Last weeks Church Times had an interesting article highlighting the support of Anglican clergy other than Walter Hussey for contemporary art over a similar period to that of Hussey.
The article focused primarily on the friendship between John Piper and Revd. Dr. Victor Kenna but also mentioned the role of Moelwyn Merchant, a parish priest, academic, and sculptor. Piper wrote that “Kenna . . . had a lasting and important influence on my life, combining as he did (and alas so few clergymen do) an understanding of the authority of the Church and the authority of form in paintings and sculpture.”
Stephen Laird writes in the article that "Kenna’s influential association with John Piper was to span 50 years. Nevertheless, the significance of their friendship has never been investigated fully by art historians, or recognised by the Church." It has only now come to light as a result of Frances Spalding’s biography of John and Myfanwy Piper (John Piper, Myfanwy Piper: Lives in art) which is being published this month.
From his obituary in The Independent comes the following about Moelwyn Merchant: "Having achieved an international reputation as Shakespeare scholar and art critic, he became Chancellor of Salisbury. There he caused a stir in the Close by accepting from his friend Barbara Hepworth the gift of a large bronze Crucifixion which he controversially had placed near the door of the cathedral. To him it was an important expression of faith by a major contemporary artist; to some conservative Salisbury residents, it was threatening and sacrilegious. Again, he relished the debate.
He took up sculpture himself in his sixties and demonstrated an instinctive sense of form which was the envy of many a trained artist. He had some 30 one-man exhibitions, dominated by his trademark challenging figures precariously balanced. In his sculpture, as in other aspects of his life, he delighted in living near the edge, in querying received wisdom, in elegantly probing the limits of orthodoxy.
As his physical strength began to wane, Merchant returned to creative writing and published no fewer than 11 volumes of prose and poetry over his final decade. Full of energy and endlessly creative, he was a constant source of ideas and insights, one of those enriching beings who make you see things in a different, clearer light."
To these can also be added Bernard Walke for his relationship with the Newlyn Artists. He persuaded Harold Knight, Norman and Alethea Garstin, Gladys Hynes, Ernest and Dod Procter and others to decorate St Hilarys Marazion.
Entering by the south door and turning eastwards, one comes to a picture of St Joan of Arc, painted by Annie Walke, which formed the reredos to an Altar to St Joan. The pictures on the chancel stalls either side were painted by Harold Knight, Gladys Hynes, Ernest Procter, Dod Procter, and Annie Walke and depict scenes from the lives of Cornish Saints. Those on the priest's stalls represent, on the south St Hilery, and on the north the dedication of the church by the Abbot and monks of St Michael's Mount. The pictures on the pulpit, the work of Ernest Procter, represent legends connected with St Neot, St Kevin and St Mawes. The reredos of The Lady Chapel represents the house of the Visitation and was painted by Ernest Proctor. A large crucifix on the north wall is the work of Phyllis Yglesias, a memorial to Canon F Rogers of Truro Cathedral who died in the parish in 1928. West of the crucifix there used to be an altar to St Francis. The reredos, still in position was painted by Roger Fry. In the south west corner of the church there is the reredos, painted by Ernest Procter, of an Altar of the Dead, built in memory of Gerard Collier who during world was one sought to find a way of peace for the world.
Walke faced opposition both for the way in which he went about this redecoration of the church and for his Catholicism. Complaints were made, court action taken, and finally the church was despoiled by protesters, who smashed the altars and other ornaments and left the church in a sad and barren state.
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Beach Boys - I Just Wasn't Made For These Times.
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