Sandham Memorial Chapel - Spencer’s ambition made manifest

On the very last leg of my 3month&3,000mile trip around Britain in my Bongo I dropped in at the newly re-opened Sandham Memorial Chapel, arguably one of English arts greatest achievements of the 20th century and known as Britain’s answer to the Sistine Chapel yet it still remains one of the country’s best kept art secrets.

Sandham Chapel

It was delight to see the works in their original setting after thier travels around the country which I wrote about in an earlier post – London’s Somerset House and Chichester’s The Pallant House -  while the Chapel was being renovated.

I’ve had the pleasure of seeing the Chapel on a number of occasion yet its scale, its composition, its colour, its multitude of figures and varied scenes  never ceases to amaze , surprise and delight.

Spencer’s ambition is vast, examplified by The Resurrection of the Soldiers – a year in the making – a huge jaw dropping work covering the alter wall with eye-catching detail everywhere, an amazing work.

The Resurrection of there Soldiers

Contemplating the head of a man with a thick, bushy moustache in the corner of the The Resurrection of the Soldiers and thinking is this the only moustache in the entire work ? It occurred to me that the only figure I recognised in the whole scheme was Spencer. I wasn’t aware of the identities of any of the soldiers not even the lone officer in the entire scheme as well as this lone moustachioed man.

The Resurrection of the Soldiers (Detail)

Spencer has included local people in his paintings, so surely there are some known characters in the Chapel's scheme?  For example Spencer used the local carpenter (also the father of one of the volunteers who run the Stanley Spencer Gallery in Cookham) as the model for the man with the nails in his mouth in  The Crucifixion, 1958.

(LEFT) The Cookham carpenter Spencer used as a model for the figure (RIGHT) in The Crucifixion 1958 

All the great frescos of fourteen and fifteenth century Italy contain portraits of the artist's patron and family along with other contemporary elites as well as the artist's own self-portrait acting like a signature. And Spencer acknowledged the influence of those italian artist on his work and is reported to have said - What ho, Giotto! - on being given the chapel commission .

As a minimum those Italian Renaissance artists had the conceit of having themselves in the picture , often staring out directly – proudly - at the viewer for example: Ghirlandaio in The Resurrection of the Boy 1485; Da Fabriano , Adoration of Magi 1423 and one of my very favourites Gozzoli’s Procession of the Magi 1459.

Ghirlandaio in The Resurrection of the Boy (Detail)1485

Da Fabriano , Adoration of Magi (Detail) 1423

Benozzo Gozzoli appears no less than six times in his work, most audaciously wearing a red patrician hat with the words Opus Benotii (Benozzo's Work) around the brim. Spencer doesn’t have his name on any hat or helmut, nevertheless he too appears a number of times in the Chapel.

Gozzoli Procession of the Magi (Detail) 1459

Spencer seems to paint himself into almost every panel in the Chapel, as there are small boyish solider figures in nearly every scene, all the figures look similar to other known diminutive youthful  images of himself.

Spencer making his bed in Bedmaking 

Spencer contemplating Christ on the Cross
The Resurrection of the Soldiers (Detail)

Spencer getting his kit ready for inspection
Kit Inspection (Detail)

Spencer grooming himself
Tea in the Hospital Ward (Detail)

Making a protective firre barrier
Firebelt (Detail)

There is one telling difference between those Italian painters’ self-portraits within their paintings and Spencer’s -  they stare, defiantly back at the viewer. Spencer is not so arrogant, when he paints himself he invariably is doing something, some action, not standing idly by, as an on looker unlike the Italians, he's never static or idle.

And there’s one great absence from the whole of the Chapel’s magnificent scheme viz. a portrait of Lieutenant Henry Willoughby to whom the Chapel is dedicated. I can’t understand why the Behrend’s didn’t write this into the contract as they were people given to contracts evidenced by the letter detailing the terms they let Spencer have ‘Breach Cottage’.

Dear Stanley
As you are now about to move into “Breach Cottage” I think it is best to put in writing the terms on which this cottage is let to you, viz. the rent is to be 7/6 per week, you to pay rates and taxes & to keep the cottage in tenantable order and condition & the garden properly cultivated. The tenancy to be terminable by either party by three months notice in writing.
                               Yours sincerely

              Letter from his patron J L Berhend to Spencer dated 22nd Jan 1926

So it would have been logical for there to have been a request to include an image of the Lieutenant in the work - somewhere. In fact it would be all to convinienet to believe that the only officer in the scheme – on the horse in Map-Reading - was in fact him but I can find no evidence to support this possibility, so it will remain a fanciful thought

Map-Reading (Detail)

I very much enjoyed seeing the works but I have to admit I was disappointed in the renovation along with the new access the National Trust has given to the Chapel. The parking is still as poor as ever and having to go around the back only to make one’s way to the front seems so unnecessary.

Garden at the Rear of Sandham Chapel

They are developing a garden to be a remembrance space, whose design to my eye looks out of place with the building. The garden looks far too stark and modern with its drifts of colour and regimented beds interspersed with austere formal benches. I would have expected something a little more homely and cosy in keeping with Spencer’s style. Happily they left the wild flower meadow and fruit trees at the front of the building.

Having negotiated three very tiny rooms - an introduction to the work and Spencer,  a small , but interesting, display of drawings, plans and correspondence related to the Chapel and Spencer’s work and  video (on a loop) introducing the Chapel – one exits the building by a side door then one goes actually into the Chapel via the main door, looking all its years surprised they haven’t restored or at least conserved it.

Adults £10......

And then there’s the entry price £10 (inc optional £1 gift tax) , last time I was there two years ago it was £4. I know we’ve had some 'improvements',  inflation and these are great works but a 150% increase seems harsh. There is an ‘offer’ for a family of four of an eye popping £25 – I guess giving the kids cultural capital has its price. The £5 entry fee with kids under 16 free at the Spencer Gallery in Cookham seems a good deal!

To conclude set aside the entry fee and the poor renovation the work is simply magnificent - Spencer’s ambition made manifest.

Appropriation & Public Art & Glasgow's Cone

As part of my OU Art History studies I took part in an inconclusive and ultimately unresolved debate, from my point  of view, about exactly what is public art.

The debate was instigated by an article in the Guardian in which Anthony Gormley castigated most public art as ‘crap’ , according to the article,  his view was supported by others in art world:

[Gormely] joins a long-running debate on the value of public art which was reinvigorated by Marjorie Trusted, senior curator of sculpture at the Victoria and Albert Museum, who said many commissions were "disappointing, old-fashioned and awkward" while Tim Knox, director of Sir John Soane's Museum in London, dismissed them as "horrors". 

Reluctantly, I have to agree with them as I believe public art has to be not just physically open and accessible to all who funded it but also, the work must have meaning to and inspire the community, which financed its execution and finally great public works become local, national & ultimately international icons for their communities, here I have in mind America's Mount Rushmore or Rio de Janeiro’s Christ the Redeemer  or Copenhagen’s The Little Mermaid.

Sadly many modern public works are the opposite – meaningless and depressing – ignored, forgotten and past over, left to decay.

However following my time at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow I have now found a public work of which ticks all the boxes.

The traffic coned equestrian statue of the Duke of Wellington by the Italian artist Carlo Marochetti erected in 1844 on a 10ft plinth outside Glasgow's Gallery of Modern Art (GOMA) is for me is a real piece of truly public art as it’s very open, it’s very accessible, it means a lot to the locals. Attracting 10,000 signatures to a petition , with another 45,000 people showing support on Facebook  when the council considered making it impossible to place a cone on the statute, plans it eventually had to drop in the face of such public pressure. It's been inspirational and has become an even much more loved icon for the city after winning the battle with the council.

Appropriation Art

GOMA's conned Wellington is a classic example of intervention or appropriation art - the intentional borrowing, copying, and alteration of preexisting images and objects -  but  most importantly there is no plagiarism, no copyright theft,  no litigation, no cynicism, no bullying and no deceit along with the down right lying  found in many other examples of contemporary appropriation art.

GOMA’s coned Wellington is an honest appropriation.

The modern practice of appropriation can perhaps be dated back to Duchamp and his ‘assisted readymades’ (a title this blog appropriated)  where, for example he appropriated The Mona Lisa to create ‘his’ LCHQQ.

While  Banksey has turned approbation into a key part of his oeuvre as seen in how he intervenes in a Rembrandt self portrait or how Michelanglo’s David is appropriated into a suicide bomber or Monet’s Lily Garden into a polluted lake.

Both Duchamp or Banksey took the work of old deceased masters sadly, other artists choose to appropriate the work of living artists, passing it off as  their own original work with no reference to the source – often ending in court where the matter is most times resolved in favour of the artist who has appropriated the work who claims ‘fair use’.

Richard Prince appropriated Patrick Cariou's Yes Rasta  series of photographs to create his Canal Zone series of images, selling tens of millions of dollars with no permission from or reference to Cariou's work. An approbation that went to court and sadly Prince was deemed to have made 'fair use' of Cariou's work.

Left Cariou Right Prince

While Sarah Morris made a career out of appropriating works of origami artist's crease patterns to create her works. On the left below is an origami crease pattern for Robert Lang's Cooper Hawk on the right is work by Morris entitled Falcon. The case was eventually settled amicable thou not after a fight thru the the courts.

Left Lang Right Morris

For me, where the laws of copyright prevail artistic approbation is copyright theft and should be treated like any other copyright theft.  Thus, Marochetti’s Wellington is out of copyright so is fair game for approbation.

However there is something else going on with GOMA’s coned Wellington as it also represents the wit, the humour and tolerance of the people of Glasgow. The Glaswegian response to the Wellington approbation was very different to the response to the Banksy like approbation of Churchill's  statue in London's Parliament Square, which was rooted in the anger and violence of anti-capitalist May Day riots.

Iconic Public Art

The people of Glasgow have not only created a legally appropriated work of art but a great iconic work of public art which, appropriately took centre stage as one of the icons of not just the City but of Scotland, at the opening ceremony of the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow this summer.

Stanley Spencer's Heaven in Hell of War Hangings Compared

View of Sandham Memorial Chapel

While Sandham Memorial Chapel is being renovated and updated the National Trust has sent its removable works on road in the form of an exhibition - Stanley Spencer: Heaven in a Hell of War.

I had the pleasure of seeing again the exhibition at Pallant House Gallery, having first seen it at Somerset House last year. It was an opportunity to not only once again to enjoy Spencer’s visionary masterpieces close up, but also to compare the hanging of the two exhibitions.

Much has been written about the paintings in the exhibition. I do not believe I can add more, so I direct the reader to some of the online reviews: Culture24 on Pallant House Gallery Exhibition, The Guardian and The Telegarph  on Somerset House

What intrigued me was the how the different hangings  - Somerset House and Pallant House Gallery - created very different aesthetic effects.

Somerset House 

Somerset House
Resurrection

Somerset House chose to emulate The Sandham Memorial Chapel in a smaller space, with bright, direct lighting in contrast to the subdued, natural light of the Chapel. Being so close, with such good lighting gave the works a newer fresher appearance, looking as though they might have been recently cleaned. The result of the Somerset hanging was a very effective re-enactment of the Chapel with much better, closer viewing opportunities. The presentation of the Resurrection altarpiece was masterful, this was entered through a narrow entrance at the end of the main nave like exhibition space.  There was a projection of the Resurrection image on to the wall as shown in the picture (right), the space looked purpose made for presenting Spencer’s masterpiece.

Pallant House Gallery Resurrection

The Pallant House Gallery hanging in contrast choose not to present the Resurrection not as one image , instead used a detail from it on a wall marking  the entrance to their exhibition. No  attempt was made to recreate the Chapel space.  They separated the predellas from the lunettes into two rooms. This division immediately created a totally different aesthetic from Somerset House. Here we had an exhibition of an artist’s work over two rooms in two different canvas formats, all presented very convienently at eye level.

Pallant House Gallery Predellas

Pallant House Gallery Lunettes


Pallant House Gallery Lunettes

The effect was very different from Somerset house.  The Pallent House Gallery hanging seemed to bring one even closer to the paintings, encouraging individual comparison one work with another. While Somerset House in bringing the works together in one space attempting to reconstruct a brightly lit version of Sandham created its own aesthetic, very different from that of The Pallent House hang.

Which was better? Hard to say, certainly Someset House recreation was dramatic bringing one close to the work as whole, while  I felt the Pallant House Gallery gave us the chance to consider  each work individually, in its own right. I would argue that each hanging has its merits and together form an excellent introduction to Sandham Memorial Chapel when it reopens for visitors in July this year.

View of Sandham Memorial Chapel

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AFRO SUPA HERO at the V&A Museum of Childhood

AFRO SUPA HERO TWINS

It was a real pleasure to attend last night’s AFRO SUPA HERO LIVE at the V&A's Museum of Childhood. I went expecting to see some comics with a few blacks in them and the chance to talk to some people as to why there were not more. I was pleasantly surprised by the out come.

Not only was this one of the best-designed and curated exhibition I’ve attended for some time but also I met some very interesting and engaged people as well I had a fun time reflecting on the black presence in comics.

The exhibition was in a small space – maybe 15 by 4 m –  but it was packed with visual and  historical delights all contained within a coherent design scheme. It was the design that really struck me, the two flying super hero icons against a sky blue colour scheme on which they fly is used to unite the entire scheme.  This coherency owes much to the fact this is one man’s vsison. As I would like to believe the V&A were brave enough to have given a completely  free hand to Joe Daniels, a free lance graphic designer with an impressive professional CV whose collection makes up the  AFRO SUPA HERO exhibition.

The V&A's Museum of Childhood seem to have allowed him his way,  not only as the curator of AFRO SUPA HERO but also its designer. How else could such a wonderfully coherent show have resulted? A powerful combination of a collector designing and curating an exhibition of his work – a labour of love – the result is there to see.

The AFRO SUPA HERO TWINS design seems to have been influenced by Lego , there’s a very entraining video explaining how they were put together. I was intrigued to discover one is a boy the other a girl. Can you spot the difference? If not the video explains the difference.

AFRO SUPA HERO had three-standout exhibits for me:

 Superman vs. Muhammad Ali Dell Comics 1978

The cover is spectacular and its story is something else, if you want to know more check out this piece from the LA Times. And yes, that is Jimmy Carter, Batman and Telly Selvalas on the cover to find out why see the LA Times article which includes the full cover there you can even see the Jackson 5in the audience!

I am Curious (Black) Issue #106 Superman’s Girlfriend Lois Lane:  November 1970

A very eye catching cover to an improbable but very well meaning plot, you can read the whole issue here.

Slade – Super-Fly action figure

Slade Super Agent was modeled  on detective John Shaft  from the 1971 film Shaft, played by Richard Roundtree with its unforgettable sound track by the late , great Isaac Hayes

I grew up reading comics in the sixties with main stream American comics - Dell and Marvel. Dell Comics had Superman ,Batman, Flash, Green Lantern et al while Marvel had Spiderman, The X-Men, Fantastic Four, Capt America. Marvel Comic heroes were on the whole grittier, more human, than the holier-than –thou squeaky clean middle- America Dell heroes. Neither however had any black super heroes.

The appearance of the black super hero in the early seventies is made manifest in AFRO SUPA HERO with Lieutenant Uhura from Star Trek, Black Panther from Marvel’s Jungle comics and others.

I had the chance to meet some old friends and make some new ones as I attended a packed panel session devoted to The Black Image in the World of Comics. There was much discussion about the independent comic producer. With the Internet there is no need to wait for publication - you can do it now! The panelists  from Kromatron Comics were very encouraging – urging the audience to start now!  While Jon Daniels  - another panelist – explained how he has a greater vision for his AFRO SUPA HEROES TWINS beyond this exhibition. I very much look forward to seeing how his and Kromatron's vision develops.

I have one small gripe with AFRO SUPA HERO - there was no catalogue. Once closed the exhibition will sadly leave no written document or commentary to describes  its presence and purpose - an opportunity missed. I would encourage Jon Daniels to redress this omission maybe in crowd source like Kramatron did for AFROELLA

The AFRO SUPA HERO exhibition and debate highlighted the paucity of British Afro Caribbean super heroes or put another way how many America has when compared to the UK. I would hope AFRO SUPA HERO would go some way to redress that imbalance, motivating others to create British Afro Caribbean super heroes  If the intent of the audience at the panel session I attended is real then this is happening right now. So, an increase in Afro Carribeean super heroes could well be an outcome of AFRO SUPA HERO.

And lastly the fun, we arrived late so sadly missed the Soul Train Line we did however have the chance to get AFRO'd!!

Fiery End For Fake Chagall?

I’ve been following the outcome of the most recent episode of the wonderfully entertaining BBC’s Fake or Fortune with real interest. The ‘Fake’ in question is a Chagall brought for £100,000.  The F2F created a compelling combination of science and speculation good enough to present to the Chagall evaluation committee. That was then the trouble started.

The Committee decided it was a fake so they could exercise their moral right , under French Law,  to burn the painting !

This fiery fate for fakes is astonishingly the norm for those paintings ruled as forgeries by these French evaluation committees.

I very much agree with what the Daily Telegraph article on the saga  "the process of authentication owes rather more to consensus than to science". To my mind, what is art is what the consensus say. This might not be an actual Chagall but it is art that struck an aesthetic chord with a number of people - a consensus which  included some very informed people. To destroy the work is an act of vandalism. To sell it as a Chagall is a crime. I agree with the owner that the painting should be returned to its owner with the reverse permanently stamped FORGERY.

As I write Thur Feb 6th the case is not over yet the suspicion is that the Chagall committee is waiting for the fuss to die down then they’ll quietly destroy it. Hopefully the committee will see sense and stop this act of vandalism, for the latest check out ArtHistoryNews.

Photographer - Tony Ray Jones at the Science Museum

It was an entry in the wonderfully enigmatic and polemic quarterly Art magazine Jackdaw where I came across the work of Tony Ray Jones a British photographer who died all too young aged 31 back in 1972. His work is being shown at the ONLY IN ENGLAND exhibition at the Science Musuem's new Media Space.

He took the US documentary photography found in Walker Evans and more recently in the rediscovered Vivian Maier and gives it a very British look and feel. Where those US photographers used the streets and bars and to lesser extent their countryside Tony Ray Jones use the beach and the countryside to capture the British zeitgeist.

My two favourites from the exhibition which demonstrated British eccentricity and idiosyncracity at home on the beach and the countryside are:  Brighton Beach 1966 (I've been in similar seaside family pictures) and Glyndebourne, 1967 (a scene I 'm  sure you can see today!)

Glyndebourne, 1967

Brighton Beach, 1966

From a page on show from his  c1965 notebook  you can find tips and ideas which resonate today in our digital photography  age. I found stay with the subject matter (be patient) and get involved (talk to people) particularly relevant to me.

And yes, I did look for the Blacks and they were there both fictive aka in the blackened white faces style of the Black & White Minstrels, in the oddly named Bacup Coconut Dancers who seemed to be related to the equally odd Morris Dancer and yes both groups have there history 'lost in the mists of time' . There were of course some real blacks caught in the streets of Tony Ray Jones's London in 60's and 70's

Bacup Coconut Dancers, 1968

A good exhibition very intsrtuctive - recommended!

PS while doing the research for this post I came across the blog post of Blake Andrews in which he talks about rephotography, I have been meaning to do similar with a Jimi Hendrix picture....watch this blog