Saturday 11th July, 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 look at the early paintings of Francis Bacon whose work seems to delve into the existential crisis and evoke the very zeitgeist of the post-war world.
Photograph (above) Francis Bacon by John Deakin [early 1950s]
Francis Bacon (1909-1992) Figure in a Landscape [1945; Tate; artuk.org]
There’ll be plenty to see & discuss as always! And we’ll look at Francis Bacon (Part 2) on Saturday 25th July.
Tickets are £10 (cash) on the door and include coffee & a biscuit at The Jazz Centre afterwards.
You may remember that I mentioned I’d be discussing Roger Fry with Fiona McKenzie Johnston as part of Dalloway Day at Hatchards this weekend and my word it was interesting. Fry was a whirlwind of a man, fingers in every pie from London to New York, the Burlington Magazine to, of course, the Manet and the Post-Impressionists exhibition that stirred up (under statement!) the London art world of 1910.
Roger Eliot Fry (1866-1934): Studland Bay [1911; Touchstones Rochdale; c/o artuk.org]
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For those interested in our discussion of British Surrealism, I’ve just spotted there’s to be a very intriguing exhibition coming by way of the Treasure House Fair (24th – 30th June, Royal Hospital Chelsea):
British Surrealism and Beyond: Treasures from Southampton City Art Gallery
So many gorgeous books & talks & exhibitions! I do try to pop them up on X/Twitter @TheCommonViewer too if you’re on social media. But let’s finish with this fabulous photograph of Joni Mitchell with the late David Hockney (c/o @womensart1)
Three new and perfectly inter-related books were published this month:
Simon Morley’s “La Belle France” (Yale University Press) is an arty road journey around contemporary France investigating why British artists from Walter Sickert to David Hockney have found the country – from Paris to Normandy to the Riviera – have found the landscape and culture so inspiring, and so liberating.
One of the artists mentioned is Roger Fry, the subject of Fiona McKenzie Johnston’s new biography (Triglyph Books) telling the life story of the man who gave up his scientific studies for Renaissance Art, his own painting and – famously – bringing Post-Impressionism to Britain.
That exhibition is, in turn, the focus of David Boyd Haycock’s “Art-Quake, 1910” (Old Street Publishing): “The exhibition ‘Manet and the Post-Impressionists’… would be the closest thing, metaphorically, to a bomb in the National Gallery.”
Each are written with great insight and panache, very much enthusing this reader for one!
And if you’re interested, I’ll be discussing Roger Fry with Fiona McKenzie Johnston as part of Dalloway Day at Hatchards, Piccadilly on Saturday 13th June (tickets available via hatchards.co.uk).
Roger Eliot Fry (1866-1934): A Town in Provence, France [1917; The Stanley & Audrey Burton Gallery, University of Leeds; c/o artuk.org]
Saturday 27th June, 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 look at the early paintings of Francis Bacon whose work seems to delve into the existential crisis and evoke the very zeitgeist of the post-war world.
Photograph (above) Francis Bacon by John Deakin [early 1950s]
Francis Bacon (1909-1992) Figure in a Landscape [1945; Tate; artuk.org]
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.
at The Beaumont, Barchester Care, 15 Cannon Hill, Old Southgate, N14 7DJ
to further explore the art of Desmond Morris and Ithell Colquhoun whose post-war Surrealist works developed from very different ways of thinking and understanding the world around them.
Left: Desmond Morris (1928-2026) Entry to a Landscape [1947; c/o Christie’s]
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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