“Like a jewel box shimmering in amber candlelight” – Sam Wanamaker Playhouse

Tuesday evening was my last in London and I returned home on Wednesday morning.

The title quote is from a review in The Guardian.

A few weeks ago I was lucky enough to buy the last ticket for the evening performance of The Duchess of Malfi at the brand new Sam Wanamaker Playhouse at The Globe by the riverside in Southwark. I’ve visited its sister theatre The Globe proper several times and loved each performance. In rain and in sunshine and with a bench seat and cushion I have looked down on the (in my view) unlucky groundlings in the pit. These theatres are not built for comfort.

I’ll warn you now about the seating. Unlike in the Globe itself no cushions are required as all the benches (to call them seats would be an exaggeration) are padded. By lucky chance I was on the back row of four in the pit and I had a back wall (of sorts) to lean against (kind of). Looking round, and thinking of possible future visits, I could see none better to go for. As it happened, in the end, the comfort of the seats was unimportant.

This play and its performance in the intimate (seating for just 340), candle-lit auditorium was one of my theatre-visiting highlights of all time. And I can think of quite a few good ‘uns.

The candles themselves played a part in the performance; even just the lighting of them and the blowing out of them. The candelabras rise and fall from the ceiling, single candles are carried by actors and others flicker in their sconces. All contribute the atmosphere and action as the performance unfolds. I’ve been unable to add the Youtube video about the candles but scroll down through this link to watch.

Gemma Arterton – The Duchess – with her candle

Candles in a Sconce

“The Duchess of Malfi” was written by John Webster (1580-1634) and first performed around 1613-1614.

“The widowed Duchess of Malfi longs to marry her lover, the steward Antonio. But her rancorous brothers, Ferdinand and the Cardinal, are implacably opposed to the match. When their spy, Bosola, discovers that the Duchess has secretly married and carries Antonio’s child, they exact a terrible and horrific revenge.

First performed by the King’s Men – Shakespeare’s own company – ‘privately at the Blackfriars and publicly at the Globe’, The Duchess of Malfi is a thrilling combination of brilliant coups de théâtre, horrific set-pieces and vivid characters – notably the tragic Duchess and the subtly villainous Bosola – all lit by Webster’s obsessional imagination.” [Source]

I’m looking forward to more visits to The Globe and The Sam Wanamaker Playhouse in future!

“Uproar!” The first 50 years of The London Group 1913-1963

Jan29

Ben Uri : Art, Identity and Migration – The Art Museum for Everyone

I’m in London for a few days and this morning I walked from the flat between Belsize Park and Swiss Cottage to The Ben Uri Art Museum in St John’s Wood. It’s a 20 minute walk; unfortunately today it was pouring with rain.

Until 2nd March the Gallery is hosting a special exhibition of which I read favourable reviews in the FT Weekend and The Independent. I had never heard of the London Group but it seemed to fit in well with recent exhibitions visited in Kendal and in Leeds.

The Gallery is very small, entrance is free and there is currently no permanent display as ‘Uproar!’ fills all three rooms. Here is a short video introduction from the Gallery website.

“To celebrate The London Group’s momentous centenary year in 2013, Ben Uri and The London Group are working together with two simultaneous exhibitions. Ben Uri has curated and is hosting a major historical exhibition, “Uproar!”: The first 50 years of The London Group 1913-1963, examining the first half century in the group’s turbulent history, while The London Group is holding a separate, complementary, contemporary exhibition showcasing work by its current members at The Cello Factory, London SE1 8TJ.” [source]

It was amazing to see side by side paintings and sculptures by such diverse artists as L S Lowry, Duncan Grant, Walter Sickert, Vanessa Bell, Henry Moore, Barbara Hepworth, C R W Nevinson, Jacob Epstein, Mark Gertler, Roger Fry, Euan Uglow and Leon Kosoff. I was lucky enough to turn up on the day of a tour and introduction by the curator of this small but powerful exhibition. The above video gives a feel of the intimacy of the small gallery and the importance of the works on display. And here are some of my photos of notable works.

Roger Fry’s Portrait of Nina Hamnett (1917)

Nevinson’s Returning to the Trenches ((1915)

Mask in Pentelicon marble by Barbara Hepworth (1928)

Untitled (Iron Sculpture) by Lynn Chadwick

Matthew Darbyshire and The W.A. Ismay Collection at The Hepworth, Wakefield

Jan26

The Hepworth Gallery by the River Calder in Wakefield

On Thursday I revisited The Hepworth Gallery in Wakefield. I went back specifically to see the Matthew Darbyshire installation of pots juxtaposed with modern white goods in Gallery 10. Unfortunately this exhibition closes today but the pots, which belong to the York Art Gallery collection, will be back in a special new gallery to be created at York when the museum reopens in 2015.

With my new-found appreciation of studio pottery I was looking forward to seeing this exhibition. I was not disappointed.

“This fascinating project brings together one of Britain’s most exciting contemporary artists, Matthew Darbyshire, with one of the world’s most significant assemblages of post-war studio pottery, the W.A. Ismay Collection.

Librarian and collector William Alfred Ismay (1910-2001) lived in Wakefield his whole life. From 1955 he began to collect pieces by some of the most renowned makers of studio pottery from Hans Coper and Shoji Hamada to works by local Yorkshire potters, Barbara Cass and Joan Hotchin, alongside lesser known ceramicists.

His extraordinary collection of 3,600 items, by 500 makers, covered all the available surfaces of his small terraced house in Wakefield. This extraordinary collection offers an insight into the compulsive and systematic habits and protocols of a unique and unusual collector.” [Introduction from The Hepworth website]

Contemporary installation artist Matthew Darbyshire assembled the display based on the floor plan and the furniture or kind of furniture that Ismay would have owned in his Wakefield terraced home; he added modern streamlined household white goods as a contrast to the handmade ceramics and he used just 700 of the total of 3,600 pots from Ismay’s collection. In addition a flat screen TV shows a loop of original motion picture clips that Darbyshire has put together on the themes of man and machines and dance including hip-hop and other natural human movement contrasting the manmade with machines and technology.

And here is my selection of pots (mostly teapots) :

Includes a Roman Colosseum ‘pot’

Viewing the pots made you really want to pick them up so luckily there was a small selection of pots that you were allowed to feel and examine and another TV loop of potters talking about their first meetings with Bill Ismay.

You may pick up these pots

See how Matthew Darbyshire put it all together here :

And here is Down By The Dougie’s view of “Lots of Pots” and more photos.

Art and Life 1920-1931: Studio Pottery

Jan10

Until yesterday I thought a pot was a pot. What a difference a knowledgable speaker makes to the appreciation of art! In this case I’m talking about studio pottery and the pots on display at the Art and Life, 1920-1931 exhibition currently showing at Leeds City Art Gallery (but only until Sunday 12 January). The exhibition will then head down to Kettles Yard in Cambridge and thence to The Dulwich Picture Gallery in south London.

On some Thursdays throughout the year Leeds Art Gallery presents 30 minute free lunchtime talks. Yesterday the lunchtime talk was extended to 50 minutes and the visiting speaker, Dinah Winch from Gallery Oldham, told our small assembled group about the pots displayed in Art and Life. They were all made by William Staite Murray.

These pots, which I would have given barely a glance to before, I now look at quite differently. A stripey vase and a rough brown dish became works of art before my very eyes. The pots matched with the paintings and many appear in Winifred Nicholson’s paintings demonstrating the ideal light in which to view them – natural sunlight through the window – not the artificial light from above the glass cases in the gallery.

Nicholson’s Polyanthus and Cineraria [source]

The stripey vase entitled The Bather was very tall and striking. Photography was not allowed and I have been unable to find a suitable picture to reproduce here. Most of the pots (including The Bather) came from York City Art Gallery (which is undergoing a big refurbishment over the next couple of years) and a couple from Kettles Yard. I visited Kettles Yard in 2011. It is a lovely homely gallery full of art and craft of the Art and Life era.

Inside Kettles Yard (Ben Nicholson’s Bertha (No.2) on the right)

Here is what the Exhibition Guide says about Murray and his pots :

“William Staite Murray was one of the leading artists of his time. Murray eschewed any functionality for pots and viewed pottery as a fundamental abstract art lying between painting and sculpture. Inspired by the Chinese Sung dynasty pots that had begun to appear in London, his pots are emotionally expressive with imaginative titles, all of which appealed to the Nicholsons with whom he was friends and exhibited widely. Ben Nicholson keenly distributed pictures by Alfred Wallis amongst his friends, and sent one to Murray, noting that it reminded him of one of Murray’s pots. We can only muse as to the exact link as it is not known which picture by Wallis Ben sent. Winifred gives us an idea for she wrote of one of Murray’s pots as having “the elemental depth of the sea.” When Ben Nicholson saw Murray’s solo exhibition at the Lefevre Gallery in London in 1931 he wrote “one big brown pot is one of the finest things I have ever seen.” Persian Garden was exhibited in the Lefevre exhibition, and widely seen as one of Murray’s masterpieces, it is probable this was the pot referred to by Nicholson. By the late 1920s remarkably Murray had a higher reputation than the Nicholsons. Arguably as good a potter as Bernard Leach, subsequently Murray’s reputation has suffered, perhaps partly because in 1939 he left England and with the outbreak of war settled abroad. Sadly he did not pot again.”

I hope this brief introduction and excellent lecture will set me up for my visit later this month to the Matthew Darbyshire installation using the pottery collection of W.A.Ismay at The Hepworth in Wakefield.

Other bloggers have written about this wonderful exhibition here and here.

Acting Ebenezer, in which Mr Dickens assuming many a character of his own devising will attempt to render dramatically his recent ghostly book : A Christmas Carol

Dec22

Christmas at The Leeds Library 2013

Christmas at The Leeds Library 2011

On Friday at lunchtime David Robertson of Theatre of the Dales brought his excellent one man show ‘Acting Ebenezer’ to The Leeds Library and performed his abridged version of ‘A Christmas Carol‘ very much in the style of the inimitable Mr Dickens. In addition to his powerful acting of the part of CD Mr Robertson has the distinct advantage of looking the image of Dickens himself!

It was the perfect start to Christmas week and the perfect venue for such a literary performance.

I didn’t like to take photos during the performance and at the end Mr Robertson disappeared in whoosh! So here are some quotes from the book itself and from the flyer left on our seats before the performance.

PREFACE

I HAVE endeavoured in this Ghostly little book, to raise the Ghost of an Idea, which shall not put my readers out of humour with themselves, with each other, with the season, or with me. May it haunt their houses pleasantly, and no one wish to lay it.

Their faithful Friend and Servant,

C. D. December, 1843.*

” “A merry Christmas, Bob!” said Scrooge, with an earnestness that could not be mistaken, as he clapped him on the back. “A merrier Christmas, Bob, my good fellow, than I have given you for many a year! I’ll raise your salary, and endeavour to assist your struggling family, and we will discuss your affairs this very afternoon, over a Christmas bowl of smoking bishop, Bob! Make up the fires, and buy another coal-scuttle before you dot another i, Bob Cratchit!” *

[* Source of quotations from ‘A Christmas Carol’]

And David Robertson writes :

“After the success of Pickwick Papers, Oliver Twist and Nicholas Nickleby, Dickens quarrelled with his publishers, whom he suspected of taking too much of the profits, and rashly told them he himself would bear the cost of their publishing A Christmas Carol.

He wouldn’t scrap the gold embossed cover or the four coloured etchings and insisted on keeping the price to 5/- to be affordable to almost everybody. As it turned out, he landed in considerable debt because so many pirate editions, claiming to be ‘improvements’, reduced his sales. Of course, in the end, A Christmas Carol proved the most popular of all his works and has remained so this day.

I’ve been playing Scrooge in one form or another for twelve years now, starting with a recording I was commissioned to make for students learning English (in which Bah, humbug! was watered down to Oh, nonsense). But I recently met Gerald Dickens, the great great grandson of Charles, and was so impressed by his one-person enactment of Nicholas Nickleby that I’ve been tempted to (gingerly) follow in his footsteps.

I hope you’ll enjoy the result.

David”

We certainly did, thank you, David. And a Merry Christmas Everyone!

Masterpieces : A Wealth of Art in East Anglia

Dec17

There is a marvellous exhibition currently showing at The Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts at the University of East Anglia in Norwich.

“A new exhibition, Masterpieces: Art and East Anglia is opening at the Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts in September, in celebration of the rich and unique artistic heritage of the local region. Approximately 250 objects will be on show, from across the visual arts, ranging from the prehistoric period to the present day. Drawn from more than 60 major public and private collections, the exhibition will showcase the array of masterworks that East Anglia has inspired, produced and collected, and demonstrate the region’s importance in both a national and international context.

The oldest exhibit, the Happisburgh flint handaxe, crafted at least 700,000 years ago, will sit beside works by John Sell Cotman, John Constable, Thomas Gainsborough and Olive Edis. Sculptures by Barbara Hepworth will be dispersed throughout the SCVA’s newly-refurbished galleries and the iconic Lotus 72 sports car will take up pole position in the West End.

Masterpieces: Art and East Anglia will be the first show on display in the SCVA’s newly-refurbished galleries. The exhibition coincides with the University’s 50th Anniversary and will help to mark the significant contribution that UEA has made to the region.” [Source]

I was lucky enough to catch this show when I was down in Norwich a few weeks ago visiting family. The Exhibition comprises part of the 50th anniversary celebrations for the University of East Anglia, in Norwich. Oh dear, I can remember when it opened in one of my favourite parks (Earlham Park) and some of its offices occupied Earlham Hall (the childhood home of prison reformer Elizabeth Fry) …

My Norwich OS map and Elizabeth Fry on the five pound note

… and the neo-brutalist buildings were seen as an insult to our ‘Fine City’

[Source]

But I digress and return to the excellent exhibition which has the best opening times, ever. Although closed on Mondays and between 22nd December this year and 2nd January 2014 it’s open Tuesday to Saturday 10am – 8pm and on Sundays from 10am until 5pm. We made our visit on a Saturday at 5.30pm. We were able to park right outside and had the whole gallery to ourselves. With our Art Fund cards we paid half price for entry.

No photography is allowed in the main lower gallery but four large exhibits are displayed alongside the Sainsbury Centre for the Visual Arts permanent collection. A Lotus racing car is displayed in the restaurant but that was closed and too dark to photograph.

In the Conservatory Cafe is a 2013 stained glass window designed for Norwich Cathedral by John McLean

In the East End Gallery is ‘The Longest Journey’ made by Ana Maria Pacheco in 1994 of polychromed wood

More ‘Longest Journey’ pictures

East End Gallery, shop and ‘The Longest Journey’

Here is an example from the displays. The Marchioness of Cholmondeley’s gown [photo source] made by Jean-Charles Worth stands next to her portrait painted by John Singer Sargent and wearing the gown borrowed from Houghton Hall.

Sargent’s portrait of the Marchioness of Cholmondeley [source]

Norfolk has been full of Masterpieces this year!

Debby Mason : Marine Life Etchings in Devon

Nov13

Every year, around this time, we visit Devon for a week. Whilst there we never fail to fit in a visit to some galleries and one of our regular haunts is The Devon Guild of Craftsmen in Bovey Tracey.

This year my favourite display was a small, one-room exhibition of Debby Mason‘s work. Her exhibition features just a few fantastically intricate fossil fish mezzotints. I also enjoyed the interesting assortment of additional information and artefacts.

Debby’s Coelacanth Mezzotint

“Visit our Members showcase gallery and follow the story of the elusive fossil fish told through Debby’s beautiful mezzotints. The Coelacanth has become a very familiar and favourite subject for Debby’s work. This showcase concentrates on this fascination and gives visitors an insight into the artist’s journey – from idea to final piece.”

There was a digital slideshow demonstrating the sequence of production of a mezzotint and the many inspirations that lead Debby into her chosen field of artwork.

In addition there were two shelves of influential books; some related to her earliest interests like Thor Heyerdahl’s Kon-Tiki expedition, the underwater world of Jacques Cousteau and a visit to the Oceanographic Museum in Monaco :

There was also a display case of photos, shells, flotsam and jetsam.

I suppose also the idea of the Coelacanth intrigued me and reminded me of trips to Lyme Regis to visit the Museum and to try my luck at fossil-hunting.

“In 1938 a live Coelacanth was caught off the coast of South Africa. This caused a sensation because it was thought that these fish had died out 85 million years ago.” [Devon Guild poster]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yz1oTHXvbHg

Debby’s show is on at the Bovey Tracey Gallery until 2nd December.

Old Fourlegs by J. L. B. Smith

Bloomsbury and Beyond : The Radev Collection in Cumbria

Oct31

The Abbot Hall Gallery, Kendal

Today I went on a Yorkshire Branch of The Art Fund trip over to Cumbria. Our main intention was to view The Radev Collection at Kendal’s Abbot Hall Art Gallery. We travelled to Kendal by coach from Leeds picking up in Ilkley and Gargrave on the way. The first stop was for lunch at the Strickland Arms just by the gates to Sizergh Castle. We arrived way ahead of schedule so some members went to view the exterior of the Castle (it doesn’t open until 1pm) but I remembered the nearby Low Sizergh Farm Shop and took my companion for a brisk walk and some retail therapy in the well-stocked deli.

Welcome to The Farm Shop

After the soup and sandwich lunch we headed off for nearby Abbot Hall where the curator was ready and waiting to tell us about the Radev Collection and point out some of the highlights.

Inside The Strickland Arms

The Radev Collection

“The collection takes it name from Mattei Radev, a native of Bulagria who arrived in Britain in the 1950s as a stowaway on a cargo ship after fleeing from communism.

Radev went on to build a new life in England, becoming a leading picture framer for the London Galleries and mixing in the influential Bloomsbury circle which included writers, philosophers and artists, such as Virginia Woolf and E. M. Forster.

He inherited most of the works from his friend the artist-dealer Eardley Knollys, who had in turn inherited them from music critic Eddy Sackville-West, following his death in 1965.

The impressive collection includes works by an array of notable artists including Duncan Grant, Alfred Wallis, Ivon Hitchens, Ben Nicholson, Keith Vaughan, Graham Sutherland, Pablo Picasso, Lucien Pissarro and Vanessa Bell.” [Source]

Photography was not allowed in the exhibition but the complete collection can be seen on the Radev Collection website of which 60 were selected for this touring exhibition. I had to be content with a photo from the gallery window.

The Abbot Hall has an interesting permanent collection which includes a room of works by Kendal-born George Romney including the huge Gower Family in rooms furnished with a collection by local furniture-makers Gillows.

Romney’s The Gower Family

There’s also The Great Picture a magnificent tryptich of Lady Anne Clifford which used to hang in Appleby Castle. Read all about it here.

The Great Picture

Our entry ticket to the Gallery also allowed us to visit The Museum of Lakeland Life and Industry where I’d remembered seeing years ago the display of Arthur Ransome memorabilia, books and prints and his desk. It’s still there.

We didn’t have time to inspect all the displays and it was soon time to return to the coach for journey back to Leeds.

The Museum of Lakeland Life and Industry

Albert Wainwright at The Hepworth

Oct22

Family of Man by Barbara Hepworth outside The Hepworth, Wakefield

After spending some time admiring the Tissot display I decided to move on and see what else the Gallery had on show this autumn beside the spaces devoted to Barbara Hepworth herself.

In the background Hepworth’s Winged Figure (1961-62)

I found another display centred on works from The Wakefield Art Collection – In Focus : Albert Wainwright. Wainwright was born in nearby Castleford in 1898. At the time of writing, the link to his display at The Hepworth tells you about a different so artist so here is something about him.

“From his school days he was a friend of Henry Moore, who became world famous as a sculptor. Albert’s life was not a long one (he was only 45 when he died) and he never became famous like his friend, but it is easy to see from his work that he was a talented artist with a colourful imagination and a strong personal style. Throughout his life he designed programmes, stage sets and costumes for the theatre and an impressive range of this work is now in the collection at The Hepworth Wakefield.

Over 30 years Albert created a number of sketchbooks which record his travels abroad and parts of his life, such as his time with the Flying Corps in the First World War.”

I particularly liked the travel ‘journals’ or sketchbooks which he made on his trips to Germany.

His Map of Whitby

And his “Where’s Wally” or rather, Albert, at “Robin’s Hood Bay” (1930)

“The Wainwright faamily took a summer home at Robin Hood’s Bay during the 1930s. Visits to the bay became an annual occasion for the Wainwrights, who became part of the close-knit community there. Wainwright made a modest income from painting his fellow holidaymakers and their families. In this picture all are imaginary except a self-portrait of the artist centre left, wearing glasses and carrying a walking stick.” [Picture notes]

There’s Albert!

And, the poignant and wistful “We don’t live here any more” (1937)

This painting depicts the view from the window (possibly his studio) of Bramley Cottage at Robin Hood’s Bay. “The placement of the book on the table “Strange Brother” written 1931 by Blair Niles, is significant because it provides an early and objective documentation of homosexual issues in 1920s New York, and is a deliberate allusion to Wainwright’s own sexual identity.” [Picture notes]

There is a selection of books on a table for visitors to look at including a reprinted copy of “Strange Brother“.

The Hepworth Wakefield : James Tissot: Painting the Victorian Woman

Oct21

Approaching The Hepworth over The Aire and Calder Navigation

It was a miserable, grey, wet day last Wednesday and after my usual Nordic Walking session I decided to take a trip to Wakefield and revisit The Hepworth. Back in March I clipped a review of the Tissot exhibition from the Weekend Financial Times, Visual Arts section. Reading the review and knowing Tissot to be a Victorian artist I was intrigued that he should be showing at such a modern and avant-garde gallery as The Hepworth. The answer, as I found out upon enquiry to a steward, is simply that the Wakefield City Art Collection is also housed at The Hepworth and this show is based around pictures in the collection.

From the Tissot Exhibition webpage:

On The Thames (1876)

“Taking the much cherished painting On the Thames, 1876, from our collection as a starting point, this new collection display explores the representation of women in the work of French born artist, James Tissot (1836-1902).

The display will also feature loans from Tate and several regional art galleries, and will discuss the portrayal of Victorian femininity in relation to Tissot’s life-history and the contrasting roles of women in the region’s coal industry.”

Subtitled “How happy I could be with either” the painting caused a scandal when it was exhibited at The Royal Academy.

Other paintings in this small single room show include:

Portsmouth Dockyard (1877) [Tate]

Portsmouth Dockyard notes

The Gallery of HMS Calcutta (Portsmouth) (1876) [Tate]

The Gallery of HMS Calcutta (Portsmouth) notes

The exhibition looks at the representation of women in Victorian England through two contrasting sets of images: the fashionable women of James Tissot’s society paintings (above) and photographs of female workers in northern coalfields (not so easy to photograph in the display cases). Costume was a key element in Tissot’s work. He was born in the French port of Nantes where both his parents worked in the fashion and textile industry.

The painting “On the Thames” was originally owned by Kaye Knowles whose wealth came from his family’s Lancashire based colliery business. The Lancashire “pit brow lass” was mostly associated with the Wigan coalfields where women worked at the pit head. Their costume was also central to the pictures since there are wearing trousers which in Victorian times were perceived as a threat to the moral and social order.

I see from the press that another exhibition featuring James Abbot McNeil Whistler’s London and the River Thames has just opened at the Dulwich Picture Gallery in south London. I wonder whether I shall manage to get to see it before it closes on January 12th 2014?

Wapping (1860) [National Gallery of Art, Washington]

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