AUTUMN 2020 ISSUE 130
CONTENTS LETTER FROM THE CHAIR 3
EVENTS AND EXHIBITIONS 4-7 NEWS ART AT THE LITERATURE FESTIVAL 8 CHELTENHAM TRUST UPDATE 9
WHERE TO VISIT HORSHAM MUSEUM & ART GALLERY 10-11 FAVOURITE WORKS OF ART JEAN BY JOHN RANDALL BRATBY 12-13 EXPLORING EDWARD ARMITAGE 14-15 REVIEWS SISTERHOOD 16 COLOUR-WAYS 17 CHELTENHAM DURING LOCKDOWN 18 VE DAY IN CHELTENHAM 19 VIEWING ART ONLINE 20 FROM THE ARCHIVES: NEWSLETTER NUMBER 100 21 CONTACTS 22 DEADLINE 23
Dear Friends I hope you will agree that this Newsletter offers you much to look forward to, even though The Wilson itself is unlikely to open before the end of November at the earliest. If you were able to attend our virtual AGM on 21 July you will have heard me outline the Cheltenham Trust’s plans to use the remaining time that museum staff are on furlough for two ambitious new developments. With the help of a significant legacy bequest from the Charles Irving Charitable Trust work will start both on creating a new fully fitted, soundproofed community gallery on the mezzanine floor and on reconfiguring the entrance and foyer areas to establish a new and enlarged Arts Café and shop. Impatient though we may be to see The Wilson open again, these important developments will be worth waiting for and will address some of the short-term objectives of last year’s Feasibility Study: making better use of the museum and gallery’s existing space to exhibit more of The Wilson’s collections, improving the visitor experience by transforming the entrance and foyer areas, and improving the retail outlets to generate greater income. As I explained in my Chair’s Report to the AGM (you can read it by visiting the Friends’ website and clicking on the AGM 2020 link on the Home page) The Friends are committed to working in partnership with the Cheltenham Trust to ensure that The Wilson will be able to open with a strong programme of exhibitions, displays and special events during 2021. Meanwhile, you will find in the following pages details of our Autumn programme of virtual talks and also of our first rescheduled outing of 2021, to Hereford Cathedral. You’ll also see reviews of two of The Wilson’s virtual exhibitions which well deserve a visit: Sisterhood and Colour-ways. These are written by Charlotte Colenutt, a graduate of the University of Gloucestershire’s Photojournalism and Documentary Photography degree. Charlotte has been responsible for transforming our Newsletter into a fully-accessible online journal and we are very grateful to her for her ongoing support and enthusiasm. You can see further examples of Charlotte’s work elsewhere in this Newsletter where her photographs of the VE-Day 75 Anniversary celebrations and of Cheltenham under lockdown memorably document this unique period in the history of our town and of our own lives. There are plans to present an exhibition about Cheltenham in the year 2020 in the new Charles Irving Community Gallery when The Wilson reopens. If any of you have photographs, objects or any documentary material that you think might be suitable for such an exhibition, please do get in touch. Diversity and inclusivity are words we hear often these days – some might say too often – but the role of a Community Gallery is precisely to offer the community to which it belongs opportunities for us to see ourselves in different lights and to celebrate what we have in common. With my best wishes, and I hope that we shall all be able to meet again in our newly refurbished art gallery and museum before too long.
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EVENTS AND EXHIBITIONS Clearly, Covid-19 has had a massive impact on our planned programme of events but we are determined to return to normal as soon as it is safe to do so. Some events have been rescheduled whilst others are in the process of being rescheduled. We also have some new online events for you to enjoy.
THE BP PORTRAIT AWARD 2020 A talk and discussion presented by Adrian Barlow, Chair of the Friends of The Wilson 14/10/2020 10:30am
ARTS & CRAFTS MOVEMENT FIRST WORLD WAR MEMORIALS IN GLOUCESTERSHIRE 16/11/2020 10:30am
Portraits are always popular, and often controversial. For the past thirty years the BP Portrait Award exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery has been one of the most visited annual shows in London. This year, inevitably, it has been replaced by an online exhibition of 43 portraits chosen by the judges from nearly 2,000 entries by artists of 69 countries.
Gloucestershire has an unusual concentration of war memorials by Arts and Crafts Movement designers, ranging from memorial crosses, stained glass windows and more practical memorials like water troughs. Discover the stories, the trials and the tribulations of commemorating the war dead with works by designers such as Ernest Gimson, Sidney Barnsley, F L Griggs and Alexander Fisher. Kirsty Hartsiotis is Producer of Decorative and Fine Art at The Wilson, where she has worked for the past twelve years, working mainly with the Designated Arts and Crafts Movement collection. She was the curator of the Ernest Gimson exhibition in late 2019. She became fascinated by the memorials of Gloucestershire when researching the 2018 Open Archive display and has been travelling the county recording the monuments and discovering their stories.
You can view the exhibition here: www.npg.org.uk/whatson/bp-portraitaward-2020/exhibition/ The 2020 prize winners have already been announced and you can see them for yourselves on the website. Would they have been your choice? Which would have been your top three? Our own virtual discussion of the portraits and artists in the exhibition will begin with your choices, which you’ll be asked to nominate before the meeting. The discussion will then widen out to share ideas both about what we look for in a portrait and about how portraits and portraiture have changed over the years. Venue: online COST PER PERSON: £5 To take part in this discussion, please complete the online booking form (or the booking form in the hard-copy version of this Newsletter) and include your email address to ensure you receive a Zoom invitation. 4
Venue: online. COST PER PERSON: £5 To take part in this event please complete the online booking form (or the booking form in the hard-copy version of this Newsletter) and include your email address to ensure you receive a Zoom invitation.
A NEW LOOK AT THE NATIVITY 9/12/2020 10:30am
MULLED WINE, MINCE PIES & MINIATURES OPEN STUDIO EVENT
This illustrated online lecture, presented by Adrian Barlow, will look at ways in which artists have presented images of the birth and childhood of Christ – from the Annunciation and Visitation to the Flight into Egypt and the Presentation in the Temple. Medieval illustrations both in stained glass and in illuminated Books of Hours have become increasingly familiar from being reproduced on Christmas cards, but twentieth century and more recent interpretations are much less well known.
Lockdown has been a busy time for me, not only finishing a large commission that was despatched in late March, arriving in Perth, Western Australia, two weeks later as freight flights were still happening, but also preparing for my exhibition at Trinity House Modern in Broadway which opened towards the end of July. We debated whether we should go ahead with it in this era of the Covid-19 pandemic but decided that, since the gallery had successfully auctioned one of my paintings for the NHS Together Covid-19 emergency fund and had sold a couple of works during lockdown, life and art must continue albeit in a slightly different form. It proved to be the right decision as half the works had already sold by the time the exhibition opened.
Drawing on images from stained glass, painting and woodcarving, and by artists from Giotto to PJ Crook, this talk will aim to cast a new light on a very traditional seasonal subject. There will be plenty of opportunities for audience members to contribute to the discussion and those taking part in this Zoom event are invited to nominate in advance particular Nativity images they would like to see included and discussed in the lecture. Venue: online COST PER PERSON: £5 To take part in this event, as audience and/ or as contributor, please complete the online booking form (or the booking form in the hard-copy version of this Newsletter) and include your email address to ensure you receive a Zoom invitation. If you wish to nominate a particular image or images, please send your suggestion, not later than 31/10 to adrianbarlow16@gmail.com.
Which in turn confirmed my decision to continue with my annual charity Mulled Wine, Mince Pies & Miniatures Open Studio this year. It will be both online and in the studio and adjoining garden, perhaps with people registering a time they would like to come to avoid overcrowding. Further details will be published on the website www.pjcrook.com from the last week of November in order to take account of the situation then. But the images of the miniatures will start appearing online from 18:00 on 1 December. As usual, the proceeds will benefit The Friends of The Wilson, The National Star College for severely disabled students, and LINC the leukaemia & intensive chemotherapy fund. “Ars Longa, Vita Brevis”. PJ Crook
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HEREFORD CATHEDRAL 29/1/2021 A joint outing with the Friends of Gloucester Cathedral, led by Adrian Barlow and Martha Alleguen Simon Jenkins describes Hereford as ‘a cathedral of all-sorts’. Like all the ancient British Cathedrals, it tells a story of building and rebuilding; of fires, collapsing towers; of ‘restoration’ that would later be admired for its audacity or denounced as wanton vandalism. Like its Three Choirs neighbour on the River Severn, its riverside position gives it a picturesque appeal, but as a building it is less assertive than either Worcester or Gloucester. This understated appearance, however, belies Hereford’s importance and its fascination for the visitor. Architecturally full of interest and surprises, among its treasures it contains one that is justly world famous, the Mappa Mundi (c.1300), now housed, along with the very fine chained library, in an effective modern building (1996) near the Cathedral’s south west corner. In fact, the last twenty-five years have seen a remarkable resurgence at Hereford, which now houses some of the most striking examples of contemporary cathedral art and decoration anywhere in Britain. These include the restored shrine of Bishop Thomas Cantiloupe, the great Corona hovering above the nave altar and two of Tom Denny’s finest – and unexpectedly intimate – windows, created in 2007 to celebrate Thomas Traherne, Hereford's great mystical writer of the 17th century, and indeed the cathedral and city too. Our visit to Hereford will consist of three guided tours: (1) the history and architecture of the Cathedral, led by Cathedral Guides. (2) the stained glass from the 14th century, led by Adrian Barlow and (3) the Mappa Mundi and Chained Library, led by Rosemary Firman and Becky Phillips, the Hereford and Gloucester Cathedral Librarians. 6
There will be ample free time to explore the cathedral’s Close and to have lunch either in the Cloister Café or in one of the several cafés located nearby (or bring your own picnic). Like all old cathedrals, Hereford has some uneven floors and steps but everywhere is wheelchair accessible. (For full details see www.herefordcathedral.org/ accessibility.) COST PER PERSON: £35.00 including all admission and tour costs. Pick-up points: 8.45am Six Ways (Charlton Kings), 9.00 Royal Well (Cheltenham), 9.10 Westall Green (Tivoli), 9.30 Westgate Car Park (Gloucester). Arrive at Hereford Cathedral approx. 10.30am. Departure from Hereford 4pm. To book: please book online via our website or by using the form at the centre of this newsletter. Please note: booking for this outing will open on Thursday 15th October.
Compton Verney's doors re-opened!
ARTHUR CAMERON: A "REFORMED COCKNEY IN ARCADIA"? 22/2/2021 10:30am Arthur Cameron was one of the liveliest craftsmen working for C R Ashbee’s Guild of Handicraft in London’s East End and was briefly expelled for bad language by his fellow Guildsmen. Although he started with the Guild as an office boy, he became a talented craft metalworker – the museum has a fine charger designed and made by him – and thrived following the Guild’s move to Chipping Campden. His story however doesn’t end there. Disaster struck following the collapse of the Guild, providing a reality check for the ambitions of the Arts and Crafts Movement. Mary Greensted is a trustee of the Guild of Handicraft Trust and has been working on the archives at Court Barn in Chipping Campden as part of the museum’s HLFfunded Refresh project. Location: The Wilson Coffee from 10:30 Speaker: 11:00-12:00 COST PER PERSON: £10
Although, our own Friends` visit to Compton Verney this summer has had to be postponed, the galleries and grounds are once again open and the acclaimed Cranach exhibition is to be extended to early 2021. For those members wishing to visit independently, the galleries have developed a new socially distanced model to ensure the safety of visitors and staff. Pre-book your tickets online via their website, comptonverney.org.uk/online-shop/ to see the critically acclaimed exhibitions Cranach: Artist and Innovator and Fabric: Touch and Identity and permanent collections.
Friends Events Being Rescheduled Details will be communicated via our website, future newsletters and/or monthly group emails. Talks: - Arts and Crafts, Folk Song and Dance by Martin Graebe - The Architecture and Planning of LateGeorgian Spa Towns by Dr Geoffrey Tyack - The Bright Young Things in Fiction and Verse by Adrian Barlow Trips: Shrewsbury Highnam Bristol, City of Art and History Compton Verney
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NEWS ART AT THE LITERATURE FESTIVAL
Thursday 8 October 3pm Ravenna: Capital of Empire, Crucible of Europe The Cheltenham Literature Festival goes Home to one of the world’s most dazzling ahead this year (2 to 11 October) in a modified form. The Festival will present 100 collections of exquisite mosaics, Ravenna was once the epicentre of the Western live-streamed events (free on Roman Empire. Accompanied by a series of www.cheltenhamfestivals.com/literature) specially commissioned photographs, Judith with a socially-distanced live audience (government guidance permitting) Herrin brings the early Middle Ages to life in Cheltenham Town Hall and the Everyman through the story of this spectacular city. Theatre. Sunday 11 October 2pm The Female Gaze As usual, there is plenty of interest to art Determined by age-old power dynamics, lovers. artistic practice has long been shaped by the Tuesday 6 October 2pm male artist’s world view. Editor-at-Large for Whose History? Elephant Magazine and presenter of Dior’s Professor of History Olivette Otele and art Female Gaze podcast series Charlotte historian, curator and broadcaster Aindrea Jansen (Girl on Girl) and artist, lecturer and Emelife consider how western institutions Big Art Herstory Project founder Luisa-Maria can tackle uncomfortable truths of the past MacCormack consider the powerful potential to ensure more inclusive accounts of of the female gaze to portray the full historical reality. spectrum of women’s lives and challenge preconceived notions of gender, beauty, Wednesday 7 October 1pm class and race. Raphael: Prince of Painters A painter, draughtsman, architect and poet, On The Digital Hub in a brief career spanning just two decades, Charlie Mackesy Raphael shaped the course of Western Artist Charlie Mackesy, author of The Boy, culture like few artists before or since. In The Mole, The Fox and The Horse has been this illustrated event, Matthias Wivel, Curator a cartoonist for The Spectator and a book of Sixteenth-Century Italian Paintings at The illustrator for Oxford University Press. He National Gallery, illuminates the life, work has collaborated with Richard Curtis for and undisputed genius of this Master of the Comic Relief, and Nelson Mandela on a High Renaissance. lithograph project, The Unity Series. In a special pre-recorded film, he talks about his Wednesday 7 October 3pm work. Inside Francis Bacon Curator and writer Martin Harrison and researcher and archivist for the Estate of Francis Bacon Sophie Pretorius explore the life, work and legacy of one of the most celebrated artists of our time, illuminating NEW MEMBERS TO THE FRIENDS: Bacon’s creative process through newly unearthed diary entries that shed light on the Julie Ashdown Charlotte Colenutt inner workings of one of Britain’s foremost Phillippa Hughes painters. Judith James 8
CHELTENHAM TRUST UPDATE The Cheltenham Trust closed its venues on 16 March, and it is fair to say that the impact on our business has been severe. By the end of July we had lost more than £750,000 of income. We recognise that full recovery will take time and won’t be a quick fix. The reality is that Covid-19 has changed how we will work and interact with our customers. Out of crisis, however, comes opportunity. When Government guidance permitted the use of outdoor spaces, we created new outdoor cafés at The Garden Bar (on Imperial Square) and the Heritage café at Pittville Pump Room, along with a programme of events for the community to enjoy. The cafés far exceeded expectation in their first five weeks, achieving more than 100% above the targets set. Leisure at Cheltenham partially reopened on 27 July, offering gym and classes to existing members.
pulled together throughout this extraordinary year. Culture doesn’t stop while the work on The Wilson takes place – keep a watch across the town as our ‘Roaming art’ programme displays elements of this Community Takeover project in outside venues, including the Promenade phone boxes. There will also be new virtual exhibitions, following the success of our #Humankind and Sisterhood and Colour-ways projects. All the existing projects will be publicised via the Trust’s website and social media. The remobilisation of The Trust and its recovery is only possible with working partnerships and funding support. We are absolutely delighted and extremely grateful that the Friends of The Wilson have recently agreed to support, on a month-by-month basis, funding for Wilson staff to develop the programme of exhibitions and activities in readiness for the grand reopening. Working with its partners, The Wilson will be able to reopen, offering new and exciting spaces, exhibitions, displays and activities that will enable it to be more sustainable.
At The Wilson, following a generous bequest from the Charles Irving Charitable Trust, the project to create a new community art gallery and Riah Pryor community arts café is underway. This refurbishment will enable The Wilson to reopen with a new and exciting offer. The refurbished museum will include the Maker Space, funded by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, and designed to host practising craftspeople demonstrating their work. A ‘Community Takeover’ will also be in full swing, celebrating the way Cheltenham responded and how communities have
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WHERE TO VISIT
HORSHAM MUSEUM & ART GALLERY There are several parallels between the towns of Cheltenham and Horsham in West Sussex. Both have active civic societies, both host first class county cricket and both have a combined museum/art gallery at the centre of their cultural life. Horsham Museum & Art Gallery was founded by volunteers of the Free Christian Church in 1893. Since 1966 it has been run by the local council. It is sited in what was originally a merchant’s house at the top of the Causeway, one of Sussex’s most photographed streets, an avenue of densely packed houses of historic interest, many of them listed by English Heritage, which runs down to the parish church of St Mary. As a country market town, Horsham’s lifeblood has been farming and shopping. In the Museum’s Shopping Gallery two large Edwardian display cases show the way shop goods and retailers have changed since the Victorian era. The entire fixtures and fittings from ‘Williams & Smith’, a chemist shop formerly to be found in West Street, have been set up in the gallery. A lively painting by Edward Bainbridge Copnall of Horsham’s 10
famous cattle market, now defunct, is on show (though, ironically, the town is believed to have got its name from ‘Horse-ham’ which means ‘place of horses’). Relocated to the Museum, the Barn is an original farm building. The exhibits tell the story of farming from the medieval period through to World War II using local examples. One item in particular shows how hard rural life could get: a sparrow roaster. The farmyard implements and carts span 200 years, from an eighteenth-century wheelbarrow to the 1950s coloured bands for ringing hens. In the 1700s crime was a major problem in this part of Sussex. Offences included smuggling (running contraband up from the Sussex coast), sheep-stealing, burglary, murder and indebtedness. In an early attempt at penal reform, a new ‘model’ gaol opened in Horsham in 1779, the first in the country to have individual cells. The inmates’ regime included daily exercise in the fresh air and regular prayers in the chapel. The gaol’s original window, door, padlock and keys are displayed in the Museum. Accompanying them is a memento of one of the twentieth
(top) ’Hunting Scene’, watercolour by local artist and GP, Geoffrey Sparrow (1887-1969)
century’s most notorious crimes, the Acid Bath Murders. The murderer, John Haigh, whose ‘workshop’ was in nearby Crawley, was held in a police cell in Horsham before his pre-trial hearing and the cell door now hangs on a wall. (Haigh hanged too, despite pleading insanity.)
(centre) Causeway House: a fine 16th century building which today houses Horsham Museum (bottom) John Haigh, the ‘Acid Bath’ murderer, executed in 1949
Most towns have a famous son, and the Museum’s Shelley Gallery honours the romantic poet, who was born at Field Place, just outside Horsham. On display is a rare bronze bust of Shelley, as well as a model of the 'Ajax', which saw action in the Battle of Trafalgar commanded by Shelley's uncle, Captain John Pilfold. The Museum possesses a collection of paintings and photographs by local artists and photographers, but space restrictions preclude a permanent display. A practical solution has been found by setting aside a large, light room to the left of the main entrance as an Art Gallery for rotating exhibitions. An enjoyable, recent example was of artwork, letters and diary entries by the local GP and keen huntsman Dr Geoffrey Sparrow. This brave, good-humoured man trained at Barts and served as a military surgeon in both World Wars. Thus an exhibition of art also provided real insights into the life of a country doctor in the days before the NHS. www.horshammuseum.org 9 Causeway, Horsham, West Sussex, RH12 1HE Philip Machin
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FAVOURITE WORKS OF ART
JEAN BY JOHN RANDALL BRATBY When browsing artworks from The Wilson featured on the Art UK website, one portrait grabbed my attention. The painter is clearly not of the ‘flattering the sitter’ school. Large soulful eyes have a hypnotic effect. The stare is direct but unnervingly unfocussed. Is she scared or scary? She looks formidable. The painting style is confident, bold, crude, fast. 12
The painter is John Randall Bratby (1928-1992) and the portrait is of his wife, Jean Cooke (1927-2008). Bratby’s story seems to come straight from the pages of a drug-fuelled novel. He was the son of a wine-taster and, in his youth, was a bun-reselling entrepreneur, a writer and paid reader of pornographic stories and a trainee boxer.
His response to post-war austerity was to develop his own style of realism. At college, his extreme shyness led to him spending his grant money on prostitutes and ending up sleeping rough. Some stability came into his life when, in 1953, he met and married fellow student Jean Cooke, a sculptor and potter who became a highly esteemed painter. She painted a number of self-portraits. It was a tempestuous relationship; he once locked her in her room during their courtship because he feared that she would leave him. Later his jealousy of her success resulted in painting over or slashing her work and restricting her painting time. He was also abusive, unfaithful and an alcoholic. They had a daughter and three sons. The relationship ended in the 1970s and they divorced in 1977.
which he often incorporated everyday objects.
Bratby has been described as Britain's first modern celebrity artist, bridging Augustus John and David Hockney. In 1954, John Russell, then art critic of the Sunday Times, compared Bratby’s rendition of a cornflake packet with Velazquez’s Rokeby Venus and Studio magazine classed Bratby with Rembrandt, Goya, Courbet and Manet! John Berger likened Bratby’s obsessive vision to that of the prisoner in the condemned cell, seeing life for the last time. Along with Edward Middleditch, Jack Smith and Derek Greaves he was termed a Kitchen Sink painter. They were a group of British social-realist artists who paralleled the literary Angry Young Men of the 1950s.
Martin Renshaw
However, he fell out of fashion as abstraction and Pop Art took over. The critics reversed their judgements – Berger accused him of selling out to materialism – pouring scorn on or ignoring his work. However, he remained prolific and his work was still popular with the public. In 1966, he painted the entire cast of Coronation Street for the cover of the TV Times. In 1971, he was elected to the Royal Academy of Arts. He was also the author of a number of lurid, autobiographical novels. At the end of his life, he lived for over a decade in Hastings. He died in 1992 on his way back from the chippie. Perhaps appropriate for a man who once painted Still Life with Chip Frier.
NB: This article can be found on our website: www.cheltenhammuseum.org.uk along with other similar articles and links to view and search The Wilson’s collection online.
Bratby was particularly known for the feverish speed at which he worked and for the thick texture of his vividly 13
EXPLORING EDWARD ARMITAGE (1817-1896) I wonder how many people realise that the friezes in and around the Albert Hall were designed by the eminent Cheltenham artist, Edward Armitage? My awareness of the existence of Edward Armitage started when, in 1973, I began to note and record artists connected with Cheltenham and Gloucestershire. The local papers, including the Cheltenham Looker-On of the time, in 1843, noted with pride that Edward Armitage, of a Prestbury family, had won a major prize, in fact several prizes, in the competition for designs for murals in the new buildings of the Houses of Parliament. Current standard reference works on artists reveal very little about him other than that he was a pioneer in attempting a revival of mural painting in this country, but a chance occurrence brought Armitage to my attention. Always keeping an eye open for inexpensive purchases for the Works on Paper collection, I had come across occasional sales at Sotheby’s in London of ‘miscellaneous drawings’. These I found fascinating, the lots ranging from single items, sometimes with attributions, to bundles or folders of unattributed works. It was on one of these trips that I came across a bundle of drawings, some very long and bulky, and others smaller. I realised, as I flipped through them, that a few grubby bundles had drawings with the signature 14
of Edward Armitage! Were these from the studio of our Edward Armitage? I bid for them and got them very cheaply. But, apart from cataloguing them briefly, at the time I never managed to do any further work as I moved elsewhere. It was many years later, and when I had ‘retired’ to Cheltenham and reconnected with the Art Gallery, that a request to the Fine Art Curator, Catharine Waller, from a descendant of Edward Armitage enquiring as to whether we had any information on her forebear as she was preparing a book on his life and work, was discussed with me. In the twenty years between my purchasing the drawings and this proposed publication there had begun a serious upsurge in interest in Edward Armitage and his ilk, predominantly in relation to Armitage, his ‘frescoes’ and large-sized commissions.
In previous discussions with the then Fine Art Curator, Helen Brown, the author had visited Cheltenham to see the drawings and they were able to relate the Cheltenham drawings to executed work. One of the projects was for a series of large wall-paintings for the new University Hall (now the Dr Williams Library) in London, a Residential Hall for students and staff of University College and, of course, the Slade School of Fine Art was founded as a department of that college. As such, it is interesting to think of our own William Rothenstein being one of those students, dining surrounded by these Armitage wall-paintings (unfortunately, later papered-over), an intellectual exercise which I think William Rothenstein would have enjoyed! Cheltenham now holds a large number of studies and sketches for the University Hall paintings, as well as several church mural projects in
London, which have mainly now got lost under layers of later fashionable decorators' colour-wash. Like William Rothenstein, Edward Armitage came from an important West Riding of Yorkshire family heavily involved in the woollen industry, but to read his fascinating history I strongly recommend you obtain/refer to the recent biography by Jill R. Armitage – Edward Armitage RA. Battles in the Victorian Art World, published by Troubador Publishing (Matador Books). The Works on Paper collection are not on public display and not online (regrettably), but a couple of stolen gimpses are shown above. David Addison
David Addison was Director of Cheltenham Art Gallery & Museum in the 1970's. To see his website Addison Art go to www.addisonart.co.uk.
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REVIEWS
SISTERHOOD
Sisterhood documents the stories of 40 diverse and extraordinary women from two varying communities, Gloucestershire and Trinidad & Tobago. Danielle Salloum has chosen to photograph these specific women as she is trying to highlight those, from a number of fields, who are speaking but not necessarily being heard; from human rights and environmental activists to women in sport, business, art and education to mothers and political leaders. 2020 is the Year of the Woman, so what a perfect exhibition to have at this time. Although I wasn’t able to walk around the exhibition to appreciate the scale of this work, I was still able to do so from the comfort of my desk. Importantly I could sense and feel the story told by Salloum through the style of her beautiful documentary photography. From the images available on The Wilson’s website it looks as if the exhibition was large, bright and successful. I love that the artist has not chosen to photograph the age that she knows or is used to and that she has included a variety of people from all walks of life. I love the added feature that encourages viewers to capture a self portrait to submit to the exhibition, giving us even more reason to connect with the project. Charlotte Colenutt
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COLOUR-WAYS
I was drawn to this exhibition in many ways. Being an interiors photographer, I love any project that includes rooms, architecture or buildings and that is exactly what Liz West has done. This exhibition is a festival of lights! After visiting teamLab Borderless in Tokyo last summer I have been trying to re-live my experience with vivid environments, dreaming that I was back in Japan. There are so many questions that I want to ask the artist after an initial glance at her work. Are the acrylic bowls, within the series Aglow, real or manipulated on with Photoshop? How do you find these beautiful buildings to work with? What are the coloured spots within Our Colour Reflection? All of this work definitely sparks a conversation between the viewer and the setting! But, after researching and reading more about the installations, you learn that West uses a lot of coloured acrylic mirrors that are
definitely real and not edited into the frame. I love the way that every installation is different whilst linking and working together. You can see this clearly on West’s website where the works are presented next to each other. Charlotte Colenutt
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Being a documentary photographer during the Covid-19 lockdown has been very difficult but also very rewarding. Although I have not been able to photograph my speciality, interiors, I have been able to capture the community working together and everybody’s kind gestures; whether it is boxes of free things on people’s lawns (after having a mass clear out with all this spare time on our hands) or people’s windows filling up with a variety of ‘Thank You NHS and Key Workers’ rainbows. I never appreciated how important human touch and human interaction are until lockdown but being able to walk around my local village photographing the happiness during this dull time made me feel much better. I know that I will never take a hug from my Nan or my friends for granted ever again.
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I noticed that lots of people were posting online that they were holding socially distanced street parties for VE Day, so I went around Bishops’ Cleeve photographing the dedicated people who had decorated their streets, their homes and themselves!
Photos by Charlotte Colenutt ccolenuttphoto.mypixieset.com
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VIEWING ART ONLINE The Friends' website contains an everexpanding series of reflections on works from The Wilson's collection and how to see more of the artworks (friendsofthewilson.org.uk/artworks-from-thewilson-collection-reviews-and-responses/). The Wilson website provides access to three virtual exhibitions: - Sisterhood (cheltenhammuseum.org.uk/ event/sisterhood-virtual-exhibition/) - Colour-ways (cheltenhammuseum.org.uk/ event/colour-ways-virtual/) - #Humankind (cheltenhammuseum.org.uk/ event/humankind/) Art UK Curations include a number of virtual exhibitions curated by, amongst others, Jenny Gaschke from Bristol Museum & Art Gallery, Katharine Wall from Victoria Art Gallery, Bath and Tracy White from Swindon Many major galleries offer online 'tours'. Museum & Art Gallery (artuk.org/discover/ Among the best are: curations#). The Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, reopened on 10 August but for those of you unable to visit in person you can enjoy many of their treasures including the Young Rembrandt exhibition via their website (ashmolean.org/) Leading on from that, why not view the Thyssen-Bornemisza National Museum’s Rembrandt and the portrait in Amsterdam, 1590-1670 exhibition (static.museothyssen.org/microsites/ exposiciones/2020/Rembrandt/index.htm)? BBC Four's Museums in Quarantine programmes are available via iPlayer (bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000hqmn) Grayson Perry's Art Club (channel4.com/ programmes/graysons-art-club.
Please share your recommendations by emailing editor@friendsofthewilson.org.uk. 20
- New York Metropolitan Museum of Art (youvisit.com/tour/themet) - National Gallery (nationalgallery.org.uk/visiting/virtual-tours) - British Museum (britishmuseum.withgoogle.com/) - Louvre (louvre.fr/en/visites-en-ligne) - Uffizi (uffizi.it.en/online-exhibitions) - Hermitage (pano.hermitagemuseum.org/3d/html/ pwoaen/main/#node338) - National Portrait Gallery (npg.org.uk/collections/explore/tours) - Sistine Chapel (museivaticani.va/content/museivaticani/en/ collezioni/musei/cappella-sistina/tourvirtuale.html) - Boston Museum of Fine Arts (artsandculture/google.com/streetview/ museum-of-fine-arts-boston/ yQHilvRvBDyAvA?sv_lng=-)
FROM THE ARCHIVES: NEWSLETTER NUMBER 100 Newsletter Number 100 appeared ten years ago, in September 2010. In those days it was still the newsletter of ‘The Friends of Cheltenham Art Gallery & Museum’ (FCAGM), an eight-page A4 publication, printed in three columns on each page. Its front-page headline, ‘Development Fundraising Campaign reaches £4.5 million!’ introduced a report by Jane Lillystone, the Museum & Arts Manager, that struck a resoundingly positive note: 'Over the last six months, the Fundraising Campaign, Building a New Future, has reached a total of just over £4.5 million (an additional amount of £679k, since January 2010) in confirmed funding towards the new extension/refurbisment of the Art Gallery & Museum.'
One of the most insightful articles was a staff profile of CAGM’s Lifelong Learning Officer, Liha Okunniwa, who had joined the staff in 2008. Some of her comments strike a strong chord today as we look forward to The Wilson’s reopening by the end of 2020: 'The planned closure offers a challenging, but very exciting time for us all. There are still many sections of the community who feel that the Art Gallery and Museum has nothing to offer them and see no reason to come through our doors. We now have the opportunity to take our philosophy of lifelong learning for everyone out into the community and show that this is a living, innovative organisation whose collections can inspire creativity and develop a sense of place and history.'
Listing the ‘three major trusts’ from whom the bulk of this money had come, the author was careful to mention too ‘the extremely generous confirmation of £150K from all of you within the Friends’. Inside this 100th issue, there was much that is familiar to today’s Friends: events for new members, reports of recent talk and outings – Fairford and Buscot Park, Moor Park and Wrest Park – plus a two-page spread celebrating that summer’s study tour to Norway, led by Douglas and Jenny Ogle: Oslo and Bergen ‘with a spectacular connecting rail journey’. Music played an important part in this tour, one member likening the whole experience to ‘A Norwegian Tone Poem’. Others were more struck by the terrain they crossed by train: ‘The bleak, glacial landscape of the mountains contrasting with the warmth and humour of our group – not to mention some of the brightest intellects of Cheltenham wrestling with airport check-in technology – and being defeated. These,’ wrote Marjorie lmlah, 'are but a few images of a fascinating and memorable holiday.' 21
CONTACTS President PJ Crook Chair Adrian Barlow (01242 515192) chair@friendsofthewilson.org.uk Secretary John Beard (01242 514059) secretary@friendsofthewilson.org.uk Treasurer Liz Giles (01242 224773) treasurer@friendsofthewilson.org.uk Membership Secretary Martin Renshaw (01242 696692) membership@friendsofthewilson.org.uk Cheltenham Trust Liaison Jaki Davis (07747795709) jaki.meekingsdavis@hotmail.com Talks Organiser Sue Pearce (01242 522467) sue.pearce@blueyonder.co.uk Collections David Addison (01242 238905) davidaddison10@btinternet.com Volunteer Liaison Robert Rimell (07858007852) rimell@me.com Newsletter Mailing Sue Reeves (01242 675497) sue.reeves39@gmail.com Events Bookings Alison Pascoe (01242 519413) Martha Alleguen (01242 526601) events@friendsofthewilson.org.uk Newsletter Designer/Editor Charlotte Colenutt (07307845556) editor@friendsofthewilson.org.uk With thanks to Rebecca Sherratt for her assistance in editing the newsletter
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Cover photo: John Bratby's Self portrait with kitchen things (1976-78) Š artist's estate (see pages 12-13)
DEADLINE for the next issue: 25 November. Please send everything to editor@friendsofthewilson.org.uk.
The Wilson, Cheltenham Art Gallery and Museum Clarence Street, Cheltenham, Gloucestershire GL50 3JT 01242 237431 ArtGallery@cheltenhamtrust.org.uk www.cheltenhammuseum.org.uk Friends of The Wilson, Cheltenham Art Gallery & Museum Registered charity number 289514 www.friendsofthewilson.org.uk queries@friendsofthewilson.org.uk editor@friendsofthewilson.org.uk 23