No 4 the whistler autumn 1992

The journal of the Chelsea Arts Club is sponsored by

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GREAT TRADITIONS N°4 "NO CHEF'S SPECIAL LEFT!"

THE

JOURNAL

OF

THE

CHELSEA

ARTS

CLUB

Chelsea Arts Club

M

Centenary Portfolio This centenary collection (edition of 100) of sixteen different artists works is still available. The collection of 16 silkscreen

prints, each numbered and signed is presented in a beautiful conservation box

SAREMA

which itself is numbered and sealed.

The collection includes work by:-

FLAT FOR SALE

Queen's Gate SW7

Ivor Abrahams

Niel Bally

Peter Blake

Sandra Blow

Shelagh Ciuett

Jeffery Edwards

Barry Flanagan

Patrick Hughes

Paul Huxley

Albert Irvin

Gwyther Irwin

Tim Mara

Barry Martin

Patrick Procktor

Peter Sedgley

Stan Smith

92 year lease, Lower Ground Floor — Large French Doors

on to green patio. Own front door off private courtyard.

Reception, two bedrooms, huge kitchen, Bathroom.

Rural atmosphere.

Price £185,000

This stunning collection is still available at

Sarah Charles or Michael B.

the extraordinary price of f495 to Members

071-370 6027

only 7 (one portfolio per Member) and deferred payments are possible.

Freehold Studio for Sale

If you would like to own one of these

Bedford Park, Chiswick, London W4

portfolios at the once in a hundred years

The accommodation comprises a large, original studio, Bedroom, Gallery, Dressing area, Kitchen, Bathroom.

prices, contact the office, 071 376 3311.

This original Victorian studio in thehistoric Bedford Park

Chelsea Arts Club

conservation area ofChiswick is a fine example.

Centenary Collection

It is close to all essential services and would be ideal for

a sculptor or painter.

for Members Only

^£165,000

Private Sale — phone Richard Smith on 081-994 0349

THE WHISTLER 2

EDITORIAl

WHTstler VOL 1 NO 4 AUTUMN 1992

THE MOSTimportant news forthe Clubjournal is the newly acquired sponsorship from leading fme art insurers, Crowley Colosso. Lengthy discussions with Graham Young of Crowley Colosso have resulted in a 12 month sponsorship programme worth £8,000 to the Club coffers (£2,000 per edition). This enables our journal to enter 1993 with a moderate amount of confidence and, hopefully, when the recession

In This Issue...

fades our usual advertisers will re-emerge to help develop The Whistler and increase

its range of activities. Meanwhilewe look forward to welcoming Graham Young into the Club as a 'Special Sponsor' in the near future. (NB: copies of the terms of agreement between The Whistlerand Crowley Colosso are availablefor inspection

Letters

from Philip Roberts).

Since launching the 'paper on behalfof my fellow Members I have always been of the opinion that the Editor's job shouldbe a revolving commitment, thus enabling others to try out the role for themselves. It would be an efficient arrangement to change editors every four issues, theoretically a 12 month cycle. I have already declared my willingness to continue as 'managing editor' - which is essentiallythe mechanic who makes the thing work. The (controlling)Editor's job would thereforebe the relatively easy one of getting in the copy and advertising. It only remains to point out that an Editor appointed (by the Council) whosubsequentlyfailedtodeliver thegoods would find Club life very uncomfortable. So - serious applications only, please!

Every effort is made to accommodateall correspondents to theJoumal.This means, literally, that each and every contribution will be published, asspacepermits,as soon after receipt as possible. Obviously, an announcement that becomes totally of date by the time ofpublication would be edited, but other than that, please use The Whistler to communicate with the Council, Management, or fellow Members.

It appears that a number of letters were published in the last edition whose origins were somewhat obscure. Each Whistler that goes to press is scrutinised by at least two members of the 'publishing panel' as well as the Editor. We were all remiss in not spotting the use of pseudonyms on that occasion. The new ruling is that any anonymous correspondence will be unceremoniously shredded, whatever its con tents. Letters from non-Members will be printed only if space and subject matter

Whistler Room Notes Chairman's Letter / Club Notes

Arts Club Ball Excerpt from Tom Cross

Albert Hall Bash

10

The newBall explained

Diary

11

Johnnie Ruskin / Noticeboard

allows.

There has been a dismal reaction to our call for old photographs and other CAC memorabilia that might be publishedto entertain the readership. May I underline the fact that no material loaned for such a purpose would suffer any damageand can be returnedalmost immediately. Tom Cross's excellent 'history' has demonstrated just how interesting these personal memoirs can be.

AND FINALLY. The next edition (Winter 1992/3) will contain a wide ranging questionnaire. The Council will shortly be debating how, via your directly mailed 'paper, a 'one man - one vote' system can be accurately established. Possibly your postcode might be the perfect (personal yet anonymous) ID method. In fact, all Members of Council and the Managementare exceedingly keen on the democratic process andthis would offer a veiy importantrole for The Whistler to play both now and in the future.

With best wishes to all readers.

Mike von Joel

THE WHISTLER is published by the Chelsea Arts Club, All material © THE WHISTLER

PRINTED BY;

^

12

Patrick welcomed as Trustee

Bookend

16

Gordon Rookledge on a Gentleman's weakness

Colour Section

21

Dudley's page

Smalls

143 Old Church Street, London SW3.

EDITOR: CONSULTANT EDITORS:

Redeeming Vice

22

Those lovely flimsy bits MIKE VON JOEL HUGH GILBERT D. WINTERBOTTOM HIGHART LIMITED

071 376 3311

COVER:

Fax: 071 351 5986 THE WHISTLER 3

GREAT TRADITIONS N°4 "NO CHEF'S SPECIAL LEFT!

APOSSIBLE CASE OF MISTAKEN IDENTITY. Dear Whistler,

Who's Who Needed?

I was interested to read your letter in the excellent issue ofThe Whistler received today.

are you writing to "Dear Sir" - yourself? You must know who "dearsir" is? Normally one

ends such a missive with "yours faithfully

Dear Whistler,

I have just finished reading the latest (Vol 1, No 3) of the magazine and I would like to make the followingpoints in answer to your readers' letters.

The complaints about service at the bar are totally unfounded. Both Max and Bridie do a great Job serving everyone. There is no doubt that between say 7.00 pm and 8.30 pm there

butI expect "sincerely" does.

Thank you very much for carrying my ads

membership and making sure they sign guests in. Let's not have any moresilly, petty complaints. If they don't like it... they can go elsewhere!

I just wanted to thank you for publishing my

justifiable complaint, write about it and sign

did you think of that Langdon cartoon!!?).

their name.

TheAGBI has already benefitted from it,

Paul Jantet

more staff for at least four hours which

P.S. May I suggest that where you publish an address, you print the whole postal code?

Tony does not treat the restaurant as his own, and if people only bothered to book, they

will always get a warm welcome from the staff. If you haven't booked and turn up around 9.00pm when things are flying, you can't expect a long winded explaination as to why you can't have a seat.

(to us)man sent us ÂŁ2,(X)0 afterreading it.

Also 1had a very good letter from Niel Bally, which I shallread to Council at our next meeting. So again thank you!

Best wishes,

circumstances will letters be published without the author's name (terrorist matters etc.) As a rule addresses will not be printed.

With reference to the unidentifiedletters

concerned that pseudonyms are no longer acceptable. ED

"A BIG HELLO"?

Dear Whistler,

have to disagree with your inference that

Up!! I would bemost interested to know where

our excellent Dining Room custodian was

the victim ofan editing imbalance. ED

The Whistler!

those members who advertise in the new and

Ann James

locality - beware Tony! My onlycomplaint is

I

Next issue

deadline:

November 25th

most welcome Lonely Arts Section of The Whistler, seeking a partner (or more)?

Letters intendedfor publication should be short and to the point. It is essential that all

Issue number 3 contains a number of

We've sorely needed one for all these years.

Please add my voice to those protesting the

seemingly most attractive propositions, begging for a reply, but in many cases there is no possible clue to the sex of the

monopoly of the Bar area by thesnooker

advertiser.

table. There isn't a member Tknow who doesn't want it OUT! I think your suggestion of a referendum conducted through the

If I felt inclined to reply to one or two which I most certainly do -1 am faced with the possibility that I am seeking a date with Max, with Hugh, with Dudley or even with Christopher Moorsom. Just imagine the

letters received contain the name and address

ofthe correspondent Nofaxes please!

embarrassment!

SOMEONESAILING aOSE TO THE WIND ... !

Please help me, and probably many other Lonely Members' Arts!

Dear Whistler,

Ref: Mr Mainwaring-Smith

Yours hopefully, Peter Hope Lumley

sonally but I could not find your name on the membership list. I expect that this is due to yourspelling your name incorrectly due tothe

pressure thrown on your goodselfin your re Thank you for pointing out the sloppy way I

other matter in particular.

viewpointfrom those whowoulddisagree.

Iagree with you -although Irespectthe

praising TC in the last issue also, so1would

Unashamedly,

ED

Yours sincerely, jRoberf Woodward

wish to state my opinion. Thumbs Up! Thumbs

Is there any way of indicating the gender of

sure there would be a corresponding

to be so cheerful - and polite, helpftil and charming - and produce consistentlygood

seem to recollect another correspondent

Congratulations on your splendid jobwith

you feel the snooker table near the Bar is an issue, why not raise it via an article? I feel

somewhere else. I have never encountered someone who works so hard and yet manages

Spring/Summer '92 edition ofThe Whistler. 1

the additional ÂŁ2.00 charge for guests.

opinions ofall the membership equally- if

I was outraged by the cowardly, anonymous attack on Tony and the dining room. Thank God he does run the dining room for us and doesn't run his personal restaurant

referenceto "ThumbsUpl Down?" in the

Dear Whistler,

The Whistler^s job is to air the viewsand

Dear Whistler,

li appears youcannot please everyone - in

Dear Whistler,

in relation to the snooker tables or any

ANOTHER NOMINATION FOR A1992 'TONY AWARD'!

right of someone else to differ if theywish. I

Members where this can be obtained in the

The suggestion for using the journal as a basisfor a referendum wasnot putforward

time- but I think you should be called

MacNaughty ifanything. ED.

Well, he deserves them.

SHOT IN THE DARK?.

With best wishes Pat Mahon Waller

through thesmall adsifyou send them in on

It suddenly occurs to me that "Name witheld by request" is Tony fishing for compliments.

vibrant and controversial letters page? ED

IS rr WORTH RISKING A

magazine is great - theonly fair way to do it.

The editor's letter goesinto thepostbox along with the others- hencethethirdperson bit Within reasonyou canplugyourbusiness

Surely the perfect example ofthe needfor a

THE OLD SNOOKER IN AND OUT?

particular I think you're shaping the magazine into a first rate club publication.

magazine edUorialpanel are available atpage proofstage before the 'papergoes topress.

food.

"Name is witheld by request"can find as pleasant an atmosphere, the big helloTony greets onewith and his ability to always find a space forone, as well as the quality and priceof the meal. Hopeftilly you will be able to advise

With the last issue (Spring/Summer) in

Contrary to popular belief,'allpublished letters

Philip Hicks

Theeditoritdpanel has decidedthat

anonymous letters will not beallowed in future andonly in themost exceptional of

printedin the last issue (contributed without the benefitof the newguidelines) - the art panel has assured the Management that these The complaints about the doormen are totally were genuine receipts reproduced bythe Editor in goodfaith. It is agreed by everyone ridiculous. TTiis is the Chelsea Arts Club. Not a West End posers' club. Both doormen do a great job having to check people's

AGBI article in full and for the layout (how

both in words and also money. An unknown

the bar staff in order to hurry the service is quite unnecessary. It would mean hiring

bar staff.

POWER OF THE PRESS!

I would just like to add that you should NEVER publish a reader's letter without publishingtheir name! If they have a

Yours sincerely

entails more people behind the bar and more expense. With a bit of patience, everyone does get served by a very helpful and hustled

about houseboats for sale. Can I placemore

Dear Whistler,

tends to be a rush at the bar. But to increase

with all best wishes, Sherrell Macnaugtan

arechecked by whatever members ofthe

But I wonder who is, indeed, needed? Why

EVERYTHING IN THE GARDEN'S ROSY... ... AT LEAST rr WAS WHEN I LAST LOOKED!

in future and can my name be Macnaughtan and not McNaughtan?

lentless pursuit of excellence.

am dressed whilst on duty on the door of the

Club. I hope the next time you will notice the

The Lonely Arts has been a big success. The Dining Room waitress is still answering her postbag (apparently!). Absolute confidentialityis guaranteed and only the Editor knows the identity of the advertisers.

changed my tailor, shoe & shirt maker, in the

Asfor deciphering whois whator who?

That is surely part ofthe magic?

I would have liked to have thanked you per

improvement as I have sacked my Valet,

hope that this will put the offending matter right.

THE WHISTLER 4

I would respectfully advise you toexamine the windscreen of your Ford XR3 to make sure that the "Smitty" and "Sharon" are correctly spelt and displayed.

Yours in Sartorial Elegance Ron (the Doorman)

LIFE SENTENCES BINGO

CHAIRMAN'S LEHER

NEW KIDS ON THE BLOCK NOBBY CLARK - Photographer and videomaker. Son of pub landlord; started out photo graphing the National Youth Theatre, and now has pictures from all the major theatres, and work for Observer, Times and Guardian, in his

portfolio. Likes cricket, whisky, women, and

Dear Members,

the enigma of China.

I would like to congratulate Mike von Joel on the successful negotiations which have secured the support of Crowley Colosso in sponsorship of this magazine.

The Chelsea Arts Bail at the Albert Hall 11 October 1992;remember to buy your tickets... £25 buys a ticket which confirms a place in the Gods but - you are of course intended to spend mostof your time on the dance floor enjoying the party. The theme of the Fancy Dressis to come as your favourite painting

JOHN HUNTINGFORD - Mature Art Stu

dent. Ex-wine shipper now doing MA at the Courtauld. Looking for "a passage between the Scilla of traditional, formalist art history and the Charibdis of contemporary cultural theory". Has staged ceramics shows including

black and white. Prints his own work. Other

(passionate) interest, playing guitar.

JESS WILDER - Proprietor, Portal Gallery.

With Patrick Hughes organised Chelsea Arts Club Centenary Table TennisTournament for the Beryl Cook Trophy. Hughes flattened her in the event. Likes Bollinger, Great Art, and pulling the wings off flies.

ROSEMARY CLANCHY - Painter. Land

scapes and nudes. Trained at Byam Shaw and Royal College. Exhibitions at Edwin Pollard and Charlotte Lampard Galleries.

American ceramics at V&A; Hon. Treas. of the Patrons of New Art at the Tate. Likes

BRIAN ROGERSON - Paintmaker, proprietor

or sculpture.

music and sailing.

of Spectrum OilColours. Studied Art at Salford,

Raffle Tickets on sale in the Ball will secure prizes, a large Triumph Motor

MAURICE AGIS - Sculptor, working on pub lic art and performance projects. Trained at St. Martins. Awards include: Sainsbury; Sikkens

smiths.Businessstartedina sentryboxinReigate,

then at Sir John Cass School of Art and Gold

bike, and others. The proceeds go to the Aids Crisis Trust, and the Chelsea Arts Trust. We are hoping to grow the Club's Trust by £15,000. If we do, then we want to commission work by artist(s) which follows and reflects the

scientific research being undertaken to exhibit later next year.

favour of the Trust mentioned above.

painting, music, books and tennis.

Prize; GLAA and Arts Council Awards; USA

National Endowment; Glasgow Garden Festi val; Bow Quarter; Bedford Park. Exhibits world-wide. Inventor of "Colourspace" series.

All the expensive seats are already sold, which is excellent news, and the organisers, both Club Members, Nick Hutchinson and Alexander Sombart, are to be congratulated for the efforts which are securing all sorts of bands and singers... see the notice board for latest additions. To allay any fears, and scotch one rumour, the Club has not sold the Chelsea Arts Ball, merely licensed the use of the name for one night in return for the consideration in

then Amersham, now South Wimbledon. Likes

GEORGINA HUNT - Painter, mainly ab stract but also figurative, landscape and por

JAMES LOVEGROVE - Novelist and car

toonist. Drawing work spans humorous post cards, political caricature, altemative corpo rate images, and T-shirt designs. Also working on "Difficult Second Novel". Favours bibulousness and camaraderie.

traits. Studied at the Slade under William

Coldstream. Exhibits here and abroad. Other

JOHN PAUL - Painter, uses "en plain air"

interests include conservation, music and read

technique. Trained at Camberwell, lectured to

ing.

community workers, the DHSS and the Disa bled, and worked with MENCAP and SHAPE.

John Lane, President of the Glasgow Arts Club has been in touch recently to make contact, and to explore the possibility of an exchange exhibition with our sister Club. No details have been worked out yet. This is the lime to remind Members that we are beginning to collect in photograph and catalogue form, examples of artists work, to help in the preliminary selection or invitation of artists to be involved in projects such as this. (Please send your information and examples of work to Kate in the secretariat, she willforward it to the Arts Sub Committee).

Jane Lushlngton has suggested the possibility of organising a sculpture exhibition in the Club Garden. Sculptors are frequently poorly represented in traditional viewing spaces and this could prove an exciting exhibition (sculp tors please send examples of work to Kate).

MARY GILBERT - Painter, candlelit still-

Head of Fine Art at the Masbro Road Arts

lifes and landscapes. Studying for BA at Falmouth. Has daughter, Athena, and cats.

Eccentric; likes to swim in the sea most days, and belongs to Serpentine Polar Bear Club (they're the ones whojump into the Serpentine on Christmas day - Ed.)

Centre. Author of "The Art Pack". Member of

JOHN GARBUTT - Sculptor. Work is figu rative "containing elements of social realism, symbolism and expressionism". Exhibited RA and other prime venues, also at Leningrad/St Petersberg where he was mistaken for an expert on the British Royal family - may have played a small part in the course of Russian history.

In my last letter, 1 asked for comments about some of the issues which

TONY SAMSTAG - Joumalist. Native New

Members feel strongly about, and received responses predominantly about two issues, smoking and snooker. The second topic has had an airing in Council recently, and the general feeling was to maintain the status quo for the time being.

Yorker with Norwegian wife and British pass port. Times Nordic correspondent. Probably eccentric. Claims "physiognomic dyslexia" (can't recognise people - Ed), but will always

Smoking though has stimulated quite a response, both through the suggestion box and by word of mouth. During the next couple of months, action will be taken which will bring down the level of smoke in the Club, and measures will be taken to make areas of the Club non smoking, for instance the loggia in the dining room, and/or the Members table, and perhaps the serving bar in the Members Room. Please let me have your preferences and thoughts.

remain courteous. Bon viveur who owns his

own fax machine, so buy him a drink and send him your picture and he'll never forget you.

JACK BANKHEAD - Graphic artist, adver tising. Works in colour but prefers working in

the Hesketh Hubbard Art Society, the Federa tion of British Artists and the Fine Art Re newal Association. On the Council of the Lon

don Sketch Club. Bom in Old Church Street,

Chelsea. Likes travel, swimming, and moun tain and hill-walking.

REG CARTWRIGHT - Painter/illustrator.

Influenced by Rousseau. Started professional career designing embroidered badges, then became commercial artist and eventually art director, now full-time painter and illustra tor of children's books etc. Best-known works

include: Soft Machine LP sleeve, Esso ad.

Lives in Leicestershire with wife Ann and two sons.

ANNABEL GOSLING - Painter, landscapes and interiors. Trained at Angers Beaux Arts and Byam Shaw. Won Byam Shaw and Leverhulme scholarships. Lives and works be tween Spain and England. Exhibitions at RA Summer Show, Royal Societies of British An-

ists and Portrait Painters et al. Enjoys the sybaritic life.

Corridor Exhibitions

There will be an exciting photo report on the events at the Albert Hall in the next issue (Winter Edition) of The Whistler. Dinner for two with wine for the

Member judged by the Council to be the most photogenic (!?!).

Peter Pederson, portrait photographer Cosmo Campbell, photographs of Barcelona

With best wishes to all Members

New Members Exhibition

Hugh Gilbert

Albany Wiseman Suzie O'Reilly Raymond Elston

Chairman

THE WHISTLER 5

29 September— 13 October 13-27 October 27 October — 10 November 10 - 24 November 24-8 December 8-22 December

EXTRACT ARTISTS & BOHEMIANS

GREAT BALLS FOR HIRE

Tom Cross has provided the Club with an excellent

'biography'. What better

introduction to the newly rebom Albeit Hall

extravaganza than an extract

from his comprehensive survey of 100 years of ups and downs at the Chelsea Arts Club?!

HE FIRST Arts Ball after the

w

War was held on New Year's

Eve 1946. The theme was 'Ren

aissance' and more than four thousand people danced round the great centrepiece of a Phoe nix: at midnight he was reborn, his eyes lit up, his giant wings were ablaze, rockets (impelled on wires) shot up to the ceiling and the bal loons floated down. The costumes were bi

zarre; some barely existed. The students wheeled out their tableaux; one, built in two tiers, representing Heaven and Hell. On the

topdeck werea groupof rathershaky angels in rakish haloes, tormented bydemons with spiky tails and savage homs, who shook their tri dents viciously.The figure of Joan (not Jonah) appeared in the mouth of a plasterwhale sur

rounded by scalymermaids. A very large and very pink plaster Venus rose ftom the foam in

a piece called 'Bottichelsea' and a group of nymphson a Greek stage made anothercharm ing group.

Following the established tradition, the tab

leaux were torn to pieces leaving a great deal ofplaster and broken wood to be swept up by the stewards before the dancing could resume.

As the new year was bom, artists, models, art students, stars of stage and screen and anexu

berant crowd rejoiced in one great glittering pageant; the first post-war Chelsea Arts Ball

had captured its old carefree revelry. Itwas as if the war had never happened. iHMM

It was a post-war miracle that there was a

THE WHISTLER 6

ball at all, for the Albert Hall, which hadbeen used for patriotic rallies during the war, had escaped major damage. The Club was anxious to restart the great occasion; discreet enquiries were made to find out if Sherwood Foster was

again able to produce the Ball, for it was known that he was unwell. Sadly his wife reported that he was seriously ill and quite unable to take part. In fact he was past hope of recovery and died in October 1946. The extro vert sculptor Loris Rey, who was now ex tremely active in the Club, offered to take his place and became managing director of the Ball Company.

Loris Rey was a Scot from Kirkcudbrightwith a love of poetry and an extravagantattitude to life - his wit was as sharp as a needle. He had joined the Club at the outbreak of the war; within a year he was suspended for breaking the licensing laws by selling drinks at the bar door, but he soon became an indefatigable member, served on Council on a number of occasions and became Chairman in 1948. He

was Librarian, Treasurer and for a time he was the turbulent Secretary of the Club; he even looked after the garden. Loris Rey was an ambitious drinker, as were many others as that time; he was also invariably rude to the younger members.

His first task, after taking over responsibil ity for the Arts Ball, was to assemble the team of artists and craftsmen, at a time of national

shortages in post-war Britain. The Albert Hall was available but the rent had more than dou

bled. Delicate negotiations were required within the new licensing laws for a late extension: eventually one was granted until 5 a.m., never previously given at the Albert Hall. The great floor had been stored during the war and no body knew what condition it was in, but it was tested and found to be in order. Foity men were required to erect it on its steel supports and the floor was then laid on a framework of

springs for dancing. A.R. Thomson designed the huge backcloth for the first Ball, which was painted by A. Bilibin; the cost of his services, including five buckets of colour, tips and bribes, was ÂŁ34.15s.9d. The centrepiece, 'the Phoenix', was designed by Frank Dobson and made at the Royal College of Art where he was Professor of Sculpture; it was built of limber, cloth and laths, with flapping wings and flames provided by ingenious lighting.

The bands were engaged, the famous 'Blue Rockets' Dance orchestra, directed by Eric Robinson, 'Felix Mendelssohn and his Hawai

ian Serenaders' (with dancing girls) and 'Leslie Douglas and his ex-Royal Air Force Bomber Command Dance Orchestra'. Balloons were a

problem. Weeks beforehand exhaustive en quiries had been made, but because of wartime controls the production of balloons had been prohibited and none had been manufactured for some years. The Club was offered carnival

novelties, but this would not do. After a great

deal oftrouble an emergency supply was rushed through by one of the manufacturers. The stimts

whisky and gin had been raised to ÂŁ4.10/- per bottle. After such a long absence the Press were uncertain as how to present the Ball to their readers.

The costumes were discussed by the fash ion writers. In the Daily Express, Patricia Lennard wrote; 'The most striking gown at last night's Chelsea Arts Ball was the one that was not worn by a nymph on one of the floats.

Many of the evening gowns,in fact were barely there. Cleavage reached new depths, back and front. The strapless evening gown won by a neck and shoulders.'

Trafalgar Square. Organizing the huge affair

was then a schoolboy and he came as a specta

that the Ball had become occupied about six months; towards September there was a steady intensification of effort, involving hundreds of operatives, conferences on music, lighting,

tor with his friend Keith Critchlow. From their

sound and (very vital) catering. Offices and staff were organized in readiness to deal with the applications for tickets from people all over the country and from many parts of the world. In their studios and schools, the artists

and all art students of London were busy mak ing their costumes, constructing fearsome crea tures in cardboard, and designing the elaborate movable tableaux on which the students of the

Inevitably there were problems. A pipe band had been provided by the Irish Guards Battal ion from Chelsea Barracks. Later, Loris Rey

different art schools, each seeking to outdo

The outraged lady was complaining about a stunt that had been produced by the students of Goldsmiths' College which included two nude models and which had been arranged by Joseph McCulIoch, who taught there, and who was one of the less respectable members of the

their rivals in imaginative and fantastic effect, rode in triumph into the arena. Everything

Chelsea Arts Club.

The sttmt was 'Burning Heretics' in which two wolnen, the heretics, were to be surrounded by students in costumes representing flames.

McCuIloch had insisted that he intended to

employ a model called 'Bing' and that she would be nude, but Loris Rey said quite cat egorically that it must not be. On the night of the ball two nudes appeared on the stunt which toured around the hall. The police took the names and addresses of the women and in

formed the Directors of the Ball Company that this was against the law. The Club was forced to take this matter seriously for it feared that a

cormected with the Ball was on the same out

size scale. There were five bands, with more

than 100 musicians, and nearly 400 perform ers who took part in the entertainment. Finally a small army of men was employed to lay the 16,000 square feet of dance floor which cov ered the vast arena.

Stephen Spurrier ARA designed the backcloth for the 1948 Ball, a huge figure of Henry VIII overshadowing the pageantry and pleasures of the Thames. The theme was 'London River'

Ball. It appeared that McCulloch had instructed

and mermaids, which revolved and was illu

thegirls to appearnudeandthathehadboasted

'Export Only'. Artists' models who took part in the stunts were expected to provide their

beforehand that he had 'squared the police'.

For this McCulloch was suspended from the Club for three months, but there was no pros

minated to look like water. Among the danc ers, mermaids were also much in evidence, for the film 'Miranda' had recently been shown.

The Ball, like all the others, was plaiuied with military precision. The evening started at

ecution. And so the Chelsea Arts Ball settled

into its role as the greatest party of the year.

onNew Year's Eve. As an experiment it was

refused; instead an interview at Alexandra Pal ace was presented for 'Picture Page'. Food

wasnot up to the pre-war standard and the cost of drink had increased considerably. Vintage Champagne was in short supply and when available was now 59/- per bottle; the price of

across the bellies of thefront ranks and hold ing them back with linked arms. Everything seemed to happen at once, the bells of Big Ben

ter?'

and Hammersmith School of Art contributed

quu^ extra lighting which would havespoilt the atmosphere oftheBall, so this request was

for destruction, the stewards throwing a rope

%

and the centrepiece was an illusionist sculp ture of Father Thames, surrounded by fishes

hoped to have a television broadcast from the Hall, but the less-than-sensitive cameras re-

"And then it was the midnight hour and the crowd swept back by the stewards awaited a new year with a ravenous, knock-kneed lust

some unknown air and marched his men out of

the Had and into the street. Rey suspected that this irresponsible action might have had some thing to do with the amount of refreshment the men had taken beforehand and it produced chaos at a critical moment in the evening.

Whatever may have taken place in the deeper recesses of the Hall, public displays of nudity were not permitted, though one incident at this Ball was a portent of things to come. A letter was received by London County Council ad dressed to 'The Department of Public Morals'.

A lady wrote: 'at a recent gala New Year's Eve night at the Chelsea Arts Ball women were openly mixing with the throngs quite naked. I have always understood this sort of thing was an offence against the Law. Will you please commimicate with me on this point, and if I have not written to the right department, w\U you kindly forward my letter to the right quar

prosecution might endanger the future of the

TheBBC again broadcast from the AlbertHall

own account:

had to write a stiff letter of complaint to the Commanding Officer, saying that the band 'failed to carry out my instructions absolutely.'

It appeared that the corporal in charge had reported to Rey in plenty of time and was instructed that on the stroke of midnight he was to play 'Auld Lang Syne' as the band marched through the Hall. At the appointed time, and to everyone's astonishment, he played

were on a somewhat reducedscale. The Royal College of Art produced a 'Dante's Infemo'

own costumes.

high viewpoint in the gallery, the two young men watched the swirling floor, and the devas tating effect of drink on the dancers. With a more cynical eye, John Moynihan wrote his

In 1947, Picasso had been invited to design the backcloth for the theme 'Baroque', but he refused and the decoration was put in the hands of Edward Ardizzone who designed the 120ft.

cloth to hang in front of the organ. The centre piece was a towering figure of the great god 'Pan' designed by William McMillanRA, who was very much in the news as he had recently designed the Victory Medal and his memorial to Admiral Beattie was about to be placed in

10 pm with dancing to the massed bands, reinforced by the great organ. It was a joyous and happy time but there was an undercurrent of violence not previously noticeable. Social pleasures were taken greedily amid the con tinuing rationing of the post-war slump. The art students were men who had served in Nor

mandy and in the desert and their girlfriends had driven ambulances in the London blitz.

Boisterousness more quickly led to aggressive behaviour. John Moynihan, the son of the painter Rodrigo, went to the Ball of 1948. He

THE WHISTLER 7

chiming midnight, the cheers of the mob, the skirl of pipes, ^Auld Lang Syne', the crowd merging, locking together, lipspressed on lips,

the arrival of the absurd floats rolling awk wardly into the halt, the crowds breaking the barriers, fists explodingagaiitstjaws and stew ards rugby-tackling giggling drunks, squalls

of anger, women screaming, thefloats being smashed, a nude art student held aloft sud

denly falling into a twisted mass offighting bodies, screaming, her breasts losing their protective covering oftwinkling beads, rolling as she fell awkwardly into the mass, screams and shouts, the crowd coming on towards Fa

ther Neptune. A steward racedafter a youth, caught him by the trousers, tearing them al most of. lay on top of him bashing him. The

noise was hellish, the hallalmost torn apart; people surged into people, wood splintered,

floats were rippedup and the wreckage dragged across thefloor, destruction took top priority.

Skulls smashed against skulls... ^Happy New Year,' I said to Keith. We shook hands."

These displays of aggression had not occurred in the pre-war days and stewards were in structed to be 'vigilant for any unseemliness or ruffianism or serious disorder. Tact and persuasion must be exercised to control the offending parties. They had to work hard to prevent anyone from climbingonto the centre

piece or the bandplatform, or interfering with the decorations. To clear a space for the stunts

the stewards circled the area with a sturdy

white rope, and they were advised 'in gaining this space good humour with firmness is of the greatest value.' Howeverin the euphoria of the midnightcelebrations there was always a rush to dismember the floats and this was when

problems occurred.

The Pressseized on any incidentsof rowdiness and the opinion soon formed that the Ball was no longer respectable. In order to promote

the Ball and to remedy this impression, Loris Rey brought in a public relations adviser, E.

ingpirates' garb,and eighteen Beefeaters from the Corps of Commissionaires. The exuberant

held on Friday 29 December. As in pre-war

audience could only take vengeance on the

the Chelsea Aits Balls on a Sunday and so it

balloons. At 1.45 a.m. the last float fi-om Croy-

don Art School appeared, a fifteen-foot-high Chinese pagoda carried by eight lusty lads with a scantily clothed girl student as a Sim Goddess. She held grimly on to her headdress and they were allowed to make a double cir

years there was strong opposition to holding was customary to avoid Saturday or Sunday

several hundred pounds of fresh salmon went

to prepare the suppers served by 200 wait resses in the boxes and gallery.

At midnight a huge figure of 'Diana the Huntress', made by ColinCoifield, descended from the roof and the balloons camedown. A

nights. By comparison to the success of the previous Balls, this was avery subdued affair. thirty-foot-high canvas and plaster elephant, The Superintendent ofthe StJohn Ambulance Brigade, John Ownes, who had attended every Chelsea Arts BaU since 1912, said it was the

cuit of the floor without incident, but as soon

quietest and most orderly he had seen. We

as she dismounted her pagodawaswreckedby

have had only twelve people needing atten-

with an exuberant party of students on its

back, would not leave the dance floor. Time

and again Hammersmith School of Art stu dents triedto pushit through theexitdoor, but a tussle started which ended with the destruc tion of the great beast.

The Ball was one of the most genuinely

enjoyable of all and was almost incident-free.

By the mid 1950s the Chelsea Arts Ball was the most scandalous social event in the calen

dar, known for its colour, imagination, gaiety and sexual license. The press loved it, they photographed the preparations and the scant ily clad girls and they exaggerated its ex cesses to brighten the otherwise dull period of the holiday season.

Everyone who attended it retainedhis own memories. Laurie Lee, a long-time member of the Club, had his own romantic view of the Ball:

"It slipped in just before the so-called

permissiveage began, spoke toosoon and was slapped down by the authorities. Orgiastic floats used to come sailing round the ball room covered in girls from banks in cheap tulle from the Co-op, pretending to be slave girls, the floats pushed by fine-looking mus cled men. And at midnight a shower of bal loons came down from the dome which was a signal to rip the netting off the girls and carry themkicking and screaming to lay them in the

loggias... Perhaps our memories are wishfulfilling but I seem to remember everyoneas halfnaked."

For the year of the Coronation the theme was

'Happy and Glorious'. In spite of the unruly audience it was one of the most colourful

Balls. The huge backcloth, the work of A.R. Thomson, depicted in brilliant colours the lion and the unicom 'Fighting for the Crown'; high above the crowd, draped in crimson, were four Golden crowns. The fanciful medi

eval archway which occupied the centre ofthe dance floor came to life at midnight. The centre pirmacle, 45 feet above the crowd, rose upward to reveal a gilt and tinselled sculpture of a woman dressed as a queen. 400 perform ers took part in an entertainment produced by Loris Rey. With more materials now available, the

Lindsay Shankland, who tried to build upgen

the crowd. As the Ball ended William Lake,

eral interest by an intelligent plugging of sto

the Ball secretary, who had attended 23 previ

ries and pictures to the London and Home

ous Arts Balls, said 'this is the best-behaved

Counties Newspapers and the picture maga zines. Although space was still limited in the

crowd we have ever had. Everything went off like clockwork.'

national dailies, the Ball was always a good

pictorial subject and for days thenational press carried photographs of girls in costumes, stu dents preparing the floats, artists working on drawings for the Balland so forth.

In 1949 the theme was 'Weather Cock'.

The stewards were preparedfor a repetition of the hooliganism of the previous year and no chances were taken, but it was not such a

rowdy party. RobertNewton was there in grey

tion, in previous years our first aid room has been packed with an overflow in the corridor.'

As this was no longer a New Year's cel ebration only half the tickets were sold; as a consequence, for the first time in its this his tory, the Ball made a catastrophic loss. How

By 1950 all London was talking of the forth coming 'Festival of Britain' and with the theme 'The Crystal Festival' the Ball re-created the 1851 exhibition. A sumptuous backcloth of the Crystal Palace by A.R. Thomson domi

ever by the following year all appearance of

nated an entire side of the Hall, and the cos

der Bilibin in a church hall in Chelsea, armed

tumes and the tableaux were free adaptations of Victoriana. Girls dressed in wide-hooped skirts and bodices, except that the skirts were transparent and the bodices minimal.

with 36 bmshes and six hundredweight of

austerity had gone. The theme of the Ball was 'Huntin', Shootin' and Fishin' and the back-

cloth was more splendid than ever, designed

by John Minton and soon painted by Alexan

paint.

Hounds andhuntsmen, dinosaursand fishes,

Hammersmith School of Art; constructed

a plenitude of mermaids and sea anemones paraded around the floodlit dance floor. John

an 'Emmett Railway' train carrying a bevy of

Minton invited a group of his friends and

young Victorians and current interest in flying saucers was shown by the St Martin's float

fellow teachers from theRoyal Collegeof Art, white linen suit, red and while spotted hand

hall in the midnightprocession, closelyguarded

'Global Visitors', with homed devils of both sexes. For the first time since the war. New

kerchief and a bandolier. Two tonsof chicken,

by rugby players from the 'Old Blues', wear-

Year's Eve fell on a Sunday, so the BaU was

50 York hams, half a ton of sirloin of beef and

flannels and a blue shirt topped by a tea-caddy; Ann Todd in a Spanish costume with her hus band, the film director David Lean; Frances

Day, Peggy Ashcroft and 'Two Ton Tessy O'Shea' as Bo-Peep.

The floats were hauled rapidly round the

including Rodrigo Moynihan who danced in a

THE WHISTLER 8

Art Schools' tableaux were more splendid than any seen before. Leading the parade was a jaunty galleon with Nelson on the bridge accompanied by American seamen and Span ish contessas, made by students of the Baitlett School of Architecture. The craft was boarded

by raiders as it passed from the arena and largely demolished by the time it reached the exit.

The Architectural Association students ar

rived to the accompaniment of post-homs, in an Edwardian motor-car with a sportsman at its wheel and a suffiragette by his side. Hie Chelsea students, wearing outsizeheads, rep resented the characters from Alice in Wonder

land and a decorative tram-car was filled by

theHammersmith students. The press described it as therowdiest Arts Ballfor years.

Despite a ring of white-jerseyed stewards, none of the tableaux was allowed to circuit the

floorbeforebeing smashedand whattheDaily

Mirror described as 'hand to dress fighting' broke out all over. 'One girl who had been wearing a strapless evening gown was soon wearing a gownless evening strap.' Stretcherbearers had to take away thecasualties.

of steam.

The theme for the Arts Bail of 1953 was Tun'.

Adrian Bury contributed a piece of poetry for the programme, as he did every year: Old Time is on the Wing Away, The year is nearly done, So Let Us Dance and Sing and Play, The last hours fill with FUN!

The decor was by John Minton and James Fitton and depicted a Venetian Carnival in which a multitude of renaissance figuresenjoy a great parade. It was set on a stage, the cur tains supported by caryatid figures. A stork in flight carried the newly bom year (but this time a painted baby, not a real one). In the hall,

TTie theme for 1957, 'Forty-Nine Candies', was intended to celebrate the anniversary of the first large-scale Ball held at Covent Gar den, 49 years before. The surrealist imagina tion of Gerard Hoffnung conjured up a me nagerie of grotesque musical animals, hang ing from the roof of the hall above the danc ers: a twisted centaur, an elephant ecstati cally blowing through its trombone trunk, lions beating their tummies as drums and a Sputnik tuber, all part of an outrageous or-

that felled the Balls, it was fmance. Immedi ately after the war the Balls had been finan cially successful. In 1946 it was found that all the expenses had increased; for example, pay ments to the Hall were about £9000, just about double what they had been before the war. But with tickets in great demand the income had also doubled, the Ball made a healthy profit and it was possible to hand over £1500 to the

Club. The next two years were similarly prof itable and each year £1250 was given to the Club. But in 1949 the profits dropped to just

there was a small profit, in others a loss, but on. only two occasions were dividends paid to the Club. All efforts to economize or to increase

the price of tickets were made, but this re-' suited in smaller attendances and the losses

continued. For the last four years, from 1954 to 1958, the Ball lost between £1000 and £2000 each year.

Finally, with great reluctance, the decision was taken to suspend the Balls. Loris Rey gave a troubled interview in the Club in September 1958, after the decision had been taken not

revellers danced beneath clown-like faces and

other mobilessuspended finm a greatcarousel.

This Ball was successfully filmed for tel evision and for British Movietone News. The •

TV cameramen, who were broadcasting live, found that they had to be very selective in their choice of subjects, as the appearance of some of the revellers was by no means suitable for family viewing. But the Ball had entered na

.

-

tional life.

All of the newspapers and press agencies sent reporters and photographers and even 'Mrs

Dale' went to the Ball in a script devised by Jonquil Anthony for 'Mrs Dale's Diary'. There

PI

were still those outbreaks that had marred other Balls. From the box that Minton was

sharing with the Moynihans and others, they saw a steward begin to beat up a reveller. One

t

V

f. i 7

of Minton's friends, Richard Chopping, went

t ' '

down to protest and was beaten in his turn; another friend, Norman Bowler went to help and received a kick in the face which broke his

jaw. He was taken to hospital by ambulance but was able to return to the Ball.

For the following year Ronald Searle called upon all of his powers ofinvention. The decor was even more sumptuous, on the theme 'The Seven Seas'. In a ghostly dance, weird sea monsters, giant spider crabs, mermsuds and octopuses swung slowly above the heads of the dancers, illuminated by multi-coloured lights, whilst a giant King Neptune held court

v..

with his mermaids in the centre of the sea-bed.

At midnight the First Battalion of the King's Own Scottish Borderers marched in with drums

and pipes playing and were given their usual great welcome. Because of the violence of previous years, no decorated floats were wheeled around the ballroom, but students

paraded in strange and varied costumes.

At a time of reconstruction, in 1955, the theme

'Bow Bells' had a topical significance. Bow Bells had not rung since 1941, when they were destroyed by enemy action. The Lord Mayor of London was invited to the Ball as part of a fund-raising effort to replace the bells.

In the centre of the floor was a thirty-foot model designed by A.R. Thomson in which four spirits, symbolizing London's re-emer

gence from war-timedestruction,rang thebells at his arrival. Again this was a noticeably quieter affair because the Ball took place on 30 December, not on New Year's Eve, and there was no midnight climax. Nor were floats used

because of the problems in previous years.

However the Art Schools staged tableaux on London themes, 'Oranges and Lemons', 'Trafal

garSquare's Lions', 'Dolphins andPigeons' and 'GoonFish Porters'. Thegrimtheme "IhePlague' was chosen by Hammersmith School of Art.

Every effort wasnow being made to quell the riotous behaviour of the crowd. The theme

of the Ball for 1956 was 'Primavera', based on

Botticelli's painting of Spring, but the news papers called it 'the Rock and Roll Ball' be

cause to foil the drunken attempts to wreckthe tableaux, the orchestra immediately went into a Rock and Roll number. By now there was a distinct feeling that the Ball was running out

chestra conducted by a grotesque figure of Sir Malcolm Sargent.

The last of the great New Year's Eve Balls to be held in the Albert Hall was in 1958. This

was still the period of theLondon 'pea-soupers' and on the night of the Ball, England was enveloped in a terrible fog. Public transport was brought almost to a standstill, flights were cancelled from abroad and those coming by road from any distance were considerably de layed. The hall appeared to be very empty.

The theme was 'Golden Jubilation' and

Felix Topolski decorated the hall with charm ing and irreverent representations of wellknown personalities. Every attempt had been made to quieten the crowd, butit hardlyseemed necessary. There were no floats; instead stu

over £1000 and only £250 could be paid as a

to continue with the Chelsea Arts Balls at

dividend.

the Albert Hall. He was described by the

When the Ball was held on 29 December, in 1950, it was a financial disaster with a loss of £4464. In the years that followed it was a

interviewer as 'a stubble-chinned, Romannosed sculptor and conversationalist, like "GulleyJimson"inTheHorse'sMouth whom

battle to keep the Balls going. In some years

he strikingly resembles.'

ARTISTS and BOHEMIANS 100 YEARS WITH THE CHELSEAARTS CLUB

dents from the Art Schools wore bizarre cos

tumes which were paraded on a stage ten feet high, out of reach of the dancers and greased to prevent students from climbing up on it.

But in spite of these precautions there were some fights, and at 3.45 a.m. someone let off an RAF smoke canister and the Albert Hall

was filled with sulphurous smoke.

However it was neither nudity nor violence

This outstanding history of the ChelseaArts Club from

Tom Cross is published by Quillar Press at £20.00.

Copies are available from the club office.

•

CHELSEA ARTS CLUB BALL NICK HUTCHINSON WORDS ROMER TOPHAM

THE CHELSEA ARTS BALL

Enterprising

I metyoung Simpsonat a Ball Abig one - at the AlbertHall

Oub Members Reprise

The sort of show where every guest Arrives elaborately dressed

Torepresent whatever beast

Great Balls oftbe Past

The CHELSEA Arts Ball

presents a daunting task for any producer contemplating

He thinks will incommode him least.

This fellow Simpson graced the Ball In scarcely any clothes at all Explaining to enquirers that

yourenjoyment at this year's Ball.

The world famous Count Basie

If one decides to be a Rat The less one wears - above the waist

Orchestra will lead the proceedings

its revival. A history of excellence with guest singers asdiverse asElvis coupledwithscandal and past finan Costello and Shirley Bassey. Dave cial embarrassment would sound to

even the most daringtheatrical man ager a recipe for potential disaster.

Alexander Sombart and I have

Thenearer to; 'well - sheer good taste'.

Gilmour of Pink Floyd fame and committee member, has put together a house band featuring some of the world's top session musicians. He

A fact which - view it as I might I could not but admit - was right.

not seen it this way. As members of has asked a number of friends to the Club, we had dways felt it to be come and sing with theband,equally a great pity that the Chelsea Arts Ball diverse acceptances sq far are Tom at the Royal Albert Hall took place Jones andMicha Paris.LudwigArts no more. We saw that to revive it in Management could not stage some its traditional form was not a viable

proposition. It had to be linked with Charity Work to guarantee a strong committee committed to make it

It must have been well after three

When suddenly I chanced to see The 'Rat' - (young Simpson) - take the floor

thing of this stature without asking its most famous artist, Maya

As partner to a 'Dinosaur'.

Plisetskaya, the formidable Russian ballerina - a legend in her own life time,who although in thetwilightof

Of whom the Rat was rather fond).

work. The cost ofproducing the event is enormous but if a guaranteed sell out could be achieved,charging fairly high prices for half the tickets, whilst keeping the other half at very afford able prices, there was a good chance

"Dying Swan".

F^orthose who now groanandthink this sounds a little too serious, they need have no fear. The evening will

it would work.

culminate with a wild disco featur

(In fact a small peroxide blonde

her career still dances the definitive

Simpson (tbe Rat) was lookinggrand His rhythm melted with the band He rhumba-ed to the manner bom

And put us other chaps to scorn.

Alas! Poor fellow! had he known The Fates had marked him For their own.

ing club member, Amanda Lear

Choosing an AIDS Charity to ben

backed by the Chippendales and

efit was not a difficult decision, in

some of the sexiest female dancers

a cure. It was our idea, along with that of the indefatigable fundraiser,

pletely free for use and the causes we

For suddenly two 'Elephants' Dmggedwith the beauty of the dance Carriedaway with 'joie de vivre' And possibly - 'un soupcon ivre'.

are seeking to raise money for. It is

Gyrating with tremendous force

Mrs Mark Littman, ofAIDS Crisis

our hope that members of the Club and general public who attend the

So steered their elephantine course They failed to see our fiiend - the 'Rat'

these days whereAIDS is becoming in town, choreographed by leading prevalent it is important that people pop choreographer Bruno Tonioli.

All these artists are giving their do not attach stigma to the disease time,and moreover themselves,com and that every effort is made to find

Trust, that at least two grants for

recognised research work into aids Ball will make as much effort by be set up to receive funding they really giving a great deal of thought might otherwise lack. Announce to their costumes and really make ments for project submissions to a theAlbertHallafantastic visual spec leading panel of experts would be made in die Lancet and Nature Maga zine.

The Club was also not to be for

gotten in our fiindraising activities; its invaluable role in providing the name and history behind the Ball will help to set up a new scholarship through the Chelsea Arts Club Trust. As agents and producers, we could also not just envisage a dance without some form ofentertainment.

We have been lucky in that through

The 'Dinosaur' was very sad To seehow flat he weis, poor lad

tacle on the night of October 11th.

Those whohavemadethemostorigi nal and best effort will be amply rewarded by Alfred Dunhill with a superb watch for the best male cos

But finished off the rhumba with

A 'duckbilled Platypus' calledSmith.

Anactwhich - view it as onemight Was, zoologically, right.

tume and a ÂŁ1,000 voucher from

Jasper Conran for the best female costume.

Romer Topham There are too many people to thank

London 1935

at the moment for their efforts on

our behalf, that will come later but the last mention should be to thank

committee, we have managed to as semble a very distinguished, ifsome

David Hockney for his magnifi cent gift to the ball and the adapta tion he made of it to makethe splen

what bizarre, mixture of artists for

did poster.

our own contacts and those of our

And rhumba-ed him completely flat.

'The Chelsea Arts Ball'was written byRomer Topham in 1935 when was a Barrister at Lincoln's Inn. Together with his wife he ran the Ebury Court Hotelfor some fiftyyears.

•

THE WHISTLER 10

diary JOHNNIE RUSKIN

A Rise in Standards Needed!

ART, THESE days, has oft strayed sadly from its excellent Academical sources of my day. Where, pray, are the Turnersof yesteryear, the Leightons, the Rossettis, and those that remind us to be Good, yea. Moral painters, such as Holman Hunt?

Well, some modem approximations can be seen e'en now at exhibitions (to which, incidentally, I have never been invited) within the Chelsea Arts Club's very walls. I allude to exhibitions held in May and June, where Helen Roeder's wistful watercolours of East Anglia bear some comparison to drawings of my own, the abstracts of Terry

night, I knew not that a Woman could possess any such appurtenances. I doubt still that She should. Likewise, such indecorous swellings and furbelows cannot be possessed by Royalty, Male or Female of the Species. Indeed, 1deny it, as would my Own Sovereign, were she but alive. These Parts, moreover, were not observed from the Life, for how do they compare with the ones since photographed by the Yellow

Press (which, need it be said, I have not seen, relying, gentle readers, on your good selves to dig about in dirt.)

Frost and Albert Irvin are as luscious in mood and texture as Turner and our own Modem This, seriously, was not a good exhibition: not because of its subject matter (irreverence Painters. David Remfry's rich interiors and acute portraits are uniquely quirky. In short, is a fertile seed-bed for many a hilarious sketch) but because of its inartistic, crude all are Artist's artists. approach. The so-called artist,DonGrant,is unsubtle and, moreover, cannot draw.What basis is this for anyexhibition, much lessa humorous one? Cartoonists of excellence has Some of the Institutions of great importance in my day remain, tho' not, alas, receiving the Club aplenty. Let us ask them to amuseus.Pomographers, and otherMembers With the respect of yesteryear. I allude to The Hallowed Royal Academy, whose Summer No Manners should be shunned.

Show was filled with works by Rank Outsiders, hung quite the Victorian way, without a sherry-label between them, by a young man called Peter Blake, who, so it seems,intends And so to otherlittle shows. Near a yearago,a CentenaryExhibition was heldat Covent

to undermine our serious intentions, replacing Portentousness with non-Academical Drolleries, including some DisrepectfulRoyal Portraits.This room and otherscontained the work of Members of this Club too nuinerous to list; let us say, three-scor-e and ten.

On the subject of Royalty and disrespect, one exhibition in our own Corridor involved an unseemly (although we never at that time did guess how apposite) a display of Royal's Parts. I must confess that, until I saw my wife upon her wedding

Club Almoner Appointed

Garden of mixed members' Work. It was not a bad exhibition, as some have held; it was

a Respectable exhibition, which is perhaps worse. A Centenary Portfolio is now produced, of pleasant prints by youngish members of present and future Acclaim. And, last Autumn, the Editor of this Organ became curator of the Collyer-Bristow Gallery, showinga prodigious selection of WorksbyClubMembersand Others, to suitall tastes, • standard mainly high, prices not much so.

STOP PRESS LATE NEWS

Chelsea Arts Club Benevolent Fund • THE CHELSEA ARTS Club is concerned

about the welfare of Members who may be sicV., mcapacilale'l, or in similar difficulties. We would Uke to know of

any Members who may .y in hospital, \ confined to their homes due to illness or

other causes, or could only visit the Club if they were picked up by a Member or

provided with a free taxi.

The Club and Council are serious in their wish to show their concern and to

help Members who are in such circumstances. To assist in this a small

"benevolent fund" has been established, and it is hoped that Members who would

Ifany Members who are not themselves sick or incapacitated but know of Members who are in such circumstances

please let the Club know about them, so that we can take a friendly interest and perhaps give the odd free limch and transport to the Club.

This is in no way intended to duplicate the work of the AGBI but is a way that the Club wishes to establish personal incapacitated, or in similar difficulties on a personal, friendly and caring basis.

The Club's Almoner would also be

like to hear from the Club will contact the Club's Almoner - Bill Michael at the Club on 071 376 3311.

who have similar needs.

•

Concertante during breakfast and afterwards in the Bar (which opens especially early thanks to Management).

• Real Ale from Young's will soon be piped into the Bar. As the Club is a free house the Management and council requests YOUR opinion on which other Real Ales to stock. Replies into the suggestion box please.

Majority requests will be acted upon says Hugh Gilbert.

• Them missing shove ha'penny table has become an issue - or rather, its disappearance has. Anybody knowing the whereabouts of this item of

historic Club property please inform the Council, or, if preferred, please drop a note into the Suggestions Box.

• Linda Sutton has contributed an illustration to a recent book of poems

by Peter Johnson:ApnV Meeting. Linda's etching iscalled Venice Morning and appears reproduced as thefrontispiece. £6.50from Peterthrough Office or direct from Peter Johnson at 10 Oxbeny Avenue. London SW6 5SS.

CHESS FIXTURES 1992 -1993

Tuesdoy 6 October 92 Wednesday 14 October 92 Tuesday 17 November 92 Monday 14 December 92 Monday II January 93 Tuesday 26January 93

for a full breakfast (eggs, bacon, sausage, smoked haddock & etc) for £6.00 including Buck's Fizz. Musical accompaniment by the Vivaldi

contact with Members who are sick,

pleased to assist any Member who wishes to apply to the AGBI for serious financial help or for orphans of artists

1 DATE

Tom Northey announces the Bacon Breakfast is to be held in the

drawing room on October the 24th (Saturday am.) bookings are required

• ARTLA92: THE LOS ANGELES contemporary Art Fair is a mile stone in the artworld year. Held at the Convention Center in Downtown LA in early December,the Whistler has arranged access to a special exhibitor

HOME TEAM

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Athenaeum

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Heathrow to LAX by Virgin Airlines; 7 nights at the deluxe Biltmore Hotel (scene of countless movies locations including Ghostbusters, and home of the original Oscars ceremony); all local taxes and transfers; a ticket to the exclusive VIP Gala opening night party for ARTLA92; free full colour

catalogue to the event; full access pass for each day of the wholeevent.For more details or to register, write to: Whistler, Chelsea Arts Club, 143 Old Church St. SW3.

THE WHISTLER 11

NEW TRUSTEE PATRICK HUGHES IS RENOWNED FOR HIS BITTER SWEET PAINTINGS AND SOPHISTICATED VISUAL HUMOUR, LESS WELL KNOWN IS HIS OUTSTANDING SKILLS WITH - AND COMPLETE COMMAND OF - LANGUAGE. HERE IS AN EXTRACT FROM HIS HIGHLY ENTERTAINING BOOK OF WORDS AND IDEAS; MORE ON OXYMORON

Modern Dancing is so Old Fashioned' 'Sam Goldwyn

Oxymoron is itself an oxymoron.

In AncientGreekoxusmeans"sharp"

and mores means "dull." Thus an

' oxymoron is a "sharp dullness." The terms are to be taken metaphorically: "sharp" as a meta phor for clever or wise, and "dull" as a meta phor for stupid or foolish. So oxymoron means "foolish wise" or "silly clever." It is the rhe torical figure in which two antithetical words are pitted against each other, adjective against noun, as in John Milton's living death, loud silence, or darkness visible.

When you consider the oxymoron you are also drawn to its opposite the PLEONASM, where the adjective agrees with the noun, as in wet water and widow woman. Then you con

sider these two terms amplified: the oxymoron extended turns into the CONTRADICTION

IN TERMS, and the extended pleonasm be comes the TAUTOLOGY. The generic name for these kinds of use of language and logic is the BULL, a word whose etymology is cloudy.

One of the definitions of bull offered by the Oxford English Dictionary is "a

selfcontradictory proposition." Both SELFCONTRADICTION and a SELF-REFERENCE are here. I have found four more distinct themes

in bulls, which I have called OBVIOUS, FIG URE/GROUND REVERSAL, MIND AND MATTER, and NOTHING. The O.E.D. has another definition: "A ludi

crous inconsistency unperceived by the speaker." The bull has been called the Irish Bull in Britain, as if the colonized and (origi

nally) Gaelic-speaking Irish had a monopoly on this wise foolishness. They are oftencalled Polish jokes in the United States, after those

immigrants; all over the worldtheyhave been named after different groups at differentdmes.

This is partly because those who are the buttof

thejoke are coming ft-esh to the language and using it broadly,withoutattending toany con tradictions or ambiguities in the use of idiom.

It is also because the immigrants are seen as

having a novel approach to a problem, a re versal of the usual way of doing things: they are not hidebound.

Alice says, "What is the use of a book without

pictures?" Pictorial language has been much slower to be classified than its verbal equiva lent, perhaps because it hasonly recently been freed by photography from the restraint of merely reproducing the world.

The variety of example is important. We owe

THE WHISTLER 12

the word cosmopolitan to the Greek philoso

can fill in.

God... a gaseous vertebrate. (Ernst Haeckel)

pher Diogenes. It is an oxymoron, taken ftxjm cosmos ("the world") and poliias ("citizen")at a time when a citizen was expected to be a

Music: cathedrals in sound. (Alfred Brumeau)

To define God is difficult. Haeckel compares

citizen of a city-state, not the whole world. I

Brumeau, faced with the enormityof defining

minds - with his vertebrate nature - a father-

democratic variety... shows that this way of

music, looks to the so solid and silent cathe drals for contrast with invisible sound. Con-

figure with a beard and robes who sits on a

understanding is widespread. As a child I was always dismayed by adult adulation of "com

stmction and imagination and devotion are in

guessing game "Animal, Vegetable, Mineral"

common. Architecture is frozen music

here.

(Goethe). Water is temporarily frozen, often in tremendous natural pattems and shapes,

In seeking to describe people, those vari ous and maddening folk, people have often resorted to the oxymoron. Oscar Wilde re marked of someone: He hadn't a single re deeming vice. The usual phrase is: "He hasn't a single redeeming virtue." In Wilde's oxymoron, redemption and vice, opposite ends

believe that the geographical, historical, and

mon sense." It seems to me self-evident that

the way of thinking displayed in these bulls is valid. When we smile at a joke or grin at a witticism, we are seeing a truth. I am obvi ously drawn to these kinds of remarks, and find them more accurate and realistic apprais als of the nature of reality than orthodox logic and language, where adjectives describe nouns, where the figure stands out clearly from the ground, where nothing is left to chance... (I

his gassy nature - an ethereal thought in men's

chair in the clouds. There is a hint of the

revealing mathematical structures, whereas music runs like water, never repeating itself exactly. Ice is quiet and is often perceived in, say, the silence of winter in the woods. Goethe's

antithesis of frost and organizedsound illumi-

''

•

wooden tree that has come to be a stone tree.

Stone is dead and cold and hard, while wood is

aliveand warmandsofter. To my mind, one of the reasons we prize fossils - apart from the information theygive usofgrowth goneby- is that they are oxymoronic. Living plants and animals are made by natural forces into their own contradictions. Stone lies at the other end

of the scale to organic growth.

The artist Anthony Eamshaw found half of a stone on heathland and noticed that it looked

very much like half a loaf of bread. He put it on a breadboard with a knife. This is an

oxymoron first of accident- the stone does by chance very much resemble bread in colour and size and visual texture and shape; then of perception - Eamshaw saw this resemblance; and finally of design - the artist put the stone on the board with the knife in the bread con

text. The staff of life is at the other end of the

spectrum of sustenance to stone.

Eamshaw calls the piece Raider's Bread and adds "the smash- and-grab raider eats a hearty breakfast before setting off to work."

My wife has a whim of iron. (Oliver Herford) This ploy is a poignant one. Iron and whim are

poles apart. The hidden parallel with"a willof iron" shows that she is indeed a mler. If her whim is so hard, what would her will be like?

I have a childhood memory of construction sites where paper bags of concrete had been left to get wet and had solidified in the shape of the bag. Bags contain and conceal, can be used again and again, are adjustable to their contents and fold up; they are light and empty.

This bag is just the reverse: it cannot contain or conceal, it shows itself, it is not adjustable

That is as clear as mud. (R H Barham)

Will and whim are opposites, as are, say, iron and feathers. A simile could be "My wife has whims like falling feathers"; like is com

pared with like. In oxymoron, like is com pared with unlike, and the comparison, un likely though it is, holds a wealth of mean ing. When it is said that the adjective contra

or foldable, it is very heavy and entirely full.

This accidental oxymoron makes the thing "bag" out of a diametrically opposed "con crete" material.

dicts the noun, it must be emphasized that

JACK 1982 H.C.Westermann

these are deliberate oppositions along the

Sculpture, before the invention of abstract art, meant the representation of things in different

same continuum. The terms in opposition are like themselves in that they are other,

opposite aspects of the same thing. Milton's No light, but rather darkness visible con

natesthe permanent anddecorative artofbuild ing. It is a magical idea that overnight a frost

tains the idea of visible darkness, darkness that can be seen. But darkness and light are

could still and silence music into monochro

of the scale of divine judgment, are yoked. The writer clearly felt that this was a person so

frightfully virtuous that at least a single vice would make him more human. -

matic architecture.

Painting is silentpoetry, poetry is painting that speaks.

(Simonides of Ceos)

words in 1885 were: I see the black light!

Simonides seems to be saying that poetry is

more than painting; it is painting (which is silent) plus sound, whereas painting is like poetry but without theingredient ofsound. On the other hand, his oxymorons of silent poetry

dark. In the Bible in the Book of Isaiah,

andspeaking painting arepoignant: ifpainting

chapter Ivii, verse lO, we find The Darkness

is silent poetry it is pure poetry - the essence,

In attempting to define large areas, the

made of manufactured objects and other mate rial, and natural things.

In the visual realm there are real things that

actions of the waves of water on the sand has been to create a visual oxymoron.

Trees are made of wood. The fossil tree is a

.-i;

The opposite of the pleonasm is the oxymoron.

In the pleonasm the adjective repeats the noun, in the oxymoron the adjective contradicts the noun. In a simile, Robert Bums said, "My love is like a red, red rose," finding qualities of beauty, colour, and freshness in common berween the love and the rose. Oxymoronically you go further, not to a comparison but to an antithesis, forcing the mind to run the gamut of an axis of meaning in seeking some vehe mence of expression:

shall be as the noon-day.

the human mentality: what I call the visual world includes pictures and sculptures, objects

they are trapped in time. The essence of wa tery waves is theirslippery translucent malle ability - here they are stilled and solid. The

A common view of humour is that it is too

There is blacklight in the Professor's lecture in Lewis Carroll's Sylvie and Bruno; dark ness light in Christian Morgenstem; and Samson'sfirst soliloquyin Milton's "Samson Agonistes' includes the line The sun to meis

tween the verbal world and the visual world.

The verbal world is entirely a construction of

arevisualoxymorons untouched byman's hand (except in his perception). Consider... a sight

light and elusive to write about. The argument is, here are amusements; do not weigh them down with weighty explanations. I take the view that here are profundities - how difficult to unravel them and still retain their meaning.

It is like a book of poems "explained" in prose.

The philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein said, "A serious work in philosophy could be writ ten that consisted entirely of jokes.

aredifferent aspects of visibility. This theme in oxymoron is strong: Victor Hugo's last

In the visual version of oxymoron, the mate rial of which a thing is made (or appears to be made) takes the place of the adjective, and the thing itself (or thing represented) takes the place of the noun. There is a difference be

often seen on beaches - waves made of sand.

The essence of waves is their movement, here

find Chomskyite linguistics and Barthesian structuralism disappointing.) Moliere's bour geois gentilhomme was delighted to learn that "for more than forty years I have been speak ing prose without knowing it."

the furthest ends of the same spectrum; they

have been deceiving herself about the nature of the poet.

not the mere disturbance, of the airwaves. And

painting thatspeaks, which we now have inthe movies, must have seemed an unthinkably bril

oxymoron is useful because it sets up two

liant and lifelike achievement to the ancient

poles of meaning between which the reader

Greeks.

I do not know upon what subject he will next employ his versatile incapacity (A. E. Housman). Housman's judgment is that for someone incapable a willingness to embark upon new subjects shows versatility but is obviously unproductive. Incapacity, a negative ability, is versatile in that it can be employed upon any subject with very poor results.

Christopher Hassall remarked of Dame Edith Sitwell: She's genuinely bogus. Hassall pits "genuine" against "bogus," complete an tonyms. The implication is that there are other people who are bogus boguses, fraudulent

materials. Sometimes transient materials such

as ice or cheese orsand have been used. Topi ary is a folk art, the trimming of hedges and bushes intothe shape of things. Anexample is found in Chepstow, Wales: an ocean liner

made of leaves and twigs, the ship that needs to be regularly cut back, opposes the massive opaque clanging structure of the real boat to the green, living, open leafy structure of the bush.

The usual material for sculpture hasbeen stone, and the usual subject, people. The Mount

Rushmore National Memorial is a halfway house between stone and sculpture. The scale and nature of the mountain out of which the

presidents have been made necessarily left

frauds. Sitwell is a real fraud. She meant to be

the raw material showing. So we see rock

as consciously a poetess as she was; she did not hope to deceive others, though she may

people and rock itself. The scale of the men

THE WHISTLER 13

and their place at the top of the mountain

make them like gods. Natural people are made of flesh and blood: soft, living, chang ing materials.

ing flowers are meant to point up the fact of life blooming and then withering, while these flowers remain in bloom longer than human life.

Sculpture has to do with life and death. To

The stone angel has stone wings that can not fly; a stone book in the cemetery at St. Ives which lies forever open at the page of Alexan der Taylor (1917-1959), denies the nature of

make a person out of a more permanentmate rial is to keep him alive longer. Madame Taussaud's waxworks museum in London,

accident and that he wanted to make a head

stone for his grave."

Ian Hamilton Finlay's Marble Paper Boat takes the child's boat made of folded paper and re-presents it in marble, the hallowed stone

of sculpture. Finlay's boat floats on a sche matic sea of stone. In reality it would sink like a stone to the bottom of the pond. Some of the parameters in visual oxymoron are living and dead - the ceramic flowers, the fossil log, the liner made of leaves. This theme of lightness and weight is another.

In a scene in Buster Keaton's film The Boat, Keaton throws his anchor overboard into the

sea and it floats. Tony Blundell has drawn the scene. In the same movie Keaton throws a lifebelt into the sea and it sinks. This is not so

potenta scene, as yousomehowexpecta lifebelt to sink. Lots of things sink; to our disappoint ment, few things float. There is a carved stone

step up on stage and hold the wand with which he has been making magic. To the consterna

tionof the child, the wandfalls limp, the author [Hughes] himself experienced this as a child.

This antithesis between soft and hard materi

als must be informed by our childish percep tion of our own bodies and those of others.

Parents have hard and soft bits, and we have

flesh and bone and muscle. Perhaps the seem ingly magical erection and detumescence of the male member is also perceived as this antithesis. Salvador Dali's The Persistence of Memory depicts soft watches. The structured, firm, regular nature of the object is contra dicted by the sloppy, drooping, limp quality of the material. It has been said he was inspired by the sight of children's sugar watches in a candy-store window.

The American sculptor Claes Oldenburg has made a number of sculptures in vinyl and

MARBLE PAPER BOATIan Hamilton Finlay

which began by recording the beheaded aris tocracy of the French Revolution in wax, then the most lifelike, fleshy, and translucent sub stance available, is an attempt to defy death.

There are some things thai are radically changed in nature. One terrible change is death.

In the case of human beings the material goes cold, stiff, green, rots, falls off. Plants wither, go brown, disappear. Perhaps a main motive for making visual oxymorons is the perception of these changes, and a desire to create some thing that denies the inevitable.

books. Books are full of information in se

quence, but this one denies us access to any other information. The open book is a closed book.

H. C. Westermann's Jack is a jack o' lan tern, which is usually made from a hoUowedout pumpkin; here it is made from a granite boulder. Pumpkin is pretty soft; granite is par ticularly hard. To quote the art critic Barbara Haskell: "He drew a face on it and took it to an

old Connecticut tombstone carver to have the features sandblasted. He convinced the man to

make it by telling him that a friend of his by Cemeteries today are full of visual oxymorons on the subject of death. The ceramic everlast-

the name of Jack Lantern, a member of the

Hell's Angels, had been killed in a motorcycle ON REFLECTION: ST. IVES BA YPatrick Hughes

I

lifebelt in the churchyard of St. Ives, a fishing village.

In Keaton's anchor scene, part of the fun lies in the play between appearance and reality - the anchor looks like an anchor, but it per forms like a lifebelt.

Marcel Duchamp's Why Not Sneeze, Rose Selavy? is a small birdcage filled with what appear to be sugar cubes. Duchamp noticed that sugar cubes resemble marble, and he had

FLOATING SI/GAR photo: Lawrence Lawry

kapok, using the technology of the soft toy, which repeat Dali's image in three dimen sions. His Ghost Drum Set lies limp, with limp cymbals, limp drumsticks, limp skins.

Oldenburg has spoken of his sculpture as be ing like his body. Oldenburg's other "soft ma chines" include a soft typewriter, soft scissors, a soft toilet, and a soft telephone.

marble cut and finished to the same size and

Man Ray's What We All Lack is an object that also presents liquid as a solid. He took a bub ble pipe and stuck a Christmas ball on the

texture as sugar. The handle invites the viewer

bowl. Instead of a transitory bubble, we have a

to feel the difference between what he sees as

permanentbauble. Both bubble and bauble are made by inflating a drop of liquid; the differ ence is that soapy water bursts, whereas glass keeps its globular shape forever. Ray's piece memorializes the moment of childish joy.

Patrick Hughes's On Reflection: St. Ives Bay takes the illusory to be real. The reflec tions of the toy boats are as real as the boats: they are the same boats from the same toyshop. This is another theme in oxymoron:

sugar and lifts as marble. Duchamp called this piece a "visual pun"; I think it is a visual illusion and an oxymoron.

Joke sugar lumps are a contemporary nov elty made of plastic foam. Defying gravity, they float on the surface of the hot drink.

Duchamp's sugar is heavier than sugar; this sugar is lighter than sugar.

A further theme in visual oxymoron is ri gidity and softness. A practical joke is to give someone a rubber pencil when he or she wants to make a note of something. The pencil bends in the hand as it presses on the paper. Expecta tions are dashed. You feel a fool with this limp pencil.

A magician sometimes invites children to

THE WHISTLER 14

real illusion.

•

Patrick Hughes' More on Oxymoron is pub lished by Cape at £8.95. For members of the Club it is possible that a limited number of

signed copies can be made available • writ ten requests to P.H. via office.

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FIRST IMPRESSIONS GORDON ROOKLEDGE

The Peculiar Art of the Art Book Myinterestin publishingbegan in 1962 many years before I

launched Sarema Press. Robert

Nicholson the artist, designer and publisher of London books and a close friend of many

GORDON ROOKLEDGE

OFFERS A PERSONAL VIEW OF THE WORLD OF ART BOOK

PUBLISHING WHICH

years asked me to write a small section of the first of his many London Guides. I contributed to Eating Cheaply in London and part of the Children's Playground section. I also as sisted, albeit in a very small way, on his first

FOR THE SUBJECT

AND READER, BUT...

plants!

I spent the next few months with my compa ny's "in house" designer. We gradually

title in the Canal Guide series. I loved it. In

worked on this core idea and then, at the

fact I copied part of the title of the Nicholson's Street Finder when I produced my book on type identifying by calling it Rookledges's International Typefinder. 1 think he forgave me.

suggestion of my fhend from the RCA, Pro fessor Herbert Spencer, called in Bruce Brown a young designer who had been a student of mine and was now on the teaching staff. Brown was a great help and cut away some of our clutter. The book was gradually taking shape. After about a year this de signer was appointed Head of Graphics at

Sarema Press's list reflects my own

enthusiasms: typography and fine art.

Through running my own printing company I had close contact with both fields and this

MIGHT BE REWARDING

was a need for a book which would identify

typefaces by a process of elimination. The reader would begin by selecting from broad categories and eventually be guided to a single correctly identified specimen. I'd seen something similar done in a book on house

nurtured a strong interest in both areas. 1 can't say I've found publishing financially rewarding and there are certainly pitfalls but it has been enormously satisfying and I'm certainly proud of the books I've produced.

Rookledge's International Typefinder: the essential handbook of typeface recognition and selection. (ÂŁ30 cb ISBN 1 870758 03 X).

The Typefinder was my first serious step into publishing. I was then working as a tutor in print production at the Royal Col lege of Art. In 1979, a student asked me to identify a particularly unusual typeface. A laborious job, especially as the RCA had so few type founders' catalogues to use and compare (they had often been borrowed and not returned). It occurred to me that there

THE WHISTLER 16

Norwich and asked to be relieved of his commitment.

1 had been talking to other publishers and

they all sounded keen to take the book but took so long to confirm this in writing that I started to panic in case the idea would be poached. My Bank Manager promised he would advance the money if 1 published on my own. I chose Sarema Press as my im print, an amalgam of my two daughters names, Sarah and Emma.

I still had to face the problem of finding another good designer. I made the mistake of taking one on without a formal contract, something I was later to regret since dis

putes between us over copyright ended in litigation in the High Court. Despite this sad note, seeing this first publication in print still managed to be one of the happiest mo-

ments of my life.

Along standing friend, Brian Thompson co-founder of Quartet Books was part of the team and he helped us keep the litigation in perspective and get the book published and sold. The Typefinder established itself as a standard reference book. It was published in the United States as well as in Britain, and

has sold throughout the world. An updated andexpanded version was published in 1990

with a companion volume, Rookledge's Handbook of Type Designers, coming out the following year.

can publisher with theirAmerican imprint and

logo onjacket and prelims. The title was soon out of print.

Therewere constant enquiries forthis book even years after it was out of print. In 1990

this, plus a large order from Germany made me decide to change the cover, which I felt

had dated, and reprint. I felt less cheerful when, within three months of delivery the payments began to dry up and I learnt that the

German firm (who also had some ofmy other titles) had gone bust. To compound the prob lem theirBerlin warehouse began demanding payment from me for many months storage

Victorian Pop-up Greeting Cards. (£15 per set of seven styles). My second publishing

charges. A lesson here somewhere.

project came about through an offer of the print buyer at the Victorian & Albert Mu seum. He wanted my printing company to quote for printing facsimiles of well over a

Design BriefMagazine(Monthly) Thiswasa collection of three or four sheets of A4paper, photo stat'ed and published by The Observer

dozen styles of Victorian pop-up greeting

Barty Phillips. My printing company, Gavin Martin Ltd did the typesetting until I was

cards. The designs were beautiful but intri

cate. Other printers had come in with very high unit costs, my company were no excep tion.

The V&A could not afford to print or publishthem but I was convinced they would sell well. The museum accepted my offer to publish the cards myself and after getting permission, the appointed paper engineer broke open the original cards to do "glue point nesting sheets" for the photographer, plate-maker, printer and assembler.

Within six months the cards were ready and were being sold by shops and organisa tions to coincide with an exhibition on the

newspaper. It was the idea of its design editor,

sadly told by the Observer that it was to cease.

I approached Bartyconcerning Sarema pub lishing it as a magazine. Enthusiastically she arranged for me to have a meeting with a couple of the Observer directors in the Conor

Cruise O'Brien room at their headquarters opposite Blackfnars Station.

Strangely enough, over many years in print ing and publishing I have had a warm, close and friendly relationship with the people I have dealt with at the Observer, but this lunch

time meeting with the directors was not a very friendly one, had it not been for Barty I would have told them to forget the deal, but having

life of Prince Albert.

said that, I did walk out at the end with the

I had asked the young astute buyer at the V&A if the Museum wanted royalties or to purchase the cards at cost price. My ac countant had told me to try and get him to accept royalties, he chose a cost price/ I agreed to this if he would buy a large quan tity, he said yes and we both got a bargain.

Since 1984 they have been a constant good seller but the price has slowly increased,

project and taking Barty with me as the editor.

I published 1500 to 2000 copies each month and mailed out to those on the Observer list

that Early could remember (the Observer said the mailing list was not part of the deal). I also mailed out to my printing company' s list. Barty worked very hard to get it off the ground in its new format of 16 pages, A4, in two colours

keeping the margins very keen.

Most of the high costs are caused by

throughout and no advertising. To keep the

paper engineering and origination and also the exchange rate, as they are produced in the Far East, but they sell worldwide in good numbers at a very keen retailprice of just over

costs down we used students from the Royal

College of Artwhowere kind enough towork for a competitive fee providing they had theirname in the magazine.

£2 each when the set of seven are purchased.

Two former students who now ran their own

InJanuary they go up to £17.50 per set.

design group did the lay-outs, paste-up and art work. Copy was suppliedto theeditoror direct to

The Male Nude - A Modern View: Edward Lucie-Smith & Francois de Louville. (£30 cb ISBN 1 870758 10 2). The third project

Sarema and one of my daughters assisted Barty to co-ordinate it. At one stage, 1 remember my son, who was at Brighton Art college, helped with some of the aitwoik. The magazine was an enormous success, if not financially, certainly emotionally. Again a good team. After the trial period of twelve issues I decided to close it down.

also began when I was at the RCA, an illus tration student. Rod Judkins, had seen an

exhibition at the Ebury Gallery behindChel sea Barracks. He said it was closing in a week, so I should hurry.

I went that evening on myway home, and with a printer's eye asked the curator, why no printed catalogue, only a photostat of

The Self Portrait: A Modern View: Edward Lucie Smith, Sean Kelly (£30 hb ISBN 1

titles and prices? He said it was too expen

Lucie Smith phonedandasked me to join him and the curator of Bath's Artsite Gallery for lunch at his new townhouse behind Olympia.

They both had an idea of producing an

870758 00 5) One fine afternoon in 1986 Ted

sive. Consequently, with a publisher's eye I asked him if I could publish a catalogue of the work of the fifty artists.

A meeting was arranged with Edward

exhibition similar to the Male Nude with some

Lucie-Smith, one of the main collaborators and who was on the selection committee and

of Britain's exciting contemporary painters contributing self portraits. This time it was to

costings were produced. He and his colleague

be a touringexhibition. Theideasoundedgreat

had agreed to write the introduction and for ward. Royalties could only be paid to the

and one year later the book was published.

It began with a general introduction on the history of self-portraiture. Each self-portrait appeared with a photograph of the artist. The

writers, as the book was a catalogue promot ing the artists' work.

The curator hadanundertaking from those

Observer did a feature on the exhibition in the

artists that they would waive their rights or

colour supplement which helped sales. The book took off quite well at fir^t, but after a

Royalties which then made it possible for the

year sales started to dwindle. In 1990 I took copiesto the Frankfurt Book Fairand was able

book to be sensibly priced.

In 1985 Saiema printed ten thousand copies of

the Male Nude, ofwhich five thousand went to Phaidon Press, with their imprint and ogo an Phaidon in turn sold five thousand toan Amen-

Above: the author, Gordon Rookledge.

Top right: SelfPortrait. A Modern View.

THE WHISTLER 17

to sell a number to the German company, and later in 1992 with their bankruptcy, and stor

age charges accruing I had to make a rapid

flight to Los Angeles to the American Book

Fair to offload the books quickly, this I was

able to do with other titles that were locked up by the liquidator.

In order to pay the warehouse for storage for these six books and to pay the printer the costs ofthe reprints ofthe titles they ordered I

had to get a large loan from the Bank. They have my seaside cottage ascollateral and with the recession in the Book Trade it looks as though I might loseour delightful family "bolt-

take all four of us and be there and back in

the same day, giving ample time to work and study. We met at 8.30am on a very hot day in June and within minutes we were on our way to Falmouth. Helicopter flying seems so casual and informal, the pilot asked us if there was any particular route we would like to take? Was there any particular building we needed to see en route? The journey was fantastic, blue skies all day and 80 degrees

photographed for reference, captions had been written. While we all had a good lunch the pilot had had a good swim in one of the better Hotel's open air pool. We left at 5pm, and I was driving through London's tail end of rush hour a couple of hours later, having had a productiveday. Great value for money.

A friend of mine became the co author as

Kate Dinn could not spare the time to do the enormous amount of research required. The

Henry Scott-Tuke 1858-1929: Under Canvas. (£39.95 hb

ISBN. 1 870758 02 1) Inthefinancially happy days of 1985,1 visited,

with my wife, the pri view

of

as a writer and assistant, was collecting in formation for a revised edition of the

Typefinder, she explained the slow progress by pointing out the time it was taking to go through so many different books to get infor

mation on typeface designers. It was then I decided I must publish a handbook of type designers in one vol ume, again I had to get the team together.

Working from home with just my wife as an assistant cum secretary was difficult. My print ing Company had been sold in February 1991.

hole".

vate

Type Designers: a biographical directory. (£25 hb ISBN 1 870758 09 9) Whilst ray daughter, who was working for the company

I had retired, I could

the

now work exclusively on publishing.

Newlyn School exhibi tion at the Barbican in

Ron Eason, a writer

London. A number of artists whose work was exhibited had had

and a long standing friend of mine of over

twenty years standing, agreed to be a co-author with my daughter (who

books published about them by some of the big art book publish

had been an enormous

ers, but when I looked

for information about

help on other projects).

Phil Baines, a former

Henry Scott Tuke I found there was only a

RCA student whose work I had admired at

monograph by his sis ter published in 1933

and who was recom

his degree show in 1989

and now long out of print.

As well as being a portraitist, Tuke was a painter of boats, beaches

and

mended to me by Harry Greenaway (mysponsor at the Chelsea Arts

Club), was selected as the designer and joint editor with myself as part time editor. The

the

fisherboys working in Falmouth. He was an

four of us were able to

early exponent of "plein air" naturalism

get the book out within eighteen months from its conception.

and interested me, as

in 1949 at the age of

The hardback is be

ing sold in Europe and

fifteen, I had seen his

painting Ruby Gold and

America and work is in

Malachite (1901) at the Guildhall in the City of

hand for an American

Spring of 1985 at the

paperback version.

In some ways it's not a good time to be in publishing. Some plans have had to be put on ice until the fi

Barbican.

nancial situation im

A publication in four years time would

proves or have col lapsed through lack of

coincide with the sixti

funds or lack of inter

London. I had not seen

*

his work since, nor even heard his name till

that evening in the

eth anniversary of his

est by overseas publish

death. Authors had to

ers.

be found, illustrations

slipped through my fin gers to a more profes sional publisher. De spite this it has been a very stimulating and challenging time. I have met interesting people and ended up

and paintings had to be located, and an exhibi tion of his work ar

ranged to coincide with the publication of the book.

I heard one day that

Others

have

with some marvellous

there was an exhibition of Tuke's work in Falmouth due to end in

big projects planned

a couple of days. It was

now which I think will

new friends. I have two

be revolutionary in

a must that we see all

the work prior to it being dismantled and dispersed, some of it to secretive homes.

in the shade. My daughter came with us as an assistant and makeweight for the spare seat.

I arranged with a designer, a photographer, and a writer to see the work but they all needed at least a day to look at the paintings,

a large collection all under one roof at the same time. The train journey takes about a

day there and almost a day back to London.

A full day would be needed at the Gallery.

To cut time I approached thelocalhelicopter base on the Thames at Battersea. They could

Within two hours or so we were being met by the Harbour master of Falmouth in his Sunday best uniform, scrambled egg on his peaked cap too! We felt like Royalty. By the end of the day an agreement had been made for Kate Dinn, curator of the Falmouth City Art Gallery to be one of the authors, the designer had been briefed and had plans for the book, the pictures had been selected and

authors worked so well together and with the designer and photographer, again another happy team on this now third project.

What a shame my first book did not have all those happy personalities, although this made me appreciate every other publishing project which the different teams said how much they had enjoyed. I alwayskept one member of the team to

For any Chelsea Arts Club member 33.3% off for any Qub member wishing to purchase a copy of any Sarema book, just send a cheque to

their field. With these two will come a cou

ple of disasters of course, but then that is publishing. The projects that did not take off of course could be a book in their own right.

assist on the next in order to maintain a certain

me at Sarema Press (I^iblishers) Ltd. to that value

amount of continuity.

BUT ADD £3 for postage and packing. Sarema

Rookledge's International Handbook of

Press (Publishers) Ltd. IS Beeches Walk.

Carshabon, Surr^ SMS 4JS

THE WHISTLER 18

100

OF THE CHELSEA ARTS CLUB >.

.rt-

"Not only a terrific history of the infamous Chelsea artist's

retreat, but an impressive and

oblique work of art history. Tom Cross has produced an objective and focussed document on a venerable institution often

4 Arc

misrepresented by myth, rumour and scandal."

Charles Kane Artbooknews

. •/

Contains many archive photographs

BY

TOM CROSS Published by the Quillar Press at ÂŁ20.00.

Copies are available from the Club Office. Warmly recommended by tbe editor of The Whistler and the Chairman.

REPORTS King GM, as well as Murray Chandler GM and Raymond Keene GM. The grandmasters didn't, in case your wondering, take part in

CHESS BARRY MARTIN

Board News

the simultaneous match!

of honour.

John's relationship with chess resulted in the highly evocative work entitled

'Reunion' 1968, which was

performed at the Ryerson Lastly, on a sad note 1 record

Theatre, Toronto. The chess board was cormected to

electronic amplification systems which registered

The 1991-1992 chess season ended with the CAC

sounds when each mover

positioned mid-way in the

clubs were distinctly worse

played against Marcel Duchamp (1887-1969) with whom he had become a good friend. He regularly played agaist Marcel although Raymond Keene GM tells

off than ourselves. The

me that John had

trophy was jointly shared by

considerably improved his chess-play the last time Raymond played with him.

league table. This was better than one might have hoped for given some disappointing results, but as usual some

the RAC and Atheneum

Clubs, whilst we finished ahead of the Savile, Brooks, East India and the Travellers Clubs.

were drawn from the

following; Peter Aylett, David Cohen, Joe Coles, Matthew Flowers,

Grahame Fowler, Hilary Chittendon, Tony Gros, Phyllis Gorlick King, Barry Martin, Mike RadcIifTe, Frank Ormonde, Struan Rodger. If any club member would like to play for our team please contact me at the club.

The forthcoming season's fixtures are given below.

Cheerleaders and supporters are most welcome.

A recent simultaneous match

against Murray Chandler

Chelsea Arts Club.

was made on the board. John

Hamilton-Russell Cup

Congratulations to our players the teams of which

John Cage at the 'Art andChess'dinner IPJanuary 199]

Simultaneous match againstMurray ChandlerCM. from leftto right: MikeRadcliffe, Mrs.Chandler, Hilary Chittendon, Phyllis Gorlick King, Barry Mortin, Murray Chandler GM (looking slightly compressedj, Ben Hooberman, Joe Coles.

GM, (21st. July) resulted in a fairly clean sweep for him, although Murray commented very favourably on Mike RadcJifTe's game following

very convincing for Mike up until the mid-way point.

Thanks to Murray for his time and expertise, it was a

John Nunn GM, Jon Speelman GM, Daniel the passing away of John Cage (b. 5th September 1912-d. 12th August 1992).

He distinguished our club with his presence, along with Teeny Duchamp (the wife of the late Marcel Duchamp) as special guests of honour

memorable event.

on 19/2/1991. The dinner was

The evening was marked also by having nearly threequarters of the English Olympic team in attendance,

concluded the hugely successful day of Art and Chess at the Tate Gallery to which they were also guests

the event. This was looking

held in their honour and

John was an extremely unassuming person which was a charming characteristic in the light of the huge accolade given to

BRIDGE JOHN PURCEli

ABridge Too Far? Whilst working on the paper requirements for the Centenary Portfolio, I am visiting Hugh's flat with a papwr sample and interrupt a meeting discussing the content of the next issue of

which a club can develop and enjoy a Bridge section.

The possibilities include for instance, social rubber

bridge for modest slakes, pairs tournaments, knockout teams of four comperiti'ons, matches against other clubs

him in the '50s and '60s for

The Whistler. In between

his avant-garde music. His 'Imaginary Landscapes' first started in 1939, in Imaginary Landscape I there were the beginnings of the first

calls for blue, black, green, yellow, cream, 90gsm and 160gsm being various views of colour and weight of

(either teams of four or

paper, conversation turns to

com^tition for non Bridge

electronic music and scores

the Club's penchant for chess and the corresponding lack of airing of the wonderful game of Bridge.

clubs (e.g. Arts Clubs, tennis clubs, golf clubs, WRVS or

to be undertaken anywhere.

His notorious 4'iJ" (1952) consisted of that length of time in silence. It was in

three movements during which the pianist sits with the piano playing naught for that length of time. Although the piece was in silence the public response was a huge roar of noise both for and

a whole section of Club

members with unsated

appetites for the green baize who need a catalyst. If this is

against. John was very quiet

true, then I have undertaken

to be the catalytic converter and I sincerely hope that there is a healthy response to

way with more than a hint of irony about life buried in their implications.

a few. There is a well

organised national teams

who ever) which was

inaugurated by Terence Reese. I also have no doubt

It appears that there is a history of Bridge at the Qub and that there might well be

of voice and used words in a

succinct and often humorous

teams of eight), to name but

that existing members own social contacts with other

clubs would create some

good matches. I personally could kick this off by inviting a team from the Treasury!

A general note to me, John Purcell, at the Club

this call to cards.

expressing interest in taking further the idea of Bridge as a Club activity would be

There are many ways in

most welcome, a

His collected notes

published in Silence, started 1961, perhaps convey his intentions particularly well especially as culled by his interests in Eastern

philosophy. The following short extract says much: "to affirm this life, not to bring order out of chaos or to suggest improvements in

0

creation, but simply to wake up to the very life we're living, which is so excellent once one gets one's mind and one's

Grandmasters at Dinner, from left to right: Raymond Keene GM (with C.C.Cap), John Nunn GM, Jon Speelman GM, Mrs. Spee/mon, Murray Chandler.

desires out of the way, and let it act of its own accord." #

THE WHISTLER 20

Establishing a Bridge Club at Old Church Street

/management report OLD WIVE'S TALES

ApartfromMercury,faxmachines

the Telecommunications Act 1985 to use a

Pear Members,

(Samsung 1700), legal insurance (Le gal Protection Group is now the most competitive 081-763- Dili), and the Arts

:U..o„of.ai ale fro. Young^t l end^ft

Newsletter, which I am always recommending

Kate English has informed us that urine and

to Members, the following arcane items of infor mation or knowledge mightalsobe of use.

milk both retain heat better than water, which

Mv attention has switched to the bedrf>nmc lUo,,,, p^ventMemters leaving fires bunung all day. They seeme^^ Ifique'T'itreff^.ive'^^^^1°

a,e nme, """hejoke has wan. U,m and we have now liberated the heaters so no one should hie

"frTtt'hfw Whether to brave the coulo dT, I^ T™ mvestigating the telephone systems ""*"8^y time you getT.hthtsTetter later. Inh, addition, to install in thethemoms

Ifanyone has knowledge of good systems, and especially good dealers, I would welcome their information.

At the same time as we wire up the rooms to take the telephones, we will probably run a

television cable through the rooms. Some people have commented that the noise oftelevision in one room will disturb the rest oftheir neighbours. I would appreciate your comments, for and

against. Iwill also give aTV Dinner for any good televisions you were thinking of discarding!

Iam glad to be able toreport that we have reorganized the long term borrowing ofthe Club, now £290,000, down from £420,000 five years ago. We were offered 15 year money at 11.5% but the conditions and the front end costs were soheavy that in the end we settled for a £150,000 loan irom the Nat West at 13.5% for 15 years (repayable earlier ata penalty ofonly £1871) and the balance of£140,000 at 2.5% over base againstwhich we could set our credit balances for a fee

of 2%. We hope to be in a position to offset the entire variable rate loan two years from now, implying a significant reduction in borrowing costs. Offsetting ourcredit balances against our loans has been something thatthe banks have always claimed it wasimpossible todo. Members in asimilar position should take note of this change of attitude. My thanks for this unexpected and desirable outcome aredue to the Boardwho insisted on haggling with theBank until the last moment. We arestillhowever veryconcerned with thecostof bankcharges, and I would beglad to talk to Members who have found a way of significantly reducing theirs.

I On the notice board is a list of Members whom we have been unaWe to contact about their I

snbscripiions. If you know the whereabouts of any of these, please let Kate know. We have I elected replacements for allMembers whom we expect toresign. More than 75% ofthe 75orso 1

elections that have taken place this year went to ordinaiy Members. The Town Membership is | closed. It has however been agreed, as along term strategy to further strengthen the finances of I the Club, to increase the country membership by 50 and the overseas membership by an iftdefmite amount until all the rooms are occupied by Members only.

We will beinterviewing all the candidates on allthewailing listsoverthenextyearortwo. Those

who are accepted will then be placed on the appropriate waiting list for their category of Membership and taken offit in chronological order as and when vacancies occur. This way the Council will not miss any good candidates who might otherwise get lost in the files; the candidates and sponsors will know exactly where they stand; and the management will know

exactly how many people there are available to fill any vacancies should they occur. These waiting lists will be open to inspection. In addition we will be creating lists orbooks (the method

is still undecided) whereby individual members will be able to express their support for canidates

Bernard Stone has warned us of the follow

ing: Do not give the Clubas your address when

coin box which does not take coins, which is why, in part, we have a new sous chef.

is why you should not pull the chain in bath rooms which do not have central heating dur ing the winter, and why you should put milk in your tea before you answer the telephone.

arranging a marriage at the Chelsea Arts Club.

Last week the registrar refused to marry the bride, aged 61, and groom, aged 70, on the

Patrick Hughes has told us that the correct way to catch a parrot which refuses to come

grounds that the mies of the Club forbade

down from a tree is to tum a hose on it. Wet

Members to stay in the Club for more than

feathers won't fly.

than the required times for residence stipu lated by the marriage regulations.

If you have any information which you believe should be shared with your fellow Members,

The police have informed us that it is an of

please ring Dudley on 071-376-3311, or fax

fence carrying a term of imprisonment under

me on 071-351-5986.

OBITUARY

PATRICK HALL (igoe -1992) Patrick Hall, artist and a leading U.K. watercolourist was 85. He was bom in York on 16th December 1906 and died at Ashford, Kent on 10th June 1992.

Educated at St. Peter's and then Sedbergh he was also a Freeman of the City of York. In his youth his work was first exhibited in 1928 at the Royal Academy. He worked in the

family business, Hall's Tanneryof New Earswick, York, until 1947whenheset up home and studio in London as a professional artist.

During the London period he became Hon. Sec. of the Chelsea Arts Club. He met many famous artists and in particular was a close friend, from his York days, with Sir Henry

Rushbury RA, Keeper of the RA and Head of RA Schools. Friendship also blossomed with art entrepreneur, Victor Waddington at whose Dublin Gallery he had his first oneman show. He later had exhibitions at Waddington Galleries in London and Montreal.

Following an idiomatic change for works shown at Waddington Galleries, Patrick became a regular exhibitor at the Marjorie Parr Gallery in Chelsea. Subsequently he continued to show at Montpelier Studio in Knightsbridge until his death.

He moved home and studio to Sellindge, Kent in the 1950*s.He travelled both in Britain and extensively on the Continent with his wife, Mary, mainly in France, painting the local landscape and architecture in a style uniquely his own. His work has been

purchased by many British public collections including the Imperial War Museum, the Nuffield Foundation, numerous university, cathedral and municipal collections. Many of his works are also in private collections internationally. He is also represented in the National Gallery of Australia and the Christchurch Gallery, New Zealand.

put upby other members.

Patrick Hall exhibited extensively in this country and abroad. He was married to Mary

The main event ofthe next month is therevival ofthe Chelsea Arts Club Ball inthe Albert Hall on October 11th. Incase the Ball isnotcovered elsewhere inThe Whistler, this ball isthe work

Ebdon in 1935 who survives him with their daughter Bridget.

of Alexander Sombart, the dancer, and Nick Hutchinson, both Members, who are bearing the

Selected One-Man Exhibitions: Waddington Galleries - Dublin, London & Montreal; Marjorie Parr Gallery - Chelsea; Austen Hayes Gallery - York; Montpelier Studio -

entire risk ofthe event. The purpose of the ball is to raise alarge sum for Aids Research, but 25% ofthe first £60,000 of profits, £15,000, will go to the Club Trust. The ball keeps the memory of the Great Balls alive and should be a lot offun for a lot ofmembers. The entertainment consists

of Shirley Bassey. Tom Jones and Elvis CosteUo with the Count Basie Orchestra; and Colm Vamcombe of 'Black', Nicky Laird Cloud of 'Dream Academy', and Micha Pans wdh the Dave Gilmour House Band. Maya Plisetskaya will also be appeanng. They should well be worth the

Knightsbridge.

Group Exhibitions: Royal Academy; Royal Scottish Academy; Paris Salon; New English Art Club.

entrance price of £25. You can book by telephoning the office. The event ^ character fromapainting. including one ofyours - with

you can win the Hockney used for the poster by buying araffle ticket fr

each other. The proceeds also go to the charity.

0.

AGM 1992: THE COUNCIL reported with regret that, since the 1991 AGM, it has been notified of the deaths of the following Members:

evenln, eole—W«CH tee «

Glaj^on.jazz pianist. Donald Swann appe^ o 0" the 11th at 7pm; and so on throughout the ^

^

October,

Tournament. Please telephone

cf£5 for the benefit of the AGBI.

All spectators are welcome to this evening, ^

!-• u oKoiiH he amusing even though the outcome

(another win by Patrick Hughes) is not in doubt. ^ours with best wishes.

JOHN KOBAL; EILEEN AGAR; FALAISE DE LA FORCE; HELEN M. OWEN; MRS E.L. WERE; SIR JOHN ROTHENSTEIN; SIR CHARLES VILLIERS; GUY DEGHY; PETER WAY; FRANCIS BACON; DOUGLAS LEWIS; HEATHER McCONNELL; F. McWILLIAM; JOHN SPENCER CHURCHILL; LORD WINTERBOTTOM; JOHN PIPER; J. WATSON; ADRIAN BURY; LYLYAN FISHER; ANTON FURST.

Dudley Winterbottom

THE WHISTLER 21

quiet, sleepy village in SW France. Totally secluded south facing walled garden. 15 mins by car from medieval city of Carcassone. £250 per week in high season. Phone 081 806

SMALLS HOLIDAY

ACCOMMODATION

9640

Q Mediterranean art holiday. 2 week painting courses given for £137 per week or £87.50 per week each for couple sharing.

• Paris: tiny flatlet, very central (9lh) sleeps 2. Available for short stays, weekends, holidays. Cheap! Phone Hans

for up to 6 people on a small family hill farm in Andalucia -

& Sue Brill 071- 373 0667

lOOkms NW of Seville. No

electricity, otherwise all mod

•

Artist member forced to sell

South Normandy Farmhouse.

Studio & 1 acre of land.

Beautiful oak beams & roof timbers. Wall excellent. Mains electricity & water. Also 2 storied oak timbered out

building. Village 1 km. Paris 3 hrs. 70 miles from ferry at Caen (5hrs from Portsmouth). Whole place, £25,000 or just house & land, £20,000. For photos & details Tel: Colin Smith: 081 989 6607.

Q Accommodation available

cons! No vehicular access -

15min walk from lively rural village. Write for information: Tim & Lin Brudenell, Finca Farruca, Lista de Correos, Galaroza, Huelva. £100-ish per

• Vacancy in Prinimaking studio, NWIO. Personal space, good etching & screenprinting facilities & dark room. Spacious & friendly. £175 per calendar

Terrace, SW7. Own room with

patio/roof terrace, w.m., 2 mins Kens Gdns. Phone; 589 1416.

£107 pw.

month. Pis ring Jeff Eldwards:

Lobster Lunch. Tel: Penzance

Includes instruction, rustic

• Apartment to let in Benahavis, Nr Malaga, Spain. 1 bedroom, living room, kitchen

• 4 storey Victorian house for sale in trendy Whitechapel.

Huge skylit studio, 3 beds, bathroom, cloakroom, kitchen, dining room, garden. Quiet street between two garden squares. Easy parking (featured in decor magazine). Freehold

accommodation & breakfast in

& bathroom. 2 balconies

£169,000. Tel: 071 377 6870.

machine etc. £40,000. Ground

artist's own cottage. Idyllically situated in mediaeval village.

Tel: 071 351 0153, bookings

overlooking mountains & tropical gardens with swimming pool. 25.000 pesetas per week (approx. £135 ). Tel owner: 010

• Spacious light & airy studio in unique Victorian school,

rent - £100 pa. Service charge £400 pa (estimate). Apply to the Secretary, Chelsea Aits Club

including immaculate living

33 65 411449

area. All mod cons. Wild life

ACCOMMODATION/

gdn & off-street parking. £750

STUDIOS WANTED

(0736) 500048 or send/write to Belinda Rushworth Lund 7 St

Mary's Terrace, Penzance, Comwall TR18 40Z.

from June - October.

Q Moulin Guillot, Centre for

081 969 3032.

•

Flat for sale. 16 year lease.

SWIO. 1 double bedroom. Sitting room, kitchen/breakfast room on 1st floor with terrace.

Immaculate condition, fitted

carpets, curtains, washing

per month. Contact John

•

farmhouse to rent in SW

Loker: 071 247 4223/095 381

France. 24k from Cahors.

730.

Q Holiday let, £250 per week,

cuisine. Eight comfortable bedrooms & residents lounge.

• Bedsit wanted for responsible professional in TV & Film Industry, preferably £50-f60pw.

inclusive maid service in

Facilities available for artists,

Annexe in private house, own entrance, use of splash pool.

Double bedroom, sitting/dining

potter, anglers & walkers. Flat

• Flat for sale, off Tite Street, SW3. 2 beds, 3rd floor, light & airy. 110 year lease. £132,500.

351 2917 (Day), 081 876 8274

rate tariff includes: room,

large salon, 3 double bedrooms, separate w.c. Sleeps 8 max. For further details, phone: 07985

breakfast & 3 course dinner

496

Tel: 071 376 4962.

room, bathroom, kitchen. Own

with unlimited wine all for £30

entrance. 30 mins from

per adult. Wooden camping complex in stable style

151075.

by car - available 17th July. £350 pw in July, £300pw in August, £250 pw in October.

• Holiday let. Traditional Spanish Cottage between Granada and the sea. Sleeps 6, 4 bedrooms, patio and roof terrace with panoramic mountain views. From £l80pw.

Tel: Alma, 071 223 0906.

Tel. 352 7878 for brochure.

double, 1 twin. Mahon 10 mins

Fax: 081 766 6977.

Art & Tourism. In centre of

of Mahon Harbour. Set in

beautiful garden with olive trees. Large terraces - own rowing boat. 2 bedrooms, 1

Residential studio units

France. Traditional Creuseoise

Mediterranean, 1 hour from Atlantic. Tel: Osborn, 34 52

To rent - Villa in Menorca in

•

week.

quiet cove with stunning views

•

Duncan Meyer, 071 384 1389.

• Mature, responsible flatmate required to share large, sunny, Spanish style flat in Queensgate

• Heptarchy charters. Classic Day Cruising around the Helford River & Fal Estuary including Champagne &

per week excl. Short term £200 per week. Tel: 071 229 0224 ansaphone.

serious artists. Tel: Elizabeth

month incl. except for telephone, £330.00. Please call Pbilippa Clare: 071 723 6404.

available. Tel: 081 766 7027 or

0273

• Very cheap six bedroom holiday house in France for rent. Ardeche L'Argentiere, Montpelier - Contact 081 877

kitchen & bathroom. Rent per

Q To rent, cottage in hamlet in £.W. France. Sleeps 2.

Telephone: France, 65 368320.

Q For sale. Paris, Artists studio/ houseboat. Moored at Conflans

Ste Honorine. Barge is 120ft long & 15 ft wide. Two living areas. Mooring £500 per year.

Asking price £70,000 ono. Pis tel: Sally, 081 672 4449 or Dominique Coumauit: 010 331 3972 6450 for details/viewing.

•

Bed & Breakfast in artists

converted watermill. Close to

Traditional French

Includes fannhouse kitchen,

• STUDIOS AVAILABLE

facilities & breakfast is

• Apartment at Bemeja Beach, Estepona to let. "Walk onto beach from flat. Swimming pool. 2 double beds, 2 de luxe bathrooms. Living room / dining room, kitchen, huge balcony. First floor. Low season, £60 per week (Nov Apr). High season, £175 per

(eve).

• Studio space in North London, approx lOOsq ft to

ACCOMMODATION/

accommodation with shower

available for groups of children over 10 years (supervised) for £5 per night. Tel: 010 33 5562 1302 (French) 0242 224830 (English).

Central London. Call Tim: 071

• Heart of Soho in major theatre. Clean, crisp. Studio/ Offlce and apartment

share with 2 illustrators & a

comfortable. Pis contact Liz

designer. Must be a nonsmoker. £35 pw. Call Ken or

Friend • 828 8798.

David: 071 272 7329

MODELS AVAILABLE AND WANTED

combined. ALL mod cons incl.

jet bath, dishwasher & etc.

Sleeps two. Double glazing, enlryphone, lift. Ritzy neighbours. Prefer long term arrangement; #200 per wk vncl. everything except electricity . and phone. Message for Mike 071-497 8629 (ansaphone).

One bedroom flat or flatshare

wanted. Within easy reach of Pimlico. This area o.k. Light &

• Bedsitting room available in beautiful house - use of luxury kitchen & bathroom. Peaceful

old English garden. £325pcm Inclusive. Tel: Alma, 071 223

• Experienced life model available. Big or small classes.

Students or professionals. £5 per hour. Tel Sarah: 081 874 3045.

0906

garden & woodland. Stream.

Q Life model available. Already registered with Heatherley Sch. of Fine Art, Chelsea Art College & Royal College of Art. Tel

Peace. 2 double bedrooms. 8'

Kathleen Pennor: 071 225 2777

Q To let in Wye Valley. Idyllic secluded water mill. 6 acres

• Large Victorian terrace house for sale between

months or so from end June.

Honfleur, Deauvill & Trouville.

week. Children welcome.

Countryside & beaches nearby.

Tel: (01033) 31 89 44 41 Fax; (01033)31 89 49 63.

MarbeJla 1 hour, Gibraltar 40

mins. Tel: Mr D Ambrose, 071

Finsbury Park and Stoke Newinglon. Original features, garden, cellars, excellent shopping and transport

486 4488.

connections. Sound condition, but needs some renovation.

Islington. 100' garden, 3 receps,

- 12 November, 1992. Tour for

•

Q Converted stone bam to let

£110,000. Contact Gabriel

3/4 beds, 3 bathrooms.

•

painters & families for £585 per person. Painting guidance by artist Jeremy LeGrice. 7 day Nile

room with bath & kitchenette,

in Southwest of France. 6

Weissmano:

£495,000. Contact Sue

mornings & evenings. Contact

4000 pesetas per day per person. Use of swimming pool.

Postal address: Apartado 340, Estepona, Malaga, Spain. Tel;

bedrooms, each with showers & wc, 18 beds, dining room, living room with T.V. & telephone, 1 kitchen. Situated in calm unspoilt countryside.

60 francs per bed per night.

Ideal for group holiday. Phone

081 341 2033 or 071 272 6269.

Douglas: 071 782 5648

Emma Borland: 071 720 8991.

• Studio space available in good light studio. Only used by the owner 2 days a week.

Would suit artift, designer, jewellery maker etc. Portobello

•

•

Monsieur Lade (DIG 33) 65 29

Road area. All facilities £60.00

•

Arts in Egypt - Nile Cruise, 5

Cruise. Visits to Museums,

To let in Spain - twin bed

Pyramids, The Sphinx etc. Price includes flights, transfers, accomm, sightseeing & meals.

(52) 79 44 16.

Discounts for C.A.C. Members

•

& their families. All enquiries to Jill AnnHeld: 081 874 7384.

Bareboat or skippered charters available in Ionian Islands.

42 25 or write: M. Lade, St

Clair, 12260 France, (some

• Coombe Farm, 17lh Century Manor House in Kingsbridge,

Prices start from £450 per boat per week depending on month & type of boat. Phone or write:

South Devon. Offers bed &

39 Thurlestone Rd, London,

•

breakfast. On farm activities

SE27 OPE. Tel: 081 670 3980.

Andalucia has 4 s/c apartments for 2, 3, 4 people, all with glorious views to Africa.

include, Coombe Water Fishery & an art studio in a lovely bam just outside the main house.

Guests can join local artists in

Chameleon Yacht Charters.

Q Apartment to let in Southern Spain in Benahavie • Andalucian Mountain Village.

French necessary).

Converted Olive Mill in

Owner is C.A.C. member & can

using the Studio. Children over 12yrs are preferred. Tel:

8km inland from San Pedro de

offer reduced rates through winter. Phone Jancis Page: 010

Alcantara. 40km from Ronda.

34 52 15 12 77.

Jonathan & Beni Robinson,

Approx £135 per week. 1 bedroom, living room with sofa bed, dining area, 2 balconies,

0548 852038.

• Luxury accommodation in Georgian Farm House in Norfolk. Bedrooms en suite

ftom £16 pp per night. Tel; Mary John, (0328 820) 251.

• Winter Letting. Dordogne, Pengoid Vert, Tel: 0103353520634

kitchen & bathroom. Use of

swimming pool, tennis court.

Tel: Howard, 010 34 52 855470.

• Mijas/S. Spain. Family home to sleep 6, incl part time housekeeper. Pool & large garden. To let long term £90

•

£100 per week. 071 352 8806

•

•

for sale. Duncan Terrace,

for work. 5'4" good proportions.

Age 23. Very professional. Tel: Suzy, 081 886 9529.

Beautiful Georgian house

Houseboat for sale in

Female life model available

Life model avaOable

Female model required.

Chiswick. 1 double bed, 1

Contact Julien Matei. Tel: 071

single bed, bathroom, kitchen, dining/drawing room, phone & electricity. Please phone Mrs

221 3672.

•

Whicker on 044463471.

urgently required by Epsom

pw. Tel: 081 969 6236.

Life models & models

School of Art. Contact Josie •

House for sale at Trewellard

Kemp: 0372 728811

Cliff, Cornwall. 2/3 beds, all

• Bright room with adjoining kitchen and shower in Regency Villa, Clapham Stockwell

mod cons & 40 foot studio.

•

£75,000. Tel Lewis; 0736

borders. Near tube & bus and

787773.

Experienced with various art schools. Pis contact Kate Gibson

Sainsburys. Ail amenities plus garden. Non smoker only. #50.00 plus #8.00 for bills per

Model in need of work.

071 735 4747 or leave a message

720 5114

• Spacious Chelsea Studio available for rent, Saturdays & Sundays, £50 per day. Suitable for painting groups or teaching.

Phone London Sketch Club:

Q '69 'Shark' Mustang, straight

•

071 352 8713.

six coupe. Black interior; immaculate. Black everflex roof:

immaculate. 2.8 Engine: any

week. Contact E. Milner 071-

Room to let in flat in

on 071 404 5379

FOR SALE

West Cork House to rent.

Parsons Green. Possible to use

Seaview to Dunmanus Bay from converted farm buildings on quiet hillside lane. 10 miles from Bantry, 10 mins walk to sea. July; £175/wk. Aug: £200/ wk. 3 double rooms, 2 single.

as a studio. £75 per week incl.

Please call Fiona or Bobby:

•

Windsor. £3500 o.n.o. Phone

mechanic's examination

071 736 8869.

Frances K White:

welcome. Auto, PAS, radio, all original features. Bodywork (red) needsusual clean up.

Exactly as factory original - 2 ownerssince new. Rarity: #2950 Tel: Mike 071-4973545. (CAC

Phone Miriam Polunin: 071

0753867068.

• Large bedroom available to rent in big mansion block flat.

5 mins form Marble Arch &

483 4112

Baker Street. All mod cons, TV,

•

Washing machine, laundry room. Share sitting room,

Delightful 1880's house in

Houseboat for sale near

THE WHISTLER 22

• Lovely Fulham Garden Studio to share pan time. Small.

No storage space. Suit tidy painter/etcher/illusirator. £120 monthly. References. Only

member)

• Hot-hatch 205 L6 Gti needs exciting new owner. *F' Reg.

•

a fast and accurate service.

April 1989, MOT, Tax, Eiec

or Sarah: 071 370 6027

Discount for CAC Members. Call Ms I Moorsom: 071584 8670.

• Simair Compressor & super

• Body Politics - series of

windows & central locking, black & beautifril. Call Annie: 071 287 0815 or 071 736 0l79...£5k(ono) • Car for sale. Wolesley 1500.

Dove grey. 6 months MOT, 6 months tax. £375!! Very reliable.

CallJules: 071 589 9855.

Prison door for sale, circa 1850s. £450. Contact Michael B

63 Air Bmsh by de Vilbiss. Used 3 times for Demos £180.00 o.n.o.

• Exercise bike for sale, hardly used approx. £100.00 Tel: 071

until end of October at Camden

John Paul: 385 1083

834 2829

Head Pub, Islington,Nl,

• Canvas for sale. Stretched &

7.30pm. £5.00.

primed, measuring 8'4"x 5'.

Slightly dented. Offers to jonathait Miller: 071 352 4614.

• Car for sale. 1953 Hillman Minx, green, saloon, steering

wheel gearshift. Contact Bill Stephens: 071370 0244.

• Small wheeled 3 gear ladies

bicycle, as new.£60. Ring 071 736 0056.

• Radial Easel for sale. Tel: 385 7396

MISCELLANEOUS

• Vintage pens & pencils bought & sold. Tel Phyllis Gorlick King: 071 584 2688 • Looldng for live music for your party or special event?

Promotions: 071 476 7766 or Fax: 071 511 5303.

formation of a discussion group

course. Mon 24 Aug - Friday 28 Aug. 10am - 4pm daily. Fulham

about current aspects of

studio, SW6. Tel Anna

contemporary art? Please contact George Hunt at the Club.

Minshall: 071 385 6467.

• Triangle Balalaika Trio.

Russian Folk music with singer.

Tel Pamela Synge 071 235 3952

•

Anyone interested in the

• Nipper Snippers - children's hairdressers, nursery, creche. 8 Hollywood Road, London,

• Tom Gilbey is looking for students to work - all types of styles needed. Pis contact 734

SW10 9HYTel: 071 351 2329.

4877

Q Chemise Phillippe, made-to-

• Need two reliable,

measure shirts. Tel: 081 360

trustworthy professionals to look after your house in France whilst you're not there. You provide the property, we'll provide the care.

Available immediately for up to 2 years. Please call Julie Dark: 071 702 3380.

1818

• Fiona Hayes B.A.. N.R.H.P. M.I.S.M. Psychotherapy Hypnotherapy, stress management. Tel: 071 370 1427

Contact Tora at Blue Movement

• Life drawing & painting

BUBBLE WINNER N0.3 — MICHAEL DUNNING, LONDON

"Philip: So it's agreed. No smoking in the Dining Room?

Dudley: Yes Agreed. And the first person I catch smoking will be thrown out on their arse!"

• The London Group, open Q Body Harmony - increase

exhibition at the Barbican

your energy and joy in life.

Aromatherapy: Moraig Macdonald MA ITEC, 071 736

Centre. October 1992. For

further info, send a S.A.E to The

9350. Body conditioning:

London, SE22 9LL

Reflexology: Sonia Ducie MAR,

•

0941 101516.

coilecrion of figurative paintings for peoples houses seeks sales person with many personal

•

Need any typing done? I offer

• Dressmaker/Designer.

Repairs & alterations. Tel: Branca Barasel, 071 584 3269

London Group, P.O. Box 447,

Patricia Lawlor, 071 373 9985.

• Schooner for sale. Tel: 081 892 1819

meetings to discuss the work of

artists who are actively breaching the boundaries of sexual taboo. Meetings held on last Thursday of each month

contacts to sell pictures privately, commission only. Contact M. G. Gregory: 081 203 3435. Also portrait painter seeks agent to get commissions. Potential high earnings.

Mature, talented artist with

• Quality picture frames made to order by Helen Richardson & Jaspal Singh. Tel 251 3101 •

Learn Flamenco Guitar. Tel

dttrachike

Small ads are free of charge to all.

Members. To be printed (as from October 1992) all ads MUST contain a NAME if an

address or telephone number is included for o response.

071 228 6776

IP only,

oppos/tls. .

i-Ka.r OpfVSlFS

NOTE:

|'4 rahht

couM

agree

Fcsihvc.

— a cortim'K

b

O

o

LONELY ARTS * Shy writer needs a firm

* Sweet blond with naughty

female hand. Box 139

niffs. Are you flexible enough to take a risk and try something

* Old professor wants

unusual. Box 145

stimulation in order to finish

magnum opus. Box 140

m Stuffed shin wants the starch taken out of him. Box 146

* Lonely lady (30's) by the sea wants interesting correspondent. Box 141

Anglo-American painter

(famous) can imagine you for his next production. Liketo

* Club politician, handsome andneat, facing retirement is

audition? Box 147

open to offers of a non

» Stem masterseeks lady with a slave complex for educational purposes. Box 148

executive nature. Or as a

sleeping partner. Box 142 Media mogul has spare afternoon for relaxation with

» Critically acclaimed, Creative and generous man

lady of similar responsibilities.

fallen on hard times needs love

Box 143

and affection. Box 149

* Fun loving beauty would like generous, artistically minded member for luxurious good times. Box 144

^ If you answered Box 109 last issue please be patient. I have been swamped with replies.

^ Sensitive lady painter finds work takes up too much time. Is there a good looking, solvent

» Very classy lady with high powered media job seeks stylish guy for mutual

* Dynamic PR girl, SW London, gets lonely in those qiet moments - wants to enjoy

* Older man, life spent in publishing. More personality

male available for

entertainment. Non-smoker

life with a creative man.

uncomplicated fun? Box 150

essential. Box 156

(unfortunately) would like relaxed relationship with artistic lady. Gallery visits and

* Man in happy relationship wants to be occasionally bad. Is

^ Does your life lack the

Especially interested in theatre, railway preservation and travel.

Speaks fluent Italian. Box 161

there a lady in the same

position somewhere out there?

Woman wanted for pure fantasy fulfilment (two way). Why not

Box 151

take a dare. Box 157

adventure of the unknown?

* Very sexy, positive, pretty, blond English girl, 30's. resident in Sydney. Australia,

and charm than cash in Bank

etc. Nothing ventured nothing gained - but nothing heavy either. Friendship before romance is probably the best way forward? Box 165

.misses that essential British

^ Discipline offered to errant

* Professional painter (40s)

ladies. No sex. Box 152

needs relaxation. Would once

cool. Would like pen pal to open up a wealth of

or twice a week would do the

possibilities for the future. No

trick? Box 158

Surfers. Box 162

Good looking single man can't seem to meet anyone new.

literary background, currently

Mature lady wanted for casual dates by discreet but

in televisuals, seeks someone

overworked business man. Own

promise you all sorts in return

for fun times and no

company based in SW London.

for small investment. Older

complicated scenes. Box 159

Would the occasional lunch

Divorced lady, no kids,

Box 153

I need a patroness. I can

suit? Box 163

woman preferred by male 30's.

Successful West End actress

Box 154

highly solvent would like to * Recently separated sexy woman needs some real old fashioned fun outings. See how

it goes? Box 155

meet well educated, well heeled and well mannered independent

^ Young. 20's, well travelled graphic designer would like to meet confident beauty for on

man (40's-t-) for social time and

going relationship. Relieve my

possibly romance. Box 160

drawing bored? Box 164

THE WHISTLER 23

a*'

Editor's Note: Please

sellotape over the flaps of all Box Number reply enve lopes. Only the Editor knows the identity of Box Number advertisers and be assured that this will remain the case.

Absolute privacy is guaran teed. Box Number reply en velopes should be placed in side another envelope and posted to The Editor in the normal journal tor) in ered by

way • or left in the tray (FAG the Edi the OfTice if deliv hand.

-s -t.''', -i-w". • ' s'.'- -' • --'•—Vv".'.

••'

Insurance V-i

Specialists to the Art World

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•'

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Crowley Colosso LIMITED

For further information please contact us Telephone + 44 71 782 9782 Facsimile + 44 71782 9783