Windows on the world (376)

 Kendal, 2017

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Low - White Horses.

HeartEdge in Amsterdam, Bradford & Kendal

This is a busy week for HeartEdge. Most of the team have been in Amsterdam where an excellent HeartEdge Introductory Day with the Protestant Church of the Netherlands was preceded by an evening event at which Sam Wells spoke on 'Improvisation'. I have been at the Greater Churches Network conference at which I spoke in Kendal Parish Church on 'Resourcing Innovative Mission', giving examples drawn from HeartEdge churches and speaking of the way missional networks provide resource while highlighting the extent to the HeartEdge model of mission comes with resourcing inbuilt. Today we are involved with and looking forward to a Bishop's Study Day in Bradford.

Future HeartEdge events include:

• 11 June 'Newcastle HeartEdge Day' with Sam Wells and guests. A unique programme of theological reflection and local contributors. HeartEdge days focus around our HeartEdge 4 Cs with an emphasis on practical insight and ideas to take away. Book in here.
• 27 June 'Derby HeartEdge Day' with Sam Wells and guests - working across Derby and the surrounding area? Urban, suburban or rural? We would love you to join this practical one-day intensive introduction to HeartEdge with Sam Wells and guests. We're ecumenical and open to all. The day will explore approaches to mission, do theology, develop ideas and help build on the community of practice in Derby. Book in here.
• 2 - 3 October, Edinburgh. The HeartEdge annual conference: 'On Earth as it is in Heaven' - a practical, two-day intensive of ideas, theology and connecting. Includes workshops on enterprise and commerce, launching cultural projects, developing congregations and sustaining community response. This year contributors include Sam Wells, Cormac Russell and Winnie Varghese. To book in early-bird visit here.

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Sofia Gubaidulina - Repentance.

Josefina de Vasconcellos: Kendal Parish Church & Cartmel Priory

Josefina de Vasconcellos was active as a sculptor from the early 1920s. As an artist she followed her own individual path, always believing that sculpture had a role to play as an inspirational force in society. In her extraordinary life she faced many challenges and disappointments, yet, sustained by her sincere Christian beliefs, managed to continue working into great old age. Versions of her best-known work Reconciliation now stand outside Coventry Cathedral, in the Hiroshima Peace Park, at the site of the Berlin Wall and in the grounds of Stormont Castle, Belfast. Many of her other works are in churches, cathedrals and private homes throughout the UK and overseas. More information about her extraordinary life and art can be found in Josefina de Vasconcellos, Her Life and Art.

De Vasconcellos had a lengthy association with Cumbria following her marriage to the artist Delmar Banner. They adopted two boys, and the family settled in a farmhouse at The Bield in Little Langdale at the heart of the Lakes.She carved in an outhouse at the farm while Delmar painted dramatic landscapes from the summits of the Lakeland fells. 

Banner was also an Anglican lay priest, and he led her to be baptised into the Anglican church, a faith that has run through much of her artistic work. Among her works outside Cumbria are ‘Reconciliation’ at Coventry Cathedral and Bradford University, ‘Holy Family’ at Liverpool Cathedral and Gloucester Cathedral, ‘Mary and Child’ at St Paul’s Cathedral, London, ‘Nativity’ (at Christmas) at St Martin-in-the-Fields Church in Trafalgar Square, London (now destroyed), and many more.

In Cumbria she received commissions for 13 different locations, many of which were churches. I have recently seen sculptures by de Vasconcellos at Kendal Parish Church and Cartmel Priory. 

The Family of Man is in the South Aisle at Kendal Parish Church. The setting for this sculpture is a contemporary Refugee Camp in the Middle East. Huddled together, under an old blanket are Mary, Jesus and three children representing the African, European and Oriental peoples of the world. Although it has the appearance of stone the sculpture, like much of de Vasconcellos' work, is made of fibreglass. As a result, it is sometimes moved elsewhere in the church.

At Cartmel Priory, on entering the charming little chapel known as the town choir, de Vasconcellos' sculpture of St Michael the Archangel battling his way through the jaws of the dragon is powerfully evident. In the sedilla in the wall opposite is 'The True Vine' depicting the Virgin Mary and the baby Jesus. 'The Young Martyr' in the North Transept commemorates the four canons and ten laymen executed in 1537 for resisting the closure of Cartmel Priory during the dissolution of the monasteries, and for all martyrs who have died for their faith. On one of the sides the names of the Martyrs of Cartmel from 1537 are carved into the stone. Within the base of a solid stone plinth is a lighted candle in a red glass holder. Topping the sculpture is a head behind solid bars. 'They fled by night – Mary and Joseph and the Holy Child' is a very tactile statue being only a few feet high and made of solid resin bronze so, as many before you have done, you can pass your hands over the work easily without risk of damage. De Vasconcellos has captured a moment when the holy family rested in the desert on their flight into Egypt. St Michael 

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Norman Nicholson - Silecroft Shore.

Abbott Hall Art Gallery: Painting Pop & A Rake's Progress

Abbott Hall is Kendal’s finest historic house and an award winning art gallery which opened in 1962. Exhibitions at Abbott Hall showcase a variety of works by a wealth of international artists. The Georgian period rooms allow glimpses of what life was like in another time and provide views of the River Kent and Kendal Castle.

The collection at Abbot Hall Art Gallery consists predominantly of 18th and 20th century British paintings, due to the nature of the Georgian building and the history of the collection, which began in the 1960s. There is also a significant collection of 19th century watercolours by artists such as J R Cozens, David Cox, Peter De Wint, JMW Turner, John Sell Cotman, John Varley and Edward Lear.

On the ground floor, there are original period rooms, which act as an opulent backdrop to the fine and decorative art collection. On the first floor modern galleries can be found, showcasing a range of exhibitions from the permanent collection, and on loan from other organisations and private collections.

The Gallery possesses a significant collection of works by George Romney, as well as having one of the most comprehensive collections of John Ruskin's drawings and watercolours in the country. There is good representation from the St Ives School with works by Ben Nicholson (one is currently on display), Peter Lanyon, Terry Frost, Roger Hilton and Patrick Heron. Abbot Hall also has a significant group of Lake District works by the German refugee artist Kurt Schwitters, and still life paintings by Winifred Nicholson and the Scottish Colourist, S J Peploe. There is currently a display of works by Kurt Schwitters on the ground floor of the Gallery.

Modern landscape paintings and works on paper are displayed on the first floor by artists such as John Piper, Paul Nash, Bridget Riley and Hughie O’Donoughue. In recent years Abbot Hall Art Gallery has been active in adding contemporary British works to its collection, including Frank Auerbach, Paula Rego, Tony Bevan, and Celia Paul. There is also a growing collection of artist’s prints, including etchings by David Hockney and Lucian Freud, lithographs by Pablo Picasso, Georges Braque and Henry Moore and aquatints by Sean Scully. A work by Barbara Hepworth is on display in the Oval outside Abbot Hall Art Gallery.

The summer exhibition celebrates British Pop Art from the early 1960s, including work by Sir Peter Blake, Pauline Boty, Patrick Caulfield (Christ at Emmaus), Richard Hamilton, David Hockney and Allen Jones borrowed from major collections such as Tate, National Portrait Gallery and Government Art Collection.

The exhibition focuses on the period around 1962, a pivotal year for Pop Art in Britain, presenting works by leading artists in British Pop Art who have made a significant contribution to the development of twentieth century and contemporary art practice. The show presents loans from the Tate collection by Allen Jones and David Hockney. Significant loans are also borrowed from the National Portrait Gallery, Arts Council Collection, and the Royal College of Art – a crucible for Pop painting during this time, as many of the artists in the exhibition met whilst studying there. Another RCA graduate included in the show is Pauline Boty, a largely forgotten artist, represented by her painting Colour Her Gone. This portrait of Marilyn Monroe is shown alongside other important works from public and private collections.

For many people, Pop Art means Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein and Jasper Johns, this bold, witty and thought-provoking show proves that painting in Britain in the 1960s could be just as inspirational and iconic as that of the Americans.

Also on show is A Rake’s Progress which was made following David Hockney’s first trip to New York in 1961, a visit that marked a transformation in Hockney’s personal and professional life. Hockney’s prints revisit themes in English artist William Hogarth’s A Rake’s Progress, an eighteen-century moral tale presented in a series of 8 engravings.

A Rake’s Progress was Hockney’s first major group of etchings. Since then he has created more than 500 prints. Accomplished in drawing, Hockney developed a natural talent for depiction in line on etching plates. This series of 16 skillfully executed etching and aquatint prints draw on his experience as a visitor to New York in their narrative, featuring a semi-autobiographical character.

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The Beatles - A Day In The Life.