No 6 the whistler summer 1993

The journal of the Chelsea Arts Club is sponsored by

V

SUMMER GARDEN

LETTERS Dear Whistler, RE; 1% PUBLIC PLACES AND PUBLIC ARTS

Tony Paterson's article raises a number ofissues concerning public art that should be looked at very carefully. If greater criticalattentionis now being paid to publicart,thisis in part due to the efforts over many years of groups and individuals- artists, performance artists,communityartists,colleges, agencies, fundingbodies,and publications - who have taken substantialrisksinpublic,not always successful - inpromotingtheir conviction thatartbelongs in a wider setting and to a wider public than the museum andgalleryvisitor.

But in this setting, the work takes on different meanings, and gives rise to many questions - who is the public, who judges on thepublic's behalf, how is work chosen, can it be controversial,

must it be permanent, does the artist take on responsibilitiesbeyond the

MUR ART ULLERl' Exhibition space in the heart

Dear Whistler,

of London's bustling arts community, the new QUAKER GALLERY

RE: VOLUME 2. No.1 SPRING'93

opens soon in St Martin's Lane.

With respect,may I throughyour letter pagewishSherrellMacnaughtan a long, happyandno doubtstinking life.

Certainly if one is anywhere near her in

As a registered charity we are ensuring that our rental rates remain below the West End norm ....and we don't charge

the club when she is at her '60 a day' -

one is guaranteed the latter even if the

a commission either!

former is more in doubt.

The arrogance of asserting that if one wishes to eat and drink in the club's

logiawithout Macnaughtan's foul secondhand smoke swirlingaround one's head - one should rather repair to

For details of conditions and

availability please call

the smoke free zone of a McDonalds -

is staggering. The even greaterinsult is tobe bagged into 'The anti smoking brigade'. I am not against anyone smoking,indeed in my studio people are

071 - 836 7204

free to smoke when and where they will. All I ask is to be allowed to eat,

drink and hopefully make merry relatively smoke free.

aesthetic when s/he chooses to work

As to the advise'of the two gentlemen

contextually?

It usually takes many people to make a single work of public art - why are they all doingit? Although the artist's motive is rarely questioned when working privately, public art can be -

mentioned - as neither A.N. Wilson or

Auberon Waugh are members of this club and are certainly not doctors, their opinion ofmy life expectancy is about as welcome as a cosy meal with the 60 a day Sheirell Macnaughtan would be.

DISPLAY ADVERTISING You can advertise in a

and often is - seen as an intmsion in a

publicspace, andtheartist'srightto expressher/himselffieely in this

Yours sincerely.

context necessarily comes under

Ginger Gibbons

quarter page space like this for only £50!

greater scratiny.

These issues are prominent on our MA course in Public Art & Design at Chelsea School of Art, and the answers

are not simple.Moreseriouscritical attention- by conscientious artistsand writers - is needed and would be

welcome, consideringthe wider issues

beingaddressed inthemaking of such

Nextissue deadline:

August 15th Letters intended for publication should be short and to the point. It is essential that all letters received contain the name and

That's right, fifty pounds. There is no VAT to be added and the price includes artwork to

address of the correspondent.

No faxes please!

the various house styles.

work.

The public space isnotsimplya gallerywithout walls - itis a context

Dear Whistler,

TERMS: Strictly cash with order (cheques made payable to Chelsea Arts Club); a receipted invoice will

complex relationships andthisissue

What was the horrendous noise I was

be issued. All notices must be typed on one side ofan

should be addressed in any serious discussion of the meaning and further

forced to listen to whilst asked to hold

which creates a series of new and

on the Chelsea Arts Club telephone?

developmentofpublic art Yours sincerely

It had nothing to do with Art - could I have got the wrong number?

Faye Carey Course Director,Public Art & Design

Yours sincerely,

Chelsea school of Art

Polly Clewett

A4 stieet of paper. Artwork to house style is free.

Camera ready copy should be in PMT format, right reading. Art work to client's specification subject to surcharge. Half-tones requiring scanning incur a £10 extracharge. Other rates: Half Page: £100 All

to be bookedthrough the Editor's boxIntheoffice

atOld Church Street Faxed copy Is notaccepted!

THE WHISTLER 2

EDITORIAl

Wfflstler VOL 2 No 2 SUMMER 1993

THIS EDITION of yourClub newspaper is animportant one. Not just because the Whistler has actually reached a sixth issue, despite allpredictions tothe contrary, butbecausewithit youwillsee papers relating toa referendum.

ISSUE 6

In this issue...

These are important becausethey enable all Members to have a sayin the decision making process, not just those who are fortunate to be local to the

Club and therefore use the place more frequently. One of the constant gripes of non-local Members is that they feel a small number of' mafias' operate within the CAC and that they are disadvantaged because of it.

As editor of the Whistler, one of my aims is to build the 'paper up to a position whereby it can be used regularly to interface with the Membership (by way of referenda or reader-surveys) and that it also has enough clout to ensure that Member's voices are heard by Management and the Council.

Remember - the Whistler is the Membership's journal and completely independent of other Club forces - whichever direction they might originate from. Use it!

Whilst on the subject of being heard by the Council. I have suggested to fellow Council members that to put the onus on one Councillor alone to report

the meetings is less than satisfactory. I am of the opinion that those whostand up andspeakso eloquentlyof theirintentions whenseekingelection should be far more accountable.

I proposed, therefore, thateachedition of the Whistlershouldcany a 'parliamentaryreview' page wherein Councilmembers areput underan obligation toreport(500words or so) what theyhave beendoingfor their ' corvstivaenis'.\l \s not\infair to point out that the member of Council who does notYung, except scoff a free dinneris simply wasting a limited opportunity that someone else might use productively.

Sometangibleevidenceof individual activity wouldno doubtmake

interesting, ifnotamusing, reading. Please write totheChairman ifyou wish

Letters

2

Jimmy Riddle

4

The Quest for James McNeill Whistler

Wilde & Whistler The Club, the Poet & the Painter

Club Garden Pt.2

8/9

Jane Lushingfon explains a bit morel

The Postman's Palace

10

Adrian Henri's Diary

to see this idea activated in some form.

Tobecome afuUy functioning Club journal, theWhistler must also beable to react to initiatives by its readers. Nowthe 'paperis beginningto become established, wehaveattempted apositive movein thatdirection bycreating

Midsummer Days Dream 11

thepostof a 'rovingreporter' who will have boththetime andthe necessary skills tofollow upleads forstories. Inanattempt toachieve a totally unbiased (anddemocratic?) news section, wehave takenthe unusual stepof electing a

A Modern Tale of Fairies and the Like...

non-Member to this job - full details appear on page 15.

Chairman's Letter

Andfinally, asyoucanseeonthe lefthand page, advertising rates for1993 are more than attractive. You can reach the whole of the world membership

12/13

Plus New Faces and Me.dia Notes

of the Chelsea Arts Club, including Hon. Members (& etc) at their private

addresses for only ÂŁ50 - and support the Clubat the sametime. Andwhatan influential bunch they are too...!

Reports Mike von Joel

With best wishes to all readers.

Snooker / Chess / Rowing

THE WHISTLER is published by the Chelsea Arts Club, 143 Old Church Street, London SW3.

All material ŠTHE WHISTLER EDITOR:

14

Dudley's Rosary

15

Plus Council Commentary &Poems MIKE VON JOEL

CONSULTANT EDITORS:

HUGH GILBERT, BRIAN PATTEN D WINTERBOTrOM,BiLLBINGHAM

PRINnD BY:

HIGHART LIMITED

COVER:

Great Traditions Number 6 WITH FOND MEMORIES OF BERT HARDY

071 376 3311

Fax 071 351 5986 THE WHISTLER 3

WHEN 1 first started to do research on

THEATRE IN SEARCH OF A LOVEABLE ARTIST

James McNeill Whistler (in order to write a one man play) I beganto say to

myself, "Do I really like this man?"

Jinuny Riddle

The more I read about him, the more

he seemed to be emerging as a cynical and often treacherous person.

Of course his paintings, his origi nality and brilliance dazzled me. Yet when I read that his wife Trixie ad

monished him to stop attacking John Ruskin, saying, "Jimmy, he's an old man with one foot in the grave," and Whistler answered, "Yes, but it's the

other foot I want," I was appalled.

Did I really want to spend the nexttwo

years strolling down memory lane with

Although a Founder Member who didn't like paying his subscription, Jimmy Whistler is forever associated with the Club. Brian Angel invited two distinguished American friends for lunch at Old Church Street whose

ing TV. The rule was that in any script

recent theatre work is focussed on the life of our Victorian aluminus.

root for - and I didn't see them rooting

Maggie Williams recounts the history of her play about the artist featuring award-winning actor Hnrd Hatfield.

for this acerbic and difficult man.

this unsavoury guide."

I kept remembering story confer ences in Hollywood when I was writ an audience must have someone to

That was before I went to the Library of Congress in Washington D.C. and actually held in my hands Whistler's own writings, letters and post cards.

(Incidentally, as I was signing in at the library, a man with a gun had me fill out various forms about my identity and whom I was researching. Anxiety

about the gun caused me to misspell McNeill. I hastily corrected it, but I could see that the man, as he reluc

tantly handed me my pass, was un easy about a researcher who couldn't even spell bet subject's name.)

"Whistler's letters were a revelation

to me. His devotionto his family, par ticularly his mother bordered on the extravagant. I was amused by his re quests for some of the recipes for her special dishes. But then he was fa

mous for his cooking at the Sunday morning breakfasts where he cooked

the American dishes himself. The play fulness and charm with which he dashed off notes to his models made it easy to see why women found him so

irresistible: "Is my panther coming to posefor me today?I longtostroke her fur."

Although I was beginning to fall under his spell, I still had reservations

about howI was going toconstruct the play. How to make order out of his turbulent and eccentric life. How to extract a clean line of action? Where

would it begin? "Where end? What would be the arc?

V.

What I needed was further research so I hurried off to the Smithsonian

Institute inWashington where the Freer Gallery had been built as a special tribute toWhistler. Hisbenefactor, Mr

Freer, had even transported the fa mous Peacock Room from England

and had itinstalled intact in the gallery so that all Americans could see the

artisby wrought by their countryman THE WHISTLER 4

at Pnnces Gate in London.

were "I talk too much. That's how I kept this accidental design and lit it so tees of the great Chekhov, were In the archives of the gallery 1 lose my mystery." From then on we skilfully that we were complimented stunned to learn that Hurd had spent learned that Freer had sent Whistler's

became great friends.

for the creativity of this impromptu

three years working withthis celebrated man. They felt it was tantamount to during her illness. It was this bird that Kurd's humour and artistic taste made The next crisis occurred opening meeting one of the 12disciples. gave me my solution as to what course him a natural for Whistler. He leapt night when Hurd discovered he was I was asked to write a scene by the play should take. Why? Because intotherole gallantly aftera very inad not wearing the "delicate dancing slip scene description of the play for those of an eloquent letter Whistler wrote equate rehearsal period. Despite this pers" part of his costume. No time to with shaky or no English. One young Freer after Trixie died. he was a success, the Washingtonians go back to the apartment to get them. lady who was translating this docu doted on him.

My lawyer son, Peter McKay, was ment into both German and Russian "Dear Mr. Freer, I was asked to appear on stage the only one with new shiny shoes. kept puzzling over a certain sentence.

Sheloved thewonderful bird you sent... after the play for a question and an Unfortunately he also had very large At last, during a dress rehearsal she andwhenshewentalone... thestrange, swer period. As I walked across the feet. But he took off his shoes, and took me aside and said: "What means wild,daintycreature stooduplifted and stage to join Hurd, it dawned on me went to the play in stocking feet. Hurd, this word? I have searched all the dic sang a song of the sun, and of joy and that the officials of the Freer Gallery who has smaller feet, stuffed newspa tionaries and cannot find any refer of my despair. And suddenly it was were out front. My heart stopped. What per into the end of the shoes and made ence to 'public hair'." made known to me that in this tiny if they asked me some technical ques the best of it.

Of course this was a line from one beast the spirit of my beautiful Trixie tion I couldn't answer? Weil, I was in Another crisis: Kurd's dress shirt of Whistler's attacks on Ruskin. In it had lingered... and the song was her Washington, the home of devious poli had somehow shrunk down to a size he said: "...and Ruskin having married song of love and courage and com ticians. that was strangling him so he couldn't a beautiful Scottish girl somehow for mand that the work in which she had I told myself "If challenged by talk. What to do? My other son got to consummate the marriage. Why? taken part, would be complete and so some difficult question, I'll simply use Anthony McKay (who directed the Because on their wedding night he was her farewell."

Richard Nixon's line, T'm glad you play) whipped off his black T-shirt, I made an alarming discovery: pubic hair. asked that question.'" Then I planned contributed a black turtle neck dickey Das schokierte ihm so, das er die It was at that moment that the course to go on to tell a rambling, unrelated I was wearing and Hurd appeared in nachsten 7 Jahre allein schlief." (That of the play became clear to me. Whis story, losing the original question in a borrowed clothes as the Bohemian shocked him so that he the next 7 tler's life on stage would start with the jungle of verbiage. It worked. I left the Whistler and managed, despite the gi years alone slept.) witty, intense scrapper who loved law stage, though not an expert, I was ant shoes, to seem the picture of grace. suits, move on through his series of Most of the young students at the con mistresses, his struggle for recogni ference were from East Berlin. I won tion, and finally go on to portray the dered what, with their admiration for / was asked to write a scene by scene astonished husband who found mar Brecht and their intense political orien description of the playfor those with shaky or riage had made him so happy that he tation, if the Whistlerpiay would seem began topaint pictures that were smaller to them irrelevant. To my surprise they no English. One young lady who was and smaller. Thus Trixie advised him: looked upon his life as the story of a

wifeTrixiea singinglarkto diverther

"Jimmy I think you should consider

the demands of the postage stamp."

After that 1 would move on to the mature man who at Tfhde's death

could write Freer a letter of such radi

ance and sensitivity.

The Son of Whistler's Mother was accepted by the first producer who

read it. The play was performed first at a regional theatre in Connecticut,

scenery.

translating this document into both German

and Russian kept puzzling over a certain sentence. At last, during a dress rehearsal she took me aside and said: "What means this word? I have searched all the dictionaries and

cannot find any reference to 'public hair'

Hartford Stage, and then went on to

be produced in New York at an Off Broadway theatre. John Collum (now

clearly a playwright who had done her

a hit in TV's Northern Exposure)

homework.

played Whistler and won a Drama Desk Award. Then, in 1985 there came

a request to do the play at the Smithsonian Institute itself. An excit

ing prospect as it took us to our source,

Kurd was so enthusiastic about play ing Whistler that he agreed to do it at the Edinburgh Festival in 1990. We discovered on arrival in Edinburgh that

the Freer Gallery.

there were more than a thousand other

Enter Hurd Hatfleld. I had known Hurd

plays competing againstus. It waslike performing in the middle of a three

ring circus.

Our theatre space was lovely, but known by film standards (despite his fraught with obstacles. The stage was extensive roles on the New York stage) he had won the coveted part of Dorian in the top of a converted church and

in Hollywood, though he was an un

Gray in The Picture ofDorian Gray. though charming and intimatehad no He played that decadent Englishman dressing room and no back drop. A so well, that when I spotted him at a

party ofAngela Lansbury's surrounded by admirers, I refused tomeet him.

"Come on," said Angela, "you'll like him."

She simply smiled, took my arm and led me to him. His first words to me

summer of 1992 at the Theaterforum

run by Jorg Andrees and Jobst Langhans. Hurd speaks no German, and my knowledge of that language is confined to Wagner and Lieder sing ing. Thus it became my duty, armed with a dictionary, to explain to stage hands just why we needed a box that could double as a coffin and also what

kind of lightingwe requiredin the moon light scene where Whistler goes row ing on the Thames with the Greaves brothers.

primitive leanto wasconstructed stage-

left where Kurd had to await his en

trance surrounded by the incoming au dience. As for the backdrop, it was a wall of the church that had been painted

"No," I protested, "he'll be cold and re-painted and replastered so of

and insulting."

The Scottish and English press were enthusiastic which led to our being in vited to do the play in Berlin in the

The Berlin engagement was followed by an intemational conference in hon our of Michael Chekhov (the great Russian actor and director) who was Kurd's friend and teacher. The other

ten that there was a wash of colours

members of the conference were Finn

and curious shapes that made it look

ish, Polish, Siberian German, Dutch and Russian. They, passionate devo

vaguely like an artist's palette. We

THE WHISTLER 5

struggle to escape. Hadn't he been in

bondage when surrounded by the con ventional art of the Victorian period?

Hadn't he endeavoured to paint with his own individual style despite pov erty, bankruptcy and the scom of crit ics? And hadn't he followed his own 'vision of the truth' till at last he was

recognized, honoured and understood?

Though many of the Russians spoke no English, we were honoured when a young director of a Moscow theatre asked us if he could do the play there.

The theatre was equipped with head sets, so the text would be understood.

So the next stop after an engagement in the fall of 1992 in Deny (Hurd was being honoured at a film festival where they showed four of his movies) will be Moscow in 1993!

When Hurd and I retumed from Berlin

via London, Brian Angel took us to the Chelsea Arts Club and seated us down

precisely in front of a portrait of Whis tler. All through dinner I saw those penetrating eyes staring at us. I looked back, giving a silent thanks for this dynamic man who had given me witty dialogue, an arc to my play and above all, someone to root for.

The famous stroll down memory lane had not been a rundown on spite, but a rich and rewarding spectacle of a man growing gradually into maturity and compassion, and never losing his sense of humour in the process. •

- but so serious had the situation become he knew he would have to rebuke Wilde and re to Harry Quilter (the art critic), the sale of gain his own artistic credo. which came about as a result of winning his The now famous lecture given in Febru famous libel case with Ruskin, only to be over the shock of losing his "White House

CLUB HISTORY ANDREW McDonnell

The Club, the Poet

awarded the princely sum ofone farthing, and being declared bankrupt soon after.

Self imposed(?) exile in Venice and some

good works later, he returned to London and Tite Street. At a breakfast given by Waldo

and the Painter

Story, Whistler, after having listened toWilde spouting on matters which seemed beyond him, finally retorted "And who's son are you?"

In general atthe beginning of their fiiendship Wilde exaggerated Whistler's appearance and

SAD TALE BUT TRUE

Whistler took this in good humour, for the

young poet and critic had little real claim to

ary 1885, became known asThe Ten O'clock,

becauseof its unusual lateness. It was sched uled for The Prince's Hall in Old St James, Piccadilly. Thecombination ofaWhistler lec ture and the time had everybody talking about it even before it had been written.

The lecture and Wilde's replies to it are

now legendary. Suffice to sayit became an all out attack on Wilde and all he stood for, and whilst Wilde took most of it in jest he replied with two articles in The Pall Mall Gazette in the same month.

Whistler could take neither praise nor

mockery in good part and the final blow was

attention, although when Du Maurier brought

struck when, more than a year later. Whistler found out that a committee for art reform and

them face to face in 1880

opposed to The Royal Academy was to have

at an exhibition of Whis

Wilde among its members.

tler's work he is reported

as saying "I say, which one of you invented the other, eh?"

The verbal sparring

0

between the two was

voted Friend and The Remarkable Rocket,

mutual feeling came about, although Robert

probably the most barbed of Wilde's ripostes.

Sherard was to say to

Both Whistler and Wilde were in Paris in 1891.

Wilde that a conversa

Whistler was almost manic about the lionising

tion with Whistler be

Wilde received and made sure he put him down whenever chance arose. He could not get over the fact that Wilde had argued that the poet was the supreme artist and not the painter and although Wilde removed all traces of Whistler

cellent substitute for bit

ters as an aperitif."

A Punch report on Wilde and Whistler discussing

.

Oscar Wilde and

actresses

James Whistler were celebrated men about

Chelsea (and notorious

competitors) when the Arts Club was founded.

Did the model for

Dorian Gray ever Invite his creator for tea?

Regrettably not...

at

The

Hogarth Club was to bring out the now fa

rr WOULD be very fanciful to imagine that Wilde and Whistler met and enjoyed the at

return from Paris with Salome under his belt

and Lady Windermere's Fan soon to open in

Later Wilde suppos edly added: It is true

ity.And when Wilde was approaching the end of hissentenceFrankHarris, dining inLondon

Jimmy, we were talking

with Whistler, mentioned that Oscar was work

about you, but I was

ing upona new work (fromprison- surely De

thinking ofmyself.

Profundis!) a very important drama. Whistler who knew nothing of Oscar's deliberations,

As long as Wilde was

replied:

willingto act as thoughhe considered Whistler his master, raconteur and critic then there was

sorbed everything the master said, often regur-.

crash in 1895, when he would be incarcerated

gitated it as his own and worse, added to and embellished it. WhatWhistler hated most was

in Reading Gaol.

hearing Wilde credited with his ideas and worse, with corrections.

surmised that Whistler never saw it.

By 1880 both were in Tite Street, London, mere neighbours. Whistler had never really got

At Wilde's downfall Whistler is noted to

have written from Paris: What of Oscar? Did you go to the Court? What does he look like

busy elsewhere rising on a star which was to

Since this was in The Dublin University Review,with a small circulation,it can only be

Club.

now? No doubt with relish as much as curios

By 1892 Whistler was in Paris and Wilde was

ter ofa minute."

ship was at an end; therefore my hesitation at believing they might have met at or had any thing to do jointly with The Chelsea Arts

about anything except

noreal difficulty between mentor and disciple.

"These pictures are certainly worth look ing at -for about as long as one looks at a real rocket, that is,for something less than a quar

London. Their once great and wonderful friend

me."

The problems came gradually as Wilde ab

turne Wilde remarked:

disintegration and Dorian's double life.

Itmusthavega/led Whistierto watch Wilde

"Jimmy when you and I are together we never talk about anything ex cept ourselves." To which Whistler replied: "No no Oscar, you forget. When we are to gether we never talk

mosphere of the Chelsea Arts Club, founded

his rooms unfinished paintings with the but terfly signature on. And in a review of Whis tler's Falling Rocket and a companion Noc

from Dorian Gray he carried on their dispute, winning his argument about the relative merits of their two arts. Hence the picture and its

mous;

in1891, since bythen they had(d)rifted apart.

But in happier times Wilde was imitating Jimmy as early as the 1870's, leaving about

removed for fear of libel - and Whistler could be discerned in the short stories of The De

good publicity and a

fore a meal "was an ex

/

By 1889 Wilde was parodying Whistler in many ways, his character had originallybeen used for the painter in Dorian Gray - butwas

After a lecture toTheStudents Clubat the

Royal Academy. Oscar was in flowing mood

"Oscar writing on a new work, a great romantic drama? We must find a name fork. I

have it! It must be known as The Bugger's Opera."

The last reliable recorded encounter of Wilde

andWhistlerwas in Paris around 1899, Wilde wrote to Robert Ross:

"Whistler and I met face to face the other

night, as I wasentering Pousset's todine with

the Thaulows. How old and weird he looks! with his conversation and WhisUer (having Like Meg Meriliees." (the halfcrazed gypsy listened patiently for some time) rising to leave,

offered another epigram notavailable toWilde for his lecture. Oscargushed: "Jimmy, I wish I had said that."

To which Whistlerreplied: "You will Oscar, you will."

Theproblem being that Wildedid.

from Scott's Guy Mannering).

Wilde died in poverty in Paris in 1900 and

Whistler obliged by following in London in 1903. Both were buried on grey days and both without funds orfilends to dignify their true natures. Only at a later stage would people be

Whistler found it more and more difficult to able to count themselves openly as afriend of Wilde or Whistler and while a lot has been

claim ownership ofhis own ideas and in the

end decided that the only answer was to give a wntten since, their work is surely the true, g lecture ofhis own - a unique activity in his lasting, monument.

Members interestedinjoining the Oscar Wilde calendarsince he did not usuaUy do such things

THE WHISTLER 6

society cancontactAM byfaxon0865 56788

YOUR PAINTING QUEERIES ANSWERED By

OLDMAHLSTICK

DEAR OLD MAHLSTICK

I have been studying at a well known London art school for the last two years and in spite of the efforts of all my tutors, my work still looks horribly well drawn and my paintings are full of shape and form. Although the rest of my year are way ahead of me in their use of unrelated tones and lack of

design, I still feel I should not get too discouraged. Do you think I will get out of my bad habits or is my ability to draw properly something I shall just have to learn to live with?

Frustrated Second

Year Student, Peckham, London

which actually daddy is paying for, which actually, though, he isn't anymore unfortunately, which is why I want some advice, right? I mean, like, daddy got more or less wiped out on Black whenever-it-was and he can

hardly afford to keep body and soul together, poor love, not to mention the three homes and the vintage Bentley, and well, I mean, if I leave art school

now, without having met anyone, which was the whole point of me coming to London, I'd look really, really thick.

Mummy knows someone who knows dearTimmy Renton, whosesomeone in the arts and she thoughthe mighthelp me get a job, possiblyat theV&A,but I said who wants to

OLD

work in a ghastly clodiing department store? Any help, youknow, would

MAHLSTICK REPLIES

Always drink American

bourbon on

a classic drink

be really, really smashing.

Emma, do

so don't mix it

Coutts & Co.

with anything.

Plenty of ice, plenty of red eye. Never fails.

Strand WC2

the rocks.

Remember, it's

OLD

MAHLSTICK

REPLIES

Steer clear of Shanghai Scotch. Sure, it only costs two bucks a quart

DEAR OLD MAHLSTICK I used to be

very big in the sixties. My pictures were copied by everyone and I

but the 'morn

ing after' lasts six weeks.

When out east, stick to Lee Ho

made a fortune.

But then I

moved to Los Angeles and ran out of ideas. I tried doing a Van Gogh for a bit, loads of bright colours, all thick paint and that, and then I did some fax drawings and postage stamps. But I am not the man I was anymore and I feel there must be something more to life than painting swimming pools. Where do I go from here?

Wok's special brew, if you must go native. And hold on to your seat!

DEAR OLD MAHLSTICK

I can't paint and have no interest in any kind of art. In fact, I only like playing snooker,although I'm notveiy good at it.

My interests are antiques and property dealing. What's the chanceof me joining the Chelsea Art's Club?

Name & Address supplied.

DH, LA, USA OLD

MAHLSTICK

REPLIES

There's a bar next to the YMCA

downtown where you can get genuine export Hindenburg Extra Pits for under a couple of bucks a throw. See you there, old buddy!

OLD MAHLSTICK REPLIES

My recipe for a Howitzer Cocktail is three parts vodka, four parts gin, two gills of bonded bourbon and a dash ofclub soda. Mix in crushed ice and a slice oflime. Some prefer it without the soda.

DEAR OLD MAHLSTICK

DETAILS iBit: Oscar Wilde by Beerbohm Above: Whistler as seen by Spy

I'm studying art at afee paying school.

THE WHISTLER 7

•

YOUR problems answered. Write to OM do the Editor,Club office. Sexual problems welcomed.

FOLLOWING THE GREAT SUCCESS OF THE GARDEN PRIMER IN THE LAST EDITION, JANE LUSHINGTON OFFERS MORE INSIGHTS INTO HER REHABILITATION OF THE CLUB'S 'COTTAGE GARDEN'. ILLUSTRATIONS FROM GERARD'S HISTORIE OF PLANTS WRITTEN IN 1597 AND EDITIONED BY THE MINERVA PRESS 1971

Xfftderdccrjmhpr^ Clymbiog orberried tvie.

Lightand Shade other which induced much giggling "Third Prize for Turnips" - acquired the same day. The entries were poor that year because of a drought; we had all been asked to make up the deficit by sending in anything we could. It marked the sole attempt I made in this field of contest. Next year the turnips resem bled footballs, and the sweetpeas had the proportions of lilies... but they were none of them mine.

Unlike my father, who regularly gleaned cups for giant gladioli, I lack that com petitive desire. My style of gardening and of most peoples', I suspect, is some thing far friendlier, less formal than the demands of the show-bench. One is

MY FIRST article dealt mainly with light and colour. This piece is concerned more with structure and mass. Form, as understood by artists, may be defined several ways. It can refer to an overall organisation of solid shapes, as in a sculpture; as the unseen geometric plan dictating colour areas in a painting, or also as defining individual shapes within them. The same uses of form are employed by the deco rative gardener, mixing elements of these vari ations to create scenic effects. There is also a

further definition of form as understood by the plant-breeder, where the word is used to

mean a hybrid, createdby interbreeding of two or more varieties. This particular game is, and has been, engaged in almost ad nauseam by

making pictures, or sculptural groups, with plants. There are no prizes, merely the fascination - and a certain exasperation - in volved. The excitement starts earlier, with the

arrival of catalogues, and gardening books.

These inspire intensive plans... for this is how gardeners spend dark winter evenings, plot ting schemes of glory for the following sum mer, schemes of which the chief most limiting

factor is one's budget. Acknowledging this sordid truth and trimming the list accordingly, has a markedeffect on selection. It sharpens it considerably. One is immediately out for the most for one's cash; the plants chosen must give of the best in performance, longevity of flowering, colouring, scent, and healthiness. It can concentrate the mind better than a hanging,

shape would understandably be con sumed in "the blaze". For proper appreciation, we must have shapes, or our garden would be without char acter. A dark red rose is a wonderful

thing - but does the wonder lie in the colour alone, or is it more in the

shape of the flower controlling that colour, turning it almost black in the scrolls and folds of the petals, cast ing shadows or softly reflecting light like velvet, expanding ft-cm rolled bud to full-blown hemisphere. A rose is a rose is a rose -

but

de

scribed as I have just attempted, it should not be mistaken for an ap ple, which may also be dark red. It is a matter of profile, as any por traitist would allow.

The old herbalist and plantsman, John Gerard wrote, in 1597, after discussing both red and white roses; "All these sorts we have in our

London gardens, except the rose withoutpricks, whichisyet a stranger to England."

(We must presume he means a rose without thoms, not some un fortunate eunuch.) Of the red rose he said:

hybridists for centuries.

It must be said that the gardening arts are

devising new herbaceous borders...

"Thered rose groweth very low in respect of theformer (the White)

the most elitist of all, truly snobby. Only the best, and the better best, has ever been enough for plant breeders. Thus, from simple wild

The colour scheming part of the plan seems

the stalks are shorter, smoother, and browner of colour: The leaves are

easy, prior to the wearying business of choos

flowers - the species - we have raised our garden plants. Behind each overblown dahlia, rose or begonia, there lurks, like some de

by thewriterof the particularcatalogue one is

spised ancestor, a true wildling plant, bearing all the genetic material, which later distorted, produces the monstrous blooms of the exhibi tion grower. In between lies the wonderful

array of moderately overbred plants - if I may so describe them - which constitute the inhab

itants of most gardens.

Personally, I enjoy a mixture in my plantings, of these 'middlemen', and the wildlings from which they sprang - past exhi bition specimens, being both costive in habit, and costly to obtain, hold no charms for a gardener of my sort -1 did once, I admit, win a

First Prize for some sweet peas, at a country flower show - this was entirely by luck, not judgement; and almosta palpable shock. I treas ured the certificate for years, along with an

ing which variety, which sort, which form, indeed... depending on the choice of word used

studying. "SHAPE", I long ago decided, was a simpler word. And one has to get used to nurserymens' prolixity.. Some write well...others ramble, like their wilder roses. A

rich rosy-carmine, glowingly reminiscent of thefinest sea-coral, suffusedwith softestsun set apricot highlights... This eloquence as the good garden writer, Christopher Lloyd has remarked, merely means the flower is bright pink. That established, the dilemma centres on

the flower's other qualities. Form, or shape, now becomes paramount.

For all that, the growers often ignore it.

Oneof theirfavourite admonitions reads"you too can create a blaze of colour!". This threat, or encouragement surely for arsonists, would,

if achieved presumably blind the onlooker to any other attribute; subtleties of scent and

I AmaraTJthusfurjureas, Purple FIoure-Genclc.

like, yet of a worse dusty colour: Thefloures grow on the tops of the branches, consistingofmany leaves of a perfect red colour: the fruit is likewisered whenit is ripe: the root is woody..."

This description is perhaps fairer than many present-day growers' eulogies in the cata

logues. However, a modem hybridred roseof this sort, with drenching scent and richness in all parts is the very movie-queen of its race.

romantic names: "ÂŁtoile deHollande", "Gloire

de Ducher", "Surpassing Beauty", and William Shakespeare". There are also two named "Duke of Wellington", whose original names^emight have represented the epitome

ofthe romantic dashing hero on a fine charger

Several such have been planted to grow over tothe sentimental young girls ofthe Regency the new gazebo, accompanied by two deep period. The Duke himself, I fear, was more purple clematis (called "Gypsy Queen" and terse than romantically inclined, and would

"The President"; a somewhat startling com

bination ofpersonalities, suggestive of theworst

have glared down his beaky nose and said

Pshaw! (which is fun to write, but impos

tabloid romance athigh levels...) The gazebo in sible to say), and gone grimly forth upon the

a year or two's time should present an ac

roach-backed "Copenhagen", acknowledged as far from fine', being the most ill-terapered with space for a table and chairs. horse in all the Allied Armies. Anyway, Red roses spell Romance: ours do have Andsome is as 'andsome does"...(to quote

cented room, richly coloured inhigh summer,

THE WHISTLER 8

Mr. Jorrocks, refening to another horse, the

wholly dreadful "Arterxerxes"...) but I hope we willfindthatall our red roses, by whatever name, will fulfil expectations and grow with vigour. Well, they should. They have been planted with enough fertiliser and all the other treats recommended - dried pig manure, I be lieve - strange that such ravishment should thrive upon such filth. Fur

thermore, it is pointless to foster invalids; if any of these roses succumbs to mildew,

lands springing with ferns and water-butter cups, and brilliant greengrasses, and imagine the shaking effect of light as a breeze moves overthe hills... yet therearenotmany flowers.

seem to be that milky glass of Lalique's, with an added depth of celadon green. The plant will soar to seven feet, eventually. Its "Globes" - the flowers - will be purplish-

terrace, not only for people's enjoyment of privacy, but to give the garden some ele

The curtain is not raised for the summer

blue, and can be dried to last the whole winter.

show; we are, literally, in "The GreenRoom".

This is whenone leamsthattheeveryday garb of plants - their stems and foliage - are as

is arguably the "Clothed Maja" of Goya's,

I find this the least intriguing quality of this beautiful plant; here, format of leaf is all.

ment of surprise. It should not reveal all its charms at once, like a too-bare nude. It

rather than the "Unclothed", which is the

more seductive painting. The roses round the pond, the ferns - some very tall, the Royal Fern - and a great

2 Fiola Lunsrif^fvc BoWonsc,

disfiguring spots of any col our, or other consumptive

White Sattin.

white wild iris, will all

grow considerably this year, and more in the fu ture. To help them, as a

permanent screen, there is

weakness, it will be thrown out, for I can be that ruthless:

also the new rose-arch, from the same stable as the

we will grow only the strong

Gazebo (Agriframes, if any one is interested.) All will

est sorts.

serve as visual "stops", Pace The Prince of Wales, I

and create more of a mys

do speak to plants, on occa sion; usually in a brief ad monitory curse: "Grow... or else" But when they do, and flower, a finger-touch on a petal, and a whispered "You lovely thing..." are my thanks. Imagine if they all talked back! Thin green screams would pursue one all

terious sense.

The arch is planted with white roses, but they

are quite different forms to those red Grandes Dames in Haute Couture frocks on

the gazebo. Around the pond is the white/palest pink area in the colourplan; the roses match this, and are old, simpler forms,

over the lawns; "You've

moved me!" "I've been mu

two French Noisettes,

tilated...!" (No, dear, PRUNED) "You picked my best buds"..."Honey, that's date-rape..." Well sue!"

from the early nineteenth century, and a really an cient wildling, the Persian Musk Rose (rosa moschata nastarana.) This is no spectacular plant, but one of a lacy charm, with

A nos moutons, and talking of form, the gazebo itself is as

sprays of near-single white flowers, coming latest of

simple and graceful, yet utili tarian a shape as could be found, i.e. I trust it is inoffen sive. Should even such sim

all in the season, and going on through the Autumn. It

•-•ww

has the sweet scent of

plicity offend, I am fit only to grub potatoes in the Ork neys, not garden in the capi tal.In furnishing a garden with

musk, and a quality of deli cate timelessness. It was

the prized treasure of the original enclosed gardens of

structures other than those

Ancient Persia, and was

vegetable, simplicity and daric colouring are very important.

An old garden and house do not wear bright white or naments well, nor highly glazed and decorated pots.

The more worn and plain such

placed near the fountains they all featured. I like to think it can still be grown, in its unchanged form, by a foun tain in afin-de-siicle London garden, and still charm, as it did centuries back, beside the:

additions be - even if new -

the better I feel they will blend. It is after all, a cottagey garden, in the sense that the clubhouse is composed of

"...White founts falling in the courts of the Sun, and the Soldan of Byzantium is smiling as they run... "

three old cottages. So is much of Chelsea. Baronial urns

would not seem indicated in

{Lepanto, by G.K. Chesterton). And, as I read on (for one can never open a Dictionary of Quotations without reading on) I find this, quoted from Edward Fitzgerald's renowned Omar Khayydm:

these surroundings. Also, the

styleof myplanting is that of the cottage gardener, really.

Things grow close together, and the groupings of plants containmany old-loved flow ers from humbler sorts of

backgrounds, not just rich new hybrids. These we do

have, inlilies, peonies, and someof theroses, but we have also many lesser sorts, and some which are genuine native wild flowers in un adulterated forms, astrue primroses,cowslips andwoodlandbluebells which, from small col

lections, may develop biggercolonies.

At the lime of writing, it is May. It is ^

important in the overall plan as their partyfrocks, or flowers; just as some people always

look elegant even in jeans, whilst others ap pear wrecks.

There is little more impressive, just now;

than thefinely sculpted sea-green leaves ofthe

garden Globe Artichoke, or Cardoon, which is rising tomake a screen round "Buhler's Cor

exciting time inthe garden's year. Afavourite ner". The great leaves, 2-3 foot long, arch over poet, Gerard Manley Hopkins, wrote of it, like crenellated waves, water movement fro zen stiff like Hokusai's Waves, translucent and said it was: likejade or the sea, overlaid with white dusting When weeds inwhorls grow long andlovely where the sun catches a flatter surface. The and lush..." nearest material asasculptural medium would Onecan picture the country ditches and wood-

Next to it growsanothergiant,placed therefor a quickeffect, theCrambe Cordifolia, which is

"...Iran indeed is gone with all its Rose, And Jamshyd's Seven-ring'd Cup

a cousin of a cabbage and turnips, and from

where no one knows;

huge rounded leaves, very cabbage-like, will But still the vine her ancient Ruby yields, throw up a flowerstemwhich will rise withall And still a garden by the water blows..." the slowly gathering speed and drama of a Cape Canaveral rocket. Its final burst, as of This verse so well describes some sadder as the rocket going into the shatosphere, will be pects of recent history and its wars, yet per to produce a huge sprayed head of creamy sonifies too some of the unique atmosphere of white flowers.It is just like a giant gypsophila the Arts Club terrace on a summer evening, that it shall mark this article's finale. Lines like (there are plants of that, too, nearby). that indicate that I should reconsider the life of

Until the white Alba roses here have matured

we need such temporary screens around the

THE WHISTLER 9

an Orkney potato-grower, and work solely with spade, and not pen.

I

the stark contrast of its fantastic sil houette against the bright Southern sky.

DIARY 1 ADRIAN HENRI

I called the series Dream Palace.

Shortly after Ifinished the series Simon

THE POSIMU'S PME Adrian Henri writes a personal memoir ofhis visit to the home ofFerdinand Cheval, a Postman who hand-built a palatial structure in his back garden...

"Once upon a time there was a post man who had a dream..."

A while ago I wrote a story for chil dren, about having the courage to live your dreams. In the story, a postman has a very vivid dream; like Kubla Khan he has built a wonderful palace

ing train tris lente to St. Vallier. We stayed the night at the Hotel des Voyageurs, ate a splendid meal there,

and set off by taxi up the steep road into the hills the next day. The Post man's Palace was all we hoped for, a

trip abroad. 'The Postman's Palace' he said, unhesitatingly. So I decided to write a story for children. It lay about for a couple of years while, in the piranha fish world of children's pub lishing, editor after editor was devoured,

called me. He had decided to go and see the Palace for himself, could I give him details of how to getthere?

After an all-too-brief month to

gether, my girlfriend Catherine, who lives in France, was due to go back and we'd talked of me going with her

for a couple of days. The opportunity was too good to miss: we rang Simon back, we'd go together.

Then the night boat, a bleary view of the amazing decor of the Tram Bleue bar at the Gare de Lyon, the usual fast, efficient ride on the TOY. This time we hired a car in Lyon, Catherine drove, with me, Simon and his friend Charley as passengers.

Some things long-awaited are a disap-

for himself. Unlike Kubla Khan, this

palace is built in his back garden. Some time later, out deliveringletters, he trips over a rock that looks like one of the

animals in the palace of his dream. He takes the rock home, then starts to

collect other rocks together.

Thirty-three years later the palace is finished. He has built his dream.

Almost a fairytale, except that it's true and the truth is even stranger than the version of the story I wrote for chil dren.

. (tw w,

Ferdinand Cheval lived in Hauterives,

a remote village in the Drome, be tween Lyon and Grenoble. He began building his Palace in 1879 and fin ished it in 1912. After doing a 32 kilo metre walk every day with his letters he would retrace his steps, pushing a wheelbarrow, gathering the fantasti cally shaped rocks of the region. He called it his Palais Ideal, and one of

the inscriptions on it reads: 10 THOUSAND DAYS 93 THOUSAND HOURS 33 YEAR'S WORK another THE WORK OF ONE SINGLE MAN TEMPLE OF NATURE and another

and company swallowed company. pointment. Many things redone, places Then Methuen found a rising young revisited, certainly are. The Palace

REALITY

truly magical place. Spike swarmed up the staircases and through the tunnels, demanding to take more and more pho

illustrator, Simon Henwood, who liked

In 1986, following in the footsteps of

tographs.

the story, andthebookwasfinally put as the others were, as I was first time.

Twenty metres long, fourteen wide and ten high, it seems twice the size or more. Its shifting perspectives, end lessly proliferating detail, make it like one of those other-worldly visions,' al

didn't know what the real place was exotic creatures caper before you. Tur like (a story is, after all, a story) but I retsmore Gaudi than Gaudi, colunms eventually sent him some photographs like Hindu temples, all made by this

WHERE THE DREAM BECOMES

together. It seemed important that he

Breton and the Surrealists in the Thir

ties, and Andre Malraux, who as Min ister of Culture declared the Palace a National Monument in 1969.1 made a

long-awaited pilgrimage there with the artist photographer Susan Sterne and her nine-year-old son. Spike.

We were whisked to Lyon by the superfast Train Grand Vitesse (TOY) then on an almost laughably contrast

of it.

wasn 1.1 was as smitten by the place

Stones like fantastic birds, allkinds of

solitary, obsessive (and probably rather

Meanwhile, wearing myoriginal hat frightening) man, who only had one ien geometries' in a story by H P asapainter, I'd made a series of paint day off ayear, on 14th July.

ings ofthe Palais Ideal, not aiming at

Lovecraft.

When we got back someone asked Spike what he'd liked best on his first

topographical accuracy but the feel,

Touchingly, he had builtaUttle grotto

his 'faithful wheelbarrow' and the impact of the place, particularly for scribed a littlepoem over it'

THE WHISTLER 10

m-

7, his wheelbarrow, have had the honour to be his companion for 27

sion on his new chums by badgering hisaccountantwithseveralphone calls

years of labour'

on the route - no mean feat on the

One can only surmise what sort of derision, what discouragement he un derwent. Why did he build it? In 1905

tow-path. However Bingham's river bank cred suffered a devastating blow

ALONG THE YELLOW BRICK ROAD ET™

when he lost his purse; and his pals, champing at the bit, were forced to wait at a tea-bar (while he called the credit companies) and consume

On Midsummer's Day for the lastfive years, several

The 1991 traipse had been solemnly

pressed awish that he andhis wife be

members have been walking from Kew Bridge to

covered from a severe setback, nay

buried in it. Not possible, said the Church. So in 1913, aged 78, he set to

Oxford along the Thames, Di Atkinson has

his new chums to experiences from

work to build a tomb for them in the

contributed this memoir:

insisted on a short cut which called for

he wrote:

'A peasant, and the son ofpeas

ants, I want to live and die proving that my class too can have genius and willpower. For twenty-seven

years I have been a rural postman' When the Palace was finished he ex

village cemetery, a kilometre or so

Dramatis Personae Dave Horovitch Leslie Coleman

Badger

BigBad Bill Bingham

Mr Toad

Dudley Winterbottom

ate a huge and delicious meal there,

Tin-Man

Andrew Barrow

Scarecrow

ing. Simon and me drawing, everyone photographing madly - whilst agreeing that one image couldn't convey the complexity of the place - under the

Dorothy

stony gaze of Julius Caesar, Archimedes and Vercingetorix, the giafl/^uardians of the Eastern facade.

The cafe-bar Le Galaure next door

sells local wine at 30p a glass, as well as postcards, paperweights with a snowstorm and a miihature Palace and

alocaicake, St.Genix,madeofbrioche

breadwith bright red icing-sugar 'cher ries' in. Strange, but good washed down by the wine.

A visit to the tomb, then off down

the road, fields of dead sunflowers like a bumt-out Van Gogh. Beyond, the river Isere, and the Vercors, some the wildest and most breathtaking mountain scenery I've every seen.

in Islington where they heard and saw a remarkable early piece of music by

Toad Winterbottom were almost

and a bucket of water is offered to a

and Gross sunglasses - they were va porised by the proximity of the train.

The driver hooted at us. We felt veiy naughty and veiy frightened. Bad Big Bad Bill Badger Bingham.

sucked into the slipstream. Tragically Lamont Young in which a baleof hay Dorothy Di lost her exquisite Cutler piano.

Patrick Hughes Di Atkinson

Friendly Lioness ...Jackie McCartney

1990 was the year for the Cookham to Henley bit. Another stellar gathering.

There was a real star - Dave the Mole

'The Mole had been working very hard all the morning, Spring cleaning

Scarecrow

his little home. First with brooms, then

Winterbottom, Andrew Tin-Man Bar

with dusters; then on ladders and steps and chairs, with a bnish and a pail of whitewash; till he had dust in his eyes,

row, Ratty Coleman and Dorothy Di. This was the year when the first stimngs

and splashes of whitewash all over his black fur, and an aching back and weary arms."

of class war were fell.

In 1988 Dorothy Di thought that it would be a jolly good wheeze to walk along the Thames tow-path to its source somewhere a long way away. Pals

and pals of pals were asked to join the walk which would always take place on Midsummer's Day. That year the cast was starry: Mr Toad Winterbottom, Scarecrow Hughes,

On our way back to Lyon we see seaplanes pouring water on a forest

Ratty Coleman, AndrewTin-Man Bar

fire, hordes of bikers heading back

from some gathering on the coast; then goodbyes at Part Dieu station, Simon and Charley off back to Lon

Horovitch {Westbeach and Riders) -

Hughes,

Mr Toad

Rain clouds gath ered when the party stopped for an enor mous breakfast at Mariow. At the first

drop of rain Scare crow Hughes and Dorothy Di, both Grammar

School

tykes, ran for the first train out of Marlow

mountain at Woodstock. It seems to

me more achieved, more complete than either, more enigmatic and haunt

ing in its dream-origins; in this 'pan theon of an obscure hero' we all share ourdreamswith the Postman.

•

Horovitch

{Westheach and Rid

ers), Big Bad Bill Badger Bingham, Scarecrow Hughes, Jackie McCartney The Friendly Lioness and Dorothy Di set off from Goring in search ofRadley.

Each of our furry friends had brought vast quantities of food

splendent inyards ofgingham and tulle

out a moment's hesitation, their lan

ten 0' clock. Toad Winterbottom treated

tern jaws set into the sleeting rain, grey wind and certain double pneumo nia, muttering about The Siege of Mafeking, the Light Brigade and all that unreconstructed Love of Empire

his pals to fulsome elevenses at a very swanky hostelry on the river bank.

Sadly, one mile further on Toad dis covered he had left his spectacles on the grass and had to leave us and retrace his steps. We pleaded with him to stay and continue but they were very special spectacles given to him by Lady

and a bucketful of red lipstick. Mr

Toad Winterbottom pleaded a wonky knee and left early but not before a

she insisting that Toad Winterbottom washer long-erranthusband. Theparty Stuff, made it triumphantly to Henley.

Watts Towers in LA and Clarence Schmidt's now-lost work on O'Hayo

Mole

row and of course Dorothy Di - re

ing with rain, LyonislikeBirmingham without thePre-Raphaelites and Simon

be the finest piece ofnaive art of this century, along with Simon Rodia's

Coleman, Dave the

day, but consumed every morsel by

femme fatale and her dog joined us,

Ferdinand Cheval's Palace is said to

Some of our party - no names- were still receiving Post Trauma Disorder Syndrome Counselling when Midsummer's day 1992 dawned. Toad Winterbottom, Ratty

back to their snug bur row: and the Public School Boys, with

don. Catherine and I had planned to spend an extra day in Lyon. It's pour

Rattle.We take the next TGV to Paris.

was inspired and driven by it, to take

That evening Ratty and Scarecrow left limit en route to the West Country. the tow-path andjourneyedto a church Scarecrow Hughes, Dorothy Di, Mr

le Reiais, a couple of streets away, past the bust of him that now sits proudly outside the Post Office, and thenback to the Palace the next morn

dedicated to Bad Bill Badger. He re

an extremely close encounter with an Intercity 125 breaking its own speed

year later, in 1924, he died aged 88.

That night we stayed at the Hotel

EACH in a space of ten minutes.

which they had always cowered. He

down the road. His wife died in 1914.

Ten years later, he'd finished it. A

THREE MARS BAR ICECREAMS

managed to shake her off after a mile or so,not easyon a treacherously slip

The Henley to Goring leg, one year on, inevitably included a great deal of

puerile ragging about Those Who Had With the first leg, Kew to Staines, Not Had The Spunk To Complete Last undertheir belt theycounted thethree Year's Stage. Big Bad Bill Badger hundred andsixty-four days tothenext Bingham, the new boy, had a lot of ground to make up psychologically and jaunt, Staines to Cookham. That year physically, but the peer group pressure

pery and narrow foot-path.

the cast was depleted but still jolly illustrious: Scarecrow Hughes, was from a smaller and altogether more Andrew Tin-Man Barrow and Ratty select gang: Scarecrow Hughes, Coleman. Apart from some significant Dorothy Di and Mr Toad male bonding between the three chums Winterbottom. it was an incident-free day.

Bingham created a terrific impres

THE WHISTLER 11

and drink to last the

Toad Winterbottom and so he left.

Saddened by this some of our party trudged disconsolately on, paying very little attention to the forests ofnettles that

sprang up around us at all sides. The need to apply dock leaves to the affected parts meant some timewas given over to the playing ofDoctors and Nurses... We reachedRadleyexhausted, glowing,com pletelysated and countingthe days to our next Big Date.

•

LIFE SENTENCES BINGO

CHAIRMAN'S LETTER

NEW FACES

six

June - theme "Intoxication .)

Trained at Wimbledon School of Art. Chairman of Peter Fuller Memorial Foundation (her late

nTTE FAWLEV - Illustrator. Trained atrHAtti BlS:k?ool to n"^ Diploma. Publicity

art critic husband) which provides lectures and pamphlets on art from the perspective of an other creative discipline. Now married to John McDonald an Australian art critic. Galleries:

Beaux Arts, Bath, and also Coventry and Paddington in Sydney.

GABRIELLE BEAUMONT - Film Director.

One-time West end actress, later, with the BBC's

help, a director in theatre, film and television.

designer for the Guardian, then book and maga

zines illustrator, and advertising. Exhibitions at

Burgh House, Royal Opera House and Primrose Hill Gallery. Commissioned as illustrator for

BBC's 'Newsnighf programme during the Falk-

landsand Gulf wars, also educational programmes

like 'Jackanory' together with Parliamentary

and court scenes. Specialises in depicting ac

tion, especially that of athletes and dancers.

New BBC2 series soon called 'Making Their

Produced, wrote and directed TV documenta ries: 'The Beatles Ten Years On', 'Britain's

Mark'. Also enthuses on Pavarotti, Chinese astrology and the "I Ching"

Source of the Arts', and 'Hunger in Ethiopia'.

Her feature 'The Godsend' brought her to the attention of Hollywood where she broke new ground for women directors - 'Hill Street Blues', 'Miami Vice', 'Cagney and Lacey', 'M*A*S*H',

tor. Trained at Goldsfnitns, then at LCP (re-

'LA Law', even 'Star Trek'. Back in Europe

'Celebrating Sculpture' is the Chelsea Arts Club homage to sculptors. This year, some twenty or so sculptor Members of the Club have contributed work to stage an exhibition in the Garden. Without eulogising, I would like to thank exhibiting Members for contributing work and would encourage other Members to come and enjoy the exhibition.

To publicise the Celebrating Sculpture exhibition, a poster has been designed by Celia

rector of 'The Arts Registry and

exhibitions a year. (Next one is at Fred s in

STEPHANIE McDonald - Sculptor. Bom in

Australia, living in Britain for the last 10 years.

Dear Members,

•Gdleriesfa^d'othe'f ar7j?urnals. Works

Martin Bax on the poet^ journal Amb't_ di

now, writing, tending a young vineyard in Mallorca, sailing a 36-foot sloop, supporting local painters, and directing Jilly Cooper's 'RidBRIAN CHALKLEY - Painter. Student at Chel

ANNIE OWEN, BA Graphic Design - Illustra-

members Mike Pope). Worked as a photo edi

toron magazines (BJP etc) and various agencies in London. Since having two children has begun

drawing and painting at home on the Suffolk/ Norfolk border; wrote and illustrated 10 chil

dren's books. Outside work, loves travelling,

exhibitions, opera and visiting friends. Also de velops women's cricket and is a qualified senior MCC cricket coach. Loves the game and tends

sea '70-'73, and post-graduate at the Slade '73'75. BSC Artist in Industry, 1983, John Moore's

to loiter at the Essex matches

Stothard, an award winning designer. A copy of this will be sent to all Members and

winner in 1987 and Arts Council Rome Award

should be accompanying this paper. This poster will have details of the exhibitors on the

JULIA WHATLEY - Painter, Illustrator. Stud ied Fine Art at Goldsmith's. Drew for a living

at Norwich; worked as an assistant to Pat Caulfield; now Senior lecturer at Chelsea. Not

reverse side. We have also asked Celia to issue the poster as a print, it has been printed by Brad Faine of Coriander Press in an edition of 250. Signed, numbered and embossed copies will be available in the Club at £17.50 (£2.50 of which will be donated to the Club's charity, the Chelsea Arts Trust about which more below).

in 1989. Started teaching with Ed Middleditch seen at the Club lately since he was run over by his own car (Stephen Bury knows the full story).

He's now recovering slowly and hopes to attend his one person show at the Caf6 Gallery this

until 1990. Has regularly exhibited illustrations and, more recently, paintings. Works in oil, waiercolour and pastel, pen and ink and watercolour. Presently working on a series of oils for next show. Intends to keep dying (sic) her hair red until the last trump

month and at the Slade in August

A couple of weeks ago, we welcomed a Special Guest of Honour to the Architects & Designers Dinner in the form of Nick Grimshaw. Nick made the splendid suggestion that what this country needs was a real Minister for Culture, and he did not mean a Minister for Sport; a Minister who will support a real Modem Art Gallery, rather than a lean-to attached to another museum, and a Minister who will support the realisation of a Media building which responds to the real needs of modem artists and users of communication. Nick was supported as speaker by severalexcellentspecial guests, Eva Jiricna, James Dyson, Sean Billings, from the United Aits Club in Dublin, Alan Short and Nick Butler.

The multiple portrait commission announced in the last Whistler has elicited a number of responses from Members, and a short-list will be prepared and submitted to the sponsors who will make a decision and announce the commission. This is likely to be supported by some publicity.

A wine tasting event is to be held in the Qub, probably during early July. Members who are interested in tasting please let the office know so that you can be invited. The purpose of the tasting is to see whether we have the best possible choice of House wines in the Club.

The Billiard Table debate continues and with this copy of the Whistler should be a ballot paper offering the opportunity to cast your vote as to whether Members want two Billiard tables in the Members' Bar all year round or not Smoking, almost as emotive; the no smoking rule in the Loggia seems to be working well and apart from some reprobates, the smokeless Loggia has received almost unanimous support.

Children. There have been recent complaints about children being uncontrolled in the Club and Garden. May I issue a reminder: the Rules allow for the Children of Members to be admitted to the Club. Children are NOT allowed in the Members' Bar, and are only allowed in the Whistler Room, Garden or Dining Room. Members who allow their children to annoy other Members may be asked to leave. Most members of Council believe that it is important to allow children into the Club with their parents on a limited basis, and we would not like to see children being excluded from the Club because of the behaviour of a few. Please will Members be especially vigilant during the Sculpture Exhibition throughout June. Many of the pieces are heavy, and some have sharp edges!

Recent discussions have been quite lively in Council concerning the use of the Chelsea Arts Club Trust. This, for Members who may not know, was established by the Club after the Lease fund-raising exercise about seven years ago. Shortly afterwards the Trust was formed, and has since granted awards for students graduating from some of the local Art Schools. The basis for making awards, or distributing the funds, is defined quite closely by the tenns of the Trust and in the past has included awards to graduates from Chelsea and Central Schools of Art. The suggestion has recently been made that a travelling scholarship might be made to an art student about to enter their final year of study.

Members with views might be interested to send their suggestions to the Chairman of the Arts sub committee, who will forward these to the Council and Tmstees.

To plant a seed... The AGM and Council Elections will be coming along in September so do give some thought as to who you would like to see on Council, representing your interests in the Club.

JO MILLER - Sculptor. Trained at Epsom, Wimbledon and RA. Since then has made and

exhibited work which seems to be mainly birds, mostly hybrid or loosely interpreted and with an innate sense of humour. Teaches part-time at Brunei University and at Kensington and Chelsea Adult Education College, with other occasional residencies. Married to a gorgeous boy called Gary and lives in Putney with him, a cat, fish, newts, plants and spiders. b - Painter. Bom in St Jves, Cornwall. Started to

paint seriously in 1987, self-taught and now exhibits in the South of England, including Lon don. Work is classified as modem British, NEAC

Chairman

hampton ... [FULL TEXT TOO LONG TO INCLUDE HERE. BUT AVAILABLE ON RE

QUEST - EdJ ... frequent papers on the state of sculpture, often resulting in severe audience po-

iarisation. Go and see his very large "Gateway of Hands" at Chelsea Harbour this month. Likes

cooking, eating and drinking, crossword puz zles, collecting tribal art, music and annoying the enemy. Dislikes poseurs and picky eaters STEVEN COCKRILL, BA (Hons) Mtddx. -

Sculptor. Trained at Liverpool Pol^, vLen \je-

fisherman and he's stiil the coxswain of the St

gan music and theatrical career in order to ex

Ives Lifeboat. Painting has taken over what was an ordered and sensible lifestyle

plore performance art (funded by Merseyside Arts and Arts Council). Now doing MA at the RCA in sculpture; apart from making pieces in

JOHN COOPER - Writer (for theatre, radio

various media (some bronzes are in the collec

and TV) and barrister. Credits include 'Burning Point' at the Tricycle Theatre (during which

tions of members of the Club), he's exploring

the theatre burned down); 'The Cure' at the Royal Court; a BBC Screen Two film, 'The Law Lord'. Appears in front of the camera for Chan nel 4's 'Street Legal', and behind the micro

sculpture. Interests beyond art include classical and contemporary music and food - he is rather a good cook

phone for BBCRadio. Has also been represenl-

use of computers in the visual arts, in particular

mg British employees in the BCCI litigation, and is currently preparing proceedings resulting from the death of showjumper 'Sir Arkay' at Wembley. Likes photography, soccer and swim ming

MO FARQUHARSON - Sculptor. Bom Aberdeenshire, studied at Ruskin, Oxford, (to paint, but switched to sculpture and a new marriage) then a year at Massachusetts College, Boston.

Work is mainly figurative and mainly cast in bronze: birds, animals, fish, human figures. Also does reliefs and drawings, varying in size from

JENNIFER CROXTON - Actress. Bom in

lifesize to a few inches. Heroes In art include Henri Gaudier-Brzeska and Piero della Francesca.

Cambridge and trained in London. Started out in TV, including 'The Avengers', 'I, Claudius', then due to unforeseen circumstances dropped ogy, and now has a column and an 0891 number

Likes to run wild in the countryside especially in real weather, ie wind, lashing rain etc.; has recently, and alarmingly, just discovered Africa.

Also keen on theatre, jazz and playing piano

in the TV Times and others - delivered in a

(badly)

out of the business for a while. Learned astrol

cosmically husky (or huskily cosmic ) voice.

Went back to first love, acting, to do 'Two Point Four Children', 'The Upper Hand' and

'The Mixer'. Collects art, loves music, opera, ballet, films, and not much exercise. May take hold of your hand unexpectedly and read your lifeline

EDITH ROBERTSON - Framing consultant.

Joined the Framing Department of the RA di

rectly after graduating in Art History and has been there for five years. Main interests lie in

. LESLIE ANNE HUTCHINGS, BA (Hons) Illustrator. Works freelance producing 3D relief and 2D pieces using paint, inks, vamish and

collage in layers. The work is atmospheric and often emotional. Recently produced a series of

Images based on and accompanying the play 'The Dark Room' by Crowbar Theatre as part

of "Mayhem" in The Brighton Arts Festival.

Aspired by watching other artists at work; loves

interacting with people from the Arts gener

ally; also loves jazz, eating out and travel - still

art. but is also an avid film- and theatre-goer

reeling from India

JOHN DUNTHORNE - Architect who's lived

GUY LUBBOCK- Industrial designer. Trained New Yorksetting in the early 80s,• then backWorked to UK,ineventually up own practice. Builds and sometimes designs models and prototypes (in metal, plastic, wood

and worked in London for 20 years. A cricket-

lover, captain of Lord Gnome's (Private Eye)

Cricket Club for the last two seasons; a keen golfer and fanatical Alpine skier. He collects

etchings by Norman Ackroyd and tends a profu sion of bamboos and camelias in his garden in Wandsworth. In his spare time he runs Dunthome

Parker, Architects and Designers based at Mar RICHARD DYER - Artist, Art critic, Curator

HUGH GILBERT

sometimes cast in bronze. Trained at Wolver-

style. Most of adult life has been spent as a

ble Arch

May I wish all Members a warm and happy Summer...

GLYNN WILLIAMS - Sculptor. Professor of Sculpture at the RCA; after abandoning mod ernism in 1979 he now works on figurative stone carvings, cut about and reassembled and

and Poet. Principally a painter he has recently moved into mixed media using resin, perspex, cold cast bronze, text and stereoscopic images to create iconic constructions which comment

THE WHISTLER 12

and moulded materials) of just about anvihine eg; anaesthetic trolleys to beer coolers! hairdryers, hatstands and handkerchiefs likes

toturn people's weirdest ideas into reality.' Needs

to improve at snooker, and would be interested

to talk to anybody about motorcycle trail-rid ing.

STRANG, Dip A Desisn CHonQt

^ SinceWimlledon '^870. Camberwell '70-'73. then has painted

full time. Exhibitions include RA, Cork Street, Mall Galleries, and many in the West Country Newlyn Gallery and Penwith Society. StIves. Sooii to be published by Medici. Last of the Romantics!

- "a painting is but a prayer - a commission with

t^ very essence of life. And sometimes ananswer rises from unfathomable depths, a voice of silence woven into the pigments"

BROOp: STANFORD - Sculptor and decora-

ing part-time at Ravensboume. Now established at

years - was (until the sad loss a month ago) assist-

the RCA since 1980; managed to survive Jocelyn Stevens' stormy rectorship. Lives in Herts, and maintains a design studio there. Enjoys music, sketching, English history, nature, travelling, rugby, partying and water-skiing

nve artist. Tramed as architect but has been workmg on sculpture and decorative art for a number of Mt to Danie Elizabeth Frink on a 14ft bronze

Chnst' which was unveiled on Easter Sunday at Liverpool's Anglican Cathedral. Now working on two bronze panels for the Cathedral's faynde

MONICA EPSTEIN, MA (RCA), Dip Ceramics Tapestry-maker and painter. Trained at Baling, Wimbledon, RCA, with a research sabbatical at

Goldsmiths. Obsessed with landscapes which are "painted" with yams she dyes herself: wool, silk,

DAVID STEWART-SMITH - Photographer.

Iramed at Medway College of Design. Freelances for all the British weekly and Sunday broadsheets also watch forhisby-line inTime-Life, Newsweek,

SUSAN YOUNG - Jewellery Designer. Also spe

cialises in the repair and restoration of antique

jewellery. Enjoys life to the full: married to soci ety photographer and has three children; loves travelling, eating out and dancing; fmds time to

cook and give fancy-dress parties, visit museums,

cotton, jute and flax. Several solo shows in Lon

die 4, 50*s Rock'n' Roll, Mozart or opera. Dis placement activities include sunshine, antiques,

the sea, the pub, book shops, dog-walking, friends, gardening, France, food, crosswords, and now the CAC

JOHN DAVIES - Sculptor. Cheshire-bom, stud

ied painting at Hull and Manchester, with two

years at the Slade, then a sculpture fellowship at Gloucester. Shown solo at many galleries in Lon

don, Hull,Hamburg, Norwich, Gloucestershire and New York; in many group shows andpubliccollec tions around Europe and the world, including To

kyo and New Delhi. Lives in Faversham and will visit the Club more now his latest show (of figures

don and Denver, mixed exhibitions in London, Colchester, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Plymouth and USA, with commissions for the likes of the BMA, British Airports Authority, ICI, and the Malaysian Royal Faniily. Loves good conversation, doesn't

and heads in bronze and epoxy resin at Marlborough Fine Art) has just fmished MARCUS LYON, BA (Hons) - Photographer.

Educated at WellingtonCollege and Leeds univer

suffer fools, and is very happy, though supersti

sity, graduating in Political Science. Eight exWbitions in the last 3 years; last one at the National

tious. Married to husband and work

Theatre last June as part of Arts Council's 'Image 90' project. B&H Gold award winner 1992. Pro

TIM MAPSTON - Designer. Stopped exhibiting

as a "Fme Artist" 15 years ago having enjoyM

fessions/commercial work mainly in design and

considerable international success. Moved into

advertising and mostly portraits and landscapes clients include Morgan Grenfell, Booker, Emerson Electric, Amnesty International and International

applied arts to wield his pencil in the cause of

design for telly ads. Single parent with a large family so interests tend to be domestically based.

Children's Trust

Now branching out into quilt design, also art-based

furniture and accessories, to bep^uced this sum-

KATE SHEA - Designer. Educated inAustralia, set off to see the world, ran out of money in Paris,

limped to London 25 years ago. Started a silver businessabout 17 years agoandfound that her own designs sold best. Started making the masters, then took a wax sculpture and silver course at Sir John Cass. designing and sculpting in clay as a passion ate hobby. Now produces many commissions: lamp-bases, candlesticks, clocks, and makes mas ters in glass, silver,and clay. Also dabbles in other

LAWRENCE BROUGH - Printer. For the past 10 years has worked with Bernard Stone and the

'Steam Press'. For the past 5 years has published under his own flag, 'The Water Press', two books

of "Art" photography and French contemporary poetry. At present setting himself up as a printmaker in deepest Kent while still working as a commercial printer in London. Married with two grown-up children and now has a granddaughter.

Social interests are too many to list but fme wine and classical music would figure high on it

meialwork and furniture

The New York Times and other more sensible

examples of the international press. His work

takes him to many of the world's hotter spots: JACK SMITH - Abstract painter. Sheffield-bom,

Afghanistan, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Austria,

art galleries and go "andquing" down Portobello Road, but not to do more sport. Falls asleep while reading due to exhaustion. Despite this she insists

she has time on her hands to enjoy the Club

trained there and also at St Martin's and the RCA.

Burma, Sudan, Ethiopia, Somalia, Bosnia to name

Solo exhibitions span the decades, from Beaux

but ten

RUTH BROWN (ne6 ANTONSEN) - Writerand

JOHN WOOD, FCSD, FRSA - Designer. Special ises in industrial and furniture design for manufac ture. Began art training at age 13 at Moseley Junior School of Art, then Birmingham College.

Joined an engineering company in the Black Coun try and eventually set up Ws own firm, also teach-

illustrator. Tall, slim, sophisdcated and prone to making things up. Trained at Bournemouth, Bir mingham and the RCA, now lives and works with illustrator husband Ken Brown in Bath. Averages two books a year, one sole project and one illus trating someone else's text. Writing is done in complete silence; painting is accompanied by Ra-

Arts in '50s to Flowers East in '90s, and the world, from the UK to Brisbane. John Moore's and

Guggenheim International prizewiimer, and his work is in many public collections in Britain, Europe, America and Australia. Has dabbled in set design, too. for Ballet Rambert and the Royal Ballet.

up beaches in polythene, sculptors filled dou ble-decker buses with pigs heads and people were followed around by the camera for no other reason than they might prove interest

MBDIA RBPORT ROSIE MILLARD

The Arts: still carefully boxed for mass appeal?

ing. With no presenter to mediate between the artists and a (probably) fairly bemused public, it was about as different from the celebrity-led '01' as you can get.

Yet both stood as local arts programmes; in the case of 'On The Edge*, its maverick style won over viewers from the 'Jonathan Ross Show*, broadcast simultaneously on Channel 4, and was awarded a Bronze Medal at the New York Film and TV Awards. Yet

IT'S JUST 6 months since the new-look Channel 3 burst onto our

would it attract those in the region who are happier watching, say, the 'Antiques

TV screens after the 1992franchise award debacle. Many viewers

Roadshow'? The artists themselves are also

hardly notice the difference, which may be thanks to the safeguards hurriedly built in to reassure those whofeared a ratings war and a diet ofsoaps and game-shows. ROSIE MILLARD reports on what it's meantfor the companies to keep their noses over the "Quality

sometimes in an uneasy position; the local arts

Threshold"

TVS arts show 'The Ticket', will almost cer

A WEEKLY round-up of arts and entertain

dailies (the news, for example), do not. Should

ment on the box has been somewhat of an ITV

you cover the Xmas pantomimeand an inter

speciality; from Mentorn Films '01' for

view with Kylie? Or go for the little-known

Thames TV in London, to Granada's 'The

mime production taking place on one night only at an industrialdocklands warehouse?

New* in Manchester and Lancashire, most ITV

broadcasters feel it is part of their remit to provide viewers with a regular up date of culture.

In last year's franchise round, arts magazine shows were very much part of the bidding proc ess; Meridian, who took

show is not the 'South Bank Show', but nei

ther is it the local news, who invariably need only 30 seconds of basic coverage, if at all.

The artist or performer profiled by Anglia's 'Wide Angle', for example, or the former

The dialectic between

When it works, the local arts show can benefit a

great number of people; introducing the viewer to interesting, new

being overly educational, or merely acting as a mir ror to the arts centres, is one between which re

gional arts programmes constantly vary. 'On The Edge', a local arts pro gramme from Tyne Tees which was broadcast between 1988 and 1990,

productions and ideas...

over from TVS, arecurrently transmitting 'The Pier', their offering for the South and South was produced with little or no concern for East ofEngland which started inJanuary. But celebrity, mainstream or establishment arts. the weekly arts programme raises some inter Shot entirely on location in the Tyneside re

esting questions which most other regional

gion, unknown performance artists wrapped

tainly not achieve world-wide fame from a three-minute slot, but, as Tom Gutteridge, ex ecutive producer of '01*, pointed out, the cov erage gets bums on seats with extraordinary ease. When it works, the local arts show can

benefit a great number of people; introducing the viewer to interesting, new productions and ideas; making the artist feel involved with the region; helping sell tickets and boost local au dience attendances - clearly fitting within the public service ethos. The only surprise is that the BBC does not insist all their regional broad casters follow ITV's lead.

•

ROSE MILLARD is a reporter on Meridi an's 'The Pier'. She has workedfor a number of arts programmes, including LWTs Arts Festival, Granada's 'Celebration' and Tyne Tees' 'On The Edge'. She also writes for the arts pages of several national newspapers.

THE WHISTLER 13

ULLA TURNER - Painter. Bom and educated in

Aalborg, Denmark. Employed as translator, then moved to Yorkshire where she has lived for the

past 20 years with husband and daughter. Work has included modelling, PR, fashion design and photography, but now devoted to painting and derives much inspiration from the people she's encountered during extensive travelling. Painting heroes are da Vinci, C4zanne and Matisse, Other

interests include most music, walking, swimming and keeping fit, contemporary literature and good company.

Edited by Bill Bingham

ROWING ALLISTER BOWTELL

REPORTS players and routed us all,

CHESS BARRY MARTIN

Queens' Defence

with modesty, and accompanied by a disarming diplomacy. I know I send a heartfelt thanks from us all

for such an engaging evening.

Two further simultaneous matches are in

THE CHESS season finished

team, since ten minute chess

with our team placed fourth in the Hamilton-Russell cup.

We played seven matches,

in a cut and thrust

atmosphere is no place for the faint-hearted. The team

won with six wins and only

was; David Cohen, Joe Coles, Mike Radcliffe, Barry Martin and Barry

one draw. The consolation

Miller, reserve.

to us was that we were the

The club championship is going well with David Cohen looking hot with seven straight wins and no draws so far. (No losses for that matter either!)

Jon Speelman GM came and gave a simultan eous match against our

won four, drew one and lost two, The Athenaeum Club

club that drew with them!

Well done to our team.

We also finished fourth

in the Speed-Chess tournament held on the 6th

May at the Athenaeum. The final positions can be seen below. Again, well done the ll

the offing: on June 3rd, 6.30pm in the Loggia we play against Julian Hodgeson GM, the current

British champion; and on July 8th (at the same time and place) against Daniel King GM. All are welcome to these

events . Whether you are strong or weak as players the evening has terrific entertainment value and you will meet new friends (you will also improve your chess!). •

A

SWET k WINDY? row at 9 o'clock on Saturday

at Vesta Rowing Club on

Allister Bowtell had a

Putney Embankment in IVs, pairs and sculls. We are coxed eagerly by Catherine

damaged phrenic nerve,

Shakespeare Lane.

Andrew Drummond went

with an 'elite' Vesta IV and

All rowing blues, internationals and Olympic medallists who have got plump and grey do join us

running and David Brockhurst's back! or back,

but not rowing, so we joined rowed as C.A.C/Vesta VIII

for the beer - and the

equalling last years time but with 101 entries this year we disported ourselves

company is splendid. We will be looking for strong

admirably.

Copious quantities of beer

at as well. The other

were taken afterwards.

shown below:

novices that we can grumble

proposed fixtures are as

May 1st May 15th

Head of the Dartmouth

June 12th

Barnes & Mortlake

July 17th

Mosley rV Head Putney

Nov 6th

n

Despite the wounded we have a regular coterie who

SICKNESS BEFELL our

crew {scurvy? ED) for this years Veteran VIlIs Head.

Michael Messenger damaged a leg (playing snooker we supposed).

Putney Town

^1

1

CHESS TOURNAMENT RESULTS

club

Score

Wins

SNOOKER MICHAEL MESSENGER

Points

1. Alhenaeum

23'/2

6

12

2. Oxford & Combs

17

5

10

3. RAG!

16

3'A

7

4. Chelsea Arts

II

3

6

5. RAC II

1272

2^/2

5

6. Huriingfiom

4

1

2

7. Brooks

3

0

0

•

f

s

v.

CUE TIES

BELOW: Grouping before the Simultaneous Match with Jonathan Speelman GM. From the left (bottom) Ben Hooberman, Barry Miller, Brad Faine. (middle row) Phyllis King, Mike Radcliffe, Joe Coles (back row) guest, Barry Martin, Jon Speelman, David Cohen.

RIGHT: Jon Speelman GM, blacksmith-like, hammers the opposition on the anvil.

1

THE MATCH away against the RAC Country Club was postponed due to the far and flung travels of our teamsters - there's nothing parochial about the Chelsea Arts Club.

Mike Stuart organised a worthy evening

of Cotelio's guest appearance. However, Peter Bainbridge, their new captain is now also a member of Chelsea Arts

Club -1 shall subpoena him next time. I also saw him at the draw for the next Hine

Cognac Tournament. We

entertainment in a fust

have the best half of the

fixture against the Winchester House Club\ a

draw and will be playing

select band of vertebrate

inebriates (or is it invertibrate ebriates?) who have a lovely building with lawn overlooking the river by Putney Bridge - and 4 tables.

Brooks's here on June 8.

The future of the end

table being dismantled for 6

winter months of each year is now at hand - this fate to

be decided by referendum.

We must not let the 85%

Their hospitality was

vote in our favour of 7 years

excellent, our snooker wasn't but we won in the end and look forward to

ago be overturned. More

unbridled ball play when they come here shortly.

The RAC at Pall Mall

drubbed us again 9-3 in spite

members and guests than ever before use the tables, and yet the overall

membership number has remained the same. Please make sure you vote. •

Nextissue deadline: August 15th THE

WHISTLER 14

COUNCIL NOTES MICHAEL MESSENGER Asummary ofcouncildebates, decisions,

WORDS ADRIAN MITCHELL

after guests.

The motorcycle which amountedto the pro ceeds of the last Albert Hall Ball raised ÂŁ5,000,

delirium...

SOMETHING ISbeing done about the aircon trol in the dining room and shortly inthe billiard

the subdivision of which is under discussion.

And, of course, as befits the nature of the discussion there will be a referendum to decide if

room. These efforts are not helped by trouble getting permission to site units on various roof

A FLYING SONG

the Chairman's proposal to dismantle one

spaces. Somethingisbeing done about the general snooker table for 6 winter months of each year lighting atmosphere. Next are the ceiling lights in should be implemented. the billiard room.

And a bountiful selection of summer enter

It's strange how many members don't read

tainments; parties, wine tastings, dinners and concertshavebeenadvanced forproduction, ole!

the little book ofrules, particularly about looking

Last night I saw the sword Excalibur

It flew above the cloudy palaces And as it passed I clearly read the words

Important New Appointment AS YOU can no doubt see from this edition of

Which were engraven on its blade And one side of the sword said Take Me

The other side said Cast Me Away

Tbe editor wishes to welcome Ian McKay

the Club's newspaper, the Whistler is finaUy

to the Club and to the Whistler editorial team.

getting into gear. This is largely due to the generosity of our sponsor Crowley Colosso,

Someof you mayhave read andenjoyed his art

I met my lover in a field of thorns We walked together in the April air And when we lay down by the waterside My lover whispered in my ear The first thing that she said was Take Me The last thing that she said was Cast Me Away

criticism and features in a varietyof wellknown publications(such as Independent) already.

The Chairman has granted McKay

the leading line art insurers. More information

about this generous company initiative will be available in the next issue.

'temporary member' status for the duration of

In a more rational moment, the editorial

his appointmentand you should bemeeting him

committee of the Whistler agreed to appoint a

at the Bar in due course. Please note; he is not on

'roving reporter' whose brief would be to react and pursue issues raised by the readership that it wasfelt needed particular attention.

After due consideration, the editorial panel wisely decided that an outsider (not an existing member) with some proven writing skills would bea suitably independent voice. In the maelstrom qf Club politicks and intrigues, a stand alone figure would be essential if the reporting was to have any degree of authority and integrity.

Newsofthe Worldstyle 'expenses' soyoucarmot touch him up for a few free drinks!

Seriously, Ian McKay's briefisto beavailable

I saw a vision of my mother and father They were sitting smiling under summer trees They offered me the gift of life I took this present very carefully And one side of my life said Take Me The other side said Cast Me Away

to follow stories in detail that Members think

need airing or otherwise given serious attention.

He can be contacted via the Editor's box in the

office. And although the Whistler is happy to begin reviewing Member's exhibitions, please note that there is no guarantee of a good review, just a fair and honest one I Mike von Joel

for Caitlin Georgia Isabel Stubbs April 18th, 1993

COMMENT DUDLEY WINTERBOTTOM

News From the Broom Cupboard Dear Members,

AFTER FIVE years of extraordinary change, which you take for granted, where do we go now? Where do I go now?

Fifteen years ago I came to the Club to serve at table. Now if I pick up a plate, the victim leaps to the conclusion that the Club is bankrupt if it's reduced to having me as its waiter. Instead I am barely tolerated in the office, and more or less told to stay at home. I have become a bureaucrat without a bureau.

Like all bureaucrats with a Board to whom

they are answerable, my instinctive response

to anything out of the norm which might get me into trouble is that 'it' can't be done. If

then asked how much can be done, I reply, as

one electricity Board official did when asked how much power he could legally supply to our trigger happy system, "the maximum is

At the same time we installed the first of

several air-cleaning units after two years of faffing around, an automatic watering system for the garden and a new computer - not to replace this one I hasten to add - in case its listening in on this conversation with you.

Long may it last, though please not quite at this pace. I wrote my first draft with a wooden pencil for, subject to the whims of the auditors, we do seem to have come through the recession more or less unscathed. Members

may assume - I hope they do - that this was effortless. But it has been a year of alarums... unbudgeted, unavoidable, increases in over heads. Serious anticipated shortfalls in sub

sickness in the middle of the year. And in the

I doubt that I shall be allowed to Rest in

Peace. Everybody pays lip-serviceto keeping things as theyare or, better still, as they were.

But this nimbyism stops at their own mental front door. Within, intelligence or boredom

Our (and really Jane Lushington's) new gar den, new floors, new air cleaning units, new fridges, new telephones, evenour newcompu

ensures a stream of ideas for keeping me, and

ourexcellent, unobtrusive and unchanging staff,

ter should see us through the next year. But I

cannot help but see the effects of the UK's

busy.

economic decline on our Members, and fore see the obstacles that lie ahead for us as the

In consequence, only one Member ofthe Club has complained about an otherwise unnoticed

geriatric enfeebled giants of this world suc

milestone in the life of the Club. May 1993 was thefirst month in which we had a Club function

every single week. Kate Canning, Hugh Gilbert, someone who has probably wisely disappeared and Jane Lushington and/or Barry Martin dreamt up an Animation Dinner, a Designers &Archi tects Dinner; a Dinner for some Singers from Yale; and aSculptors' Dinner.

RON'S LAMENT

scription income which didn't materialize.Half empty bedrooms for half the year until we installed tea bags and telephones. A plague of final quarter, the dining room slipping those few, unprecedented, percentagepointsin busi ness which took it from surplus to near deficit.

the minimum".

WORDS 'OCR RON

cumb to their more vital successors.

Ne<vness, and a surfeit of functions, will not

help usthere. What matters are the Members, and their enthusiasms. And they are always

changing. Plus c'est la mime chose, plus ga change. That's what will keep usalive inthe

years to come, despite the whinging ofyour chiefeunuch...

â&#x20AC;˘

THE WHISTLER 15

Thecloakroom, thesmall room,is breaking my heart.

The people who use it are not very smart.

Coats on the left when it should be the right God! it's bumtin mybrainlikea flame in thenight.

The thought of that roomis driving me mad Coats to the left or is it the right?

Oh God! What a terrible night.

There must come a day, or maybe a night, When to my dismay not a coat is in sight.

When this day comes I'll know I'm in bed, I'm just lying there, definitely dead.

fTl"

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