Exhibitions update: Jones, Piper, Johnston & Russian portraits

David Jones: Vision & Memory is now at the Djanogly Gallery in Nottingham. This major exhibition has been organised to coincide with the publication of a new monograph and includes some 60 works from throughout Jones’s life in a timely reassessment of one of the most imaginative artists of his era. Exhibits range from sketches made on the Western Front to watercolours of trees, flowers and thorns, as well as drawings of Arthurian subjects and painted inscriptions.

David Jones (1895-1974) was a painter, engraver, poet and maker of inscriptions. A lyrical draughtsman, he responded with delight to the visual world, yet his vision was informed by memory reaching back into the depths of time and history. The celebrated art historian and broadcaster, Kenneth Clark, believed he was the greatest British watercolourist of the 20th century.

In the 1920s, working in the circle of Eric Gill, Jones became an engraver of the first rank. His illustrated books engage with the world of symbol and myth. They will be exhibited alongside his shimmering watercolours of still lives, seascapes and portraits. In later years, as David Jones devoted more time to poetry, he painted inscriptions that are as vital in design as they are allusive in content.

The exhibition has been organised by Pallant House Gallery, Chichester, with the support of Amgueddfa Cymru – National Museum Wales, and features works drawn from both private and public lenders including Kettle’s Yard, Cambridge, Tate and the V&A.

John Piper: The Fabric of Modernism at Pallant House is the first exhibition to focus on John Piper’s textile designs, exploring key motifs in the artist’s work such as historic architecture, abstract and religious imagery, as well as subjects explored in the final years of the artist’s life, such as foliate heads, sunflowers and the church at Long Sutton. Shown alongside related paintings and other studies the exhibition demonstrates how Piper’s designs were intricately connected with his wider work.

John Piper was one of the leading Modern British artists of the 20th century, best known for his paintings of Britain’s romantic heritage including churches, country houses and wartime ruins. In the post-war period Piper was also noted for his work as an accomplished designer of theatre sets, stained glass windows, and textiles. Through over 80 works, this major exhibition is the first to focus on John Piper’s textile designs, exploring key motifs in the artist’s work such as historic architecture, abstract and religious imagery, as well as subjects explored in the final years of the artist’s life, such as foliate heads, sunflowers and the church at Long Sutton. Shown alongside related paintings and other studies the exhibition demonstrates how Piper’s designs were intricately connected with his wider work.

Piper’s textile designs included furnishing fabrics for the post-war home for companies including Arthur Sanderson & Sons Ltd, scarves for Asher, ecclesiastical garments, and tapestries created for cathedrals and other public spaces. Marking the 50th anniversary of the installation of the artist’s celebrated altar tapestry in Chichester Cathedral, many of the studies for this important example of religious art will be shown alongside several of the Foliate Head tapestries woven to Piper’s designs at West Dean Tapestry Studio near Chichester. The exhibition will be accompanied by a new book by Simon Martin, with contributions by Frances Spalding.

Underground: 100 Years of Edward Johnston’s Lettering for London at the Ditchling Museum of Art & Craft marks the centenary of Edward Johnston’s world famous typeface for London Underground. Remarkably, it has barely changed over 100 years, a testament to its success as station way finders.

Hand drawn by Johnston whilst living in Ditchling this alphabet is gloriously simple, but its design is rooted in much earlier lettering since it bears the proportions of Roman capitals. The design was initially proposed in 1913 by Frank Pick, commercial manager of London Underground Railway as a joint project for Edward Johnston and Eric Gill, but Gill was unable to proceed since he had agreed to a major commission of Stations of the Cross stone reliefs for Westminster Cathedral.

Johnston’s typeface is known variously as Underground, or Johnston Sans. It is also known as the basis on which Eric Gill, one of Johnston’s first pupils at Central School of Arts & Crafts, designed his typeface Gill Sans for the Monotype Corporation, released in 1928. With similar proportions to Johnston’s earlier typeface, it was initially criticised for being too similar but both Johnston Sans and Gill Sans have become modern classics.

This exhibition shows Johnston as a true man of letters, resurrecting and redefining calligraphy in the West, and designing an elegant typeface for London Underground. Highlights include Johnston’s calligraphy for W R Lethaby which secured his post as a teacher at Central School of Arts & Crafts; manuscripts showing his development as a calligrapher; rarely seen working drawings of the Underground typeface, and original drawings for Gill Sans.

Russia and the Arts at the National Portrait Gallery is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to see masterpieces on loan from the State Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow.

The exhibition will focus on the great writers, artists, composers and patrons, including Tolstoy, Chekhov and Dostoevsky, whose achievements helped develop an extraordinary and rich cultural scene in Russia between 1867 and 1914.

The exhibition will also show how Russian art of the period was developing a new self-confidence, with the penetrating Realism of the 1870s and 1880s later complemented by the brighter hues of Russian Impressionism and the bold, faceted forms of Symbolist painting.

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Paul Johnson - The Road.