Alfred Wallis
dal 6/4/2012 al 7/6/2012
Segnalato da
6/4/2012
Alfred Wallis
Kettle's Yard, Cambridge
Ships and boats. This display is a new selection of about forty paintings of what Wallis knew best: from three masted brigantines and sailing boats to lug boats and motor vessels, often battling with an unpredictable sea that held sway over life and death.
Artist in focus
Alfred Wallis (1855 - 1942) is one of the most original and inspiring British artists of the 20th Century. Kettle's Yard owns nearly 100 works by Alfred Wallis and this new display, curated by Director, Andrew Nairne is a unique opportunity to see 40 of Wallis’s remarkable paintings, some of which have rarely been shown. This is the first opportunity for over 20 years to see all these works together at Kettle's Yard.
Living in St. Ives, Cornwall and with no art training, Wallis took up painting late in life ‘for company‘ after the death of his wife. In the 1870’s he had been a ’mariner, merchant service‘ crossing the Atlantic and later working smaller fishing boats closer to shore. Using household and ship oil paint in a limited supply of colours on found bits of card, Wallis made works that are, as he said himself, more experiences and events than paintings. ‘i do most what used To Be what we shall never see no more’, he wrote to Jim Ede, the creator of Kettle’s Yard, and one of his most ardent collectors.
Promoted by the artist Ben Nicholson and others, Wallis’s paintings are often valued for their influence on the development of British art at a key moment, but they have a powerful expressive reality to them that is both deeply personal and enduring. When the artist Peter Lanyon asked him about a detail in one of his paintings, Wallis replied revealingly: ‘Mind your own business’. What shines out is Wallis’s exceptional natural talent. His paintings are of what he knew, remembered and imagined. They continue to speak movingly about how we relate to the world about us.
This display is a new selection of about forty paintings of what Wallis knew best: from three masted brigantines and sailing boats to lug boats and motor vessels, often battling with an unpredictable sea that held sway over life and death. Some paintings have been moved from the part of the Kettle’s Yard House currently closed due to building work, others are usually in store and rarely seen.
All works in the display come from the collection of Kettle's Yard, University of Cambridge. Alfred Wallis forms a major part of the Kettle's Yard collection and there are 98 works in the collection 39 of which are normally on display in the house. All works can be viewed on the online database: http://www.kettlesyard.cam.ac.uk/collection/
Alfred Wallis (1855 – 1942) was a fisherman and later a scrap-metal merchant in St. Ives. After the death of his wife in 1922, he turned to painting as a way of fending off loneliness. He was admired by Ben Nicholson and Christopher Wood, who came across his work when visiting St. Ives in 1928 and included it in the Seven & Five Society's exhibition of 1929. He is considered a key influence on the development of modernist art in Britain. His work is included in the Tate and the Modern Art Museum New York amongst many other major collections. He died in Madron Poorhouse, Cornwall.
Interviews with display curator and Director, Andrew Nairne and photo opportunities can be arranged.
Kettle's Yard is currently undergoing major building work while we build a new Education Centre, due to open in Autumn 2013, Certain areas of the house will be closed from April and the gallery space is reduced.
Opening 7 april
Kettle's Yard
Castle Street, Cambridge
hours: Mon-Fri 9.15am-2.45pm
Admission free