 |
Beach and Star Fish, Seven Sisters Cliff, Eastbourne, John Piper. 1933-34
Off to Two Temple Place this afternoon for this year's exhibition - Sussex Modernism - bizarrely, in the most ornate surroundings you can imagine. It starts with a roast peacock banquet in 1914 for an old-school poet who thought this modern stuff was all tosh - well, that was a bit of a distraction because it set me off wondering what roast peacock tastes like and whether you'd need some bread sauce with it or a few chipolatas - but stay with me, because we're off on a tour of Sussex, starting at Ditchling then on to Charleston Farmhouse ... At the back of the catalogue, there's directions for a real tour - well, you'd have to whizz around to fit it all into a day, but it did make me long to visit Furlongs and Farleys Farmhouse and West Dean, though I'd rather take it slowly over a few long summer afternoons. Why rush?
Sussex wasn't just a rural escape, it was a threshold - gateway to Europe (for ideas and refugees) and also a site for potential invasion. Piper's cliffs are torn-out pages from the New Statesman: a strip of classified ads for English private schools, perhaps making some statement about the class system, and (hard to read as they're upside down) news reports about Nazism in Germany
|
 |
| Landscape near Rye, Edward Burra, 1943 |
Burra wasn't too keen on Rye. (Harlem was more his thing.) He called it a 'ducky little Tinker Bell towne - like an itsy bitsy morgue, quayte dead' ,,, so I'm guessing he wasn't a fan of Mapp and Lucia. Dark clouds loom over his landscape ... are those skull bones being crushed in huge pincers?
.jpg!Large.jpg "Bronze Ballet, 1940 - Edward Wadsworth") |
| Bronze Ballet, Edward Wadsworth, 1940 |
Wadsworth was working 'to the somewhat noisy accompaniment ... of the bombardment of Abbeville, Boulogne and Calais' - heard from across the Channel - 'all mingled with the call of the cuckoo.'
 |
| The Annunciation, Vanessa Bell, 1942 |
I've still never been to Berwick Church, but I do like the idea of the Angel Gabriel appearing in the walled garden at Charleston.
Two Temple Place has become a winter landmark for me; half way between Christmas and spring, although sadly the cake isn't anywhere near as good as it was
a few years ago. Shame - but it's still free to get in and there's some fabulous pictures of this very quirky building
here.
This looks so interesting - Edward Burra is one of my favourite British artists. And it's a free exhibition, too.
ReplyDeleteI am going to have a day in London probably around my birthday in March so I shall definitely try to get to this; I might even squeeze in a trip to the V and A - at last!
I haven't lived in London (or Greater London which is where I lived from 1977 to 1981) for 36 years now, but it is the thing I miss the most - galleries, exhibitions and plays. Still you can't have everything!
All so very lovely...but Mary, when I looked at the photo of The Annunciation I immediately thought 'pants!'. I'm sure it's beautiful in person.
ReplyDeleteThere was a wonderful Burra exhibition at Chichester a couple of years ago, Veronica. Hope you enjoy your date out!
ReplyDeleteYou're incorrigible, Darlene! I think everything Charleston needs to be seen in situ. There was a lamp and I thought, what a tatty shade - even if I could make that!
I've just come back from TTP and was as usual distracted by the building and the visitors and not by the exhibition. I got lucky with a very nice slice of fruit frangipane cake. I did wonder if there had been a tussle over the Vanessa Bells given that she is simultaneously starring at the Dulwich Picture Gallery.
ReplyDeleteMy friend and I thought just the same about the lampshade (someone's old nightie?) and even the painted coffers looked a bit slapdash. To be fair they probably didn't envisage their oeuvres behind plexiglass with portentous captions.