A HISTORY OF THUNDER THE FINE ART SOCIETY
A HISTORY OF THUNDER 29 February - 24 March 2016
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INTRODUCTION A History of Thunder presents a selection of works exploring the depiction of war through some of the most important artists in early twentieth-century Britain.
(1940) by Eric Ravilious. The exhibition also features the painting,Tipperary (1914) by the Camden Town Group artist, Walter Sickert.
As the First and Second World Wars were taking place, artists who experienced the impact of those years or war at first hand - either through enlisting or becoming official war artists - sensed the urgency of finding a new visual language to describe the many aspects of those unprecedented events.
Alongside the poignant wall based works the exhibition presents Joshua D’s Wall: a major installation by the multi media artist, Michael Petry, bringing a contemporary resonance to the representation of conflict. Reflecting his interest in contemporary aspects of the classical world, ‘Joshua D’s Wall is inspired from the creation myth of Joshua and the battle of Jericho which is found in the Bible, the Koran and the Torah. The installation is made up of hand-crafted glass stones, placed directly on the floor, as if a glass wall has fallen over.
A History of Thunder explores this visual language through a variety of media: paintings, etchings, lithographs and drawings express the experience of war from multiple perspectives, from the military and domestic effects of war on Britain to the Mirroring Joshua’s mythic destruction of haunting and inevitable spectre of death. the city walls of Jericho on instruction by God, as each stone is sold, the installation The artists exhibited, including Wal- is slowly destroyed in a fittingly powerful ter Sickert, Graham Sutherland, C. R. W. statement referencing both classical and Nevinson, Eric Ravilious and Paul Nash, religious mythology and contemporary each have a history of their own with The geo-political conflict. Fine Art Society. The exhibition coincides with the world Over the last 140 years we have held sev- premiere performance of A Prussian Requieral major exhibitions relating to the Great em: a collaboration between composer and War between 1914 and 1918. The exhibi- Academy Award nominee John Powell and tion Britain’s Efforts and Ideals in the Great Petry, continuing a working relationship in War (July 1917) presented works by offi- performance, opera and installation which cial war artists C. R. W. Nevinson and Eric has lasted for over 25 years. Kennington, both featuring in the current show with That Cursèd Wood (1918) and A Prussian Requiem (Powell: score, Petry: Head of a Soldier (c.1942) respectively. libretto) at the Royal Festival Hall. The reqWorks by other notable war artists include uiem will feature in the First World War Rain, Lake Zillebeke (1918) by Paul Nash Commemoration concert by The Philharand Working Controls when Submerged monia Orchestra on Sunday 6 March 2016.
I MICHAEL PETRY b.1960 Joshua D’s Wall, 2012 Hand-blown Murano glass, Each approx. 7 3/4 x 12 3/4 x 8 1/2 inches | 20 x 33 x 22 cm Part of the installation Joshua D’s Wall, 2012, commissioned by the Palm Springs Art Museum. The installation Joshua D’s Wall consists of a field of 250 glass stones that spill out across the museum floor as if they had formed a huge wall that had toppled over, echoing the biblical creation myth of Joshua’s destruction of the innocent city and people of Jericho. Petry’s work alludes to the story of Joshua, his horn, and the fallen walls of Jericho, which can be found in the Bible, the Torah and the Koran and is used as a creation myth to defend the principle of honouring the will of their god. Joshua D’s Wall features an illuminating field of hand-blown
glass stones created at the Berengo Glass Studio in Murano. The hollow glass stones, scattered over the gallery’s floor, resemble small boulders or large rocks. Each stone references the production of earth’s magma and the many colours found therein, as well as Petry’s own artistic impression of the natural environment. The work is a direct response to the lava rock formations around the Palm Springs Art Museum, located near Joshua Tree National Park - the name sake of the installation. Petry explains: “There was a man called Joshua who crossed the river Jordan, who believed he could take the land of another tribe. He had been promised their land by another god. It was not his to take but he did. He blew down the walls of their fortress with the sounds of triumphal horns. In all three religions after the wall fell, Joshua’s god (who was the same for all 3 religions) told him to then kill every man, woman, child and animal and to tear the city down stone by stone and salt the earth. And he did.”
II JOHN COPLEY 18751950 Pontoon Welding, 1946 Etching, signed in pencil John Copley, printed in black ink on laid paper: from a small edition of about 15 impressions 14 1/2 x 11 1/4 inches | 37.1 x 28.6 cm Reference: Gordon Cooke, John Copley: Etchings, London 1998 no.111 Copley drove his wife, Ethel Gabain, an official war artist, around Britain as she was in poor health. This subject was one of several - including Welding Jerricans - seen on one of their factory visits.
III JOHN COPLEY 18751950 Welding Jerricans, 1946 Etching, signed in pencil John Copley, printed on wove paper, watermark Made in England Linen 14 1/2 x 11 1/4 inches | 37.1 x 28.6 cm Exhibited: John Copley: The Late Etchings, 2010 Reference: Gordon Cooke, John Copley: Etchings, London 1998 no.111
IV
Work on a Weir Pump, 1941 She is only one of a multitude of efficient and conscientious women workers in engineering industries. Her particular task is to make an important component of the Weir pump, a piece of machinery with which all sailors will be familiar, for they depend upon this apparatus to keep the ship clear of bilge water
Salvage Workers, 1941
ETHEL GABAIN 18831950 Women’s work in the war (other than the services) Lithographs, four from the set of six in Women’s Work in the War (Other than the Services), published by The Ministry of Information: His Majesty’s Stationery Office 14 7/8 x 19 3/4 inches | 37.8 x 50.2 cm Reference: Wright supplement 314
These Hampstead women are typical of thousands engaged on the useful and laborious work of collecting salvage of every sort to help the war effort. In this instance heavy sacks of waste paper are seen being loaded on to a lorry.
Sandbag Workers, 1941 The Islington Borough Council have employed women on this strenuous task. On the left, wielding a pick, is Mrs. Kellam, foreman, a grandmother who is not afraid of hard work and responsibility. Her daughter, Edith, is working the chute in the foreground.
Ethel Gabain made her first lithograph in 1906 and was a founding member of the Captain Pauline Gower of the Women’s Senefelder Club, set up to encourage the Air Transport Auxiliary, 1941 practice and appreciation of lithography. There she met the artist John Copley and Women made a fine contribution to victory they married in 1913. in the last great war, but on the present occasion they have indeed excelled themselves. In After the outbreak of World War Two she no sphere have they shown greater courage was appointed an Official War Artist in and skill than in the air. The women of the 1940 and resumed lithography to produce Air Transport Auxiliary, of which Pauline two sets of prints published by the MinisGower is the leader, have the highly respontry of Information, Children in Wartime sible task of flying between the factories and and Women’s Work in the War. the Royal Air-force Stations.
IV CHARLES GINNER18781952 The Building of HMS The Prince of Wales, 1940 Oil on canvas, 20 x 15 in | 50.8 x 38.1 cm Exhibited: London, Piccadilly Gallery, Charles Ginner, 1969 (20) Provenance: The Fine Art Society, London, May 1974; James Kirkman, London Ginner was a founder member of both the Camden Town Group and the London Group. In 1914, with Harold Gilman, he wrote the manifesto for what they termed Neo-Realism, based on rigorous observation from nature. Ginner was an official artist in both world wars, and recorded many industrial scenes. Here we see the famous HMS Prince of Wales in its final stages of completion in the year before it’s completion.
V ERIC HENRY KENNINGTON 18881960 Head of a Soldier, c.1942-3 Pastel on paper, signed with initials EHK, lower right 20 x17 inches | 50.8 x 43.2 cm Kennington drew a series of portraits for the War Office of soldiers who had distinguished themselves in battle, for example at Dunkirk (RSM Sutton DCM, 1942, now in the collection of the National Army Museum, London) or during the campaign to drive the Italians from Ethiopia (Private Kenneth Hunt MM, 1943, now in Worcester City Museum and Art Gallery). In this period the War Office also wanted to emphasise the recent success in the North African desert at the Battle of El-Alamein.
VI PAUL NASH 18891946 Rain, Lake Zillebeke, 1918 Lithograph, signed and dated in pencil Paul Nash 1918, lower right, and numbered 15 from the edition of 25, lower left, printed in black ink on wove paper 10 1/8 x 14 1/4 inches | 25.5 x 36.2 cm Sheet: 13 3/8 x 16 3/4 inches | 34 x 42.8 cm Literature: Alexander Postan, The complete graphic work of Paul Nash, London 1973 p 18 No L3; Frances Carey and Antony Griffiths, Avant-Garde British Printmaking 1914-1960, London 1990 p 62 No 38; Clifford S. Ackley (ed) Rhythms of Modern Life: British Prints 1914-1939, Boston 2008 pp 60, 66, 213 No 20
VI C R W NEVINSON 18891946 That Cursèd Wood, 1918 Drypoint, signed and dated in pencil, C.R.W. Nevinson 1918, lower right, printed in black ink on laid paper 9 3/4 x 13 3/4 inches | 25 x 34.8 cm Sheet 16 x 20 1/2 inches | 40.7 x 52 cm Reference: Jonathan Black, C.R.W. Nevinson: The Complete Prints, Farnham 2014 pp 31, 32, 110, 134 No 38; Ernest Lumsden The Art of Etching, London 1925 illustrated p 357 The title of this work is a reference to a poem by Siegfried Sassoon, ‘At Carnoy’ dated 3rd July 1916, published in his collection “The Old Huntsman”. This described the peace of a brigade mustered the evening before an attack and ends: Crouched among thistle-tufts I’ve watched the glow
Of a blurred orange-sunset flare and fade: And I’m content. Tomorrow we must go To take some cursed Wood ... O world God made! The print was later chosen for reproduction in E.S. Lumsden’s The Art of Etching, and the text included Nevinson’s notes on his technique. It was included (no.55) in the 1918 Leicester Galleries exhibition of Nevinson’s war art. In the catalogue introduction he wrote: ‘I relied chiefly on memory, a method I learnt as a student in Paris and for which I am ever grateful: nature is far too confusing and anarchic to be merely copied on the spot.’
VII ERIC RAVILIOUS
19031942
Working Controls when Submerged, 1940 Watercolour and pencil, inscribed with colour instructions, and with a pencil drawing of a cottage kitchen, verso 17 5/8 x 21 5/8 inches | 44.6 x 55.1 cm Provenance: Anne Ullmann, the artist’s daughter; Private Collection
VIII ERIC ROBERTSON 18871941 Poilly, 1918 Pastel, 10 1/2 x 8 1/2 inches | 26.6 x 21.6 cm With his varied subject matter, the use of technical fluidity between the mediums in which he worked, and the power to shock: Eric Robertson was considered one of the most talented students of his generation This small study of Poilly, a small village in north-eastern France, represents both the rural devastation left by the first world war, as witnessed by Robertson, as well as the training he did as an architect before studying art.
IX WALTER SICKERT 18601942 Tipperary, 1914 Oil on canvas, signed and dated Sickert 1914, lower right 20 x 16 inches | 51 x 40.5 cm Provenance: Martin Oliphant; Sotheby’s 26.11.69 (346); Rutland Gallery; Mrs Dudley Samuel; her sale Christie’s 27.3.97 (36); Private Collection Literature: Wendy Baron, Sickert, London 1973 No 352, fig 248; Wendy Baron & Richard Shone, Sickert Paintings, New Haven and London 1992 p 244, fig 169; Wendy Baron, Sickert Paintings & Drawings, 2006 pp 427-28 No 447
X PERCY SMITH 18821948 Death Refuses, 1918 Etching, signed in pencil Percy Smith, lower right: from the set The Dance of Death 1914-1918 edition of 100 7 7/8 x 9 7/8 inches | 20 x 24.9 cm The images of death which Percy Smith created towards the end of the First World War form a powerful statement, showing Death appearing on the Western Front in seven different guises, published as a set with the title The Dance of Death. Colnaghi published his Twelve Drypoints of the War (1916–18) with a note by William Rothenstein in 1925.
XI JOHN BULLOCK SOUTER 18901972 Portrait of an Officer, 1916-17 Pencil, inscribed from Jack and dated 1916-1917 6 3/4 x 4 1/4 inches | 17 x 10.8 cm Provenance: The artist’s family The artist served in the Royal Army Medical Corps during the First World War and afterwards established himself as a sought-after portrait painter. Other subjects included Gladys Cooper, Ivor Novello and Fay Compton. His painting The Breakdown was shown at the Royal Academy of Arts in 1926, but after a few days was withdrawn at the request of the Colonial Secretary. It showed a black musician in top hat and evening dress seated on a broken statue while a naked white girl dances. In the Second World War he was employed as a censor.
XII GRAHAM SUTHERLAND 19031980 Big Gun Manufacture, Woolwich, 1942-43 Gouache, watercolour, ink, pencil and chalk on paper, 20 x 15 inches | 51 x 38 cm Literature: Roberto Tassi, Sutherland: The wartime drawings, London 1980 p 134 No 131 As an Official War Artist 1941–4, Graham Sutherland painted scenes of bomb devastation and of work in mines and foundries. In 1944 he began a new series of mixed media ‘Production’ works depicting the hellish mechanical environment of the Woolwich Arsenal, one of the three historic Royal Ordnance Factories in Britain which fuelled the war effort at the time.