Virginia Woolf: an exhibition inspired by her writings

Gwen John, Self-portrait, 1902, oil on canvas
Tate. Purchased 1942 © Tate, London 2018

Took a trip down to Pallant House Gallery in Chichester last week as I felt the need to look at some paintings and thought the current exhibition, Virginia Woolf: an exhibition inspired by her writings looked promising. 

Hmm. Sadly, it fell somewhat short for me. There were paintings, including the one above which was great to see in the flesh, having seen reproductions over the years, but I didn't feel they were the best examples of those artists' work. There was a lot of contemporary stuff as well which didn't appeal for a range of reasons. I felt the link with Woolf was a bit tenuous too; better to have billed it as an exibition of work by female artists from the 19th and 20th centuries without the Woolf element which didn't really add anything or make the work cohere any better. Just my view though. I find I struggle more and more with contemporary art these days and there was a lot of it in this show. Is this an age thing I wonder...? Yours, Grumpy Old Woman.

Evelyn Dunbar and David Jones at Pallant House

David Jones ~ Garden Enclosed

Visited Pallant House last week to see the David Jones and Evelyn Dunbar exhibitions. Mostly it was the David Jones that drew me as there have been reviews nationally, but actually, it's the Evelyn Dunbar that's worth seeing.

A brief word about David Jones. Accomplished wood engravings heavily influenced by Eric Gill (Jones spent a lot of times with Gill, lived as part of his community in Ditchling and was engaged for a few years to Gill's daughter Petra); later paintings confused and insipid, looks like he never got to grips with colour. Disappointing. There are a few early paintings of big cats which I quite like; very spare in use of line and colour. I can see in these what his art teacher meant when he commented, “Look at that, you see, Jones leaves out everything except the magic.” 

There is a lot of Jones's work on display - five or six rooms in the main gallery. Evelyn Dunbar's  work on the other hand is squished into three small rooms downstairs. Much more varied and accomplished than Jones's. And she deserves her own post so I shan't tack her on to the end of this one.

Stanley Spencer: Heaven in a Hell of War

Stanley Spencer - Bedmaking, oil on canvas, 1932

I'm rather ashamed to say that, although it's pretty much on my doorstep, I've not visited Sandham Memorial Chapel to see Stanley Spencer's paintings. Instead I trekked a bit further last week to see some of them at Pallant House Gallery in Chichester.

Frostbite ~ oil on canvas, 1932

The exhibition consists of sixteen of the paintings from the chapel (which is currently being renovated) and were painted between 1927 and 1932. The images are Spencer’s interpretation of his memories of war; his time at Beaufort War Hospital in Bristol and in the Medical Corp in Macedonia . I was particularly taken by the set of three paintings pictured here: Frostbite, Bedmaking and Tea in the Hospital Ward.

Tea on the Ward ~ oil on canvas, 1932

The colours are rich, the action engaging and the detail fascinating. Of course there is more to them than merely a scene of army hospital life. Spencer imbues the images with symbolism; in Frostbite, the buckets carried by the ward orderly in his white gown transform him into an winged angel; the central figure with outstretched arms in Bedmaking reminds us of the crucifixion; Tea in the Hospital Ward becomes the last supper. It’s the detail and rich pattern that I appreciate most though. The scenes are a riot of patterned wallpapers, fabrics, and carpeting which adds to the busy chaos. These are joyously bustling scenes (which makes me wonder how any of the patients got any rest…), pretty far removed from the horror of the trenches. There is symbolism hiding in the detail too – Spencer's wife Hilda and his father are pictured there. The jigsaw pieces scattered on the table add that little extra detail of daily life on the ward.



Bedmaking ~ detail

A couple of other thoughts: Spencer was a master of material in a all his paintings, very observant of and proficient in rendering surface and texture of materials. The metal buckets in Frostbite, and the tea urns in Filling Tea Urns shine (I can hear them clanging as they knock together), the wooden shelving in Washing Lockers, the towels in Ablutions – one can almost feel the texture, the temperature, soft, hard, cold, warm.

Filling Tea Urns ~ oil on canvas, 1927

I don’t know if it was intentional but all Spencer’s characters seem to be lost in their own thoughts, separate from each other. There seems to be very little acknowledgement between them (Ablutions is a good example). They are preoccupied with what they’re doing, perhaps daydreaming about home and loved-ones as they repeat the daily routine, so practised as to need little concentration. I can only try and imagine what it must have been like; I'm sure that like those in the paintings, I would have followed Spencer in focusing on the 'very happy imaginative feelings' found in the insignificant daily round rather than the desolation of WWI.

Garrick Palmer: A Life in Wood Engraving

2011 got off to a slow start for me due to two bouts of illness and a variety of domestic disasters involving broken cars, rotten kitchen floor joists and cracked toilet cisterns. Creatively, January was pretty much a bust.

February however began much more promisingly with a visit to Pallant House Gallery in Chichester to see an exhibition of wood engravings by Garrick Palmer. I first came across his work about five years ago when I was working on a series of card cuts based on Bartleby the Scrivener by Herman Melville. I found a copy of the Folio Society’s publication of the same from 1967 (Three Stories, Herman Melville) on ebay, illustrated by Palmer. Naturally I had to buy it, being very careful not to look at it until I had all my images established. I didn’t want to be influenced even subconsciously by another artist’s images of the story.

Garrick Palmer was born in Portsmouth in 1933 and studied Fine Art at Portsmouth College of Art and Design where he first learnt wood engraving, and at the Royal Academy Schools in London. He taught at Winchester School of Art from 1962 to 1986 where he was Head of the Foundation Department. This last is particularly interesting to me as I studied in that same department from 1987 to 1988 so missed him by a whisker; how annoying.

The retrospective exhibition brings together prints and book illustrations spanning Palmer’s whole career and includes many images of the English landscape, something he returns to time and time again and clearly loves. These are autobiographical to some extent, marking significant points in his life; his wife’s battle with cancer for instance, and when he himself was diagnosed with diabetes.

It was Palmer’s book illustrations I was drawn too though, particularly the nautically themed ones. His illustrations for Moby-Dick are breathtaking in complexity, composition and atmosphere, as are those for The Rime of the Ancient Mariner (the latter took ten years to complete). I found it hard to tear myself away from these. And although not my favourite of Palmer’s images, I was pleased to see an original copy of Bartleby himself. I love Melville’s story of the Wall Street Scrivener.

Not being a wood engaver myself, I don’t feel qualified to comment on his technique; I do know however, that he’s a master of it and if you’re at all interested in wood engraving, go and see this show before it finishes on 13 March.

Images:
Ancient Mariner II
Hampshire Fields