figures from concrete and old bicycle parts with surfaces decorated with broken glass bangles. Over time it grew and grew until in the early 1970s several acres of extraordinary sculptures were discovered by senior officials in the Public Works Department and it was subsequently visited by hundreds of people who had heard about this remarkable place. At first it seemed likely that it might be destroyed, but after senior figures supported Nek Chand by recommending that the garden be ‘preserved in its present form, free from the interference of architects and town planners’ the decision was taken not only to save the garden, but to provide funding and fifty staff to support its development. At the end of the 1980s it was once again under threat, but after a court action it remains today one of the most powerful examples of an ‘outsider artist’ being accepted by the establishment and wider society. The Rock Garden is now one of the most visited sites in India, second only to the Taj Mahal. Visiting the garden is an extraordinary experience: passing through a small doorway in an un-promising wall constructed of concrete-filled oil drums one finds oneself in a series of courtyards of varying sizes. The walls of these are lined with broken ceramic mosaic, electric plug sockets or terracotta pots: a form of recycling. The route through the garden leads the visitor through over 25 acres of narrow passages and wide gorges, past waterfalls and streams of running 36

Nek Chand, The Rock Garden of Chandigarh © Simon Martin/Pallant House Gallery

water, and concrete slopes or raised walls covered in statues. It is a truly visionary space, unlike anything I have encountered elsewhere in the world. Whilst the city beyond is characterised by clean lines, the Rock Garden is full of organic forms of rocks and trees, and yet constructed from the same material - concrete. The spaces are peopled with over three thousand sculptures of birds, humans, gods and animals, which Chand calls in Hindi a ‘devtyan de dunya’ (or ‘world of gods’). The figures have a raw energy: simplified forms with masklike faces, and arranged in vast groupings or long lines as if part of ceremonial rituals, a form of modern folk art. Although he is the creator and overseer of their formation Nek Chand has said that “nowadays people are calling me ‘artist’. I don’t like the word ‘artist’, only God pushed me to do the work. I never knew who would see it. I just made it for my own pleasure.” Visiting the Rock Garden in Chandigarh this spring and meeting Nek Chand, thanks to a British Council Connections Through Culture grant was a powerful experience: he is a man both humble, and yet clearly proud that his creative vision is enjoyed by so many. This summer over forty of these sculptures will be displayed in the courtyard and Garden Gallery of Pallant House Gallery, on loan from the Nek Chand Foundation, and reflecting the ethos of the Gallery’s flagship project Outside In. With the architectural backdrop of the Queen Anne townhouse and Colin St John Wilson’s modernist extension the Gallery’s courtyard garden is a formal setting. Designed by the award-winning minimalist garden designer Christopher Bradley-Hole, it is characterised by the hard lines of stone, slate and concrete. But whilst nothing can compare with seeing Nek Chand’s sculptures in the remarkable setting of his fantastical rock garden, it should be a unique setting in which to experience Nek Chand’s remarkable sculptures of Indian gods, warriors, tea-wallahs, animals and birds. Here in the perhaps unlikely setting of a Chichester courtyard Nek Chand’s sculptures powerfully demonstrate that creativity and intuition are not necessarily things that can be learned, but they can speak across cultures and appear in all kinds of unexpected settings. Nek Chand: The Rock Garden Sculptures will be on display in the Courtyard Garden and Garden Gallery at Pallant House Gallery from 13 June – 25 October 2015.

Kenneth Rowntree: A Strange Simplicity

Kenneth Rowntree: A Centenary Exhibition is on display in the De’Longhi Print Room from 22 July, touring from The Fry Art Gallery. Author Dr Alexandra Harris introduces the work of this most ‘English’ of 20th century artists.

Kenneth Rowntree, The Schoolroom, 1940, watercolour, © The Artist’s Estate c/o Moore-Gwyn Fine Art and Liss Llewellyn Fine Art.

One of the most appealing British artists of the midtwentieth century, Kenneth Rowntree knew how to tease, please and baffle, how to communicate joy without complacence, how to charm without any hint of preciousness. His pictures of ordinary English streets and fields, back-rooms of pubs, churches in Mexico and weathervanes in Nantucket are deeply satisfying works of art which point out new things in the world. He had an unerring feel for strange yet satisfying compositions in which everything is idiosyncratically alive and at the same time settled, iconic, and complete. He made big things small (York Minster a child’s building-block left on the horizon) and small things big (a tea-pot turned, improbably, into a Byzantine basilica). His colouring, in all its versatility, is pitch-perfect – from the mellow luminosity of his watercolours to the ludo-board reds and greens of his murals or the rich flash of electric blue which tells us the quality of the moonlight as it falls on a dormer window in Northumberland. Twelve years younger than John Piper, Edward Bawden, and Eric Ravilious (who taught him and became a friend), Rowntree had the advantage of knowing and responding to the work of a remarkable generation of artist-designers who opened new possibilities in English art. He also had the challenge of making his own way among these strong influences and, in the 1960s and 1970s, of bringing his love of places and solid objects to bear on the new kinds of contemporary art he enthusiastically embraced. 39

Kenneth Rowntree, The Duke's Head, Farnham Royal, 1940, watercolour, © The Artist’s Estate c/o Moore-Gwyn Fine Art and Liss Llewellyn Fine Art.

Kenneth Rowntree, West Front, Durham, 1976, screenprint on paper, © The Artist’s Estate c/o Moore-Gwyn Fine Art and Liss Llewellyn Fine Art.

Though he kept returning to the same motifs (transforming them so that visual rhymes appear across the gaps between pictures), and though his work was remarkably coherent across a long career, his range was tremendous. He was an English vernacular painter of platforms, rail-signals, tractors, leaning telegraph poles. He was a modernist designer who sat at an Isokon table orchestrating minimal forms; he was an international abstract artist; he was an intrepid world traveller whose pictures were as likely to include a koala bear as a Dorset hill figure. His way of seeing may have been singular but it was also generously expansive. John Piper admired his attention to unsung corners of the areas he visited, which was significant praise from a connoisseur of in-between places. ‘You always had an eye for things in the English countryside (and the Welsh – remembering Tremadoc) that needed noticing’ wrote Piper: ‘chapels, railway stations, odd painting of buildings and queer quoining of other buildings’. Looking at Rowntree’s chapels and sheep, it is easy to say ‘how English’. And it is right to do so: his style and subject-matter were informed by his Quaker upbringing in Yorkshire, and his affection

Kenneth Rowntree, Walled vegetable garden, Sussex, 1940, watercolour, © The Artist’s Estate c/o Moore-Gwyn Fine Art and Liss Llewellyn Fine Art.

for many kinds of English landscape showed in the range of his work for Recording Britain (Essex, Bedfordshire, Derbyshire) and his responsiveness to his various home grounds in Great Bardfield, Lindsell, Putney, Acomb and Corbridge. Even before he moved to the Tyne Valley, he was devoted to the wood engravings of Thomas Bewick, inheriting some of the same briskness, practicality and humour. It is only part of the story, however, to describe Rowntree as a ‘local’ artist: he was naturally adventurous, taking every opportunity to go somewhere new. His cultural loves were as much French as English; he was at home in the French language and in a French kitchen. More exploratory were his travels in America on a Ford Foundation Fellowship in 1958-9, criss-crossing the continent from New Mexico to Georgia to New England – where he was drawn to the plain and playful puritan folk art and made delightful pictures of whale-shaped weathervanes around Cape Cod. His trips to Venice in the 1960s inspired canvases of enigmatic, velvety blackness; the city of gilded masquerade lured the Yorkshire Quaker closer to the baroque than one might have expected. Later,

in 1986, just when the young David Hockney was collaging the signs and road-markings of Route 138 in Pearblossom Highway, Rowntree was in Australia painting yellow diamond-shaped road-signs as bright icons in open country. Wherever he went, Rowntree captured both the unfamiliarity of places and their relationship to things he knew. Heading into the Australian outback, he painted a road-sign as he would paint a rail signal at Clare in Essex or nautical markers at Swansea. Travelling on the tides of contemporary art he kept himself similarly oriented. When he made abstract constructions in the 1970s, collaging pieces of wooden tea-crate with stencilled letters, he was still the artist who loved lettering so much that he had once made meticulous watercolours of church boards where the whole ‘Credo’ was written out in gold-on-black. Firm in his convictions and craftsmanly in his understanding of visual sign languages, he found his own way. Kenneth Rowntree: A Centenary Exhibition runs in the De’Longhi Print Room from 22 July – 18 October 2015. This abridged version of an essay by Alexandra Harris appears in the accompanying catalogue, available in the Bookshop. 41

A Twist in Time As glass artist Michael Petry’s ‘A Twist in Time’ becomes the latest contemporary installation in the stairwell of the Queen Anne townhouse, the artist gives a poetic account of how his works reflect and relate to the historic setting for which they were created.

The breeze just outside the window, the light reflecting on the face of a golden mirror, the sound of a creaking wooden stair, the possibility, the notion, the belief you just saw the shadow of a ghost. And if you did see a spectre, who was it, and why are they haunting the grand stairs? Art is always a bit like that ghost, it exists in the mind of the viewer as much as in the physical matter that makes up the objects we gaze upon. Who made it, and the stories behind it, are just as mysterious to many. At Pallant House I am that ghost, or at least my work is. It is there on the stair. It is there on the wall. There in the case and always trying to catch your eye. Yet it does not reach out to embrace you or caress your face. Perhaps it tries to engage you in a conversation but the words are lost. The sound is muffled and perhaps we speak a different language. A Twist in Time hangs from the centre of the stairs, colourful glass spirals that reflect the wooden staves that hold up the hand rail, that your hand might even now be touching. Touch me, it whispers. But you dare not. You might break me. You might be caught with your hand furtively outreached. You might be seen, just like a ghost. The light passes through the spirals like it passes through a ghost. It is coloured and discoloured by that interaction, winding slowly down the stairs or climbing up them with a deeper breath. Bad Restorations hang quietly in the hall. They too attract the light, for they are mirrors, the mirrors of Dorian Gray, the man who sold his soul to never grow old,

but his portrait did. Like his own ghost, when he looked into a mirror he saw his own bad restoration, and the mirror shattered in horror. Dorian kept these mirrors from human sight, but now they hang, quietly reflecting you, the viewer, and possibly a sighting of his ghost. The gold glints, the silver reflects and the frames show the passage of much time, and we too look to mirrors to restore our image. But it is also always a bad restoration, for mirrors only show us the reverse of ourselves, never what others really see. And there are Ghosts, clear glass versions of the stair. They appear where they want, in a corner, in a vitrine, casually upon a table in the sun, and then they seem to disappear. They mix in. They blend into the beautiful background of the house. Are they remnants of the making process, the giving birth to the art, or are they the lost brothers and sisters of them; those that broke in the making; that shattered when they accidently hit the floor; those that met an untimely artistic death? No one ever really knows what a ghost is, or what art is. But how we love the mystery. Michael Petry’s A Twist in Time (2015) will be on display in the stairwell of the Queen Anne townhouse until spring 2016. To accompany the installation, an artist’s multiple entitled ‘The Eros Pin’ has been made by jeweller Jayne Jordan to Petry’s design. The handmade artwork in the form of an arrow can be worn as a unisex accessory. It is available in the Bookshop as a special limited edition of 10 in sterling silver patinated in bronze (£125, inc VAT) and as an unlimited edition in sterling silver (£35, inc VAT).

Michael Petry, Libation to Dionysus, 2014, 24k gold glazed porcelain bowl filled with red wine © Michael Petry. Installed as part of Petry's exhibition LIBATIONS for the 2014 Alentejo Trienal, Portugal

Art Views

Head of Learning and Community Sandra Peaty introduces Art Views, a new addition to the community programme which is dementia-friendly and open to all.

Art Views session © Oana Damir/Pallant House Gallery

Creating inclusive community spaces is a challenge to which museums and galleries across the world aspire. The Learning and Community Programme at Pallant House Gallery has long been recognised as a pioneer in this field but maintaining and developing the community is an ongoing process. One of our latest innovations is Art Views, an ongoing series of discussions that encourages stimulating conversations which emerge from looking in-depth at a small selection of artworks. Art Views was inspired by the ‘Meet Me’ project at MoMA, a programme that sees trained educators escort groups of people living with early to moderate stage dementia, and their caregivers, to observe and discuss selected artworks. While Art Views has similarly been designed to be dementia friendly, the sessions are open to all – not just those living with dementia. Art Views is about making people feel included in society, rather than ignored. It is part of the Gallery’s wider commitment, supporting people in the community, whatever their needs or circumstances, to access and enjoy the Gallery and its collections. Participants are introduced to 5-6 artworks from the Gallery's collection. An Artist Educator then facilitates a discussion, encouraging everyone to contribute their individual responses. As the discussion progresses it becomes clear that there are many different ways to talk about and look at art and – perhaps most importantly – there are no wrong answers. 45

Art Views session © Oana Damir/Pallant House Gallery

The one hour discussion is followed by tea and cake, giving participants the chance to socialise with each other. In only a few sessions we have already seen friendships begin to blossom. Art Views was introduced during the Living with Dementia Festival (April-June 2015) which aimed to encourage those living with dementia to engage with the diverse arts and cultural offerings in the Chichester region. As part of Chichester’s commitment to becoming a dementia friendly city, dementia friendly events including arts discussions, crafts workshops, cultural tours and talks were held around the city by the seven partners of the Chichester Cultural Learning Partnership - Pallant House Gallery, Chichester Cathedral, Chichester Festival Theatre, Fishbourne Roman Palace & Gardens, The Novium, The Otter Gallery and The Weald & Downland Open Air Museum. The importance of engaging in creative practices as part of living well with dementia is now widely acknowledged across the UK and we have seen first-hand that people living with dementia can still appreciate and discuss art in an eloquent and authoritative manner. Artist Educator Tim Gwyther, who has facilitated several Art Views discussions, says, “It’s not uncommon for people to be reticent about saying what they think about a work of art hanging in a gallery. It’s easy to end up thinking that your response counts for little against the weight of critical opinion that has led to the work being presented in the 46

gallery. But at Art Views, everyone has something to contribute and every opinion is valued.” This is backed by an evaluation by Arts 4 Dementia which challenged 17 arts organisations in London to develop an arts, culture and wellbeing strategy. The report concluded that ‘participating in the arts in group settings – in different ways and through different media – benefits people with dementia, the people who care for them and the organisations who offer these programmes, in a significant and profound way’. Looking to the future, Pallant House Gallery is committed to becoming dementia friendly. As Head of Learning and Community, I have been trained by The Alzheimer’s Society to be a Dementia Champion and will be holding regular one hour Dementia Friends information sessions for Gallery staff, volunteers and the public – look out for future sessions. We are also looking at further developing Art Views with creative workshops following the discussions. In addition, the existing Care for Art sessions are being opened up to carers to come along with the person they care for to have an enjoyable creative couple of hours together. Those who have recently stopped being carers are also welcome. Art Views take place once a month on a Thursday between 1pm-3.30pm. There is an additional session every other month on a Friday, 10.30am-12.30pm. See website for details. Places can be booked by calling 07788489536 or emailing community@pallant.org.uk.

CHI UNI FINE ART PALLANT HALF PAGE AD MAY 15 R 5_Layout 1 20/05/2015 12:26 Page 1

Visit our Department of Fine Art: Tuesday 30th June. For more information contact C.Hilton@chi.ac.uk MA Fine Art Exhibition: 8th -15th September. Come to our 2015 Open Days: • Saturday 3rd October • Saturday 17th October • Thursday 29th October

FIND OUT ABOUT OUR FINE ART COURSES www.chi.ac.uk/visit

YOUR COMMUNITY, YOUR UNIVERSITY

ANNA JAMES CHANCELLOR McARDLE lead a 22-strong ensemble

SAMUEL WEST

YOUNG CHEKHOV PLATONOV IVANOV THE SEAGULL

Chekhov’s early plays performed together for the first time. Enjoy all three over different days or as one intense theatrical experience on trilogy days.

SEE ALL 3 FROM £30

by ANTON CHEKHOV In new versions by DAVID HARE

28 September - 14 November cft.org.uk 01243 781312

New exhibition Opens 16 June

THE ART OF BEDLAM

RICHARD DADD Technical brilliance, fantasy and “criminal lunacy” make Dadd one of the most compelling artists of the 19th Century. This exhibition of intricate watercolours and fantastical fairy scenes is the first exhibition of Dadd’s works for over 40 years.

Discover something new at Watts Gallery - Artists’ Village today.

www.wattsgallery.org.uk 48

Richard Dadd. Bacchanalian Scene (1862). Oil on wood. Private Collection

Chairman of the Friends' Letter

When I wrote to all our Friends in April, I had no idea of what an incredibly generous response there would be and have been prompted by this to give you an overall summary of the Friends’ support for the Gallery during the past year. The Friends have donated over £80,000 towards the Gallery’s core activities and running costs, and a further £40,000 towards the expenses for our last three exhibitions: ‘The Scottish Colourist: J D Fergusson’, ‘Conscience and Conflict: British Artists and the Spanish Civil War’ and ‘Leon Underwood: Figure and Rhythm’. Thanks to the very generous support of the John Booth Charitable Trust and the Greenhalgh Family Trust, all the donations we have received recently from the Friends to the Gallery’s Catalyst endowment fund have been doubled. These donations will be match funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund, effectively quadrupling every donation. Thanks to all this support, we are now within sight of reaching our target to raise £1million. This will increase the value of the Gallery’s endowment fund to £2million, generating secure income of around £100,000 annually towards our core running costs. Chris Abbott, who has been running the Art Book Club for many years, is stepping down. He has been doing a wonderful job and deserves our great thanks. We welcome Jacintha Hutton, who worked as a literary agent for 25 years, and I feel sure her love of books and wealth of experience will provide interesting discussions to accompany the exhibitions.

Our July trip to Saltwood Castle, home of Lord Clark and his son the late Alan Clark MP, is now fully booked, but an exciting trip to Lille in Northern France run by Kirker Holidays next spring is now open for bookings details can be found on page 52. Lastly, it is with great sadness that I tell you of the death of Peter Lomas who, in his role as Chief Executive at Chichester District Council, played a vital part in the creation of Pallant House Gallery. He served for many years as a trustee of the Friends and was a passionate and generous supporter of the Gallery in every way. Find his obituary on page 50. Thank you all so much for your loyal support of Pallant House Gallery. It is thanks to you that the Gallery continues to build on its excellent reputation, putting on outstanding exhibitions which attract good reviews and hence many visitors. Lady Nicholas Gordon Lennox, Chairman of the Friends

Walter Sickert, The Fair at Night, c.1902–3, Oil on canvas, Touchstones Rochdale (Link4Life)

Obituary Peter Lomas 1933–2015

Rear facade and garden, Pallant House Gallery, circa. 2000

Peter Lomas was a member of the Friends’ Executive Committee for many years and Honorary Secretary of the Friends until his retirement in 2006. Peter was Chief Executive of Chichester District Council from 1973 to 1988. In the late 1970’s he was approached by Walter Hussey, Dean of Chichester Cathedral, with the offer of his collection of Modern British art on the condition that it was hung in Pallant House, the Grade 1 listed Queen Anne townhouse. At the time Pallant House was being used as council offices, with Peter’s office on the first floor, and he always believed that the house should be restored and saved. Despite much opposition from members of the Council at the time, Peter’s passion and determination ensured that his vision - the restoration of Pallant House and the opening of an art gallery in Chichester displaying Modern British art in a historic house was achieved. Peter was responsible for bringing a number of influential people together, including Philip Stroud and Dr Betty Murray. Together they formed the Friends of Pallant House and set about raising the necessary funds to open the Gallery in 1982. There is no doubt that without Peter’s vision and passion, Pallant House Gallery might never have become a reality and the historic house would not have been restored. Peter achieved many things for Chichester and the district during his tenure as Chief Executive but he often said that the creation of Pallant House Gallery was his most proud achievement. He continued to be a passionate supporter and great ambassador for the

Pallant House Gallery Friends

Gallery and the new wing. Peter and his wife Merle joined the Gallery’s Patrons scheme and, in addition, supported the Catalyst Appeal to increase the value of the Gallery’s endowment fund, helping to secure the future of Pallant House Gallery for generations to come. Peter will be greatly missed not only by his family but by everyone at Pallant House Gallery. We owe him a huge debt of gratitude for all that he achieved and his legacy lives on in the Gallery today. If anyone is interested in learning more about becoming a Patron or how to support the Catalyst Appeal, please contact Elaine Bentley, Head of Development on 01243 770844/e.bentley@pallant.org.uk.

What's On Friends’ Events Find the rest of the public programme including workshops in the What's On guide or online at www.pallant.org.uk To book telephone 01243 774557

Our monthly Friends’ events bulletin is sent out the second Wednesday of each month. If you have not already signed up for this, you can email the Friends’ Office Manager, Mary Ambrose at m.ambrose@pallant.org.uk who will be happy to subscribe you to the e-bulletin.

Exhibition Tour Sickert in Dieppe Weds 8 July, 11am – 12pm British artist Walter Sickert’s (1860–1942) fascination with the fashionable French seaside resort of Dieppe formed a bridge between British painters and the development of modern art on the continent. An exclusive tour for Friends will be conducted by exhibition curator, Katy Norris. Booking required through Reception. £5.50 (£3 Student Friends includes refreshments) Walter Sickert, The System, 1924–6, Oil and linen on canvas, Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh.

Private View Sickert in Dieppe Sat 4 July, 10–11 am The Friends Private View with a short talk by the exhibition’s curator takes place on a Saturday, allowing Friends to see exhibitions before they open to the public. All Friends are welcome at this special preview event. Due to the popularity of this event, please RSVP to Mary Ambrose at m.ambrose@pallant.org.uk. Free (please RSVP) (includes refreshments)

Pallant Proms: Ilya Kondratiev 26 Sept, 12pm – 1pm Our series of recitals by students from the Recital Class at the Royal College of Music continues. Ilya Kondratiev will be performing Prokofiev’s Sonata No.7, Op.83 and Scarlatti 3 Sonatas K466, K27, K141. Visit the website for more information. F riends free (donations invited) (non-Friends £7) Tickets on sale at Reception De’Longhi Behind the Scenes Talk Tues 13 Oct, 10.30am – 12pm The third of a series of talks to find out what goes on behind the scenes, hearing staff talk about their roles at the Gallery. Marc Steene, Executive Director of Pallant House Gallery, will be talking about his role. Booking required through Reception. £5.50 (£3 Student Friends)(includes refreshments)

Events Annual General Meeting of the Friends Mon 27 July, 6pm All Friends are welcome to attend. The meeting will take place in Room 11, followed by wine in the Garden Gallery. Free (no booking required)(includes refreshments) Art Views Fri 24 July, Fri 25 Sept, Fri 27 Nov 10.30am – 12pm Give yourself time to look at, interpret and discuss 5–6 artworks from the Gallery collections with other Friends. Booking required. £3.50 (refreshments to follow in the Studio)

Friends Events continue on the next page.

Pallant House Gallery Friends

Art Book Club

Trip

This season Gallery Guide Jacintha Hutton takes over from Chris Abbott running the Book Club. After 25 years working for two of the foremost literary agencies, Jacintha set up her own agency, Jacintha Alexander Associates in 1983, and in 1995, she joined the Art Fund as the Sussex representative for seven years.

Northern France Fri 8 – Mon 12 April 2016 An exclusive trip for Friends to Northern France, organised by Kirker Holidays and based at the 4-Star Carlton Hotel in Lille. The trip will include tours of the many outstanding fine art galleries in the area, including Louvre-Lens, the Musées des Beaux-Arts in Lille and Arras, and the Matisse Museum in Le Cateau-Cambresis. Tour guide Christopher Monckton is one of Kirker’s most experienced and popular tour lecturers. £1,050 per person, based on two people sharing a superior double/twin room (£200 single supplement). Price includes return standard class Eurostar, four nights’ accommodation with breakfast, one dinner at a local restaurant, two drinks parties, the services of the Kirker Tour Lecturer and all entrance fees and gratuities. For further information and to register your interest, please contact Lucy Ayling on 020 7593 2284 or email lucy.ayling@kirkerholidays.com.

Patricia Cornwell: ‘Chasing the Ripper’ (2014) Sun 20 September, 2.30–4pm As a postscript to the Walter Sickert exhibition this controversial book by the distinguished thriller writer Patricia Cornwell is bound to raise a lively debate. The author has been obsessed by the subject of her story for many years. £5.50 for Friends (Friends of Friends £8)

PATRONS OF THE GALLERY We are immensely grateful to the following Patrons of Pallant House Gallery, and to all those who wish to remain anonymous, for their generous support: Judy Addison Smith Keith Allison Lady Susan Anstruther John and Annoushka Ayton David and Elizabeth Benson Edward and Victoria Bonham Carter Vanessa Branson Ronnie and Margaret Brown Patrick K F Donlea Frank and Lorna Dunphy Lewis Golden Paul and Kay Goswell

Mr and Mrs Scott Greenhalgh Mr and Mrs Alan Hill Andrew Jones and Laura Hodgson James and Clare Kirkman Peter and Merle Lomas José and Michael Manser ra Keith and Deborah Mitchelson Robin Muir and Paul Lyon-Maris Angie O'Rourke Denise Patterson Simon and Harriet Patterson Catherine and Franck Petitgas

If you are interested in becoming a Patron of Pallant House Gallery please contact Elaine Bentley on 01243 770844 or e.bentley@pallant.org.uk

Charles Rolls and Jans Ondaatje Rolls Mr and Mrs David Russell Sophie and David Shalit Tania Slowe and Paddy Walker John and Fiona Smythe Mr & Mrs Michael Weston Tim and Judith Wise John Young André Zlattinger

What's On Gallery Events Find the complete public programme of talks, events and workshops in the What's On guide or online at www.pallant.org.uk To book telephone 01243 774557

Talks All talks £10, Friends £8.50, Students £9 (unless otherwise stated). A wine reception supported by the Friends of Pallant House Gallery will follow each talk. St Ives, Europe Thurs 2 July, 6pm In this illustrated talk Prof. Brandon Taylor, Emeritus Professor at the University of Southampton, will consider the place of St Ives modernism within the wider compass of European post-war art, and the collection formed by George and Ann Dannatt as a result of their travels in Cornwall and further afield. He will discuss questions of style, regionalism and the major artistic changes governing the visual arts in the period of their collecting activity. A signing of the newly published catalogue will follow. Uncovering Sickert’s Dieppe, Curator’s Stories Thurs 16 July, 6pm Through an extraordinary range of subjects, Sickert expressed his enduring fascination with everyday life in Dieppe that spanned over four decades. Katy Norris, Curator at Pallant House Gallery, tells the stories involved in tracking down

more than 80 paintings, prints and drawings lent from public and private collections throughout the UK and France. A signing of the accompanying catalogue will follow. Back and Forth across the Channel: Sickert’s Networks in Dieppe Thurs 23 July, 6pm Sickert cemented some of his most memorable friendships while staying in Dieppe. From summer 1885, Jacques-Émile Blanche and Edgar Degas introduced him to a Paris art world far beyond the reach of many British artists. Anna Gruetzner Robins will explore how Dieppe became a meeting point for some of the successive communities of artists and writers, through which Sickert fostered his growing commitment to internationalism. Nek Chand: The Rock Garden Sculptures Thurs 30 July, 6pm John Maizels, Founder of Raw Vision magazine and Trustee of the Nek Chand Foundation, delves into the working practice of selftaught Outsider artist Nek Chand.

Sickert: A Life Thurs 10 September, 6pm Sickert was a man of contradictions: a radical reactionary, a reclusive socialite, a traditionalist and an innovator, a philanderer who believed in the sanctity of marriage, an internationalist grounded in the heart of the English school. Drawing upon his celebrated biography of the artist, Matthew Sturgis will discuss Sickert’s colourful life, capturing the spirit of a man whose influence remains visible in the work of artists today. Kenneth Rowntree A Voyage to the Interior Thurs 24 September, 6pm One of the most appealing British artists of the mid-twentieth century, Kenneth Rowntree knew how to communicate ‘joy in the commonplace’. Alan Powers explores the identity of an artist whose work from the 1930s to the 1980s shows great variety yet inner consistency in its exploration of a quiet world of visual delight. A signing of the publication produced to coincide with the exhibition will follow.

Screenings Film Screening and Talk: Steve Wright’s House of Dreams Thurs 27 August, 6pm Echoing Nek Chand’s fascination with found objects, this is the story of Stephen Wright’s remarkable house in East Dulwich, London. The ‘House of Dreams’ is filled with discarded objects of everyday life; milk bottle tops, broken dolls, dolls eyeballs, the contents of Christmas crackers, false teeth, pen lids, crockery, and the rich pickings of a car boot sales. £10 (Friends £8.50, Students £9) 53

Film Screening: Walter Sickert and the Theatre of War Thurs 3 September, 6pm Duration 59 minutes Andrew Graham-Dixon tells the story of Walter Sickert, who understood that the theatre of war was not confined to the trenches. This screening is another opportunity to see the documentary previously aired by the BBC and produced by Daniel Katz Productions. £10 (Friends £8.50, Students £9)

Special Events 1696 Stradivarius Concert Sat 11 July, 6pm This year’s 1696 Stradivarius concert performed by the Bernardi Music Group will be on a French theme to coincide with the Sickert in Dieppe exhibition including music by Debussy, Saint-Saens and Rave. Andrew Bernardi will lead on the Stradivarius and be joined by Maria Marchant on piano, Jonathan Few on cello and Bruce Martin on flute. Tickets £60 to include drinks and canapé reception Sickert in his Time Thurs 1 October, 6pm Sickert was one of a number of British artists who were drawn to Impressionism and the cultural life of France. Tim Gwyther and Terry Barfoot will explore the artistic background to his life through the ‘impressionist’ music of Debussy, Ravel and Delius and the work of fellow painters such as Degas and Whistler. £10 (Friends £8.50, Students £9)

Outside In Poetry Event Thurs 8 October, 6–8pm Hosted by Outside In to mark World Mental Health Day 2015, this free poetry event will include performances by two disabled poets and eight open mic slots. If you would like to read at the event, please contact h.whitlock@pallant. org.uk or call 01243 770845. Free

Courses Making Sense of Modern British Art Every Tuesday for five weeks from 25 August, 10.30am – 1pm A five-week introduction to modern art in Britain led by Val and Frank Woodgate, placing the Gallery’s rich permanent collection into the context of artistic developments in Britain and Europe. Each class will give a complete picture of a specific area of early modern British art through an illustrated lecture and Q&A discussion. Classes are available to book individually or as a complete course. See the What’s On leaflet or website for more information. Price per session £30 (Friends £25), full 5-week course £130 (Friends £100) (includes tea, coffee and pastries)

Exhibition Tours £5.50 (£3 students) plus admission Sickert in Dieppe Thurs 17 September, 6pm Curator Katy Norris leads an illuminating tour of the Sickert in Dieppe exhibition, which will explore the importance of Dieppe as a creative place where Sickert developed his subject matter and techniques.

St Ives and British Modernism Sat 5 September, 3pm Gallery Guide Jacintha Hutton leads a tour of the Gallery’s George and Ann Dannatt Gift which features works by key St Ives Group figures including Terry Frost, Patrick Heron, John Wells, Peter Lanyon, and John Tunnard.

Gallery Tours Collection Tours Every Sat and Sun, 2pm A half-hour guided tour providing fascinating insights into our collections and displays. Whether exploring themes such as portraits or landscape, or telling stories behind particular artworks, each week is different. Free with admission, meet at Reception

Other Events Toovey’s Valuation Afternoon Mon 28 September, 12–4pm at Pallant House Gallery Bring your arts, antiques or collectables to the Gallery for free valuations and advice from Toovey’s specialists. A third of the seller’s commission for items subsequently auctioned at Toovey’s will be donated to Pallant House Gallery. Macmillan Coffee Morning Fri 25 September, 10am – 12pm Come along to Pallant House Gallery’s French-themed ‘World’s Biggest Coffee Morning’ in aid of Macmillan Cancer Support with tea coffee and cakes.

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YOUR LEGACY TO ART

Advert If you have been inspired by Pallant House Gallery, why not consider leaving a legacy in your Will? A gift, however small, will help us maintain our pioneering Community work, innovative exhibition programmes and help conserve the Collections for future generations to enjoy. Thanks to a new government initiative, by leaving at least 10% of your estate to charity, the rate of Inheritance Tax applicable to the rest of your estate is reduced to 36%. Therefore, by giving to Pallant House Gallery you could benefit your beneficiaries as well. All legacies are paid into the Galleryâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s endowment fund which, until 30 June 2016, will be matched pound for pound with a grant from the HLF Catalyst Endowment Fund. To discuss leaving a legacy to Pallant House Gallery, please contact Elaine Bentley, Head of Development (01243 770844 / e.bentley@pallant.org.uk). Thank you.

Paul Catherall, Pallant, 2006, Linocut on paper, Courtesy of the artist, ÂŠ Paul Catherall

BOOKSHOP All books are available to buy online at our website www.pallantbookshop.com To keep up to date with our newest Titles, offers and exhibition books and products, sign up to our mailing list in store or on our website. Telephone 01243 781293

FRANK AUERBACH: SPEAKING & PAINTING BY CATHERINE LAMBERT This newly published book, drawn from conversations between Auerbach and author Catherine Lampert—Auerbach’s sitter for more than twenty years—is the first in-depth look at the artist’s long career, written by a personal friend. £19.95

SICKERT IN DIEPPE Fully illustrated catalogue published to accompany the Pallant House Gallery exhibition Sickert in Dieppe. £19.95 (Cover and price not yet confirmed) ST. IVES & BRITISH MODERNISM: THE GEORGE & ANN DANNATT COLLECTION Illustrated with a wide range of works from the Dannatt and other collections, together with fascinating archive material, this book present a view of British post-war modernism from the point of view of those most closely involved. Exhibition Price £16.95 (RRP £19.95) (Cover not yet confirmed)

THE EROS PIN BY MICHAEL PETRY To accompany Michael Petry’s ‘A Twist in Time’ installation in the Queen Anne townhouse, an artist’s multiple entitled ‘The Eros Pin’ has been made by jeweller Jayne Jordan to Petry’s design. The handmade artwork in the form of an arrow can be worn as a unisex accessory. Available from the Bookshop as a special limited edition of 10 in sterling silver patinated in bronze (£125, inc VAT) and as an unlimited edition in sterling silver (£35, inc VAT).

LIMITED EDITION CELIA PAUL PRINT Exclusive to Pallant House Gallery, this print entitled ‘Room’ has been commissioned to coincide with the Sickert in Dieppe exhibition. From a limited edition of 50. £420

NEW ROBERT STEWART DESIGN RANGE A beautiful new range of cushions, tea towels, greetings cards & limited edition wall hangings, all featuring original textile designs by Robert Stewart. From £3

LUCIAN FREUD ON PAPER Charting works on paper including etchings from Lucian Freud’s entire career, this beautifully illustrated hardback book provides even deeper insights into the work of the greatest figurative artist of our time. Was £50 Now £24.95

KENNETH ROWNTREE: A CENTENARY EXHIBITION This catalogue accompanies the first comprehensive retrospective exhibition devoted to Kenneth Rowntree since his death in 1997. The exhibition places Rowntree’s work in the wider context of Pallant House Gallery’s collection of Modern British art, including abstract and Pop artists of the 1950s and 60s with whom he taught at the Royal College of Art and Newcastle University. £20

CAMBRIDGE IMPRINT Beautiful new range of artist papers, greetings cards, sketchbooks and more, from a small design partnership based in Cambridge. From £2.50

Artwork in Focus The Returned Seaman, 1973 (From linocut, 1949) by Peter Lanyon

Peter Lanyon, The Returned Seaman, lithograph (printed 1973) from a linocut, 1949, Pallant House Gallery (The George and Ann Dannatt Gift,2011). © Estate of Peter Lanyon

Born in 1918 and raised in Cornwall, Peter Lanyon grew up in the midst of the pre-war St Ives artistic community and knew well its traditional painters and sculptors as well as those modernists, such as Naum Gabo and Ben Nicholson, who chose to shelter there during the war. For much of the 1940s he followed the modernists’ methods of abstraction, especially the fluid geometry of Gabo’s work as he saw it reflected in the shapes and forms of the landscape of the coast. Yet it was to more local imagery that Lanyon returned at the end of the war-time decade. A large linocut The Returned Seaman (1949), conceived on the scale of a medium-size painting, reverts to the ancient drama of the returning fisherman but in a graphic language that owes much to an innate affinity between medieval and modern style. Lanyon’s break-through painting of those years, The Cape Family, made in stages between 1947 and 1949 (now in the collection of the Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth) shows upright figures carved into the painting’s surface in just the manner in which a native Cornishman would see the standing granite rocks of Cornwall as they project into the sea. The truth of Lanyon’s remark that The Cape Family followed the physical form of ‘primitive carving and ivories, also medieval manuscripts’ can be seen in the 1949 linocut - both in its method of being made, its imagery, but also in its spatial scheme. We see a female figure on the left whose naked lying/standing form manages to combine an aerial view of the land with an 60

earth-bound scene below. The returned seaman, on the right, now safely within the confines of the harbour (most probably Porthleven) is likewise a standing figure in addition to being the form of the harbour itself. In the centre a horse, symbol of the instincts, grazes in a field as well as helping animate pictorial relations between the seaman and his wife. In fact, the extent of Lanyon’s complex imbrication of figural drama, land and sea can be seen in those versions of the linocut that have been hand-coloured by the artist; they show the woman, the field, some pathways and the harbour boats in yellow-ochre, hence legible as dry land, with the carved channels either side of the male figure and most of the areas between him and the woman, including the crossshape, in blue, hence legible as water. Soon after the completion of a set of linocuts on the theme of Cornish mining, also of 1949, Lanyon began work on what would prove to be his most important early paintings in the idiom that The Returned Seaman prefigures and that he could take pride in calling his own: Porthleven of 1951 and St Just of 1953 (both Tate, London). An art of powerful pictorial and spatial contrasts, symbolic pertinence, and a strongly-felt sense of place, had been born. Professor Brandon Taylor, author of this essay and of the St Ives and British Modernism: The George and Ann Dannatt catalogue, will be giving a talk entitled ‘ St Ives, Europe’ on Thurs 2 July, 6pm. This artwork is also the subject of the Artwork of the Month Talk and Workshop on Weds 26 August.

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