Pallant House Gallery – Page 9

Barbara Rae and the R.A. Printmakers at Pallant House Gallery

Barbara Rae Harbour Night — Barbara Rae, Harbour Night, 2005, etching and collagraph, © The Artist

I have a particular passion for prints. The diversity of techniques available to the contemporary printmaker makes this a particularly creative area for artists. Scottish artist and Royal Academician Barbara Rae accurately describes herself as both a printmaker and a painter. The use of collage and layering entwines both strands of her work. She offers the viewer what some have described as an abstracted interpretation of the world.

Barbara Rae Hacienda — Barbara Rae, Hacienda, 2003, screen print, © The Artist

Barbara Rae voices real concern about how we locate ourselves in relation to the world around us. This concern is important and countercultural to the way in which technology, like satellite navigation, can disconnect us from our landscape and sense of place in the world. Her work holds in tension what we perceive and what is beyond, the colours creating a spatial ambiguity. Rae remains an experimental painter and printmaker, seeking new ways to communicate her vision of the world. Patterns in the landscape are revealed in the patterns in her prints. Take, for example, the lines drawing together the composition in ‘Harbour Night’, as though woven in the scenery. Together with the rich, layered colours they create rhythm and life in the image. ‘Barbara Rae: Prints’ is a jewel-like exhibition, which allows us to understand the artist’s mastery of printing techniques as diverse as etching, collotype and screen printing. It runs at Pallant House Gallery, Chichester, until 26th October 2014.

Eileen Cooper Skipper — Eileen Cooper, Skipper, 2009, woodcut, © The Artist

Also on show at Pallant House, until 19th October, is a selection of twelve newly acquired prints, which feature in another exhibition, titled ‘Royal Academician Printmakers: New acquisitions through the Golder-Thompson Gift’. It spotlights the generosity and vision of Mark Golder and Brian Thompson, who have given some one hundred and sixty works by contemporary R.A. printmakers to the Pallant House Gallery Collection. The works in this exhibition encompass a variety of different printmaking techniques, including wood engraving, aquatint, silkscreen and several types of intaglio printing, which include etching, engraving, polymer and gravure. Among my favourites is Eileen Cooper’s ‘Skipper’. This woodcut print has a compelling folk narrative, told through her lovely use of line. It is at once playful and contemporary.

These two exhibitions beautifully explore and demonstrate printmaking as an art form in its own right. But these two shows, like printmaking itself, are also highly democratic, as these images are to be shared and celebrated by many.

For more information on these exhibitions go to www.pallant.org.uk or telephone 01243 774557.

By Revd. Rupert Toovey. Originally published on 3rd September 2014 in the West Sussex Gazette.

Scottish Colourist J.D. Fergusson at Pallant House Gallery

'J.D. Fergusson in his studio at 4 Clouston Street, Glasgow’, circa 1955, © The Fergusson Gallery, Perth & Kinross Council, Scotland

John Duncan Fergusson (1874-1961) is known as one of the four ‘Scottish Colourists’, along with F.C.B. Cadell, G.L. Hunter and S.J. Peploe. Fergusson’s career, however, was much more international than those of his peers. He spent much of his adult life in France and England, which explains his association with the European modern art world and its influence on his work. He has been described as one of the leading figures of Celtic Modernism. In common with his fellow Scottish Colourists, Fergusson painted still lifes, landscapes and interiors, but he was always drawn to the female form.

Fergusson Bathing Boxes — J.D. Fergusson, ‘Bathing Boxes and Tents at St Palais’, 1910, oil on board, presented by the J.D. Fergusson Art Foundation, 1991, © The Fergusson Gallery, Perth & Kinross Council, Scotland

Fergusson Hortensia — J.D. Fergusson, ‘Hortensia’, 1910, oil on canvas, bequeathed by Eric Linklater, 1976, The University of Aberdeen Museums, © The Fergusson Gallery, Perth & Kinross Council, Scotland

Living in Paris between 1907 and 1913, Fergusson found himself at the centre of the birth of modern Western art. It was while he was in Paris that he made his name.

The restrained quality of his work from this period is in sympathy with the new Fauve approach. Fauvism describes a group of early twentieth century artists, including Henri Matisse and André Derain, who emphasised strong colour and painterly qualities over representationalism and Impressionism, as shown in ‘Bathing Boxes and Tents at St Palais’, painted in 1910.

The Fauvist simplicity of his blocked-in colour gives Fergusson’s art a more Expressionist edge. Take, for example, ‘Hortensia’, painted in 1910. The subtle composition gifts this painting with informality and the black edging finely balances the figure. His paintings increasingly recorded a response to a particular place, a moment, and as they did so, they became more vibrant and decorative.

Fergusson 'Danu, Mother of Gods' — J.D. Fergusson, ‘Danu, Mother of the Gods’, 1952, oil on canvas, on loan to the Scottish National Portrait Gallery, Edinburgh, © The Fergusson Gallery, Perth & Kinross Council, Scotland

The 1930s begun triumphantly for Fergusson when ‘Déesse de la Rivière’ was purchased for the French National Collection. But with the outbreak of war in in 1939, he and his lifelong partner, Margaret Morris, moved to Glasgow. They had met each other in Paris in 1913. The photograph shows Fergusson in his studio in Glasgow in the 1950s; in the corner you can see ‘Danu, Mother of the Gods’. Fergusson often painted stylised visions paying homage to his Celtic roots, like this work from 1952. Here Danu, the mother goddess worshipped by the first Celtic tribes to invade Ireland, is depicted in dramatic pose. The handling of paint, colour and strong composition is typical of this artist’s hand.

Fergusson and Morris co-founded the New Art Club and the New Scottish Group. These exhibiting and discussion societies were at the heart of the arts revival in Glasgow at the time. Fergusson remained a generous man and went to great lengths to help other artists and promote modern art. His generosity is apparent in his work.

J.D. Fergusson’s paintings, with their dazzling palette and dramatic handling of subjects, still capture and delight the viewer’s attention. It is a rare treat to see such a body of work exhibited outside Scotland. The exhibition runs until 19th October 2014. For more information go to www.pallant.org.uk.

By Revd. Rupert Toovey. Originally published on 6th August 2014 in the West Sussex Gazette.

Andrew Bernardi Brings ‘1696 Stradivarius’ to Sussex

Over the centuries, it has always been the gift of great artists and composers 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. It is my experience that truly great music and art, like faith, has the power to transform our human experience of the world – to inspire us.

Image1a — The Lord High Sheriff of West Sussex, Jonathan Lucas, with Andrew Bernardi and the ‘1696 Stradivarius’ at Pallant House Gallery

I was delighted to spend much of this last weekend in the company of my great friend Andrew Bernardi at my home church of St Mary’s, Storrington Shipley Arts Festival concert, and at Pallant House Gallery, Chichester for the launch of the ‘1696 Stradivarius’.

Andrew and I both passionately believe that the arts have a tremendously important role in creating community and identity by providing a shared cultural narrative.

With his usual enthusiasm Andrew remarks: “For some fifteen years now I have had a vision as a violinist to acquire an outstanding instrument. I would never have dared to think that today I would be playing the 1696 Stradivarius.” For Andrew it has been an extraordinary journey of courage and determination to acquire this violin and to bring it to Sussex. He acknowledges the generosity and importance of his investors who have made this possible.

Stradivarius made some six hundred violins during his lifetime many of which now reside in museums and bank vaults. It is a rare and marvellous thing to hear the exquisite tone and range of this extraordinary instrument in the hands of a virtuoso musician like Andrew. He is clearly profoundly moved by the experience.

I am grateful that another of my great friends, Jonathan Lucas, the High Sheriff of West Sussex, is at the gallery to celebrate this moment. Jonathan shares our enthusiasm for celebrating and building community. He has a background in choral music having sung in choirs at Cambridge, London and elsewhere. His love and passion for music is expressed as he says, “Andrew’s remarkable contribution in bringing the 1696 Stradivarius to Sussex will provide an unprecedented focus for music and the arts and the opportunity to build up this fantastic community in our county.”

The concert program at Pallant House Gallery was a celebration of the Stanley Spencer exhibition on a theme of reconciliation with music from Sussex and Germany. For me the most moving was ‘The Lark Ascending’ by Ralph Vaughan Williams. The piece was completed the day before the outbreak of World War One. Vaughan Williams soon enlisted as an orderly in the Royal Army Medical Corps reflecting something of Stanley Spencer’s own experience of the war. There is such beauty in this piece as the music gathers and invites us to join with the lark as it rises, falls and turns as though in the soft folds of the Sussex Downs. It never fails to move me. Several of his folk songs came from the fields around Horsham and Monks Gate which he frequently visited. ‘The Lark Ascending’ was amongst the first pieces of music he returned to after the war. It was inspired by the poem of the same title by George Meredith. The following extract from that poem appears on the score:

TEA IN THE HOSPITAL WARD by Stanley Spencer (1891- 1959) on the south wall at Sandham Memorial Chapel, Burghclere, Hampshire. — Stanley Spencer – ‘Tea in the Hospital Ward’ © the estate of Stanley Spencer, 2013. All rights reserved DACs, National Trust Images/John Hammond

He rises and begins to round,
He drops the silver chain of sound,
Of many links without a break,
In chirrup, whistle, slur and shake.

For singing till his heaven fills,
‘Tis love of earth that he instils,
And ever winging up and up,
Our valley is his golden cup
And he the wine which overflows
to lift us with him as he goes.

Till lost on his aerial rings
In light, and then the fancy sings.

As you know, I have long advocated that Sussex was a centre for art and music in the Modern British period. With the Shipley Arts Festival under Andrew Bernardi’s directorship and the work of Pallant House Gallery, Sussex, it would seem, is entering a period of renaissance.

When I suggested a fund raising concert to bring together the Shipley Arts Festival and Pallant House Gallery, Andrew Bernardi and I could not have known that it would see the launch of the ‘1696 Stradivarius’. But people who are passionate about music and art should come together, united in celebration of our rich Sussex heritage. I am proud that Toovey’s sponsors these two vital cultural assets in our community.

For details of the remaining concerts in this year’s 2014 Shipley Arts Festival go to www.bmglive.com/shipley-arts-festival. The ‘Stanley Spencer Heaven in a Hell of War’ exhibition at Pallant House Gallery continues until the 15th June 2014. For more information on this exhibition and the gallery’s remarkable permanent collection go to www.pallant.org.uk or telephone 01243 774557.

By Revd. Rupert Toovey. Originally published on 5th June 2014 in the West Sussex Gazette.

Last Chance to See Stanley Spencer Exhibition

Rupert Toovey with ‘Filling Water Bottles’ by Stanley Spencer

ABLUTIONS by Stanley Spencer (1891- 1959) on the north wall at Sandham Memorial Chapel, Burghclere, Hampshire — ‘Ablutions’ by Stanley Spencer

‘Jack Ashore’ by Walter Sickert, © Pallant House Gallery 2014, Wilson Gift through the Art Fund

This week I am returning to Pallant House Gallery, Chichester, to once again see the outstanding ‘Stanley Spencer: Heaven in a Hell of War’ exhibition, which is now in its final two weeks. The paintings from Sandham Memorial Chapel at Burghclere have been loaned by the National Trust while restoration work to the fabric of the chapel has been undertaken. They will soon be returning to their permanent home. Other rarely seen works by Spencer also form part of this show.

The patron and art critic Clive Bell, of Bloomsbury and Charleston House fame, published a book titled ‘Art’ in 1914. In it he espoused the importance and qualities of the early Italian ‘primitives’, as they were then described. He wrote: ‘Go to Santa Croce or the Arena Chapel and admit that if the greatest name in European painting is not Cézanne, it is Giotto.”

Stanley Spencer too was inspired by the work of the 14th century Quattrocento artist Giotto Di Bondone and it is no accident that the scheme of Sandham Memorial Chapel was based upon Giotto’s Arena Chapel in Padua. In viewing Spencer’s art, the qualities of the aesthetic and the religious are often held in tension. This shared heritage inspires a vital, living experience. Painted from memory between the wars, they are considered by many to be his finest work. The paintings provide a particular and strong articulation of hope, forgiveness and resurrection and are alive with Christian allegory. Take, for example, ‘Ablutions’, which shows the wounded being tended, cleaned and dressed. It is reminiscent of Christ’s washing of the disciples’ feet at the Last Supper. These images leave us in no doubt as to the uniqueness and quality of Spencer’s gifted artistic voice.

In 1912 Clive Bell selected Stanley Spencer’s ‘John Donne Arriving in Heaven’ for the second Post-Impressionist exhibition at the Grafton Galleries in London. Other exhibitors included Matisse and Picasso. Clive Bell frequently visited Burghclere to see Spencer at work. Lively intellectual debates defined life at Charleston House; perhaps Clive Bell’s thinking and his visits to Burghclere brought influence to his wife, Vanessa Bell, and Duncan Grant’s wall paintings at St Michael and All Angels, Berwick, Sussex.

Before I leave the gallery, there is just time to see another exhibition, ‘Artists’ Studies: From Pencil to Paint’, and I find myself captivated by Walter Sickert’s ‘Jack Ashore’. This remarkable oil on canvas displays the artist’s particular gift for composition and tone and the later pencil sketch of the same title is revealing of Sickert’s working method. Painted in 1912-13, it reminds me of the important place Sussex occupies in Modern British Art history. Between 16th December 1913 and 14th January 1914, the Brighton Art Gallery became London-by-the-Sea. The Camden School, under the presidency of Spencer Frederick Gore, was invited to select the work for the exhibition. It was a group of artists always given to division and it operated both as the London Group and the Fitzroy Street Group. Walter Sickert had acknowledged that scope for ‘the free expression of newer artistic thought’ was needed. The exhibition was titled ‘English Post-Impressionists, Cubists and Others’. The first two rooms contained work by those in the more traditional camp of Gore, Gilman and Pissarro. Wyndham Lewis wrote the introduction for the third ‘Cubist Room’ room. Always influenced by Picasso, Lewis embraced Futurism and Cubism.

‘Stanley Spencer: Heaven in a Hell of War’ has been one of the artistic highlights of the year. I am delighted that Toovey’s headline sponsorship of this exhibition, together with support from the Linbury Trust, has made it possible for such an important show to come to Sussex. The paintings have gifted the galleries at Pallant House with a quality of the sacred. Whether you are visiting for the first time or revisiting, this intimate exhibition really has a power to move as we share Spencer’s memories and his pictures allow us to inhabit this very personal story. The exhibition runs until 15th June 2014. For more information go to www.pallant.org.uk.

By Revd. Rupert Toovey. Originally published on 28th May 2014 in the West Sussex Gazette.

Fund-raising for Pallant House Gallery

Pallant House Gallery Chichester — Pallant House Gallery, Chichester

Toovey’s are holding a fund-raising valuations afternoon for Fine Art and Oriental Antiques on Monday 12th May 2014 at Pallant House Gallery, 9 North Pallant, Chichester, West Sussex, PO19 1TJ.

Toovey’s specialists will be at the gallery between 1pm and 5pm to offer free valuations of your paintings, sculptures and Asian and Islamic ceramics and works of art. A third of the seller’s commission for any items valued at the event and subsequently sold through auction at Toovey’s will be donated to the gallery.

Rupert Toovey comments: “The jewel-like collections of art at Pallant House Gallery affirm our county’s central place in the history of 20th Century Modern British. The vision of its directors, Simon Martin and Marc Steene, have established a reputation for exhibitions which are the subject of national acclaim. They have also pioneered the remarkable ‘Outside In’ program, which provides a platform for artists who find it difficult to access the art world, either because of mental health issues, disability, health and social circumstance or because their work does not conform to what is normally considered as art.”