Robin Tanner and the Child Art Movement
According to Tanner, one of Barron’s greatest interests was education: …her influence was strongest with teachers in primary and secondary schools and in colleges of education. 3 The encounter was to lead to a long friendship with Phyllis Barron who left a large body of their work to Tanner on her death in 1964. Little documentary evidence can be found to support the idea of personal contact between Tanner, Richardson and Barron and Larcher. However, the inclusion of a piece of fabric by the latter together with a note from Barron written in the early days of her practice at Hampstead, London (1923–30) in the Richardson acquisition, hints at shared conversations. The freshness of vision in Barron and Larcher’s work would have appealed to Richardson and Tanner alike. Jean Vacher
December 2011
1
D ouble Harness: An autobiography by Robin Tanner, Tanner, R., Impact Books, London, 1987.
2
P hyllis Barron, 1890 –1964 and Dorothy Larcher, 1884 –1952, as I knew them, Bath Festival, Tanner, R., unpublished notes, CSC archives RHT/10/9/3/1.
3
I bid.
Right: two fabric samples from exhibit number 57
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Crafts Study Centre: Exhibition Handlist