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Art Alfresco> Christopher Le Brun
Christopher Le Brun: Art Alfresco
Green Pebble Summer 2008 issue
Across
East Anglia, artists are gearing up to lay on some of the most outstanding
art exhibitions in the country. Art lovers can enjoy not only the counties’
Open Studios but also events such as the Bergh Apton Sculpture Trail, Salthouse
08, and the Harleston and Waveney Art Trail.
Indeed,
some of this summer’s exhibitions will provide a time when the local
population enjoys a chance to see the works of many of East Anglia’s
top artists who, understandably, spend much of their time exhibiting in
London and further afield. And so it is a special treat indeed to hear that
Salthouse, curated by Ian Collins, will be including works by the likes
of James Dodd and Guy Taplin, whilst Bergh Apton have gone one stage further
and enticed internationally acclaimed artist Christopher Le Brun to exhibit
alongside sixty local sculptors, including Liz McGowan, Jocelyn Magnus,
Neal French, Harriet Mead, Rachael Long, Peter Martin and Ben Platts-Mills.
Christopher
Le Brun
Christopher Le Brun will be exhibiting two pieces at Bergh Apton, Norfolk:
the wall-mounted 'Wing' (2007) in plaster, and the bronze 'Statue with Shield
and Shadow' (2004). Even though Le Brun lives and works in London, he also
has a studio in Butley Mills near Woodbridge, which is a great testament
to the centre of excellence that Laurence Edwards has quietly built up in
that beautiful part of Suffolk.
Not only is Christopher an internationally-renowned artist of excellence,
but he is also a man at the very epicentre of our artistic establishment.
Yet, curiously, his art is not always seen as being at the epicentre of
modern British art. As chairman of the Royal Academy’s Master Plan
Committee and as trustee of HRH Prince Charles’ The Prince’s
Drawing School, Le Brun has influence on the shape of our future visual
artistic landscape. Yet, as a creator of sometimes figurative, and sometimes
abstract, visualisations of our most deeply held mythical landscapes, he
often falls foul of the currently fashionable perception of modern British
art and so periodically finds acceptance of his work to be problematic.
I asked Le Brun if he was born into a successful artistic family and was
mildly disappointed to find neither an impoverished garret nor an artistic
family in his background but, rather, a loving family who supported his
choice of art after a successful academic time at grammar school. As a young
student he was as frequently inspired by poetry and philosophy as by painting.
Later, when invited to live and work in West Berlin by the Deutscher Akademischer
Austausch Dienst, he noted how much more central the figure of the painter
was to German society.
Clearly, Northern European cultural mythology has had a profound impact
on Le Brun, with so many of his paintings (see his painting Voyage on Green
Pebble’s cover), sculptures and prints featuring emotive and resonant
imagery such as horses, castles, knights and wings. I appear to be in a
minority in applauding his 1994 Wagner series; eight etchings made with
gravure and aquatint, to complement a commission of four paintings based
on Richard Wagner's Ring Cycle.
Apparently, at that time, the Young British Artists (YBA) had such a stranglehold
on accepted perception of taste that his exhibition of the Wagner Series
was met with silent indifference. Hopefully YBA-ism has grown up now.
Christopher benefited from studying at the Slade when the annual intake
was 12 and so individual tuition was guaranteed. He followed his Slade Diploma
with an intense fifty-week Masters degree at the Chelsea School of Art.
His prize winning entry into Liverpool’s John Moores competition of
1978 was quickly noticed by London art dealer Nigel Greenwood and gave him
early recognition, but it was his selection for the 1982 Zeitgeist exhibition
in Berlin that launched his international career and saw the New York Museum
of Modern Art buying one of his pieces.
Now, his work is in some 40 public collections around the world including
the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge, the National Portrait Gallery, Tate
Gallery, British Museum, Victoria and Albert Museum in London, as well as
other prestigious collections in Norway, Australia, Dublin, Canada, USA,
France and Sweden.
Being an artist is often a lonely profession and so it was with delight
that Le Brun found that his father’s trade of printing (he was in
the Royal Marines) helped nudge him along that path which has led to a lifetime
of convivial creative collaboration with Charles Booth-Clibborn and his
colleagues at Paragon Press. He now finds similar friendships at the foundries
where he casts his sculptures and even the engineers who have helped him
with his short-listed submission for the Ebbsfleet Landmark project, which
will be bigger than the Statue of Liberty if he is the successful applicant.
I started my conversation with Le Brun asking if he had come from a gifted
family of artists, only to be disappointed with his reply, and I ended by
asking him about his life/work balance. I discovered that like his parents,
he enjoys being a regular Dad and in the fine Le Brun family tradition,
his children think ‘Art’ is far too dangerous a profession for
them.
So, roll on the next Le Brun black sheep.
Salthouse 08
On the North Norfolk coast, in the village of Salthouse, Ian Collins has
chosen 70 pieces (paintings and sculpture) for Salthouse 08 from artists
with a Norfolk connection. The great majority of the pieces have been made
especially for this exhibition, but some are from artists who are sadly
no longer producing, including Mary Newcomb who died recently.
All new work had to respond to the theme, LIGHThouse SEAhouse SPIRIThouse,
and artists have responded magnificently. James Dodds has painted a huge
crab boat triptych to go behind the altar, large swathes of abstract paintings
from Dom Theobalds and John McClean will highlight the walls, and Brian
Whelan has produced a mystical painting.
Leslie Marr, Derrick Greaves and Norman Ackroyd have submitted works. High
above the aisles will float works by Colin Miller, Margie Britz and Liz
Mcgowan, and Guy Taplin has produced a Mermaid to gladden the spirit.
The hard working Salthouse volunteers are also pleased to show twelve of
John Craske's embroideries, not seen for the past 30 years, and Mary Newcomb’s
lighthouse.
More examples of James Dodds, Guy Taplin and Mary Newcomb’s work can
currently be seen at Messums in Cork Street, London, whose exhibition literature
informs readers that James Dodds knows boats inside out as he initially
trained as a shipwright and then as an artist.
Guy Taplin, on the other hand, is completely self taught, his initial love
for wildlife (which earned him the nickname Bird Man of Regents Park) blossomed
into an obsession and a career.
Ian Collins, writing in The Guardian on 31 March 2008, said of Mary Newcomb
that ‘her art lay in the rhythms of nature and the rituals of rural
life - in her chickens, guinea fowl and, best of all, sheep, in village
fetes and country shows, or in incidents glimpsed as she travelled on the
bus, or walked or bicycled. Her canvas ranged from the tiniest insects to
the night sky...She was acclaimed by fellow artists from Ben Nicholson to
Mary Fedden’. She died in Suffolk on 29 March 2008, aged 86.
The exhibition within the church is this year being augmented by a ten-mile
Sculpture Trail circuit which can be navigated on foot, by cycle, or car
and in one go or, more leisurely, in segments. Furthermore, there are art
workshops for adults and families and evening art events featuring some
well known actors and musicians with a Norfolk or Suffolk connection.
Harleston & Waveney
Art Trail
Another art trail worth visiting this July is the Harleston and Waveney
Art Trail, which consists of 30 Open Studios on a cycle-friendly trail,
all within an 8-mile radius of Harleston, Norfolk, in the Waveney Valley.
There will be paintings, sculptures, textiles, photography, mosaic, ceramics
and glass on show along the trail
Further Information:
Bergh Apton’s sculpture trail this year follows the theme of ‘Balance’.
Bergh Apton lies 8 miles south east of Norwich on the A146. The trail is
open (mainly for walkers and cyclists) from 10.30am to 6pm on three consecutive
weekends, commencing on Saturday 24 May. Visit website
Salthouse Church is on Cross Street, Salthouse, off the A149 and opens 10am-5.30pm
from Thursday 3 July until Sunday 3 August 2008. Visit website
The Harleston and Waveney Art Trail can be followed from both Harleston
and Bungay, on the Suffolk/Norfolk border. The trail is open on the weekends
of July 5/6, 12/13, 19/20, from 11am to 6pm. Call 01379 855366 for an illustrated
brochure & map or email email
Alternatively, the shops and galleries in both villages will have maps.
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