Why History?

In 1976 I arrived from my country grammar school at the Historical shrine of Peterhouse. At the time, although the smallest of the colleges of Cambridge, it had the highest number of History dons.

The study of History was taken seriously and the effect on me was to be lifelong. The key people for me were Maurice Cowling and Brian Wormald. Sitting in front of these strange, intense men reading an undergraduate essay was profoundly challenging. Historical writing involved seeking to understand the reality behind why men acted in the way they did; and that reality was hugely complex and not to be confused with the descriptions of it in the work of historians. For those writing about the past always have an agenda. The identification and evaluation of that agenda is part of the reader’s challenge. The effort to abandon – or at least admit to – that agenda is part of the historian’s challenge.

Walking home from the British Library

I live near enough to the British Library to be able to walk to it. On Saturday I had a bit of a Paolozzi moment. First of all I listened to a recording of him talking about people he had known as part of the historic sound recordings kept by the Library. I was listening to this because he had something to say about Peter Watson. Outside the Library is his large Newton piece. Less well-known is the sculpture lurking in front of Euston Station (below, right), which I walk past. Then my route takes me down Drummond Street and Longford Street. In a small area of grass is a sculpture (below, left) by the British sculptress, Jean Bullock. There doesn’t appear to be a lot of information available about her. She was born in 1923 and has an entry in Buckman.

scuplture by British artist Jean Bullock

Regent’s Park is not particularly artist territory. Adrian Berg used to live in Gloucester Gate and anyone who takes Sotheby’s and Christie’s catalogues will have seen many Regent’s Park views by him over the years. (He now lives in Brighton). But there are literary moments as I walk home. At Clarence Gate I pass the house lived in by Elizabeth Bowen and subsequently by Louis Macneice. Then I pass Sussex Place, which was the home of Cyril Connolly at one time.

sculpture by Eduardo Paolozzi by Euston station

Posted Wednesday, June 22nd, 2011, filed under: Eduardo Paolozzi, Jean Bullock, Modern British Sculpture

Sigmund Freud Museum

Visited this in Maresfield Gardens in Swiss Cottage. There are two art things of interest. Firstly, a sketch of Freud done surreptitiously by Salvador Dali, who managed to visit him during the brief period he lived here in 1938/9. Secondly, a watercolour of a plant given by Lucian to Anna Freud, Sigmund’s daughter, who lived on in the house for many years after his death in 1939.

Posted Wednesday, June 15th, 2011, filed under: Lucian Freud

Edinburgh

To the Dean Gallery to work in their Archives on Peter Watson. They have some Roland Penrose material which is helpful. Whilst there I look at the extraordinary reconstruction of Paolozzi’s studio. There aren’t many of these studio recreations in the British Isles that I am aware of. Bacon’s in the Hugh Lane Gallery in Dublin and Henry Moore’s various studios at Perry Green spring to mind. There is of course Derek Hill’s house at Church Hill in County Donegal, but no studio.

Henry Moore sculpture at Scottish National Gallery Then to the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art across the road, with its amazing grass sculpture in front. Also an important work from 1951 by Moore at the front and an extremely well-hidden work by Moore at the back behind some bushes. Seems a poor site to me. The SNGMA can disappoint. Whilst one can see the Scottish Colourists (artists whose works are regularly in the salerooms), their great Colquhoun work, Figures in a Farmyard, is not always on display. In any event, I much prefer Gillies and Mactaggart to Peploe; amongst the Colourists I prefer the work of Hunter.

Back in town, the glorious Scottish National Portrait Gallery has not yet reopened after refurbishments. That is always a treat, both building and collection.

Posted Wednesday, June 1st, 2011, filed under: Derek Hill, Eduardo Paolozzi, Henry Moore, Modern British Sculpture, Scottish Colourists

Marie-Louise Pierrepont,Countess Manvers

To Thoresby in Nottinghamshire,ancestral home of the Pierrepont family,now a hotel.In the Stables an exhibition of the work of the last countess,who died in 1984 aged 95.She had trained in Paris at the Academie Julian and was clearly competent,particularly in chalk and pencil.I remember walking round the house when Sotheby’s sold the contents in 1989 and seeing many works by the countess on the walls.Some are still there in the hotel.These are usually oils and many are of the house and aspects of the huge estate.To my mind the chalk and pencil portraits are more effective.

Posted Tuesday, May 3rd, 2011, filed under: 20th century British art, Women artists

Women artists/Alan Davie

Went to the Imperial War Museum,where they have a small show of women war artists .Interestingly,the first thing one sees is a short video of a Wartime news item from when Laura Knight painted Ruby Loftus in her munitions factory.This is a very famous image and the video shows artist and subject attending the RA to see the picture hanging at the Summer Exhibition (in 1942 or 3).I have just completed a commissioned report for the RA on its experience during the War, so it was nice to see what it looked like.The exhibition also complemented a book I am reviewing for the British Art Journal by Katy Deepwell on women artists between the wars.

Later I visited King’s Place and saw a largeish group of pictures by Alan Davie.A few major works,but a lot of more regular pictures.The nice thing was the range of dates covered.The earliest I noted were from the late 1950’s.

Posted Tuesday, April 26th, 2011, filed under: 20th century British art, Alan Davie, Laura Knight, Women artists

And more City Art

St Vedast in Foster Lane suffered badly in the War,as did much of the area North of St Paul’s.Many Church fragments attest to this destruction.There are photos in the Church showing that in 1947,when a new vicar was installed,the building was still without a roof.But now it is a splendid place,with very much the feel of an Oxbridge college chapel.For the City worker seeking to eat their lunch away from the traffic,there is a lovely courtyard and there will be found lurking a stone bust labelled Head by Epstein.There is no explanation as to who it is or why it is there,although a quick look on Google suggests that it represents Canon Charles Bernard of Chichester Cathedral (a great treasure house of 20th Century British art,largely thanks to Walter Hussey).Apparently in the adjacent vicarage there is a 1959 mural by Hans Feibusch as well.He is also well represented in Chichester.

Posted Wednesday, April 20th, 2011, filed under: 20th century British art, Hans Feibusch, Jacob Epstein

More City Art

On London Wall, outside the Brewers’ Hall, I came across today a sculpture of a gardener by Karin Jonzen. It dates from 1971 and a plaque says it was commissioned by the Trees, Gardens and City Open Spaces Committee of the Corporation of London. The gardener, presumably in bronze, bends down to tend to his garden. The angular form gets its effect from the awkward shape his straining body makes; the face is invisible.

There is a delightful obituary of Karin Jonzen on the internet, written by Edward Lucie-Smith for the Independent on 2 February, 1998. She had recently died in London aged 83 after a colourful life. According to this, her career was in the doldrums in the early 1970’s. It would be interesting to see who was on that City Committee at the time; its membership would probably reveal why she got the commission.

Posted Wednesday, April 6th, 2011, filed under: 20th century British art, Karin Jonzen, Modern British Sculpture

Watercolour at Tate Britain

Went to this yesterday.Apart from single pictures by Ravilious and Bawden,the most dominant 20th C British work on show is by Edward Burra.He has a number of large and characteristic watercolours on display.

In the rearranged displays in Tate Britain it is well worth catching a rarely seen exceptional example of Eileen Agar’s work (Autobiography of an Embryo,1933/4).After her recent showing at Pallant House,it would be nice to see her attracting more attention.

Posted Monday, April 4th, 2011, filed under: 20th century British art, Edward Burra, Eileen Agar, Pallant House

⋅ 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