Art Student Book Two 1969-70

ART STUDENT Book Two 1969-70

The Introduction

If you wanted to enjoy yourself back in 1968, and were so inclined, you might possibly think about going to Art College, perhaps in London, and spending your summer holidays wandering around the great galleries of Europe including the Louvre, the Prado and the Vatican, as well as visiting the Parthenon, the caves of Altamira and Pompeii.

This account of such indulgence, a mosaic of short episodes, is the platform for presenting the History of Art, Literature and especially Film as it was encountered, using hyperlinks for reference and illustration. A series of five books presents the whole rose tinted reminiscence beginning with the first book in Bournemouth-by-the-Sea, all that time ago, when Modern Art was, indeed, still relatively modern.

The many references to Literature and History, throughout the books, reflect what the Fine Arts once enjoyed. This was a happy synthesis between Art, History and Literature. During the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries the Fine Arts were deprived of this by other Art forms, which included Illustration, Photography, and particularly Film. The consequence of these developments was an ideology of what little remained. This was called Modern Art.

It was all such a long time ago but I would, nevertheless, not want to embarrass the characters I describe so I have made everybody anonymous and given them the names from the dramatis personae of Thomas Hardy novels unless, of course they are undoubtedly dead.

I hope the inclusion of pronunciation advice is not too annoying but Goethe, Nietzsche, Ingres and Laocoön are really just asking for trouble.

The sad fact, and one of the reasons for this eBook enterprise, is I was talking to the once fellow student recently, the character I call Springrove in the books, and he and I agreed we would not follow the same path and go to Art College today; the immense debts incurred would not be worth the education, much of which is self-driven anyway.

The internet provides education, access to images, commentary, discussion, platforms for publishing and the means for expression which were not available then. Today I would write a blog, and have exhibitions online, because I think constructive criticism is also important. Whether you take heed of it, or not, is another matter.

Art Student Book Two 1969-70

Chapter 1A: Merton Park Studios

Merton Park Studios, on the Kingston Road in Wimbledon, were situated next to the Leather Bottle Public House. The pub is on the corner of Merton Hall Road and Wimbledon School of Art is down on the left.

These studios began as art studios for a late Pre-Raphaelite, a certain Frederick Shields who worked with Dante Gabriel Rossetti and Ford Madox Brown. He lived and worked there until his death in 1911. They were later transformed into film studios.

When Giles took Billy to the Moderne Cinema in Winton they could expect a second feature: black and white, emotionally fraught bad luck stories of the murky underworld of crime with plaintive music. A good many of these films were made at Merton Park Studios, and were still being made there until a couple of years ago.

It was here Ron Goodwin began his career as a film composer. Later he would write the music for Where Eagles Dare. Wimbledon School of Art was completed in 1940. Wimbledon was bombed from the outset of the war; it was where the German bombers would turn and offload their remaining bombs after blitzing the east end. And this is exactly where they built a brand new school of art. It makes you proud to be British.

Giles collected his grant cheque from the School Secretary’s Office and he started a Deposit Account with the National Provincial on Wimbledon High Street, on the corner near the station. He was given a blue book, not unlike the Post Office Book but, it being a bank, this was a hardback. He still kept a few quid in the Post Office for convenience.

Chapter 1A: Hyperlinks

Merton Park Studio

http://www.thestudiotour.com/mertonpark/chronology.shtml

Merton Park Film Studios

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merton_Park_Studios

Leather Bottle Public House

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wimbledon_Chase

Frederick Shields

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederic_Shields

Dante Gabriel Rossetti

http://www.victorianweb.org/authors/dgr/dgrseti13.html

Ford Madox Brown

http://www.victorianweb.org/art/illustration/fmb/cooke.html

Ron Goodwin

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ron_Goodwin

Where Eagles Dare

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Where_Eagles_Dare

Merton Hall Road

http://photoarchive.merton.gov.uk/collections/streets/streets-m-o/32986

Wimbledon School of Art

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wimbledon_College_of_Art

Chapter 1B:

Coldstream Report

Giles Winterborne was accepted for the Fine Art Painting Dip AD course at Wimbledon School of Art in 1969, after completing his Pre-Diploma at Bournemouth. It was a three year course at Wimbledon and during those three years his painting would be assessed, and at the end he would take examination papers and write a dissertation. This was the Diploma in Art and Design, which had only been initiated after The Coldstream Report in 1960.

This report discovered amongst other things that a good academic performance at school need not, necessarily, result in a correspondingly good performance in Art School. Giles could do poor performance any time you liked; school, college, he was not fussy!

The chief subjects for the Diploma were fine art, graphic design, three dimensional design, and fashion. Wimbledon had a course in Fine Art Painting and experimentation was to be encouraged in the early stages but these courses were intended to be prescriptive, according to the individual college. There was a Diploma in Graphic Design and they were going to introduce Three Dimensional Design, more or less Sculpture, next year. Also and almost singular to Wimbledon was the illustrious Diploma in Theatre Design.

A thorough, even formidable in the case of Wimbledon, grounding in Art History was to be applied in the allotted two and a half hours a week. A National Council to administer the awarding of said Diplomas was set up as an independent, self-governing body in 1961.These Diplomas replaced a former four year course, but that was more traditional and revolved around an accurate representation of the world. From now on the representation would be considerably more inaccurate.

For some reason Giles discovered himself to be extremely nervous, shy and tentative, during the first week of the first term. The black girl was not there; no black people were in the school.

They were given some vague drawing lessons, looking through clear sheets of plastic, hung from the light fittings. Giles shared a few words with someone called Matthaus, who said to call him Matt, and with someone called Andrew, who said to call him Andy. Apart from these two everybody seemed very cagey and aloof. There was a loud Greek looking bloke, short with bandy legs and a mass of hair called James but, thankfully, he was on the other side of the large studio, which was at the end of a corridor on the ground floor.

Chapter 1B: Hyperlinks

Diploma in Art and Design

http://arts.brighton.ac.uk/arts/alumni-and-associates/the-history-of-arts-education-in-brighton/post-war-curriculum-and-assessment-coldstream,-summerson,-art-history-and-complementary-studies

William Coldstream

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Coldstream

Western painting

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_painting

Chapter 2A:

Fig Leaf

The canteen, sorry refectory, was situated above the entrance hall. A long room with two long tables and a kitchen at the far end, occupied by nebulous white ghosts behind textured glass and open until two in the afternoon, after which tea and coffee, or something similar, could be had from the machine situated to one side.

Sauntering upstairs now he was less shy, Giles got into a conversation with one of the second year girls. The First Year Painting had been given the chance to do some life drawing this morning, in an upstairs room, courtesy of two of the more elderly college tutors, rather more getting on in years than the group of young eager beavers they had started off with. These were the brothers Edwards. Giles and a couple of others grabbed the opportunity.

Giles was telling her this and she said: Oh yes, Deafwards and Letchwards. You’re alright, Letchwards won’t bother you. Giles laughed. In actual fact he was rather pleased. They appeared to subscribe to the idea of drawing being paramount, rather like the tutors at Bournemouth, and had a number of anecdotes which reminded Giles of Jonesy.

One of Letchward’s anecdotes had been about a model whose forte was to hold a difficult pose for extraordinary lengths of time; he was an extremely good model, very much in demand. For some reason he was not available at the moment but had been a regular at the School up until last year. To call him plain eccentric would be ridiculous. He was a case, and no mistake, but always charming and got on well with everybody. Every morning he was working he would go down to his local market and find a fresh fig leaf, a real one to bring along to pose with, held on with tape.

Although Letchwards had never been there himself, this man lived in one room in Chelsea and, by all accounts, it was covered in dust. The dust climbed up the corners of this room and it had been like this for years. He never cleaned anything, apart from himself and his clothes, not that he required many of those with this sort of work. He would walk down the street and it was perfectly clear from miles away that he was a right nancy. His name was Quentin Crisp and he had just published The Naked Civil Servant. Charming man.

Chapter 2A: Hyperlinks

Fig Leaf

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fig_leaf

Quentin Crisp

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quentin_Crisp

The Naked Civil Servant

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Naked_Civil_Servant_(book)

Chapter 2B:

Gay

Giles told the Second Year about this Quentin Crisp and she laughed in turn, said yes, she had, indeed, drawn him herself, but she reprimanded Giles.

You’re not meant to say nancy, or queer anymore, said the Second Year.

What do you say then? interrupted the loud Greek looking bloke with a mass of hair, sitting on the other side of the table.

You’re meant to say gay, like the cavalier. Especially as so many of Theatre Design are like that, both men and women. It’s gay, not queer.

Why are so many of that lot gay then? asked the loud mass of hair, in a voice that ensured everybody in the refectory could hear.

Oh, you know, they’re all a bit pansy in the theatre, she said in a low voice, looking round with, now, some considerable embarrassment.

Gay, not pansy. the Greek informed her loudly.

What’s your name shorthouse? You wanna fight? asked the Second Year. Pesky little first years! Whatever next! Looking around at the refectory she announced, They’re nothing to do with me! The Greek gave the second year girl a great big grin and turned to offer his hand to Giles.

Hard d’ya do, James.

Hard d’ya do, Giles.

We’ve got one far worse than that in our lot, he whispered to Giles. Have you met that Gertrude? She’ll do your bleedin’ ‘ead in.

Bell bottoms, like those wonderful uniforms worn by jolly tars when afloat, were beginning to be worn by the dedicated followers of fashion, and James, and on occasion Matt were to be included in these. Matt seemed a sophisticated Londoner but the cartoon of a photographer, always to be seen with numerous expensive looking cameras dangling from his person; in fact he made a goodly sum from selling pictures to the newspapers, especially The Daily Telegraph.

James took flares seriously. Giles was to learn his family seemed to be wealthy, with several fish and chip shops and other businesses to their name, and he and Matt were the only two who had cars in Giles’ year on the Fine Art course, of about twenty five students. Matt had a Beetle but James had a Mini, with flared wheel arches which enabled him to really zip round corners. He also had an operation done on his jeans which were called inserts. These were triangles inserted on the inside of his jeans; flared jeans to match his wheel arches and, incidentally, the nostrils on his emphatically Greek nose.

Chapter 2B: Hyperlinks

Sexual Offences Act 1967

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sexual_Offences_Act_1967

The Daily Telegraph

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Daily_Telegraph

Flared trousers

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=flared+trousers&biw=1276&bih=680&site=webhp&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&sqi=2&ved=0ahUKEwjF_Jfv-9TPAhWkI8AKHZ_DAVwQ_AUIBygC#tbm=isch&q=flared+trousers+1970s

Volkswagen Beetle

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volkswagen_Beetle

British Leyland Mini

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mini

Chapter 3A:

Coronation Coach

At £6 a week, three quid each, little did Giles know but this flat would be one of the best places he would ever rent in London. The only drawback was the middle aged woman who lived upstairs and used the same front door and hallway; even the phone in the lounge was a party line.

Their lounge at the front, with rarely opened curtains, was very old fashioned and dark but Somers had now acquired a television, a temperamental thing, with Somers’ little model Coronation Coach and Horses resplendent beside the aerial on the top. Giles had been there, in 1953, when Her Majesty had been crowned in the road outside; not the real Queen of course, just a girl.

Weekdays, when Somers was not drinking with his office, they would sometimes go up to the Prince of Wales on Hartfield Road and have a couple, returning to watch a film, often as not a Hammer Horror. These films were perfect post pub entertainment and soon Somers was chortling away like an outboard motor.

"That fortnight in Paris? Yeah, we stayed with one of Felix mum’s friends opposite the zoo, Lay Gardin day Plont. That chronic laundry, Pokesdown Hill! You were on sheets, Felix was pressing hankies and I was pressing waiter’s jackets all day. She’s a vampire. We were allowed a ten minute break in the morning and afternoon, just enough time for two fags, a cup of tea and a buttered bun. And then lunchtime in that pub across the road, listening to Hey Jude on the jukebox."

There was also a new Dansette. Giles had brought his own small collection of LPs and had found a shop in Wimbledon High Street that sold the cheap East European copies of Classical music, seven and six, even five bob sometimes. Giles had decided to work his way through Beethoven’s Symphonies before going on to his Late Quartets.

Giles had also bought himself a recorder, a musical instrument, similar to the one he had tried and failed to play as a child, and a book, which was rather implausibly called: How to Play the Recorder in Six Easy Lessons. Both his parents could play musical instruments, and both his younger brothers had mastered the recorder; then gone on, in the case of Billy, to tickle the ivories. So, not wanting to be left out and now away from home, Giles would learn, ten minutes every day.

Chapter 3A: Hyperlinks

Phone party line

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Party_line_(telephony)

Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coronation_of_Queen_Elizabeth_II

Model Coronation Coach and Horses

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=coronation+coach+model&biw=1246&bih=663&site=webhp&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&sqi=2&ved=0ahUKEwjh6K633ZDNAhWsAcAKHTkiAvcQ_AUIBigB

Prince of Wales

http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/1861557

Hammer Horror Films

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hammer_Film_Productions

Lay Gardin day Plont

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M%C3%A9nagerie_du_Jardin_des_plantes

Hey Jude

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hey_Jude

Pokesdown Hill Laundry

https://www.flickr.com/photos/45065527@N08/7690249002

Ludwig van Beethoven

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ludwig_van_Beethoven

Recorder

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Recorder_(musical_instrument)

Chapter 3B:

Chirality

There was a revolution in office space at about this time, introduced from America, called open plan. It was getting away with lots of little offices and replacing them with a large, more flexible space. This is how the studio at Wimbledon was arranged. Cubicles were nevertheless created according to character and the noise was a low hum of gossip, occasional gasps of despair mixed with the, even more, occasional chuckles of triumph.

Where there was space larger paintings stood on bricks, or similar, and leant against the wall. Cubicles were formed by paintings on easels or boards leant against tables where the student could leave drawings, photographs, books and other painting impedimenta, interspersed with an accumulation of plastic brown coffee machine cups, around a bulging ashtray. Giles was smoking tailor-mades now as much as rollies: Cadets.

Coffee, was by machine in the refectory out of kitchen hours. A tanner bought you a wondrous cup of coffee, black, white, sweet or not, hot chocolate or tea, which was even more unlike tea than the coffee was unlike coffee. The machine had been abused in more ways than anyone, with a vivid imagination, could possibly conceive of, due to its efficacy or woeful lack of it; a favourite trick was no cup appearing. Customers saw their hot drink disappearing through the grate and the passionate and creative souls would lash out, kicking and screaming. And you cannot keep turpentine in plastic coffee cups.

When Giles had looked round the college before applying most of the work had looked representational, the air had hung heavy with the smell of linseed oil. His first painting, on eight foot by four foot hardboard was a cubist take of the stairs at the college, views of the stairs compiled in a vague structure of steps.

Taking all his equipment home every night, in a holdall, became a habit. Amongst his paints and brushes was a small mirror, his painting mirror. He had discovered the use of the mirror after watching other students. Because most artists favour the right or left hand this chirality shows in their work, especially figurative work, or it does not until they look at their work in the mirror, where it appears to be slanted one way, distorted. This distortion can be rectified unless it is consciously used to emphasise something. Claude Lorrain had a convex mirror of darkened glass. Mmm.

Chapter 3B: Hyperlinks

Open plan offices

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_plan

Tanner

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Sigismund_Tanner

Chirality

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chirality

Claude Glass

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=claude+glass&biw=1246&bih=663&site=webhp&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&sqi=2&ved=0ahUKEwjo2o-415DNAhVnDsAKHa_tAfgQsAQIIg&dpr=1

Chapter 3C:

Oiling Out

Giles had taken to painting on hardboard, sheets of eight foot by four, and quite expensive on oil paint they were too. Georgian oils could be bought at the