Art Student Book One 1968-69

Art Student Book One 1968-69

Giles Winterborne

Contents

Introduction

Chapter 1A: Drawing From Life

Chapter 1B: Dracula

Chapter 1C: Eugénie

Chapter 1D: Cheshire Cat

Chapter 2A: Winston

Chapter 2B: Prodigious

Chapter 2C: Incorrigible

Chapter 3A: Boscombe Manor

Chapter 3B: Prometheus

Chapter 3C: Heart

Chapter 4A: Pre-Diploma

Chapter 4B: Outa space

Chapter 4C: Alderney Manor

Chapter 4D: Pencil

Chapter 4E: Cartridge

Chapter 5A: Claim to Fame

Chapter 5B: Contrapposto

Chapter 5C: Ajax

Chapter 5D: Riot

Chapter 6A: The Story of Art

Chapter 6B: Pliny the Elder

Chapter 6C: Fainting in Coils

Chapter 6D: Venus

Chapter 7A: Jonesy

Chapter 7B: Napoléon

Chapter 7C: The Death of Marat

Chapter 8A: 896 Christchurch Road

Chapter 8B: Lansdowne Round

Chapter 8C: Draw Every Day

Chapter 9A: SCUM

Chapter 9B: Dodgy

Chapter 10A: Odyssey

Chapter 10B: Psycho

Chapter 10C: Clouds Hill

Chapter 11A: Technology

Chapter 11B: Four Wheels Good

Chapter 11C: The Library

Chapter 12A: Too Busy

Chapter 12B: Pudding Lane

Chapter 12C: Far Out

Chapter 12D: Shadows

Chapter 13A: The Golden Bough

Chapter 13B: Rebirth

Chapter 14A: Poole Pottery

Chapter 14B: Idle

Chapter 14C: Dystopia

Chapter 14D: Arcadia

Chapter 15A: Drink Me

Chapter 15B: Peggy Sue

Chapter 15C: Gritnam

Chapter 15D: Toad

Chapter 16A: Post

Chapter 16B: Rumpus

Chapter 16C: The Work

Chapter 16D: Bungalow

Chapter 16E: Peace

Chapter 17A: Driving Test

Chapter 17B: Emergency Stop

Chapter 17C: Earthrise

Chapter 17D: Lamp Post

Chapter 17E: The Hols

Chapter 18A: Work Shy

Chapter 18B: Rozzer

Chapter 19A: Tyburn

Chapter 19B: Blitz

Chapter 19C: Post Office Tower

Chapter 20A: Boadicea

Chapter 20B: Cleopatra’s Needle

Chapter 21A: Shell Guides

Chapter 21B: Festival of Britain

Chapter 21C: Design

Chapter 22A: Scarborough

Chapter 22B: Arts Council

Chapter 22C: The Hayward Gallery

Chapter 22D: Chocolate Box

Chapter 23A: Newton

Chapter 23B: Skerryvore

Chapter 23C: Doppelgänger

Chapter 23D: Barbizon

Chapter 23E: Werewolf

Chapter 24A: Constantin Silvestri

Chapter 24B: Record Collection

Chapter 24C: Amanuensis

Chapter 24D: Arrogance

Chapter 25A: Orange Pippin

Chapter 25B: Sturm und Drang

Chapter 25C: Alternating

Chapter 25D: Henry Fuseli

Chapter 25E: Joseph Johnson

Chapter 25F: Palette

Chapter 26A: The Train

Chapter 26B: The Pictures

Chapter 26C: Un-American

Chapter 26D: The Moderne

Chapter 27A: Film Soc

Chapter 27B: Montage

Chapter 27C: Sam Rabin

Chapter 27D: Dance of Death

Chapter 28A: Debacle

Chapter 28B: Installation

Chapter 28C: Sandboy

Chapter 29A: Memorial

Chapter 29B: Blind Faith

Chapter 29C: Three Men in a Boat

Chapter 29D: Graham Road

ART STUDENT Book One 1968-69

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.

Chapter 1A: Drawing From Life

Drawing from life: it was rumoured amongst a certain schoolboy fraternity in Bournemouth, of a certain age and, obviously, of the more indelicate nature, that if you caught the trolleybus going along Christchurch road, towards the Lansdowne roundabout, and sat upstairs on the left during half term, you had a very good chance of looking down, into the studios of the Art College and getting a dekko at the nude model posing for the students.

No clothes at all?

Not a stitch! Get off the other side of the roundabout. Walk back and do it again! We did!

The rather grand red brick building of Bournemouth Art College at the Lansdowne, with the equally grand double staircase entrance below the clock tower, was where a sweaty Giles Winterborne had climbed the steps and entered one hot afternoon some months before, his portfolio under his arm. Instead of working for his A-levels he had daydreamed and doodled, and quite often painted as well; the consequence of this being his homemade portfolio was well stocked and weighed a ton.

A kindly couple of, presumably, artists interviewed him and told him he was in, yes accepted, that very afternoon. This was all very well. He had three A-levels to take: History, Geography and Literature. He failed them all. Both Felix and Somers, his fellow students at Knyvaton Road College, had passed their A-levels and had gone for a couple of weeks sojourn in Paris whilst Giles had continued working at the laundry, all the more miserable without them. Gay Paree indeed: Giles’ holiday was in Bournemouth-by-the-Sea, or at least Boscombe.

Chapter 1A: Hyperlinks

Trolleybus going past Bournemouth Art College

https://www.flickr.com/photos/alwyn_ladell/6843222883/in/photostream/

Bournemouth Art College

https://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4097/4737979484_242b88eaf6_b.jpg

A-Levels

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GCE_Advanced_Level_(United_Kingdom)

Gay Paree

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georges_Seurat#/media/File:A_Sunday_on_La _Grande_Jatte,_Georges_Seurat,_1884.png

Chapter 1B: Dracula

James Abbott McNeill Whistler, the famous Victorian London painter, was painting the portrait of Henry Irving, the famous Victorian London actor-manager, as one of his theatrical roles; in Victorian London would you believe. The studio was cold and the work was frequently interrupted by tradesmen demanding long overdue payment from the painter for their goods, only for them to leave disappointed, and with Whistler’s cruel, maniacal laugh ringing in their ears.

Henry Irving was to perform Mephistopheles in Goethe’s Faust, imitating that Whistler laugh to terrifying effect. Irving’s business manager was a man called Bram Stoker who wrote a book and play, after the recent ritual killings of Jack the Ripper, called Dracula. He based the image of Dracula on Henry Irving’s sinister appearance in Faust: tall, pale, gaunt, urbane, and with that evil laugh. By doing this he hoped Henry Irving would play him on the stage.

Henry Irving was a frequent visitor to the Royal Bath Hotel in Bournemouth, which was owned by Sir Merton Russell-Cotes. They became friends and there are several theatrical props and pictures, in the Russell-Cotes Museum, celebrating his famous roles. None of these are for Dracula.

The Russell-Cotes Museum and Art Gallery was the most wonderful place, an oasis of the exotic, a salon to the sophisticated, a glory and a temple to furniture polish. Mr Russell-Cotes gave his home, this building, along with the contents, his collection of huge historical paintings and hot girls in cold marble, to the town. The town was very grateful, Giles Winterborne particularly so.

The modest access to the Russell-Cotes Museum on Eastcliff belied the extravagance beneath, and what extravagance. Immense Indian swords decorated the grand staircase and you could look down on the hall below where goldfish swam in the fountain.

A Hansom cab was parked beside the foot of the stairs, enveloped in its very own, imaginary, London fog. Insects caught in amber and models of Japanese tortures, Napoléon Bonaparte’s table and the reliably menacing Samurai warrior peering out from below his helmet were all presented in rooms, left just as they had been when the family lived there. In actual fact the family were still living in part of the house when it first opened.

Chapter 1B: Hyperlinks

James Abbott McNeill Whistler

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

Henry Irving

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

Whistler Portrait of Henry Irving

http://www.wikiart.org/en/james-mcneill-whistler/arrangement-in-black-no-3-sir-henry-irving-as-philip-ii-of-spain

Mephistopheles

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

Faust

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goethe%27s_Faust

Bram Stoker

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

Jack the Ripper

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

Dracula

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

Royal Bath Hotel

http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/509131

Sir Merton Russell-Cotes

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merton_Russell-Cotes

Russell-Cotes Museum and Art Gallery

http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/641809

Russell-Cotes Museum and Art Gallery

http://russellcotes.com/

Hansom cab

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

Samurai warrior

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

Chapter 1C: Eugénie

The prestigious Paris Salon was held in the Louvre. When so many artists, Courbet, Manet, Cézanne, Pissarro and Whistler amongst them, complained of being rejected by the Salon, the Emperor Napoleon III simply inaugurated the Salon des Refusés, pronounced salon day refoosay, to appease the complaining artists.

The celebrated 1863 Salon des Refusés featured Edouard Manet’s Le Déjeuner sur l'herbe, and James McNeil Whistler’s Symphony in White, No. 1: The White Girl. Both paintings seemed to allude to impropriety and caused a huge scandal and sensation, seminal to the beginnings of Modern Art. They were discussed in Zola’s novel, The Work and in Marcel Proust’s novel, Remembrance of Things Past.

Emperor Napoleon III, Louis-Napoléon, was Napoléon Bonaparte’s nephew. His wife, the Empress Eugénie, pronounced yoo jeen nee, was a very active contributor to his domestic and foreign policies which, unfortunately, somewhat annoyed the Prussians. The Empress Eugénie accompanied the Emperor when exiled to England, after the Franco-Prussian War, and where he died in 1873.

The former Empress, now Princess, Eugénie had just been to visit Queen Victoria on the Isle of Wight and was recommended Bournemouth for her health. She popped over in 1881 and was received by the Queen of Sweden, there for the very same reason, at the Crag Head Hotel, just along from the Russell-Cotes Museum.

By all accounts The Princess returned in 1896 and walked down through the Lower Gardens for a swim by the pier. The route was lit by candles and this instigated the tradition of Candle Night, which Giles Winterborne knew very well; that of young children lighting candles in small, coloured glass jars during one or two evenings every summer. These illuminated jars, mounted on frames, made effective pictures and were a perfect romance for the children, running excitedly,