Truth is often stranger than fiction, isn't it? Head to the newly opened venue of Charleston in Lewes for Dorothy Hepworth and Patricia Preece: An Untold Story , an exhibition that relates a piece of art history that, you have to say, would make a good film. And here are the two principal characters: Dorothy, on the left, a talented graduate of the Slade School of Fine Art , and her fellow student, friend, lover, partner and collaborator Patricia, perhaps not quite so talented, but both passionate about art. The photograph seems to tell you a lot. Dorothy looks a little bit awkward and ill at ease, slightly frumpy, androgynous even. Patricia appears confident, glamorous, exuberant, perhaps a little.... possessive? But maybe we're getting ahead of ourselves. We need to establish the plot.... The rather retiring Hepworth and the outgoing, gregarious Preece became inseparable as students, and they planned to set up a studio together after graduation. In 1922, Preece took exam
For a period in the 1950s, Cyril Mann developed a striking and distinctive style of painting that now looks to have been ahead of its time. The pictures that tell how a dark council flat in Islington produced a little bit of art history can be seen in The Solid Shadow Paintings at the Piano Nobile gallery in west London.
Mann, who was born in 1911, had previously explored the effects of natural light, but at the start of the 50s the local council rehoused him to a flat above a gold-bullion broker near Old Street. For insurance reasons, there were bars on the windows, and no natural light found its way in. So the artist turned on the light -- and started to explore the effects of the harsh shadows it cast, with boldly outlined, simplified objects in exaggerated colours. The shadows seem almost as solid as the objects themselves.
In this Dish of Fruit, the eye is caught not only by the white highlights on the individual pieces of fruit, but by the way the shadow falls like a veil or piece of gauze linking the bowl to the dense shaded area on the table. Four tiny spotlights pierce the shadow through the holes in the handles of the bowl.
There's a Pop Art quality to it. And yet it's a few years before what you might consider the British flowering of Pop Art. And you also think of Patrick Caulfield, who later developed a similar style of painting, apparently independently of Mann.
The veil effect is even more noticeable when Mann was depicting something upright, as in Still Life with Bottles or, perhaps our favourite from the paintings on display, Dahlias in Blue Vase, where the flowers cast individual shadows on the surface of the table. The effect is somehow weirdly reminiscent of Victorian ladies in mourning.
Sometimes the forms appear almost abstract, as in this extremely angular Peeled Apple. There's a lot of food and drink in Mann's solid shadow paintings, scattered around the table, as well as paperbacks and the odd box of matches. One of the most memorable images is of a Mackerel on a plate, in a almost Fauvist colour scheme of green, dark red, orange and blue with a knife whose blade is painted in four different tones. The reproduction doesn't capture the brightness. By contrast, the treatment of this loaf and bread knife appears much more straightforward.
Mann's solid shadow period lasted only a few years. What happened? Well, the council moved him to a brighter flat, and he was able to work in natural light, so the hard-edged shadows faded from his output.... How local-authority housing policy changed the course of art history.
Cyril Mann, Peeled Apple, c. 1955
Cyril Mann, Bread and Knife, c. 1955
John Wesley, Queen Victoria at Rest, 1989
All images courtesy of Piano Nobile
Mann, who was born in 1911, had previously explored the effects of natural light, but at the start of the 50s the local council rehoused him to a flat above a gold-bullion broker near Old Street. For insurance reasons, there were bars on the windows, and no natural light found its way in. So the artist turned on the light -- and started to explore the effects of the harsh shadows it cast, with boldly outlined, simplified objects in exaggerated colours. The shadows seem almost as solid as the objects themselves.
There's a Pop Art quality to it. And yet it's a few years before what you might consider the British flowering of Pop Art. And you also think of Patrick Caulfield, who later developed a similar style of painting, apparently independently of Mann.
The veil effect is even more noticeable when Mann was depicting something upright, as in Still Life with Bottles or, perhaps our favourite from the paintings on display, Dahlias in Blue Vase, where the flowers cast individual shadows on the surface of the table. The effect is somehow weirdly reminiscent of Victorian ladies in mourning.
This eye-opening show of 20 or so pictures by Mann is accompanied by a small selection of works by artists who've worked in that similar style using blocks of solid colour. Caulfield and Michael Craig-Martin, of course, and it's noticeable how much Mann's thick application of paint differs from the smoothness of Caulfield's and Craig-Martin's work. There's also Euan Uglow, and the American pop artist John Wesley, represented here with Queen Victoria at Rest.
Practicalities
The Solid Shadow Paintings can be seen at Piano Nobile in Holland Park until January 26, and there's no charge for admission. The gallery is open from 1000 to 1800 Monday to Friday and 1100 to 1600 on Saturdays, though please note that opening is by appointment only from December 24 to January 5. Piano Nobile is at 129 Portland Road, London W11, and the nearest Tube stations are Holland Park on the Central Line and Latimer Road or Ladbroke Grove on the Hammersmith & City and Circle Lines.More Cyril Mann
Cyril Mann: Painter of Light and Shadow is the title of a retrospective exhibition at The Lightbox in Woking, Surrey from January 12 to March 31. The show is loaned by Piano Nobile.
Images
Cyril Mann, Dish of Fruit, c. 1955Cyril Mann, Peeled Apple, c. 1955
Cyril Mann, Bread and Knife, c. 1955
John Wesley, Queen Victoria at Rest, 1989
All images courtesy of Piano Nobile
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