Tag: Pallant House Gallery

Eduardo Paolozzi Sculptures & Prints for sale at Toovey’s

Lot 54 Eduardo Paolozzi at Toovey's
Lot 54: Eduardo Paolozzi 'Newton after William Blake' plaster relief

Sir Eduardo Paolozzi (1924-2005) was a British sculptor, printmaker, filmaker and writer. He is regarded as one of the most inventive British artists to come to prominence after the Second World War with his legacy ranging from pop art to monumental public works.

0008 Eduardo Paolozzi at Toovey's
Lot 8: '72 Aeschylus & Socrates, see App 4 #123…' by Eduardo Paolozzi

He attended St Martin’s School of Art in 1944, continuing his studies in sculpture at the Slade School of Fine Art where, despite his teacher’s disapproval, he discovered the work of Pablo Picasso. This influence is plain to see in his sculptures and cubist-derived collages. On a trip to France he was exposed to surrealism, which gave him the foundations for all future work. It was also while in Paris, Paolozzi produced rudimentary collages from the adverts contained within American glossy magazines that echoed Dada photomontage. These early examples of pop art were the focus of a recent exhibition at Pallant House Gallery, featured by Rupert Toovey in his article ‘“Collaging Culture” at Pallant House Gallery‘.

His large public sculptures were numerous, in Britain they included the mosaic decoration in Tottenham Court Road underground station, a bronze figure of Isaac Newton for the entrance of the British Library, an abstract monument for Euston Square in London and a large sculpture for the Royal Bank of Scotland headquarters in Edinburgh. Eduardo Paolozzi was made a CBE in 1968, an RA in 1979 and a knight in 1989. The Tate Gallery had a retrospective exhibition of Paolozzi’s work in 1971.

Throughout Paolozzi’s career the human form, language and a fascination of industrial engineering remained as sources of inspiration. These influences can all be seen in a single owner collection of works by Sir Eduardo Paolozzi to be offered at Toovey’s on 26th March 2014. The collection of plaster and bronze sculptures and prints by Paolozzi was discovered by Rupert Toovey in an attic in Newhaven. In his recent article Rupert states:

“This exciting collection provides a valuable insight into the work of Sir Eduardo Paolozzi. There are iconic examples and more modest pieces expressing the joy and humour in his view of the world, often with a surrealist influence. Paolozzi’s work is layered, textural and thought-provoking, delighting the eye and the mind.”

The single owner collection will be offered for sale as part of the Selected Fine Art Auction (Lots 1-68) on Wednesday 26th March 2014. Viewing for the auction commences on Saturday 22nd March between 9.30am and 12 noon. Click here to view the collection online.

Stanley Spencer at Pallant House Gallery

'Tea in the Hospital Ward' by Stanley Spencer (1891-1959)

‘Stanley Spencer: Heaven in a Hell of War’, currently showing at Pallant House Gallery, Chichester, is one of the most important art exhibitions of 2014. It provides a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to see the work of this exceptional British artist in an intimate gallery space.

'Bedmaking'
‘Study for The Resurrection of the Soldiers’, circa 1927, Inks Raphael

First shown at Somerset House, London, the exhibition features Stanley Spencer paintings temporarily relocated from their home at The Oratory of All Souls, Sandham Memorial Chapel in the village of Burghclere, Hampshire. It also contains additional works rarely seen, loaned by Tate, the University of Chichester’s Bishop Otter Collection and private collections. The galleries at Pallant House, designed by Colin St. John Wilson, transform our experience of the works. Simon Martin, Pallant House Artistic Director, and his team are responsible for the wonderful way that these paintings are displayed. “The pictures are hung at eye level,” Simon comments, “so that the viewer is able to see details they have never seen before.”

The Oratory of All Souls was built by John Louis and Mary Behrend to honour the ‘forgotten dead’ of the First World War and they commissioned Stanley Spencer to create art for the interior, impressed by his reminiscences of the Macedonian campaign. The chapel was later dedicated to Mrs Behrend’s brother, Lieutenant Henry Willoughby Sandham, who had died of an illness contracted while serving in Macedonia. Sandham Memorial Chapel, as it subsequently became known, was gifted to the National Trust in 1947.

'Ablutions'
'Map-Reading'
'Filling Water Bottles'

Spencer was inspired by the work of the 14th century Italian artist Giotto Di Bondone and it is no accident that the scheme of the chapel interior was based on Giotto’s Arena Chapel in Padua. Since the Renaissance we have become used to viewing art in frames. While the work may invite us in, we nevertheless remain the viewer. The painted medieval church is different; here we inhabit the piece of art, joined with the narratives displayed all around us. It is the gift of this remarkable show to allow us to inhabit Spencer’s narratives in this way. In viewing this art, the qualities of the aesthetic and the religious are held in tension. This shared heritage inspires a vital experience.

The pictures were painted from memory on canvas between 1927 and 1932. They reflect Spencer’s very particular perspectives resulting from his experience of war and are a fulfilment of an idea conceived while he was on active service between 1914 and 1918. Writing home, Spencer said, “We are going to build a church and the wall will have on them all about Christ.” Many artists, like C.R.W. Nevinson, Paul Nash and Mark Gertler, painted the stark reality of their experiences of the battlefield during the Great War. In contrast, Stanley Spencer’s depictions of war centre on scenes of daily life at the Beaufort War Hospital in Bristol and times between the fighting in Macedonia.

Some critics have implied a quality of escapism in these works but this is to misunderstand the integrity and Christian faith of this visionary artist at this time. Works like ‘Bed-Making’ show the domesticity and Spencer’s attempt to bring sacrifice and service into the harsh realities of the hospital and men’s injuries, as depicted in ‘Ablutions’. Stanley Spencer was influenced by St. Augustine’s writings and the possibility of holiness being lived out through ordinary, everyday tasks when carried out with the qualities of love and service. Spencer’s work speaks of the beauty and compassion in humanity, of hope, in contrast to man’s inhumanity to man.

There is no doubt that Spencer worked in a very methodical way. The sketches in the exhibition are carefully prepared with grids to enable them to be transferred accurately onto large-scale canvas panels. He would inch across the canvas, starting top left, and work meticulously, almost never retracing his work. This exhibition allows the viewer the opportunity to note some squaring through the paint.

Spencer described his method of working when he said, “I find I am painting things… in the same order in which God created them; first the firmament… then all the bare earth bits and the river bits, then the bushes and flowers and grass and trees and creepers and here I also do walls and buildings, then come animals and human beings together at the end.” His love of nature and his skill as a painter is exquisitely depicted in ‘Map-Reading’. Here the artist’s extraordinary richness of palette becomes apparent, something which is difficult to discern in the limited natural light in Sandham Memorial Chapel.

His figures are solid and sculptural, combining remembered and imagined faces and forms. His attention to detail and his handling of paint are both remarkable; take, for example, the depiction of jam sandwiches and the texture of the cloth in ‘Tea in the Hospital Ward’. Perspective and composition are carefully conceived, connecting us with these narratives. In ‘Filling Water Bottles’ the arm of the injured soldier seated in a chair leads our eye to the centre and base of the panel. To the right is a line of soldiers drinking from raised blue water bottles, conjuring the image of trumpeting angels, which together with the water from the spring draw our eyes heavenwards. The three soldiers reclining on the rocks which enfold the spring fill their bottles. They are depicted as though in flight, their cloaks drawn as angelic wings. The stone wall in its light hues seems to illuminate the scene below, while the figures above it ascend a path which rises beyond our sight, as though to heaven. The themes of forgiveness, resurrection and rebirth for all humankind run through these panels and are evident in the ‘Study for The Resurrection of the Soldiers’ from 1927. Paul Gough summarises the sacred in these works in his illuminating book ‘Journey to Burghclere’: “In Stanley’s paintings everything becomes sacred [with a] genius to make the miraculous seem normal and the normal seem miraculous.”

This exhibition runs until 15th June 2014 when the paintings will return to Sandham Memorial Chapel, which is currently closed for restoration works. Our thanks should go to Amanda Bradley and David Taylor from the National Trust, who curated this exhibition, and to Simon Martin and team at Pallant House Gallery. Together they have given us an extraordinary opportunity to view these works in an entirely different way to that which is normally possible.

Simon Martin concludes, “The 2014 Centenary of the start of the First World War provides a timely opportunity for Pallant House Gallery to present Stanley Spencer’s remarkable and visionary series of paintings inspired by conflict in [our] gallery… allowing a unique opportunity to see the paintings eye-to-eye.”

I am delighted that Toovey’s are headline sponsors, together with the Linbury Trust and the National Trust, enabling this remarkable and important exhibition to come to Sussex. For further information of talks and events relating to the show go to www.pallant.org.uk or telephone 01243 774557. The excellent catalogue of the exhibition is available from the Pallant House Gallery Shop, priced £19.95.

All images ©the estate of Stanley Spencer, 2013. All rights reserved DACs, National Trust Images/John Hammond.

By Revd. Rupert Toovey. Originally published on 26th February 2014 in the West Sussex Gazette.

Sean Scully: Triptychs at Pallant House Gallery

Sean Scully, ‘River’, 1984, oil on linen, private collection

If you are in Sussex between now and the 24th January, treat yourself to the Sean Scully: Triptych exhibition at Pallant House Gallery in Chichester. Sean Scully, twice nominated for the Turner Prize in 1989 and 1993, is an abstract artist whose work is defined by panels of vertical and horizontal lines. His images are often arranged as triptychs. Sean Scully was born in Ireland and spent time in London before moving to New York.

His abstract work is uncompromising and demanding of the viewer’s attention. Stop and stare. As you reflect on the texture of the oil paint upon the canvas, or the effects of watercolour and ink on paper, you will become aware of the subtlety of tone inherent in the clear colour schemes of each image. Scully talks of his use of colours as being intuitive, of reflecting mood and circumstance. At a recent event, Scully described the importance of his “metaphysical relationship with materials, which of course is fundamental to all my work – that relationship between materiality and light”.

Sean Scully, ‘1.6.91’, 1991, watercolour on paper, private collection
Sean Scully, ‘Bridge’, 1991, woodcut print, private collection

Much abstract art today is art reflecting on art. For me, this seems to be at odds with the gift of great artists to reflect upon the world we all share and to allow us, through their work, to glimpse something of what lies beyond our immediate perception. So for me, Sean Scully’s work is refreshing. It is connected to his life and the world. Music and literature also provide him with rich seams of inspiration. These resolute visual images can seem stark but there is an underlying quality of hope. Whilst Scully has an apparent and deeply held confidence in the work that he does, his approach is not without humility or sensitivity. He sees himself as a communicator and unifier, building bridges to make the world a better place. Through his pictures, he seeks to move people. He believes that this form of communication can help people to realize that they are connected and not isolated.

Scully describes the horizontal lines in his pictures as metaphors for land-lines or the horizon, whilst the vertical lines in his compositions represent the person and proclaim that ‘I exist’.

Simon Martin, Artistic Director at Pallant House Gallery, has noted that Sean Scully is “concerned with expressing a sense of spirituality”. Certainly, for Sean Scully spirituality is important, something he notes as a particular artistic quality in Ireland. He grew up in the Roman Catholic Christian tradition and has a fondness for the sensory quality of their worship with incense, bells, music and fine robes. But he is an eclectic soul, who seeks to speak across the boundaries of religious traditions. Scully feels that it is possible to manufacture prejudice, though he claims never to have experienced it. Instead, he maintains that if we project love into the world, it is reflected back to us.

The canvases which make up Sean Scully’s triptychs, although highly related, can at once be viewed individually or as a whole. It is interesting to note how they relate to one another when viewed together.

These abstract triptychs are stimulating on many levels and provide a narrative to human sorrow, joy and hope, with a particular directness and honesty. They regain a sense of reference to the richness and complexity of the world and what it is to be human. They allow us to glimpse something beyond our immediate perceptions.

We are exceptionally fortunate to have an artist of such international standing exhibiting in Sussex. Sean Scully: Triptychs at Pallant House Gallery, Chichester, runs until 26th January 2014. For further information go to www.pallant.org.uk or telephone 01243 774557.

By Revd. Rupert Toovey. Originally published on 8th January 2014 in the West Sussex Gazette.

Inspired by the Countryside and the Changing Seasons

England’s changing seasons and landscape afford a particularly generous accompaniment to my life in Sussex. The artist Clare Leighton shared this delight in the rhythms of nature and the countryside.

A Lap Full of Windfalls from Four Hedges
‘A Lap Full of Windfalls’ from Four Hedges: A Gardener’s Chronicle

In the early part of the 20th century there was a revival of wood engraving in Britain. The softness of line and the strength of contrast in the black and white seemed to articulate something particular to a generation of people who were united in their experience of war. Clare Leighton belonged to this movement and generation. Today she is highly regarded by art historians and collectors. Her work combines a deep understanding of life and love, informed by her Christian faith, with a captivating simplicity and honesty. Many of her compositions are characterized by the use of a series of underlying curves, which at once unite the subjects in her pictures while giving a quality of journeying and movement.

Against some opposition from her family, Clare Leighton persuaded her parents to allow her to attend the Brighton School of Art. From there she went to the Slade School of Art, where she studied under Sir Henry Tonks between 1923 and 1924. Needing to earn a living, she left the Slade and enrolled for evening classes at the Central School of Arts and Crafts. She was friends with Hilaire Belloc, who lived at Shipley windmill near Horsham, and Eric Gill, who was at this point living in Ditchling.

Before the war she wrote and illustrated a series of books, which included The Farmer’s Year (1933) and Four Hedges: A Gardener’s Chronicle (1935). They reflect her fondness for the countryside and her empathy with rural workers and their husbandry. Although her work is modern, it follows in the rich tradition of English Romanticism.

‘April, Sowing’ from The Farmer’s Year
‘April, Sowing’ from The Farmer’s Year
The Fat Stock Market
‘The Fat Stock Market’ from ‘December’ in The Farmer’s Year

Nicholas Toovey heads the pictures and books departments at Toovey’s. With an interest in both these fields of collecting, it is understandable why this artist should particularly appeal to him. “I have long admired Clare Leighton’s work,” says Nick. “She was part of the revival of wood engraving at the start of the 20th century. It fascinates me that from only two colours, black and white, an artist can create a sense of light, movement, tone and hue.” Nick’s thoughts resonate with Leighton’s own reflections on the art of creating a woodblock engraving. She wrote, “The discipline of engraving is demanding, and for a perfectionist, exhaustingly so. Harnessed to this need is to interpret colour and tone through the limitation of black and white.”

In Clare Leighton’s ‘April, Sowing’ from The Farmer’s Year, the curve of the sower’s posture implies movement and unites him with the folds of the hills beneath the scudding clouds, which are reflected in the river. Leighton carves her woodblock with great skill and delicacy, creating mass, light and shade through the use of crosshatching. The curved compositional forms and quality of tone are again beautifully illustrated in ‘A Lap Full of Windfalls’ from Four Hedges: A Gardener’s Chronicle.

Nicholas Toovey with a first edition of Clare Leighton’s The Farmer’s Year from 1933

Nick draws my attention to ‘The Fat Stock Market’ from ‘December’ in The Farmer’s Year and says, “Leighton’s execution of carved line is always so precise. For the wood engraver there is no possibility of changing a mistake; once a line is engraved it must stay. There is a directness in the depiction of this livestock market and a strong feeling of empathy with these stewards of the land on this dark and damp December day. The black and white provides this scene with a real sense of drama.”

Here is an artist connected with her life and times, the countryside and its people, all of which inspired her to give expression to life and love through her woodblock prints.

Clare Leighton’s decision to emigrate to America in 1939 was bound up with her decision to end her relationship with the journalist and writer Henry Noel Brailsford. She settled in North Carolina and enjoyed a full artistic career, which included teaching at Duke University. Clare Leighton’s work is represented in many national collections, including the British Museum in London and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Nick and I are excited that Toovey’s is supporting the exhibition Clare Leighton: Working Life, which has just opened at Pallant House Gallery in Chichester. This excellent show has been organised by Simon Martin and provides a wonderful opportunity to see a breadth of Clare Leighton’s work. It runs until 24th February 2014; for further information go to www.pallant.org.uk.

By Revd. Rupert Toovey. Originally published on 18th December 2013 in the West Sussex Gazette.

Eric Ravilious, Exhibition of Prints at Pallant House Gallery

Eric Ravilious, Newhaven Harbour, 1937, Lithograph, Private Collection.
Eric Ravilious, Newhaven Harbour, 1937, Lithograph, Private Collection.

An intimate exhibition of prints by the artist Eric Ravilious, who lived and worked in Sussex, is on show at Pallant House Gallery in Chichester until 8th December. The exhibition highlights prints and book illustrations from Ravilious’ oeuvre. His work is rooted in the landscape and life of pre-war and early wartime England, especially the South Downs where he grew up.

Eric Ravilious was born in 1903. As a very young boy he moved with his parents from Acton to Eastbourne in Sussex. There his father ran an antique shop. Ravilious was educated at Eastbourne Grammar School. In 1919 he won a scholarship to Eastbourne School of Art and in 1922 to the Royal College of Art (RCA) in London, where he met his lifelong friend and fellow artist Edward Bawden. Both men studied under the artist Paul Nash at the RCA. Nash was generous in encouraging and promoting their work and he helped Ravilious to acquire some of his first commissions for prints and book illustrations. Ravilious subsequently taught part-time at both art schools.

Eric Ravilious, Commander of a Submarine, Pallant House Gallery
Eric Ravilious, Commander of a Submarine looking through a Periscope from the Submarine Series, 1940-41, Lithograph, Pallant House Gallery, The Dennis Andrews and Christopher Whelan Gift (2008).
Eric Ravilious, Manor Gardens, 1927, Wood Engraving, Towner, Eastbourne
Eric Ravilious, Manor Gardens, 1927, Wood Engraving, Towner, Eastbourne
Eric Ravilious, Amusement Arcade, 1938, Lithograph, Private Collection
Eric Ravilious, Amusement Arcade, 1938, Lithograph, Private Collection

Alan Powers, in his excellent and beautifully illustrated new monograph Eric Ravilious, Artist and Designer, maintains that “Ravilious was a printmaker and illustrator first and a painter afterwards”. Ravilious was to excel in both mediums. Certainly, the exceptional textural quality he gives to the play of light upon surfaces is given life through his characteristic use of line and colour.

The print Newhaven Harbour perfectly illustrates Ravilious’ strong connection with Sussex. Here the westerly wind causes the clouds to move across the sky and the light dances on the gentle incoming tide, which brings an ocean liner safely to harbour. Texture, light and movement connect the artist’s work to the English Romantic tradition but with a particular and fresh voice. It is at once figurative and yet highly stylized. The life in this print is made possible by the process of autolithography, which was being promoted by the Curwen Press and others in the 1930s. This process allowed the artist to draw directly on to stone or printing plates, rather than relying upon an intermediary to transfer the image from a drawing. It is evident that Ravilious was trying to recapture his watercolour. The small brush strokes demanded by the viscous lithographic ink are combined with the effects of sponging in the treatment of the sky. There is a hopeful, joyous air to the scene depicted in this large poster-size print.

The mood of the pre-war Newhaven Harbour contrasts with the lithograph Commander of a Submarine looking through a Periscope from 1941. Here, the view from the periscope is abstracted into the shadows of the submarine, the flash of blue connecting this vignette to the commander’s eyes.

Wood engraving was Eric Ravilious’ first medium for print. It allowed for fine lines to be drawn against the black ground. The revival of wood engraving in the early 20th century provides a connection to 18th century artists like Thomas Berwick and William Blake, and to 19th century artists of the Arts and Crafts Movement, who worked in the same medium. By 1927, the date of the wood engraving Manor Gardens, Ravilious displays the line, flecking and crisp edging which define his woodblocks.

Illustrations by many artists are often viewed as being secondary to other aspects of their output. With Ravilious, however, his consistent and particular voice always shines through. Take, for example, the illustration Amusement Arcade from the book High Street, published by Country Life in 1938. Once again the luminosity of light is created by line and tone, creating an image of an arcade at night which is alive with movement and texture.

Entrance to this jewel-like exhibition is free and it is on show until 8th December 2013 at Pallant House Gallery, Chichester. Further details of this and the gallery’s other current exhibitions (which are really worth the ticket price) can be found at www.pallant.org.uk. The Pallant House Bookshop has copies of Eric Ravilious Artist & Designer at a special price to visitors of £30 – the perfect start to your Christmas shopping!

By Revd. Rupert Toovey. Originally published on 27th November 2013 in the West Sussex Gazette.