Queer British Art at the Tate and Queer Saint

The new show opening at Tate Britain to mark 50 years since the relaxation of the laws relating to homosexuality folowing the Wolfenden Report inevitably brings to mind the great supporter of gay artists in the 1940s and 1950s, Peter Watson.

Watson only really started to focus on British art when he was forced to return to London from Paris in 1939. Then, trapped by the War in the UK for the duration, and needing to fill the arts pages of Horizon with something, he started to focus on local talent. Previously he had supported gay artists in Paris, like Pavel Tchelitchew and Christian Berard, but now he got to know and support in different ways Francis Bacon, John Craxton, Robert Colquhoun and Robert Macbryde, all gay, and also met ( although didn’t particularly support) John Minton and Keith Vaughan.

In those represssed days for the gay community, the ability for young gay artists to seek support from one of the richest and most generous young men in England was a godsend. Craxton, for example, got huge help from Watson, culminating in Geoffrey Grigson’s monograph on his work, all paid for by Watson, in 1948. The Roberts stayed with him in his flat in Palace Gate during the War when they came down from Scotland, until he paid their rent in a flat of their own. Bacon was to benefit from a piece in Horizon and later from his first ever retrospective at the ICA in 1955, facilitated by Watson. In addition, of course, Watson bought pictures by these artists.

Henry Lamb
To the Salisbury Museum to see a good show of Henry Lamb’s work. The Gallery isn’t big enough for a major retrospective, but it was a good effort. The challenge with someone like Lamb is to persuade people to come and see pictures by a painter few can [Read More…]

The Snail that climbed the Eiffel Tower and other work by John Minton
Martin Salisbury has produced a classic and he has been beautifully supported by the Mainstone Press. As an object alone, this book is a delight; knowing nothing about the artist, one could leaf through this production and gorge on its quality. There can be no better way to remind the art world that they diminish artists like Minton at their peril; his paintings were the tip of his iceberg and it is only when they are taken with his other work that his skills and achievements get their proper recognition. He may have had a short life as an artist, but what a marvellous range of achievements.

Sir Denis Mahon
At Westport House in the West of Ireland this week, I saw a portrait of Mahon as a young man. He wears a suit and his OE tie. Turns out that his mother was a Browne, the family name of the Marquess of Sligo, owner of the house [Read More…]

Anthony Fry at the Holburne, Bath
Chris Stephens from Tate Britain took over at the Holburne last year and this exciting show is an example of how he intends to develop aspects of this Bath gallery, which is situated at the end of the extraordinary Great Pulteney Street. It is not easy to see [Read More…]

⋅ Jankel Adler ⋅ Eileen Agar ⋅ John Aldridge ⋅ Adrian Allinson ⋅ Michael Andrews ⋅ Edward Ardizzone ⋅ Arthur Armstrong ⋅ Frank Auerbach ⋅ Michael Ayrton ⋅ Francis Bacon ⋅ Wilhelmina Barns-Graham ⋅ Edward Bawden ⋅ Adrian Berg ⋅ Basil Blackshaw ⋅ David Bomberg ⋅ Louis le Brocquy ⋅ Jean Bullock ⋅ Edward Burra ⋅ George Campbell ⋅ Prunella Clough ⋅ Geoffrey Clarke ⋅ William Coldstream ⋅ Cecil Collins ⋅ Robert Colquhoun ⋅ John Craxton ⋅ Alfred Daniels ⋅ Alan Davie ⋅ Gerard Dillon ⋅ William Gear ⋅ Wilfred Dudeney ⋅ Richard Eurich ⋅ Hans Feibusch ⋅ Lucian Freud ⋅ William Gear ⋅ Mark Gertler ⋅ William Gillies ⋅ Beatrice, Lady Glenavy ⋅ Duncan Grant ⋅ Richard Hamilton ⋅ John Hayward ⋅ Thomas Hennell ⋅ Patrick Hennessy ⋅ Paul Henry ⋅ Barbara Hepworth ⋅ Josef Herman ⋅ Patrick Heron ⋅ Derek Hill ⋅ Tristram Hillier ⋅ Roger Hilton ⋅ Ivon Hitchens ⋅ David Hockney ⋅ Frances Hodgkins ⋅ Robin Ironside ⋅ Augustus John ⋅ David Jones ⋅ Karin Jonzen ⋅ Eric Kennington ⋅ Laura Knight ⋅ Peter Lanyon ⋅ Wyndham Lewis ⋅ Laurence Lowry ⋅ John Luke ⋅ Robert MacBryde ⋅ Sine Mackinnon ⋅ Norah McGuinness ⋅ William McTaggart ⋅ FE McWilliam ⋅ Bernard Meninsky ⋅ Oliver Messel ⋅ Colin Middleton ⋅ John Minton ⋅ Henry Moore ⋅ Cedric Morris ⋅ Rodrigo Moynihan ⋅ John Nash ⋅ Paul Nash ⋅ Christopher Nevinson ⋅ Algernon Newton ⋅ Ben Nicholson ⋅ Sir William Nicholson ⋅ Winifred Nicholson ⋅ Daniel O’Neill ⋅ Eduardo Paolozzi ⋅ Victor Pasmore ⋅ John Piper ⋅ Eric Ravilious ⋅ Alan Reynolds ⋅ Ceri Richards ⋅ William Roberts ⋅ Michael Rothenstein ⋅ Kenneth Rowntree ⋅ William Scott ⋅ Matthew Smith ⋅ Stanley Spencer ⋅ Gilbert Spencer ⋅ Rowland Suddaby ⋅ Graham Sutherland ⋅ Julian Trevelyan ⋅ Fred Uhlman ⋅ Leon Underwood ⋅ Keith Vaughan ⋅ Edward Wadsworth ⋅ Alfred Wallis ⋅ Evan Walters ⋅ John Ward ⋅ Carel Weight ⋅ Gerald Wilde ⋅ Kyffin Williams ⋅ Edward Wolfe ⋅ Bryan Wynter ⋅ Jack Yeats ⋅

20th Century
British and Irish Art

Art Commentator and Historian
Adrian Clark

Queer British Art at the Tate and Queer Saint

20th Century British and Irish Art

Art Commentator and Historian Adrian Clark

Queer British Art at the Tate and Queer Saint

20th Century
British and Irish Art

Art Commentator and Historian
Adrian Clark