Holt Festival Art & Design-Zine

Saturday 16th – Sunday 31st July 2022

Art & Design-zine

CRAXTON PICASSO FREUD GIACOMETTI MOORE PIPER

Holt Festival thanks the following organisations for their support in putting this remarkable exhibition together

The tale of artist John Craxton’s adventures in Greece is one so gripping you wonder how you haven’t heard it before. One of the most significant young artists of the 20th Century, he disappeared from view in London to travel widely, before finding home on the island of Crete. With him he took the visual language of mid-century British Modernism to make ground-breaking art, capturing in loving detail and brilliant colour the local life that enveloped him.

Despite years of island seclusion, Craxton remained at the centre of an extended web of artists. Lucian Freud was a close friend who spent time with him in Crete – I look forward to seeing Freud’s letters to Craxton, shown here at the Holt Festival for the first time. Also on show is the marvellous and largely unseen Alberto Giacometti Chandelier for Peter Watson (the attribution of which has recently been confirmed). So many of the works on show have been in private collections for many years, never before brought together – including ceramics by Picasso, paintings and drawings

by Sutherland, Moore, Freud and photographs by Joan Leigh Fermor, a close friend of Craxton’s, who captured the Greek life around them in images that have not previously been shown outside of Greece.

How to make this story of friendship and vision come to life here in Norfolk? With a characteristic spirit of generosity, the exhibition is free and open to everyone. There will be talks by writer, curator and Craxton biographer, Ian Collins, and an education programme, brimming with colour and creativity, which will involve almost 400 school children and feature (for fun and unpredictability) a live goat. Why go anywhere else this July when such Mediterranean inspiration is coming to Holt?

Amanda Geitner Director, East Anglia Art Fund

John Craxton Musician in a Taverna gouache on card

Craxton-Picasso THE EXHIBITION Bumping into people in the street who have asked: “What are you doing next year?” I have given the answer “Craxton-Picasso”. Most of them rather quizzically replied, “Well, I’ve heard of Picasso but…”.

ESTABLISHED 1996

ANTHONY

FELL

ANTIQUES & WORKS OF ART

6 Old Stable Yard Holt Norfolk NR25 6BN

When Holt Festival was first established one of its principal aims was to inform and put on events that you were unlikely to find locally.

This is a tale of a young artist in the John Craxton Landscape with Poet & Birdcatcher mainstream of British art circles, (Lucian Freud Birdcatcher - John Craxton Poet) having a studio adjacent to Lucian Freud’s and who had his first monograph written by critic John Grigson in 1948 and published by Horizon when he was only twenty six, but soon removed himself to relative obscurity, when he fell in love with the Greek islands. Perhaps unsurprisingly, his work (and his life) transformed almost instantly from often rather gloomy, melancholic, wartime subjects, to colourful sunny images, painted using fresh techniques.

In this exhibition, his work is surrounded with those who influenced him and/or enjoyed his friendship, among them Pablo Picasso, Henry Moore, Graham Sutherland, Lucian Freud, John Piper, Alberto Giacometti, Niko Ghika, John Banting, Julian Trevelyan, Mary Fedden, Eduardo Paolozzi, Jacob Epstein, Isabel Rawsthorne and photographer Joan Leigh Fermor.

Tel: +44 (0)1263 712912 Mobile: +44 (0)7850 004731 A pair of late 18th century Italian gilt wood console tables circa 1770

www.anthonyfell.com

Fine art restoration and framing Fairhurst Gallery, 17 Bedford Street, Norwich NR2 1AR | 01603 614214 enquiries@fairhurstgallery.co.uk www.fairhurstgallery.co.uk

John Craxton Red & Yellow Landscape 1945

Picasso is represented with ceramics mostly from the amazing collection of Lord Richard & Lady Sheila Attenborough, partly because, along with his brother Sir David, he was an early fan of Craxton’s work.

The Alberto Giacometti chandelier hanging in the chancel of St Andrew’s Church was commissioned by Peter Watson (generous benefactor to both Freud and Craxton). It hung in the late 1940s in the Horizon magazine office in London and was later acquired by Craxton. It has never before been on public display.

FROM THE STUDIO OF LUCY BOYDELL The festival is also delighted to be JULY of – 7th showing a23rd collection overAUGUST twenty wonderful photographs of Greek life + RED

by Craxton’s closeDOT friendDETAILS Joan Leigh Fermor, whose husband Paddy’s famous travel books Craxton painted the cover designs for. They have never exhibited outside Greece before. The festival is grateful to The Paddy & Joan Leigh Fermor Arts Fund.

Many of the paintings in the exhibition have been hidden in private collections and institutions for decades, this is a great opportunity to see some rarely-seen works and the festival is grateful to the private collectors who have made this exhibition possible.

Joan Leigh Fermor Koutzovlachs From Sarmina © Joan Leigh Fermor Estate

Peter Watson THE BENEFACTOR

If it weren’t for Peter Watson it is likely that neither Lucian Freud nor John Craxton would have found it easy to survive in the post war era.

Watson was a serious collector living in Paris, having to return to London at the beginning of the war, he became interested in British art.

He supported Freud and Craxton, paying for their studios, travel and much else besides. He also funded the Horizon magazine, the most significant platform for emerging writers and artists of the time. Some of the contributors are listed below. He hung his Alberto Giacometti chandelier in the office and went on to be a key founder and funder of the ICA in London.

W H Auden Cecil Beaton, John Betjeman Kenneth Clark John Craxton Cecil Day-Lewis Lawrence Durrell T S Eliot E M Forster Lucian Freud Graham Greene Barbara Hepworth

Aldous Huxley Christopher Isherwood Augustus John Paul Klee Osbert Lancaster André Masson Henry Miller Nancy Mitford Henry Moore Paul Nash Ben Nicholson George Orwell

John Piper J B Priestley Herbert Read Bertrand Russell Vita Sackville-West Jean-Paul Satre Osbert Sitwell Graham Sutherland Dylan Thomas Peter Ustinov H G Wells Virginia Woolf

A SUITE OF NEW WORKS FROM THE STUDIO OF

23rd JULY – 7th AUGUST THE

RED DOT GALLERY 7 Fish Hill, Holt, Norfolk. 01263 710287 thereddotgallery.com

7 Fish Hill, Holt, Norfolk NR25 6BD 01263 710287 sales@thereddotgallery.com www.thereddotgallery.com instagram.com/thereddotgallery

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James Glennie Alberto Giacometti Chandelier for Peter Watson 1946/7 [detail] Authenticated by the Fondation Giacometti, Paris submission by Art & Antiques Appraisals

james@artantiquesappraisals.com www.artantiquesappraisals.com +44 (0)7799307437

Craxton & Freud

In 1941 Lucian Freud, whilst a student at Benton End (the subject of a Holt Festival exhibition in 2017), eventually met John Craxton. They were soon to become inseparable, working in adjacent studios in Abercorn Place, London and both financially supported by Peter Watson.

Together they were among the most brightly-shining rising-stars of British art of the post-war period. Always looking for adventure, Freud followed Craxton to Greece via Paris in 1946. Lucian was to stay for five months, John ostensibly for the rest of his life.

Throughout the 1940s travel was difficult, John Craxton Lucian 26.10.46 but they managed to spend their lives in © Estate of John Craxton - what would have been viewed by most as - exotic parts of Europe. They were often apart, so they wrote amusing eccentrically-illustrated letters to each other in their own coded language which spread among their friends too, particularly Stephen Spender and E Q Nicholson (E Q was married to the architect brother of artist Ben Nicholson). We are delighted that the correspondence from Lucian to John is still extant and a selection of these fascinating unpublished letters will be included in the exhibition, for what will be their first public showing ever.

Craxton & Picasso

Pablo Picasso was, of course, an influence on most aspiring young artists - both sides of the war – but on John Craxton more than most. In 1934, aged twelve, John’s school art tutor was a close friend of Russian artist Vladimir Polunin who painted ballet sets designed by Picasso. Aged fourteen he was lucky enough to go to the Paris International Exhibition, where on the Spanish stand, was Picasso’s Guernica. Art critic Eric Newton, a family friend, had instilled in John a childhood enthusiasm for Christopher Wood who had drawn with Picasso. He had many

John Craxton An Aged Cretan © Estate of John Craxton

opportunities to study Picassos: in 1942 he was fortunate to spend the night, at the Hove flat of Hugh Willoughby, who was said to own more Picassos (20) than any other Briton. Through Peter Watson he became friends with Roland Penrose in whose Hampstead house was Picasso’s Weeping Woman, among others, and by this time Watson himself had started buying works by Picasso. In 1945 John and Lucian planned to stowaway on a Breton fishing boat to Brest and onward to see the Picasso Libre show. Their exploits were twice thwarted by harbour police. He eventually met Picasso himself for the first time in 1946 and again soon after that when Lucian arrived in Paris, although the great man was more interested in Lucian’s more famous grandfather than the two young artists.

They though, were more interested in his work than the man. John’s early encounter with Guernica and later the hauntingly beautiful Night Fishing in Antibes would have the biggest impact on him. He said “From Picasso I took danger. He made you walk a tightrope. He made you re-look at nature and rethink what painting should be”.

Craxton, Moore, Piper & Sutherland

Family friend and art critic, Eric Newton, drew John’s attention to several artists all of whom were to become friends or artistic influences or both. Henry Moore’s dramatic series of wartime shelter drawings, depicting Londoners sleeping in the tube stations, had a profound effect on John as they did many Londoners.

We are delighted to be showing a rare example John Craxton Dancer in a Landscape 1943 © Estate of John Craxton from a private collection, not seen in public for over sixty years. Moore’s drawing technique is evident in Craxton’s work throughout the 1940s.

John Piper and Graham Sutherland were both championed by Newton and became friends and early influences of Craxton’s. Again the exhibition will include loans from important private collections of rarely or never before publicly shown paintings.

Bircham Gallery

Holt Festival Contemporary Ceramics

Walter Keeler Jack Doherty Patricia Shone Barbara Gittings Sarah Moorhouse Duncan Ross Kyra Cane Peter Hayes

Opens Saturday July 23

Mon -Sat 9am -5pm

Original works of art Monday - Saturday | 10am - 4pm daily www.thegalleryholt.com

www.birchamgallery.co.uk

Sir David Attenborough on CRAXTON

In his eulogy at John Craxton’s memorial service in St James’s Piccadilly, London, on 4 February 2010, Sir David said “In 1946, with the ending of the war and aged 23, he was able to travel – and he went to Greece: to Poros, to Hydra and eventually to Crete. Suddenly that melancholic young man disappears from his pictures and his landscapes become positively joyous – the sparkle of the Mediterranean Sea, the shaft of sunshine stabbing through the darkness of the rocky gorge. It was in Crete, he declared, that he learned what he described as a very salutary lesson for a painter – that life is more important than art. Those are his words. One of my great pleasures in life was to be taken by John to his Exhibition of recent paintings and drawings 1980-85 favourite harbour-side restaurant in Chania and Hania & Athens be given a dish of boiled sea-creatures which even I, who am supposed to have some knowledge of the animal kingdom, found hard to identify, We all, I am sure, have our much cherished memories of John… of his huge laugh, of his generosity and his delight in puncturing pretension... luckily for us we also have his pictures.”

Lord Richard Attenborough on PICASSO

Lord Richard & Lady Sheila Attenborough gave much of their wonderful collection of Picasso ceramics to the New Walk Museum & Art Gallery, Leicester. The Attenborough brothers moved to Leicester as small boys in 1931, when their father became Principal of what was then University College. Their gift to Leicester was to commemorate the lives of their daughter Jane Mary and their granddaughter Lucy Elizabeth who perished together in the Asian Tsunami on 26th December 2004. In his introduction to the exhibition catalogue for Picasso Ceramics – The Attenborough Collection in 2007 he writes “He was smaller than I had expected. Sheila and I first met Picasso in 1963, a decade after we first went to Vallauris. … it had become an annual August pilgrimage; not only to see the continuing flow of what he was producing, but also – encouraged I have to admit by me – to allow Sheila and the children to buy me a birthday present to add to our increasing collection… I think my heart missed a beat – the impact would have been no less had I suddenly found myself face to face with Shakespeare or Beethoven. He was outrageously charming. There seemed to be no end to his creativity.”

Holt Festival Art Prizes SHORTLISTED EXHIBITIONS Announcement of winners Sunday 24 at 7.30pm Adrian Hill Fine Art All exhibitions open until 7.30pm on Sunday 24th th

Charlotte Fraser Ceramics & Glass Prize

St Andrew’s Church, Church Street, Holt, NR25 6BB Saturday 23rd – Sunday 31st July 10am–5pm (Sundays 11.30am–5pm) Jennifer Amon Blue Landscape Vessel £280

Sir John Hurt Art Prize

Adrian Hill Fine Art, Lees Yard, Holt, NR25 6HS Saturday 23rd – Saturday 30th July 10am–4pm Christine Allman Storm I £750

Sworders Prize for Emerging Artists

Adrian Hill Fine Art, Lees Yard, Holt, NR25 6HS Saturday 23rd – Saturday 30th July 10am–4pm

Emilia Symis Losing Paradise Acrylic on canvas £1,100

Sworders Prize for Young Artists

Adrian Hill Fine Art, Lees Yard, Holt, NR25 6HS Saturday 23rd – Saturday 30th July 10am–4pm Sophie Duez Migrant I £425

Sir John Hurt Art Prize and Sworders Art Prizes for Young & Emerging Artists Young Artists (16-18)

Emerging Artists (19-23)

Sir John Hurt Art Prize

Zahara Akram Guy Allen Christine Allman Momina Anwar Diana Ashdown Peter Baldwin John Bardell Mia Bartram Lynda Baxter Keron Beattie Mary Blue Gabriella Buckingham Christy Burdock Safi Butler Sascha Chopra Antonia Clare Dallas Collins Adam Cornish Maggy Day Ada Densham Bond Nick Dittrich Mike Dodd Louise Dougherty Amy Doughty Sophie Duez Zelda Eady Anthea Eames Lee Eveson

Geoff Evison Gypsy Kate Garramone Kate Giles Paula Gonzalez Annie Hall Frankie Hanmer Chris Hann Imogen Hawgood Helen Herbert Caroline Houchell Lucy Hu Ken Hurst Ruby Hyde Susan Isaac Liz James Wendy Kimberley Stephanie Lacey Alan Latter Caroline Mackintosh Ipshita Meyer Inês-Hermione Mulford Peter Norton Daisy Pearson Susie Penrose Rosie Phillips Dylan Pulley Judith Reece Kirsten Riley

Tracey Ross Kathryn Rowden Christine Roychowdhury Jill Sharpe Rachel Shaw Ashton Anna Sims Design Smith Gina Soden Eleanor-Rose Stamp Beth Stilgoe Nic Stratton Tyler Emilia Symis Heather Tamplin Mary Thatcher Corrin Tulk Imogen Tyler Peta-Stacey Wainwright Emilia Lotta Wald Jane Weinle Sammy Weston Icy White Mary Whitlock Ray Whyard Bobbie Wilson Rosie Winn Izzy Wright Paul Zawadski

Charlotte Fraser Ceramics Prize Jennifer Amon Emma Blount Helen Breach Rose Brettingham Judith Campbell Stephanie Carlton Chi-Son Chang Jan Crombie Clare Cummins Malakai Fox Beatrice Galletley Eliza Gooden Jemma Gowland Alison Henry

Susan Isaac Elizabeth Jackson Sarah Jenkins Hassina Khan Sogon Kim Julie Light Keri Lowe Henrietta MacPhee Emma Marks Rebeca Maxiniuc Annie McAlister-Dilks Stephen Murfitt Florence North Jade Pinell

Verity Pulford Pamela Schomberg C R Smith Pat Southwood Nessie Stonebridge Sarah Strachan Dr Chimene Taylor Erica Tung Katrina Wheeler Bethany Wood Mary Wyatt Muna Zuberi

John Craxton A LIFE OF GIFTS

Essential Education for Schools

THE BOOK

Holt Festival has brought forward the art at the festival by a week in order to have a week during term time and to set-up a free education programme.

John Craxton - A Life of Gifts by Ian Collins has been approaching two decades in the making.

It is a great read and a veritable Who’s Who of the post war art world. This amazing study by Ian Collins has been well worth all the work, not only because we are all so much better informed about an artist who would likely have been a household name, like his early-days chum Lucian Freud - had he not chosen to spend much of his life in Greece - but also Ian was recently given the Runciman Award by the Hellenic League, the most prestigious annual prize for books about Greece.

Yale University Press has given the festival a generous deal A Life of Gifts will be available at the exhibition for £20 (rrp£25)

THE LECTURE

At 10.30am on Monday 25th July Ian Collins will give a lecture at the festival about his book. Having heard him speak before, I know it will be enthralling.

Book your places on the festival website. He will be happy to sign copies of his book.

Ian Collins discussing Craxton with Maria Balshaw CBE (Director of The Tate) in front of one of Craxton’s paintings at the Ambassador’s Residence in Athens

THE FILM

Film makers and stalwarts of the Holt Festival Tony Britten (Director) and Anwen Hurt (Producer), are making a one hour documentary with the same title.

Filmed on location in Athens, Poros, Luxembourg, London, Southern England and Holt, it will premiere in Craxton’s beloved Crete in October and be available to subscribers on The Arts Channel, which, for those of you who haven’t found it yet, has a number of excellent films and series, across all the arts, most of which are very hard to find elsewhere.

Tony Britten filming John Craxton – A Life of Gifts at the Benaki Museum, Athens

Art educator and artist, Mary Blue, has established relationships with many local schools, the result of which is that approaching four hundred students will benefit from this initiative. She and her team are going to most schools ahead of the festival to help students make artworks relating to the exhibition. Goats are a theme of Craxton – Picasso - both artists used them as subjects for works A paper goat in the manner of John Craxton in the exhibition. Many, depending on age, will get the opportunity to make paper goats and the older ones are making Picasso ceramics with goats’ heads on. The presence of a live goat for students to get the full experience has been hugely valuable, exciting and occasionally challenging! The students will then visit the exhibition with their schools. The success of this initiative has made it all the more important that the festival continues this programme in future years.

Craxton–Picasso CREATIVE WRITING WORKSHOP Workshop leader Patricia Mullin graduated from Norwich University of the Arts with an MA Writing the Visual. Patricia is a qualified teacher who leads site-specific writing courses and workshops linked to exhibitions, remarkable collections and iconic buildings.

She is an associate tutor at the University of East Anglia (SCVA) where she teaches courses linked to the Robert & Lisa Sainsbury Collection and special exhibitions.

In addition to a very strong visual content, the Craxton-Picasso exhibition has an intriguing Craxton cover illustration literary element involving Paddy Leigh Fermor and Cyril Connolly’s Horizon magazine. The workshop begins with a tour of the exhibition and brief talk by curator James Glennie. There are still a few places on the course – see Holt Festival/Art Events for more details.

FINE ART TRAIL + EVENTS THE COLOUR & SHAPE

Sat 23rd July Tues 30th August 10am-4pm daily closed Sundays after the festival

ANNUAL EXHIBITION

Mon 25th Fri 29th July 9.30am-3.30pm daily North Norfolk Photographic Society

The Gallery Lees Yard, Holt

St Andrew’s Church Hall Church Street, Holt

© Ian Rawling Austin Taxi

CONTEMPORARY CERAMICS

Sat 23rd Wed 7th September 10am-5pm daily closed Sundays

© Diana Mara Double Trouble (detail)

A PINT OF SHRIMPS

Sat 23rd Sun 7th August 10am-5pm daily

Sat 16th July 10.30am - Free In conversation with Adrian Hill Including painting demonstration St Andrew’s Church Church Street, Holt

Email to book arttalks@holtfestival.org

JOAN LEIGH FERMOR PHOTOGRAPHS Sat 16th Sun 31st July 10am-5pm daily Leigh Fermor’s personal photographs of Greek life

Anwen & John Hurt Exhibition Space The Venue, Holt © Rosemary Carruthers Lockdown Harvest (detail)

St Andrew’s Church Church Street, Holt

EIGHTEENTH CENTURY REVISTED Sat 23rd Sat 30th July 10am-5pm daily closed Sundays

ANTHONY FELL

Wed 27th July 10.30am - Free Anthony Fell Antiques Gallery Talk Eighteenth Century Revisited Stable Yard, Holt An Eighteenth Century French Escritoire

LUCY BOYDELL

Email to book arttalks@holtfestival.org

Sat 23rd July Sun 7th August 10am-5pm daily Red Dot Gallery Fish Hill, Holt © Lucy Boydell Noble Gunton Stag

Tues 26th July 10.30am £8.00 - see website to book Whitbread Prize for Biography winner D J Taylor talks about the figures involved at Horizon magazine in the forties - the most significant platform for emerging writers and artists. Lecture and book signing.

St Andrew’s Church Marquee Church Street, Holt

KIERON WILLIAMSON

Bircham Gallery High Street, Holt © Jack Doherty Smokey Square Vessel with Soda Flashing

GOLDEN HORIZONS: Cyril Connolly & Literary London 1939-1950 by D J Taylor

LUCY BOYDELL

Thurs 28 July 10.30am - Free In conversation with Colin Rawlings th

Email to book arttalks@holtfestival.org

CREATIVE WRITING WORKSHOP WITH PATRICIA MULLIN Wed 27th July 10am-4pm £65

Patricia is an experienced teacher who has taught creative writing workshops linked to exhibitions for many years.

In response to the Craxton-Picasso exhibition, the workshop begins with a tour of the exhibition followed by a brief talk by curator James Glennie. There will be plenty of opportunity for discussion and practice of techniques. Places are limited so do book early.

St Andrew’s Church Marquee, Church Street, Holt Email to book arttalks@holtfestival.org

PICASSO CERAMICS - THE ATTENBOROUGH COLLECTION Sat 30th July 10.30am - Free

A brief introduction by James Glennie St Andrew’s Church Marquee Church Street, Holt Email to book arttalks@holtfestival.org Pablo Picasso Vallauris Round Dish1956 Imprinte Original Made by Picasso for the Madoura Pottery in 1956, to celebrate the town of Vallauris and the annual ceramic exhibitions held there. © Succession Picasso/DACS, London 2022

A Little Piece of Bond Street in Norfolk

John Craxton A GREEK SOUL

This show is running at the Benaki Museum in Athens until 11 September 2022 before moving to Chania’s Municipal Art Gallery in Crete (October 2022 to the end of January 2023) and Mesher, Istanbul (March to June 2023) after which it will come to the UK.

www.reephamantiques.co.uk

Curated by Ian Collins to celebrate Craxton’s centenary, it is the most comprehensive display of his work ever shown, sourced mainly from works owned by the Craxton Estate. Craxton-Picasso which also shows works by those who influenced and surrounded him, sets the scene for this magnificent exhibition which opens at Pallant House Gallery, renowned for its Modern British Art Collection.

John Craxton Lucian 26.10.46 © Estate of John Craxton

John Craxton Two Figures and Setting Sun 1952-67

© The Craxton Estate

Among the exhibits is this wonderful tapestry, over five metres wide, commissioned by the University of Stirling in the mid 1970s titled Landscape with Elements - Cotrell Memorial Tapestry. Craxton designed and painted backdrops for ballets by Benjamin Britten. Peter Pears his partner became a collector of Craxton’s work. Britten Pears Arts has just held a small exhibition of the works they own, as part of the Aldeburgh Festival. So Craxton is being celebrated in many places - just a few weeks ago a world record price was set in Chicago for one of his paintings Still Life with Three Sailors 1982-7 at $400,000 including premium (£260,000 hammer price).

Saturday 15th – Sunday 30th July 2023

Die Brücke - Der Blaue Reiter German Expressionism Hitler’s Purge

An exhibition telling the story of Hitler’s attempts to suppress what in his view was ‘degenerate art’ accompanied by talks and films