I hope you will be able to join us on

Saturday 28th March, 11.15am (for about an hour & a half)

at The Beecroft Art Gallery, Southend-on-Sea.

as we continue our research into the ‘long decade’ of 1950s Britain, from the end of World War II to Pop Art.

This month we’ll focus on the post-war Neo-Romantic painters inspired by artists such as Paul Nash, John Piper and Graham Sutherland like John Craxton, Keith Vaughan and others who – remembering the work of Samuel Palmer and The Ancients a century before – sought an imaginative, visionary, even nostalgic art of landscape.

Greek Fisherman by John Craxton [1946; Pallant House Gallery]; A Path in the Woods by Graham Sutherland [1957; Norfolk Museums Service] Walking Figure by Keith Vaughan [1958; Jerwood Collection]

There’ll be plenty to see & discuss as always!

Tickets are £10 (cash) on the door and include coffee & a biscuit at The Jazz Centre afterwards.

Looking forward to seeing you!

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Notes:

There’s a very good short over-view essay on the Pallant House Gallery website on British Neo-Romanticism by Gerard Hastings here: https://pallant.org.uk/a-different-light-british-neo-romanticism/

Also, both online and at the John Swarbrooke Gallery, Fitzroy Square until 15th March, the exhibition A Paradise Regained: Neo-Romanticism in Britain; see https://privateviews.artlogic.net/2/12ac8f93e419afa9873e58/

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Greetings!

I hope you will be able to join us

on Friday 20th March, 11.30am (for about an hour)

at The Beaumont, Barchester Care, 15 Cannon Hill, Old Southgate, N14 7DJ

to explore the life, times & art of Peter Lanyon (1918-1964), one of the foremost artists of the post-war St Ives School who combined abstraction with landscape, portraying his native Cornwall in rich brushstrokes of colour and texture.

Silent Coast [1957; Manchester Art Gallery; artuk.org]

There’ll be lots to look at and discuss – I hope you’ll be able to come along!

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The discussions are for everyone, whether residents or local community. Please note a £3 on-the-door request to cover the cost of coffee and biscuits. With all thanks to Barchester Health Care.

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Notes:

Very interesting books:

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Greetings!

A few odds & ends, links & resources that might be interesting…

The Gwen John: Strange Beauties exhibition has opened at the National Museum Cardiff – the Museum’s website has an interesting & insightful overview by Neil Lebeter: click here and there is a catalogue available (ISBN 9780300286571): “The first comprehensive survey in 40 years brings new scholarly attention and a feminist perspective to the Welsh painter with a singular vision of female interior life”. I would also recommend:

Indeed both Alicia Foster and Judith Mackrell appear in the BBC documentary Keeping the World Away – Finding Gwen John now on i-player here, and there’s a related essay by Natalie Grice, on the BBC News website here.

Keeping with the BBC, Susan Owen’s brilliant “Constable’s Year” is currently on Radio 4 / Sounds – here – but for a very limited time (18 days at time of writing!)

And for those of us intrigued by Gerald Lanscroon’s extraordinary Baroque mural at The Beaumont, an easel painting by the artist was auctioned at Bonhams this week:

Sadly there’s doesn’t seem to be anything known about the picture which is undated, and only desriptively titled: “Portrait of a child full-length, in a yellow costume with a red cloak, holding flowers and standing before a landscape”.

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I hope you will be able to join us on

Saturday 28th February, 11.15am (for about an hour & a half)

at The Beecroft Art Gallery, Southend-on-Sea.

as we continue our research into the ‘long decade’ of 1950s Britain, from the end of World War II to Pop Art.

This month we’ll focus on the Festival of Britain (1951) and the associated “Sixty Paintings for ’51” exhibition, as well as the Coronation (1953) and the “Britain of Tomorrow” exhibition (1956) to look at the diversity of artworks in subject and style during what was a period of radical cultural transition for art and society.

There’ll be plenty to see & discuss as always!

Tickets are £10 (cash) on the door and include coffee & a biscuit at The Jazz Centre afterwards.

Looking forward to seeing you!

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Greetings!

I hope you will be able to join us

on Friday 20th February, 11.30am (for about an hour)

at The Beaumont, Barchester Care, 15 Cannon Hill, Old Southgate, N14 7DJ

to explore the life, times & art of Cliff Rowe (1904-1989) with particular reference to his post-World War II works and the influence of Soviet artist Alexander Deineka (1899-1969).

Left: Cliff Rowe’s “Textile Workers” [People’s History Museum; artuk.org]

Right: Alexander Deineka’s “Textile Workers” [1927; Russian Museum]

There’ll be lots to look at and discuss – I hope you’ll be able to come along!

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The discussions are for everyone, whether residents or local community. Please note a £3 on-the-door request to cover the cost of coffee and biscuits. With all thanks to Barchester Health Care.

*

Notes:

Very interesting book:

Film on Ruskin Spear

There’s a fabulous short film / HENI Talk with Dr Tanya Harrod (author of “Humankind: Ruskin Spear
Class, culture and art in 20th-century Britain” published by Thames & Hudson, 2022) on the ArtUK site here.

And, currently at Tate Britain, the have a Tate Archive exhibition: “Artists International – The First Decade”; see: https://www.tate.org.uk/visit/tate-britain/display/artists-international along with Andy Friend’s new book “Comrades in Art: Artists Against Fascism 1933-1943”

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I hope you will be able to join us on

Saturday 31st January, 11.15am (for about an hour & a half)

at The Beecroft Art Gallery, Southend-on-Sea.

With a focus predominantly on the Art of Ruskin Spear (1911-1990), today we’ll enter the ‘long decade’ of 1950s Britain, from the end of World War II to Pop Art – a period of radical cultural transition for art and society. There’ll be plenty to see & discuss as always!

Tickets are £10 (cash) on the door and include coffee & a biscuit at The Jazz Centre afterwards.

Looking forward to seeing you!

Greetings!

I hope you will be able to join us

on Friday 16th January, 11.30am (for about an hour)

at The Beaumont, Barchester Care, 15 Cannon Hill, Old Southgate, N14 7DJ

to explore the life, times & art of Ruskin Spear (1911-1990) with particular reference to his focus on the everyday world of mid-20th century Hammersmith.

Let’s hope the weather doesn’t look like this!!!

There’ll be lots to look at and discuss – I hope you’ll be able to come along!

*

The discussions are for everyone, whether residents or local community. Please note a £3 on-the-door request to cover the cost of coffee and biscuits. With all thanks to Barchester Health Care.

***

Note:

There’s a fabulous short film / HENI Talk with Dr Tanya Harrod (author of “Humankind: Ruskin Spear
Class, culture and art in 20th-century Britain” published by Thames & Hudson, 2022) on the ArtUK site here.

Greetings!

I hope you will be able to join us

on Friday 12th December, 11.30am (for about an hour)

at The Beaumont, Barchester Care, 15 Cannon Hill, Old Southgate, N14 7DJ

to explore the art of legendary Ukrainian artist Maria Prymchachenko.

Ukrainian Milkmaids Work Hard Like Miners [1970; c/o WikiArt]

There’ll be lots to look at and discuss – I hope you’ll be able to come along!

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The discussions are for everyone, whether residents or local community. Please note a £3 on-the-door request to cover the cost of coffee and biscuits. With all thanks to Barchester Health Care.

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I hope you will be able to join us on

Saturday 13th December, 11.15am (for about an hour & a half)

at The Beecroft Art Gallery, Southend-on-Sea

to explore The Art & Artists of Ukraine.

With a focus on the life and times of Ukraine’s legendary artist Maria Prymchenko, we will explore a century of Art & Artists in Ukraine – and resources to find out more. Lots to see & discuss as always!

Ukrainian Milkmaids Work Hard Like Miners by Maria Primachenko [1970; c/o WikiArt]

Tickets are £10 (cash) on the door and include coffee & a biscuit at The Jazz Centre afterwards.

Looking forward to seeing you!

I hope you will be able to join us on

Saturday 29th November, 11.15am (for about an hour & a half)

at The Beecroft Art Gallery, Southend-on-Sea

to discuss The Art of Ilya Repin (1844-1930).

Born in Ukraine, Ilya Repin was one of the most famous artists of the late 19th-century Russian Empire, especially due to his depictions of everyday life. He travelled to Paris to study in the early 1870s, crossing over with the early Impressionists and, towards the end of his life, moved to Finland. It is these travels and cross-cultural influences that will be our focus today as we explore Repin’s often monumental paintings in the context of their time and as they have variously been seen since (Stalin viewed Repin’s work as a precursor of and influence on Socialist Realism; and there is a vast exhibition of Repin “as a Russian artist” currently on show in Beijing). Lots to see & discuss as always!

A Parisian Cafe [1875; Christie’s]

Tickets are £10 (cash) on the door and include coffee & a biscuit at The Jazz Centre afterwards.

Looking forward to seeing you!