Classicism in British Art The Mythic Method: Classicism in British Art Pablo Bronstein: Wall Pomp Prints for the Pub: The Guinness Lithographs Hans Feibusch: The Unseen Drawings Ian Hamilton Finlay: Neoclassicism and Revolution
£2 Number 40 Oct 2016 – Feb 2017 pallant.org.uk
MARGARET MELLIS 1914-2009
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Contents Features
William Roberts, Sunbathing, c.1936, oil on canvas, private collection © Estate of John David Roberts
You can find full details of our latest events programme in the What's On guide. The latest news, exhibitions and events can be found online at www.pallant.org.uk Facebook “f ” Logo
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The Mythic Method: Classicism in British Art Simon Martin Pablo Bronstein: Wall Pomp Anna Zeuner Hans Feibusch: A Classicism Hardly Won Monica Bohm-Duchen The Guinness Lithographs Emma Mason Ian Hamilton Finlay: Neoclassicism and Revolution Prudence Carlson
Friends 41 42
Chairman's Letter Friends Events
Regulars 7 11 15 44 46 48
Co-Directors' Letter Exhibitions Diary Gallery News Gallery Events Bookshop Artwork in Focus
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Contributors
With thanks
EDITORIAL Editor Anna Zeuner, a.zeuner@pallant.org.uk Sub Editor Beth Funnell Gallery Editorial Elaine Bentley, Simon Martin, Katy Norris, Sarah Norris, Marc Steene Guest Editorial Monica Bohm-Duchen, Pablo Bronstein Prudence Carlson, Emma Mason Friends' Editorial Lady Nicholas Gordon Lennox, Mary Ambrose Design, Editing and Production David Wynn
THE MYTHIC METHOD IS GENEROUSLY SUPPORTED BY The John S Cohen Foundation The Idlewild Trust The Henry Moore Foundation Toovey's Antique & Fine Art Auctioneers The Mythic Method Supporters’ Circle Sanderson
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 Tues–Sat 10am–5pm Thurs 10am–8pm Sun/Bank Holidays 11am–5pm Monday Closed FRIENDS' OFFICE +44 (0)1243 770816 friends@pallant.org.uk BOOKSHOP +44 (0)1243 781293 shop@pallantbookshop.com www.pallantbookshop.com PALLANT RESTAURANT AND CAFÉ +44 (0)1243 770827 pallantrestaurantandcafe.co.uk Entrance via East Pallant when Gallery is closed. Tues–Weds 9am–5pm Thurs–Sat 9am–Late Sun/Bank Holidays 11am–5pm Monday Closed
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LOTHAR GÖTZ SUPPORTER The Abbey Harris Mural Fund
Headline Sponsor of the Gallery 2016
Collection displays are supported by
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.
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Keith Vaughan (1912-1977), Hillside Assembly, gouache on paper, 52 x 41cm, auctioned for £12,000 in our March fine paintings sale
INVITATION TO CONSIGN Entries are invited for our December 2016 and March 2017 fine paintings sales The leading antique and fine art auction house in West Sussex
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Co-Directors' Letter
Meredith Frampton, Still Life (1932), oil on canvas © Royal Academy of Arts, London; Photographer: John Hammond
This season much of our programme addresses the question of how modern art relates to the past whilst speaking to the present. Our major exhibition ‘The Mythic Method: Classicism in British Art 1920–1950’ is the first to reveal how Greco-Roman myth, literature and sculpture inspired Modern British artists including celebrated figures such as Edward Burra, Eric Ravilious, Henry Moore and Wyndham Lewis as well as overlooked figures such as Augustus Lunn and Ithell Colquhoun. Alongside this we present a complementary exhibition of prints and sculptures by the celebrated Scottish Concrete Poet Ian Hamilton Finlay (1925-2006), whose work engaged with Neoclassicism and imagery from the French Revolution. A new contemporary commission in the historic townhouse by Pablo Bronstein features an ambitious series of playful wallpapers inspired by classical architecture and decorative arts, providing a new backdrop for the Gallery’s collections. In the Courtyard Laura Ford’s sculpture installation ‘Beauty in the Beast’ continues with new relevance to the winter programme, in particular her much-loved Behemoth figure based on classical statues of Hercules and in the stairwell Lothar Götz’s ‘Composition for a Staircase’ provides a blast of colour in the winter months. In the De’Longhi Print Room we tell the forgotten story of the Guinness Lithographs, designed by artists of the 1950s including Barnett Freedman, Edward Ardizzone and Carel Weight for display in pubs, bars and canteens to publicise the Guinness Book of Records. In January, on show for the very first time, a display
of exquisite classical drawings and mural studies by the German émigré artist Hans Feibusch will follow, drawn from the Gallery’s unrivalled collection. Two exhibitions showcase our collection in London this season. In October during Frieze London a unique exhibition at Bonhams’ New Bond Street HQ, centred around Michael Andrews’ iconic painting Colony Room 1 (1962) and drawn entirely from our collection, tells the story of the legendary drinking club frequented by artists such as Francis Bacon and Lucian Freud. From January, alongside eight other Sussex museums and galleries, an exhibition at Two Temple Place will explore what drew radical artists and major collectors to the county in the first half of the 20th century. We reflect on a year of celebrations marking the 10th anniversary of the Gallery’s contemporary wing and Outside In, the award-winning project for which Marc Steene, as its founder, has been awarded a Fellowship of the RSA. We sadly say goodbye to our Curator Katy Norris this autumn as she leaves to undertake a PhD on women artists. Katy curated several of our most successful exhibitions, including Sickert in Dieppe and the recent Christopher Wood: Sophisticated Primitive and we wish her continued success in the future. We look forward to an exciting year ahead in 2017, with major exhibitions on Victor Pasmore, Sidney Nolan, John Minton and David Bomberg. Wishing you a wonderful Christmas season and 2017. Marc Steene, Executive Director and Simon Martin, Artistic Director 7
K I R K E R MU S IC HOL I D AY S F O R D I S C E R N I N G T R AV E L L E R S
Kirker Holidays offers an extensive range of holidays for music lovers. These include our own exclusive opera and chamber music festivals on land and at sea and tours to leading festivals in Europe.
THE KIRKER MUSIC FESTIVAL, TENERIFE A SEVEN NIGHT HOLIDAY | 21 JANUARY 2017
Our second exclusive music festival in Tenerife will include a series of six concerts featuring Tim Horton and the Leonore Piano Trio, flamenco guitarist Juan Martin, and violist and composer Simon Rowland-Jones. Staying at the 5* Hotel Botanico, surrounded by lush tropical gardens in an unspoilt part of this volcanic island, we shall also enjoy a programme of fascinating excursions. Highlights include the Sitio Litro Orchid Garden, a cable car journey to the peak of Mount Teide and a visit to the primeval cloud forest of the Anaga Mountains. We will also visit historic and picturesque villages along the spectacular north coast, including Garachico with its 17th century convent. Price from ÂŁ2,395 per person for seven nights including return flights, transfers, accommodation with breakfast, six dinners, six private concerts, all sightseeing, entrance fees and gratuities and the services of the Kirker Tour Leader.
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Autumn at Zimmer Stewart Gallery
Blue Sky by Phil Tyler oil on canvas 100 x 100 cm
No1 Cornhill (from Wapping) by Piers Ottey oil on canvas 125 x 115 cm
8 to 29 October - “Green Sussex Fading into Blue” - new downland paintings by Phil Tyler - at 29 Tarrant Street, Arundel, West Sussex, BN18 9DG 15 to 29 November - “Sempre Endavant, Mai Morirem (Piers Sera Toujours Piers)” - new London, Sussex and Collioure paintings by Piers Ottey plus a motorbike! - at the Menier Gallery, 51 Southwark Street, London, SE1 1 RU 3 to 24 December - Our annual Christmas Mixed Exhibition in Arundel See our website for more information and details of other exhibitions in 2016
Contemporary Art in Sussex since 2003 See website for opening times 29 Tarrant Street, Arundel, West Sussex, BN18 9DG 01903 882063 info@zimmerstewart.co.uk
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Exhibitions Diary
Meredith Frampton, Marguerite Kelsey, 1928, oil on canvas, © Tate, London 2015
The Mythic Method: Classicism in British Art 1920-1950 22 October 2016 – 19 February 2017 A major exhibition exploring how Modern British artists drew on classical myth and ideals in a ‘return to order’ following the First World War. Featuring playful and Surreal versions of Greek myths from the 1920s and 30s by the likes of John Armstrong, William Roberts and Edward Burra; idealised depictions of stylish contemporary goddesses by Meredith Frampton, Dod Procter and Wyndham Lewis; studies for ambitious mural schemes by Vanessa Bell, Duncan Grant and Eric Ravilious; and classically inspired sculptures by Frank Dobson, Henry Moore and Glyn Philpot, the exhibition gives a fascinating new insight into how modern art met with tradition in an era of social and political change in the early 20th century. Rooms 12–16 Pablo Bronstein: Wall Pomp 22 October 2016 – 19 February 2017 An ambitious installation by the Argentinianborn artist Pablo Bronstein provides the latest contemporary intervention in the stairwell of the Gallery’s historic townhouse. Reflecting his enduring fascination with architecture, Bronstein has created a series of panoramic wallpapers featuring heavily decorated architectural landscapes that will disrupt the sense of history and space of the house, whilst providing a bold response to its past domesticity. Stairwell (Rooms 3 and 4 until February)
Prints for the Pub: The Guinness Lithographs 19 October 2016 – 15 January 2017 An exhibition of forgotten vintage prints by popular artists of the 1950s designed for display in pubs, bars and canteens to promote the 1955 Guinness Book of Records. Including works by Barnett Freedman, Carel Weight, Edward Ardizzone and Edwin LaDell, each print illustrates a subject that would appeal to the working classes, from records in darts, football and cycling, to the world’s heaviest woman, longest pleasure pier and busiest port. In association with Emma Mason Prints. The De’Longhi Print Room
Alistair Grant, Pigeon Racing, 1962, colour lithograph, © The Estate of the Artist
Ian Hamilton Finlay: Neoclassicism and Revolution 22 October 2016 – 19 February 2017 A display of prints and multiples by the contemporary Scottish artist and Concrete Poet Ian Hamilton Finlay (1925–2006), best known for his celebrated garden at Little Sparta. His work engaged with themes drawn from classical writers such as Virgil and the French Revolution. Room 17 Hans Feibusch: The Unseen Drawings 18 January – 5 March 2017 An exhibition of exquisite classical figure drawings and mural studies by the German émigré artist, dubbed a ‘Degenerate artist’ by the Nazis. Drawn from the substantial archive gifted to Pallant House Gallery from Feibusch’s London studio, these remarkable drawings have never previously been exhibited. The De’Longhi Print Room 11
Exhibitions Diary
Studio exhibitions Triple Helix 2–27 November 2016 An exhibition of works by Partners in Art partnership Rob Russell, Lillian French and Jacqui Cavalier. Three completely different artists who get on well. Three strands of humanity bound together by art. Community Programme Fundraising Exhibition 29 November 2016 – 26 February 2017 A changing display of artwork donated by Community Programme participants will be on sale to raise vital funds to support many aspects of the Community Programme including Partners in Art and the Pallant Creative Collective.
Lothar Gotz, Composition for a Staircase, 2016, Photo by Andy Keate
Lothar Götz: Composition for a Staircase Ongoing A site-specific mural by German abstract artist Lothar Götz (b.1963), commissioned to mark the 10th anniversary of the Gallery’s contemporary wing. Influenced by Kandinsky, the Bauhaus and Ben Nicholson, Götz’s large-scale geometric murals create an intuitive dialogue with the architecture and social function of a space. Stairwell of the new wing Laura Ford: Beauty in the Beast Until February 2017 An installation by leading contemporary sculptor Laura Ford (b.1961) featuring her recognisable fantasy figures. Espaliered Girl (2007), Lion (2014) and Behemoth (2016) form a conversation with the formal architecture of the Courtyard alongside a series of ceramic sculptures and drawings in the Garden Gallery. Courtyard Garden and Garden Gallery NOA Winners’ Exhibition 6–18 December 2016 An opportunity to see the winning works from the National Open Art competition 2016, one of the UK’s leading open art competitions administered by the Chichester Art Trust. Room 11 12
Insight: A Collaborative Partnership 28 February – 26 March 2017 An exhibition documenting a three-month partnership between an Outside In artist and a University of Chichester Alumni student where skills, ideas, insights and life stories have all been worked with and shared.
Collection Displays Pallant House Gallery’s collection of Modern British art is frequently described as one of the best in the UK. It includes important works by Henry Moore, Barbara Hepworth, Lucian Freud, Walter Sickert, John Piper, Peter Blake and many more. This season our curated displays include British Surrealism, Nature Morte, post-war portraits and a display marking the centenary of the birth of Sussex abstract artist Kit Barker (1916–1988). Free tours of the collection led by our knowledgeable Gallery Guides take place every Saturday at 2pm. Free with admission, meet at Reception. Collection displays are supported by
OCTOBER
Graham Dean Solo Show Dean’s first solo exhibition in his home town of Brighton for 20 years co-incides with the launch of a major book on Dean from Unicorn Publishing. NOV/DEC
Winter Show A mixed show of gallery artists. For more details visit
CAMERONCONTEMPORARY.COM Monday to Saturday from 10.30am—5pm. Sunday and Bank Holidays from 12pm—5pm (closed on Tuesdays) 1 Victoria Grove, 2nd Avenue, Hove BN3 2LJ TELEPHONE 01273 727234 EMAIL info@cameroncontemporary.com
GALLERY OPEN
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Gallery News
NEW WAYS TO DONATE As an independent charity and with public funding increasingly hard to come by, the Gallery depends on your support to care for our world-class permanent collection, develop our award-winning learning and community programme, and deliver exceptional exhibitions. This season we are introducing two new ways to donate to Pallant House Gallery. There will be a contactless donation point allowing cashless donations to be made in the gallery spaces during your visit, and you can now donate by text via your mobile phone – to donate £5, text PHGC001 to 70970, and to donate £10, text PHGC001 to 70191. No matter how small, we are hugely appreciative of any support which is an investment into the future of the Gallery.
SUSSEX MODERNISM IN LONDON EXHIBITION From January 2017 an exhibition at Two Temple Place, London is being mounted by the Bulldog Trust in partnership with nine Sussex museums and galleries, examining how radical artists were drawn to the picturesque county in the first half of the 20th century. Sussex was home to major artists and collectors such as the Bloomsbury Group at Charleston, Edward James with his surrealist connections at West Dean, Roland Penrose and Lee Miller at Farley Farm House and the arts and craft community of Ditchling that included Eric Gill and David Jones. Drawing on these and other significant collections of modernist art including that of Pallant House Gallery, Towner Art Gallery, Brighton Museum and Art Gallery, De La Warr Pavilion and Jerwood Gallery, the exhibition explores how distinct creative communities formed, grounded in artistic innovation that reflected the political, sexual and domestic experimentation of the time. ‘Sussex Modernism: Retreat and Rebellion’, curated by Dr Hope Wolf from the University of Sussex, runs from 28 January until 23 April 2017. Entry is free. Closed on Tuesdays. Visit www.twotempleplace.org.
Michael Andrews, Colony Room 1, 1962, oil on board © The Estate of Michael Andrews, courtesy of James Hyman Gallery, London
EXHIBITION AT BONHAMS CELEBRATES THE COLONY ROOM A major exhibition of works from Pallant House Gallery chronicling the life and times of the legendary Colony Room is to be held at Bonhams from 2–11 October 2016. Showcasing some of the finest works in our collection during Frieze London the exhibition tells the story of the famous Soho drinking club, a magnet for writers and artists in post-war London, through paintings such as Lucian Freud’s Self-Portrait with Hyacinth in Pot (1947-8), Frank Auerbach’s Oxford Street Building Site (1960), Michael Andrews’ Colony Room I (1962) and Richard Hamilton’s Swingeing London ’67 (1968).
NEW LEARNING PROGRAMME EVENTS This autumn the Gallery introduces a brand new series of workshops – many of them free - offering opportunities for all members of the family to be creative. As part of the new family offer, as well as Children’s Workshops for ages 5–8 and 9+, our Early Years sessions enable imaginative play for mini-visitors aged 0–4, and regular drop-in Saturday Family Activities are designed for all the family (grandparents included) to create large-scale artworks together. A series of free workshops has been developed for Young People aged 15–25, providing a space for this age group to discover, learn and explore their creativity. For more information, please visit the Gallery website: pallant.org.uk/events
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Gallery News
The Community Programme’s Monday Drop-In, Photograph Andy Hood © Pallant House Gallery
SOCIAL IMPACT STUDY In 2015 the Gallery commissioned a social impact study into the work of its pioneering Community Programme which since 2002 has provided unique long term creative opportunities for local people, who have additional support needs, to explore and develop their interest in art. While this innovative work has been widely acclaimed, this is the first time it has been independently evaluated. The report found that the programme has developed an effective model of community engagement that has helped to redress the inequalities and barriers that may prevent people from participating in the arts. With this report, the Gallery can now seek to further develop the Community Programme and will present the programme as a model of best practice in community engagement and social inclusion to local councils and the cultural sector more broadly. The full report can be downloaded from the website. Contact Sandra Peaty for more information (s.peaty@pallant.org.uk).
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EXTERNAL LOANS TO GERMANY AND TATE BRITAIN This season sees works from the Gallery’s permanent collection travelling to Germany for inclusion in two major exhibitions. Richard Hamilton’s Respective (1951) will be on loan to Haus der Kunst, Munich for the exhibition ‘Postwar – Art between the Pacific and Atlantic 1945–1965’ (14 October 2016 – 26 March 2017), an ambitious exhibition focusing on the global production of art under the conditions engendered by the Second World War. Patrick Caulfield’s A View of the Chimneys (1964) and Peter Blake’s The Beatles 1962 (1963–68) will travel to Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg for ‘This Was Tomorrow, The Invention of Pop Art in Great Britain’ (30 October 2016 – 19 February 2017) which examines the development of the British Pop Art Movement through painting, sculpture, prints, photography, television, music and film. Also in October, Paul Nash’s Dead Spring (1929) will be among a number of works on show at Tate Britain for the major exhibition ‘Paul Nash’ (26 October 2016 – 5 March 2017), as well as photographs from The Clare Neilson Collection and Archive in the Pallant House Gallery collection.
NEW ACQUISITIONS BY JOHN PIPER, STANLEY SPENCER AND HUGHIE O’DONOGHUE A new work on paper by John Piper entitled Untitled (Crowned Head) (n.d.), highly reminiscent of his design for the Oundle School Chapel, adds further to our substantial holdings of works by Piper and gives insight into his designs for stained glass works. A significant work by the artist Hughie O’Donoghue has been gifted to the Gallery by Purdy Hicks Gallery, London in honour of Dr Mark Golder and Brian Thompson whose support and generosity through The Golder–Thompson Gift was recently celebrated in a well-received display of abstract prints from the collection. Three Studies for a Crucifixion II (2000) is ambitious in both size and scope and offers a powerful examination of human suffering in its depiction of three monumental figures in the position of crucifixion. Finally, the Gallery has received a drawing by Stanley Spencer portraying George Carline, the artist’s brother–in-law, as a bequest of Peter L. Moldon. The soft outline and delicate shading is typical of Spencer’s pencil portraits of this period.
B RYA N S T O N T O D AY 8 to 13 November 2016
Recent work by the alumni, pupils and staff of Bryanston
Featuring Howard Hodgkin Patrick George Nigel Barker Tessa Eastman Richard Batterham Charles Lutyens Mall Galleries, London SW1 bryanston.co.uk/bryanstontoday Tessa Eastman, Sprouting Limitless Cloud, glazed ceramic, 540 x 340 x 300mm
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Prints for the Pub: The Guinness Lithographs An exhibition of vintage lithographs commissioned to promote the Guinness Book of Records opens in the De’Longhi Print Room this autumn to coincide with a new book by Emma Mason. Here she shares the remarkable story of this long-forgotten print series which adorned the walls of pubs and canteens in the 1950s and 60s.
‘ My company are planning to distribute a number of auto-lithographs to public houses, working men’s clubs, works’ canteens etc. The subjects of these lithographs are to be taken from the Guinness Book of Records. This book, which has been published in very large quantities, is a collection of facts, which give the superlatives in many different fields, covering such items as sporting events, human achievements, the world structures etc. We would very much like to commission you to produce one of these auto-lithographs.’
David Gentleman, Doggett’s Coat and Badge, 1962, colour lithograph, © David Gentleman (detail)
In April 1956 Tommy Marks, advertising manager at Guinness Breweries, wrote to a number of artists who were familiar with lithography, commissioning them to create publicity images for the new Guinness Book of Records, first published in 1955. The work they were to create became known as The Guinness Lithographs. Until now their story has been largely forgotten, though they form an important part of the social and artistic history of printmaking in post-war Britain alongside the now well-documented print commissions, the School Prints and the Lyons Lithographs. Unlike the clean environments of schools and tearooms, however, these prints were destined to hang in smoke-filled pubs, canteens and working men’s clubs of the 1950s and 60s and those prints that survived and were not thrown away are often in poor condition, damaged and nicotine-stained. Due to a lack of records, when I began my research no one seemed sure how many artists or images were involved. There were two series; the first series of six lithographs made in 1956 and the second series, again of six, made in 1962. Guinness Breweries employed artist and designer Barnett Freedman (1901–1958) to oversee the scheme alongside their advertising manager Tommy Marks. Known as a master of lithography, Freedman was the perfect man for the job. He had advised on the earlier scheme, The Lyons Lithographs (1946–55), commissioned by J.Lyons & Co to brighten up the walls of their teahouses. The project helped to establish the company as a corporate patron of the visual arts, 33
Barnett Freedman, The Darts Champion, 1956, colour lithograph, © Permission of Vincent Freedman
supporting British artists just after the war, and Guinness Breweries were keen to follow in its success by being seen as in touch with their customers. The post war years proved to be exciting times for those involved in print. New galleries were opening, such as the pioneering print gallery St George’s Gallery in 1955. A new optimism pervaded and people were keen to brighten up public spaces. Commercial organisations were commissioning artists to create public works, bringing art to the masses. This was not a completely new idea as the Underground division of London Transport had been commissioning artists to produce lithographs since the 1920s, mostly overseen by publicity manager, Frank Pick. Other large businesses such as the regional railways and Shell-Mex also employed artists to produce high quality publicity posters and prints. Involving experienced artists and lithographers who produced high quality work, these projects took art out of galleries and into the public realm, available for all to see; posters in shop windows, glimpses of images on the sides of passing vehicles, prints displayed on the walls in tearooms, schools and pubs. Many of the artists chosen for The Guinness Lithographs were connected to the Royal College of Art (RCA). For the first series in 1956 six artists were chosen: RCA lecturers Edwin La Dell, Edward Ardizzone and Barnett Freedman, recent RCA students Bernard Cheese and Ronald Glendening, and Brian 34
Robb, a lecturer at the Chelsea School of Art who later worked at the RCA. The second series made a few years later in 1962 also involved six artists with similar links: David Gentleman, Alistair Grant, Richard Guyatt, Leonard Rosoman, Rosamund Steed and Carel Weight. Each artist chose a subject to illustrate from the Guinness Book of World Records. The requirements were that they needed to be bold and colourful to be seen in dimly lit spaces; and they had to appeal to audiences in pubs and clubs by depicting a subject matter that might be debated over a drink or two. As such the themes of darts, horse racing, pigeon racing, football and fishing were among the subjects chosen by the artists. Today The Guinness Lithographs provide a glimpse of our social history, capturing as they did the everyday life of the people at the time and reflecting conversations taking place in social spaces across the country. As appealing now as they would have been over fifty years ago, this will be the first time that all twelve lithographs have been shown together in over fifty years and their full story told. Prints for the Pub: The Guinness Lithographs will run in the De’Longhi Print Room at Pallant House Gallery from 19 October 2016 – 15 January 2017. A talk and booksigning by Emma Mason are on Thursday 1 December, 6pm (details on p.44) and her new book ‘Who? What? When? The Story of The Guinness Lithographs’ is available in the Pallant Bookshop. Several original lithographs are available to buy at www.emmamason.co.uk.
Leonard Rosomon, Royal Albert Dock, 1962, colour lithograph, © The Estate of Leonard Rosomon and Mrs Roxanne Rosomon
Bernard Cheese, A Fisherman’s Story, 1956, colour lithograph, © Chloe, Joanna and Sarah Cheese 35
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Ian Hamilton Finlay: Neoclassicism and Revolution
The contemporary Scottish artist and Concrete Poet Ian Hamilton Finlay (1925–2006), best known for his celebrated garden at Little Sparta, engaged with classical writing in his work. An essay by Prudence Carlson introduces the artist as a display of his prints opens at the Gallery.
Ian Hamilton Finlay, Neoclassicisme Revolutionnaire, with Gary Hincks, 1988, silkscreen, © The Estate of the Artist
The art of Ian Hamilton Finlay (1925-2006) is unusual for encompassing a variety of different media and discourses. Poetry, philosophy, history, gardening and landscape design are among the genres of expression through which his work moves, and his activities assumed concrete form in cards, books, prints, inscribed stone or wood sculptures, room installations and fully realised garden environments. Common to all of Finlay’s diverse production is the inscription of language - words, invented or borrowed phrases and other semiotic devices - onto real objects and thus into the world. That language inhabits, for Finlay, a material or real dimension that gives rise to the two seemingly opposed but signal characteristics of his work. On the one hand, Finlay, beginning with his early experiments with concrete poetry, was always acutely sensitive to the formalist concerns (colour, shape, scale, texture, composition) of literary and artistic modernism. On the other hand, Finlay, a committed poet and student of classical philosophy, also always recognised the power of language and art to shape our perceptions of the world and even to incite us to action. Fused in his work is thus a certain formalist purity and an insistent polemical edge, “the terse economy of concrete poetry and the elegant [and speaking] simplicity of the classical inscription.” Formalist devices are themselves shown to be never without meaning, and they were ingeniously deployed by Finlay to arm his works with 37
Ian Hamilton Finlay, Heraclitean Variations, 1994, lithograph, © The Estate of the Artist
an ever more evocative content. The movement of words and language into the world was most fully realised by Finlay in his now famous garden, Little Sparta, set in the windswept Pentland Hills of southern Scotland. Begun in 1966 when Finlay relocated with his family to the site, an abandoned farm, Little Sparta is a deliberate correction of the modern sculpture garden through its maker’s revisiting the Neo-classical tradition of the garden as a place provocative of poetic, philosophic and even political thought. At every turn along Little Sparta’s paths or in its glades, language - here plaintively, there aggressively - ambushes the visitor. Plaques, benches, headstones, obelisks, planters, bridges and tree-column bases all carry words or other signage; and this language, in relation to the objects upon which it is inscribed and the landscape within which it is sited, functions metaphorically to conjure up an ideal and radical space, a space of the mind beyond sight or touch. The garden historian John Dixon Hunt has written that “the ideal gardener is a poet.” Finlay, in an astonishingly explicit way, was this ideal gardener, having made of his Little Sparta a sustained as well as highly sensuous poem. 38
The garden of Little Sparta has been described as “the epicentre of [Finlay’s] cultural production,” from which his other works in a sense emanated. With its far-ranging allusions to pre-Socratic philosophy and Ovidian metamorphoses, to the art of Poussin and poetry of Vaughan, to the imagery adopted by the shapers of Revolutionary France, to WWII sea battles and contemporary Scottish fishing craft, Little Sparta itself stands as a single grand metaphor for no less than Western Culture. It, like Finlay’s other works, both chronicles and re-enacts the complex, contradictory relation between Culture and Nature, between the cultivated and the wild (for Nature only becomes intelligible to us when ordered through cultural constructs that necessarily belie Nature’s essential, untamed “naturalness”). To re-invoke Nature and its real raw power - and to re-establish poetry’s and art’s relevance in the world - Little Sparta has been made rife with images not only of invincible Antique gods but also of deadly modern warships, our nearest symbols of sublimity and terror. At the heart of all the varied materials and forms through which Finlay’s invention flowed are his prints, cards, booklets and “proposals.” These
Ian Hamilton Finlay, Apollo & Daphne after Bernini, with Ron Costley, 1977, lithograph, © The Estate of the Artist
Ian Hamilton Finlay, Laconic, with Ron Costley, 1987, silkscreen, © The Estate of the Artist
works - as works on paper - bear an especially intimate connection to Finlay’s activity as a poet. Meaning, in the purely non-literal or figurative sense, is more obvious as such in Finlay’s paper works than in his three-dimensional pieces which often have an irresistible physical presence. This meaning, which can be suggestively open-ended, is arrived at through metaphor, i.e. through the coupling, on a single page, of unlike terms which are brought to behave as “multivalent” pointers, or as shifting invocatory signs. To allow his own and others’ experimentation with elements of language as signs - as both graphic and connotative/poetic devices - Finlay founded in 1964, along with Jessie McGuffie Sheeler, the Wild Hawthorn Press. Finlay’s production through the press was unceasing and prolific. The press served as a nursery of ideas for Finlay’s sculptural and garden works. It is also Little Sparta’s publishing, or disseminating, arm. The themes engaged, so often with incisive wit, at Little Sparta were ones usually first examined and then re-examined in Wild Hawthorn imprints. Among these themes are the relation between Nature and Culture as symbolised in gardens
and the activity of gardening; the Sea as an instance of Nature’s sheer power and problematic beauty; (Neo)Classicism, with its attendant aesthetics, philosophy and politics, as the defining type of Western culture; and the French Revolution as an especially rich instance of Neoclassical thought and forms married to pastoral (gardening) imagery. A fellow poet has written of Finlay’s works on paper the following: “The model of order is ... [the] pages of a folding card or a flimsy booklet, produced with care and diligent collaboration to give the reader a shock not of recognition but of cognition, which is much harder and much more valuable.” Each of Finlay’s works, whether on paper or in some other, very different medium, offers that “shock ... of cognition”. This is an adapted version of a catalogue essay first published to coincide with the UBS Art Collection exhibition, Ian Hamilton Finlay: Prints. Ian Hamilton Finlay: Neoclassicism and Revolution runs from 22 October 2016 - 19 February 2017. Dr Stephen Bann will give a talk on the artist’s extraordinary garden Little Sparta on Thursday 9 February, 6pm (see p.44 for details). 39
Art Courses 2016 To find out more pick up a leaflet from reception or visit pallant.org.uk/art-courses
Chairman of the Friends' Letter
HRH Princess Alexandra, Harriet Judd, Head of Publishing, and Esmé and Walter Judd. Photograph by Jason Hedges.
The Gallery was buzzing over the summer and John Booth, Chair of the Board of Trustees, was delighted to welcome Her Royal Highness Princess Alexandra when she came to help us celebrate the 10th anniversary of the opening of the new gallery in July. We were fortunate to have a perfect summer’s afternoon and the guests, all people who have contributed in one way or another to the great success of the past ten years, thoroughly enjoyed a tea party in the courtyard. As many of you will know it was Princess Alexandra who opened the new building in 2006 and we were delighted that she found time to come back to see how it had all progressed. Her Royal Highness very much enjoyed talking to so many people involved in the Gallery and she was touched by the friendliness of everyone she met. Marc Steene and Simon Martin escorted her throughout her visit and she particularly enjoyed seeing our latest exhibition of Christopher Wood. On 9 August we had the Friends’ final Annual General Meeting, and I am pleased to be able to say that the resolution to amalgamate the Friends with the Gallery was approved with an overwhelming majority. This excellent news means that the Friends can now look to the future as an integrated part of the Gallery ensuring a closer relationship, with the Friends’ benefits continuing to be enjoyed by all our members. We are of course tremendously grateful for the loyalty of all our many supporters over many years.
We have organised a visit to the Paul Nash exhibition at Tate Britain in November. This is the largest presentation of Nash’s work for a generation. This evocative landscape painter of both the First and Second World Wars, was one of the most important artists of the 20th century and played a major role in the development of Modernism in English art. For more information about this visit please contact Mary Ambrose at the Friends office (m.ambrose@pallant.org.uk). Although it may seem a long way off, you may wish to consider an exciting trip to Bologna which we are organising with Kirker Holidays in October 2017. This follows the much enjoyed tour in Northern France led by Kirker in spring 2016, and we are lucky that Christopher Monckton, our knowledgeable guide in France, will be joining us to lead the tour in Bologna. I want to thank you for your continued support which is never forgotten. In these days when Government funding is getting harder to secure, we rely on our Friends more than ever. Lady Nicholas Gordon Lennox, Chairman of the Friends
Pallant House Gallery Friends
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Friends Events
Find the full public programme including workshops in the What’s On guide or online at pallant.org.uk. Booking for Friends Events is required through Reception unless otherwise stated (01243 774557)
Trips and Visits Friends Trip to Bologna 11–16 October 2017 Next year we are planning a trip to Bologna in conjunction with Kirker Holidays. Often overlooked, Bologna is an important cultural and artistic centre in Italy with a fine culinary tradition and one of Italy’s foremost opera houses. Its attractions include The National Gallery of Bologna; San Petronio Basilica, the world’s largest brick-built church; Santo Stefano, the so-called ‘Seven Churches’: The 16th-century Archiginnasio, once the main building of the University of Bologna, containing the richly decorated Sala dello Stabat Mater and the Anatomical Theatre; and the Etruscan department at the Archaeological Museum. Bologna is also a convenient base for possible day trips, for example to Ferrara with its magnificent Este family castle. The tour leader will be Christopher Monckton, a favourite with Pallant House Gallery Friends, who led our Northern France trip earlier in 2016. Please register your interest now with Lucy Ayling at Kirker Holidays on lucy.ayling@kirkerholidays.com or 020 7593 2286 and the full itinerary will be sent to you. 42
Pallant House Gallery Friends
Chichester Cathedral Uncovered Embroidery and The Seffrid Guild (20 October 2016) Stained Glass (1 December 2016) Medieval Graffiti (9 February 2017) The Bishop’s Palace (6 April 2017) A new series of four tours concentrating on different areas of Chichester Cathedral, followed by afternoon tea in the Cloister Café. Free, Thursdays 2pm. Afternoon tea not included . Book through Mary Ambrose (m.ambrose@pallant.org. uk / 01243 770816).
Tate Britain: Paul Nash Wed 30 November 2016 Paul Nash is one of the most distinctive and important British artists of the 20th century, renowned both as a war artist in the First and Second World Wars and as the most evocative landscape painter of his time. Billed as the largest exhibition of Nash’s work for a generation, it will cover all the significant developments of his career. It is the first to examine Nash’s position at the centre of developments in British modernism and his dialogues with international artists as one of the leading figures in British surrealism. Frank or Val Woodgate, lecturers on Pallant House Gallery’s art course programme, will introduce the show before lunch, then we will explore the exhibition ourselves on timed tickets. Meet at Tate Britain at 11am. Travel to Tate Britain is not arranged or included in this
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.
trip. £39 (Concessions £37, Art Fund Members £31.05, Art Fund Concessions £30.55, Tate Members £24). To reserve a place contact Mary Ambrose (m.ambrose@ pallant.org.uk / 01243 770816).
Private View The Mythic Method: Classicism in British Art 1920–1950 Sat 22 October 2016, 10–11am The Friends Private View takes place on a Saturday allowing Friends to see the exhibitions before they open to the public later in the day. All Friends are welcome at this special preview event which includes a short talk by the exhibition’s curator Simon Martin. Includes refreshments. Please RSVP to Mary Ambrose by 20 October 2016 (m.ambrose@ pallant.org.uk / 01243 770816).
Exhibition Tour The Mythic Method: Classicism in British Art 1920–1950 Thurs 27 October 2016, 11am – 12pm An exclusive tour for Friends conducted by the exhibition’s curator, Simon Martin. £5.50 (£3 Student Friends).
Pallant Proms 29 October 2016 26 November 2016 28 January 2017 25 February 2017 Our partnership with the Royal College of Music continues with our popular rolling series of recitals by international students and graduates on our concert-grade piano. Friends tickets £7 plus 50% Gallery Admission Fee for Non Friends. 12–1pm. Book through Reception (01243 774557).
The Birth of Venus by Sarah Dunant Sun 20 November 2017, 2.30–4pm A detective story and account of the limited choice for Florentine women, between marriage or the convent. Alessandra, her gay brother and his lover find themselves in more and more peril in the convoluted intrigues of the Florentine art world.
The Art Forger by Barbara Shapiro Sun 22 January 2017, 2.30–4pm Art Book Club A New York Times best seller based Now free and open to non-Friends, on the true story of a major art our lively meetings take place in theft from a Boston museum, this the Gallery on Sunday afternoons, novel follows Claire, an impecunious hosted by Jacintha Hutton. Book young artist making a living from Club books are available in the copying artworks for a dubious Pallant Bookshop at 20% discount to online dealer. Persuaded to forge attendees. Please contact Jacintha the missing Degas masterpiece, she for more information turns to the late 19th century to (jhjacintha8@gmail.com). solve the mysteries of the present.
A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway Sun 19 February 2017, 2.30–4pm Set in Paris in the 1920s this classic book of memoirs was published by his widow after Hemingway’s death. He describes his life in Paris as a struggling young journalist finding his feet as a writer. There are personal accounts of his meetings with notable people of the period such as Wyndham Lewis, Ezra Pound, Gertrude Stein, Zelda and Scott Fitzgerald and many other painters and writers. Ways of Seeing by John Berger 19 March 2017, 2.30–4pm Winner of the 1972 Booker Prize, Ways of Seeing has been described as one of the most stimulating and influential books on art in any language. An eye opener on how we look at pictures.
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 Louise Cameron Keith and Helen Clark Patrick K F Donlea Frank and Lorna Dunphy Linda and Mike Forlan
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 Merle Lomas José and Michael Manser RA Charles Martin Keith and Deborah Mitchelson Robin Muir and Paul Lyon-Maris Angie O’Rourke Denise Patterson
Simon and Harriet Patterson Catherine and Franck Petitgas Charles Rolls and Jans Ondaatje Rolls Jackie and David Russell Sophie and David Shalit Tania Slowe and Paddy Walker John and Fiona Smythe Candida Stevens John and Susie Wells Mr and Mrs Michael Weston John Young Andre Zlattinger
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
Tickets 01243 774557 (Booking Required)
Pallant House Gallery Friends
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Gallery Events Find the rest of the public programme including workshops in the What’s On guide or online at pallant.org.uk. Booking for Friends Events is required through Reception unless otherwise stated (01243 774557).
Talks All talks £10, Friends £8.50, Students £9 (unless otherwise stated) A drinks reception will follow each talk. Modern Classicism in Britain: Curator’s Talk Thurs 10 November 2016, 6pm In the years following the First World War classicism became the language of war memorials, but also modern art, architecture and design. Curator of The Mythic Method Simon Martin explores how artists including Vanessa Bell, Edward Burra, Ben Nicholson, Paul Nash, Eric Ravilious and Henry Moore engaged with Greek and Roman myths between 1920 and 1950. A catalogue signing will follow. Who? When? Where? The Story of the Guinness Lithographs Thurs 1 December 2016, 6pm The Guinness Lithographs give us a wonderful insight into the social and artistic life of post war Britain. Author of a new book Emma Mason will talk about the artists involved including Barnett Freedman, Carel Weight, Edward Ardizzone and consider the prints in the context of other print series such as the Lyons Lithographs and the 1940s School Prints. A book signing will follow.
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Pallant House Gallery Friends
Fashion, Modernity and Flights of Fancy Thurs 8 December 2016, 6pm In 1936 Vogue wrote ‘”is it a costume party?” you might ask… For all about you are Edwardians, Victorians and Greek goddesses…’ Professor Amy de la Haye will explore the diverse influences upon women’s fashion designers such as Coco Chanel and Elsa Schiaparelli in the 1920s and ‘30s. A book signing will follow. The Call of the Wall: Mid-century British Murals Thurs 19 January 2017, 6pm Mural painting experienced an extraordinary revival in the early 20th century as artists including Duncan Grant, Vanessa Bell, Eric Ravilious, Rex Whistler and Hans Feibusch created a new style of painted interior. Dr Alan Powers considers how they used Renaissance subjects and techniques alongside Modern influences. A book signing will follow. Pablo Bronstein: In Conversation Thurs 26 January 2017, 6pm Ellis Woodman, Director of the Architecture Foundation and critic for The Telegraph, talks to artist Pablo Bronstein about his fascination with pre 20th century architecture, exploring his approach to his latest site-specific installations - Pallant House Gallery’s historic stairwell, Tate Britain’s commission for the Duveen Galleries, and his designs for The Garsington Opera.
Mediterranean Fantasies: Picasso, Léger, De Chirico and the Return to Order Thurs 2 February 2017, 6pm A Cubist artist before the First World War, Picasso was to paint Neoclassical nudes and portraits in the 1920s. Francesco Ventrella from the University of Sussex explores the ‘return to order’ in European art, exploring how artists including Léger, De Chirico and Le Corbusier imagined the Mediterranean as a symbol of colonial fantasies and a mythic past. Ian Hamilton Finlay and Little Sparta Thurs 9 February 2017, 6pm In the early 1970s the Scottish poet Ian Hamilton Finlay began the ‘neoclassical rearmament’ of his garden in the Pentland Hills near Edinburgh, resulting in the creation of ‘Little Sparta’. Stephen Bann, who first met Finlay in the 1960s and has published two volumes of their correspondence, reflects on the significance of the references to ancient Greece and Rome found in this unique terrain. Sussex Modernism Thurs 16 February 2017, 6pm What brought radical 20th century artists and writers to the rolling hills, seaside resorts, and quaint villages of Sussex? Dr Hope Wolf from the University of Sussex addresses this question, drawing on works curated for a new joint exhibition between nine Sussex museums and galleries and the Bulldog Trust at Two Temple Place in London..
Tours Exhibition Tour: The Mythic Method Thurs 3 November 2016, 10.30am An enlightening tour exploring how Modern British art between 19201950 engaged with myth, legend and the language of classicism. With Artistic Director and curator of the exhibition, Simon Martin. £5.50 (£3 students) plus admission.
Irwin Mitchell Private Wealth We are proud that, under our former name of Thomas Eggar, we have worked closely with Pallant House Gallery for more than 30 years. We are also proud to have been able to continue the relationship through Irwin Mitchell’s sponsorship of this year’s Christopher Wood exhibition. Over the years we have worked with many exceptional people close to Pallant House. This goes back to the founders of the gallery and includes artists, directors, staff, volunteers, and its great community of friends. At Irwin Mitchell Private Wealth we embrace the exceptional. We value each client as an individual, supporting you through every stage of life with technical expertise that is second to none and a trusted relationship that you can depend on, whatever life brings.
Pay less tax and support Pallant House Gallery Your will, or a variation of an inheritance, can help the gallery in its continuing work. Thanks to inheritance tax reliefs, your support can cost you or your family very little. Sometimes you can actually benefit at the government’s expense! Gifts made by will to Pallant House Gallery, like gifts to other charities, are free of inheritance tax. Please contact us for more information on how to take advantage of this.
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“IM Private Wealth” is a trading style of Irwin Mitchell LLP, which is authorised and regulated by the SRA. Principal office: 19 Berkeley Street, London, W1J 8ED
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Shop pallantbookshop.com the
MYTHIC METHOD c l a s s i c i s m i n b r i t i s h a rt 1920–1950
2016 Christmas Cards £4.75 - Pack of six A new selection of Christmas cards featuring work by a range of RA artists and printmakers.
s i m o n m a rt i n
The Mythic Method: Classicism in British Art Catalogue £25 By Simon Martin An essential companion to The Mythic Method exhibition. Investigating the influence of the classical on modern art, Simon Martin brings together work by artists including John Armstrong, Edward Burra, Henry Moore, Ben Nicholson, Eric Ravilious and many more. Available exclusively from the Pallant Bookshop.
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Who? When? Where? The Story of the Guinness Lithographs £15 By Emma Mason Published by Bread and Butter Press to accompany the De’Longhi Print Room exhibition ‘Prints for the Pub: The Guinness Lithographs’. A talk and book signing takes place on 1 December 2016.
20% Off Art Book Club Titles Joining the Gallery’s Art Book Club? All the fantastic titles for the forthcoming programme are available in store with a 20% discount. For more details see p.42.
Stonypath Days £25 Edited by Stephen Bann This hardback volume of letters between the poet and artist Ian Hamilton Finlay and Stephen Bann between 1970–72 coincides with a display of prints by Ian Hamilton Finlay at Pallant House Gallery. A talk and book signing on 9 February 2017.
Studio Ceramics We stock many beautiful ceramic pieces by a range of ceramicists including Barbara Gittings, Jo Keogh, Kate Schuricht & more.
To keep up to date with our newest titles, offers, books and products, sign up to our mailing list instore or on our website. Tel: 01243 781293 47
Artwork in Focus
Llanmadoc,Gower, 1965, by Kit Barker
© Ilse Barker
Kit Barker always said that he “lay in wait” for a painting. He would - I can only describe it as stalking - go about his everyday business in the studio, brushing the floor, drinking a mug of tea, reading a thriller, tinkering with a broken lamp. He was waiting for the right moment, that critical time when the images and memories that rotated and flowed through his head, congealed and clarified into that first critical mark on the canvas. Kit did, actually, start with that classic barrier to creativity - a blank canvas. I know many artists will avoid this at all costs. At art school I recall being advised to lay out a large piece of canvas from the roll on the floor of my workspace, leave it there for a few days to soak up spilt paint and coffee, pick up the detritus from passing shoes and generally become a truly abstract arrangement of stains upon which - the theory went - it was less intimidating to make one’s own first mark. But this was not Kit’s way. His was a virgin canvas upon which he would mark out the horizon with a clear pencil line. At this point of his career, the horizon was such an important, even dominant, element of his work, its placement relative to the proportions of the painting governed the pictorial space. High, and the foreground began to dominate, low, and a big sky would develop. Mainly however, as with Llanmadoc, Gower (1965), the horizon floated a little below the centre of the painting and became the line upon which Kit would work the oil paint into the complex pattern of field, wall, shore line or scrub using brush, pallet knife and finger. 48
Kit loved Wales. As I grew up I became used to him disappearing for a few days, perhaps twice a year, to travel around Wales, usually with his great friend the great poet Leslie Norris, a Welshman who lived mostly at that time near Chichester. It was mainly the open-mouthed estuaries that drew Kit; he loved the extended horizons of low tide, the flickering illusions of land meeting sea and, of course, the intensity of light that this geography brings. It is no surprise that a trip to London often included a look at late Turner, a painter and visionary of whom he never tired. Kit brought home many sketchbooks, filled with line drawings - mostly in fine black pen - of great sandy and damp beaches, fishing boats, lobster pots and harbours. These were his reference material, which although he never painted directly from, acted as memory joggers, helping him back to those landscapes, smells and sounds as he stalked his Sussex studio, a Jacques Loussier tape playing, coffee cooling until barely tepid, waiting to pounce with confidence at the easel. Late evening Kit would usually return to his studio, a last look before bed. I suppose he was assessing the day’s work, giving his inner eye a last reminder of progress, so that tomorrow he could again find himself back at the tideline in South Wales. This article has kindly been written by Tom Barker, Kit Barker’s son. It coincides with Kit Barker: A Centenary, a display in Room 9 drawn from the Gallery’s collection including a new acquisition and additional loans from Tom Barker.
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Image: (Detail) Suzy Murphy - House on Fire
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SCHOOL PRINTS original 1940s lithographs
We were amazed to discover a cache of a number of these wonderful original lithographs a full sixty years after they were editioned. Artists include Moore, Matisse, Nash, Trevelyan, Rothenstein, Rowntree, Jones, Gentleman, Tunnard, Topolski. The prints are all in mint condition. View and buy online at goldmarkart.com 14 Orange Street, Uppingham, Rutland, LE15 9SQ 01572 821424.
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