Mum's the Word - Post-war Pioneers at Pallant...

This week sees the opening of 'Robin and Lucienne Day: Design and the Modern Interior' at Pallant House in Chichester.

The retrospective features distinctive interior works by the most celebrated British designer couple of the post-war era.

Working alongside each other in their shared studio, the Days pioneered the introduction of modern design in furniture (Robin) and textiles (Lucienne) during the 1950s and 1960.

Their designs gained mass recognition after the Festival of Britain in 1951, in which they played a major part.

For an extra special treat - Pallant House Gallery are offering free entry to the exhibition and afternoon tea (worth £13.95) at 'Field and Fork' for all Mums (accompanied by fee paying offspring) on Mother's Day this Sunday.

There will also be the option to indulge in a celebratory glass of bubbly on the day for an additional £6.

How very civilised!

To pre-book for teas, contact the Gallery on (01243) 770827.

Pipe Dreams - Hirst follows Beatle down the tunnel

Kiev's Pinchuk Art Centre, brainchild of Ukrainian metal pipe billionaire Viktor Pinchuk, is poised to stage Requiem a major retrospective of the work of Damien Hirst from April 25th onwards.

The exhibition will showcase a hundred of the artist's most iconic works, including 'A Thousand Years', 'Away from the Flock' and 'Death Explained' a sculpture of a bisected shark, preserved in formaldehyde. It will also premiere a series of skull paintings done by Hirst between 2006 and 2008.

Unlike fellow oligarchs who plough their funds into football squads, Pinchuk - at $2.5bn rated the world's 246th richest man by the latest Forbes poll, is a vulture for culture and already boasts iconic works by Brit Hirst and American Jeff Koons in his personal art collection.

Crisis-hit Ukraine, where industrial production is plummeting by over 30% each month, may seem an unlikely venue for such an exhibition - the latest cultural extravaganza since Pinchuk jetted ex-Beatle Macca to Kiev for a major concert last June.

However, in a public statement, the gallery insisted Kiev was the perfect location "In hosting a major retrospective of one of the most important artists working today, the Pinchuk Art Centre is testament to Ukraine's ongoing cultural development."

To view further details of this exhibition click here.

Ben Nicholson - a continuous line at the Tate

This week, the on-the-road Ben Nicholson retrospective 'A Continuous Line' rolls into St. Ives for spring stabling at the Tate.

The exhibition - the first major UK presentation of Nicholson's work for over fourteen years - reconsiders the artist's position in British art history and offers a new understanding of the modern in art, particularly in relation to national and local identities.

Son of the celebrated Edwardian painter William Nicholson, and partner of sculptor Barbara Hepworth, Ben Nicholson (1894-1982), became one of the most radical British artists of the twentieth century. He made his reputation by absorbing what was essentially a European abstraction – influenced by artists such as Piet Mondrian and Naum Gabo – into English art.

His anglicised version of abstraction concerned itself with throwing-off the constraints and dark palette of 19th-century academic painting. This was no doubt, partly a reaction against the Edwardian art of his father's generation - but also an expression of his own Christian Science beliefs – the mind, body, spirit philosophy of his day.

The high point of his artistic career were his white reliefs, first produced in 1934 and continued into the Forties. Emptied of all extraneous detail and colour, their whiteness stood for what was pure, modern and spiritual. This simplicity was key to Nicholson. In a period of political turmoil, these works offered a new way of thinking about the world and Englishness.

Focusing on Nicholson's English years, the exhibition divides into three sections: Landscapes of the late 1920s; Abstract & landscape works made in St. Ives during World War II and the Cubist still-lifes made between 1945-58, the latter two influenced by his relationship by Hepworth. Each section draws on a selection of key works to demonstrate Nicholson's continuity of vision and approach.

A Continuous Line at Tate St. Ives runs until 4th May 2009.

Click Here for tickets, room guide, chronology, special events and to access a downloadable MP4 walking tour of the exhibition, playable via ipod.

Roll-up, roll-up for Cromer 'Big Bang' 2009

10,000 North Norfolk locals and holiday-makers packed Cromer seafront shoulder-to-shoulder on New Year's Day for the town's 10th annual Torchlight Procession and Fireworks Spectacular.

The evening fundraising event - initially conceived as a 'one-off' to commemorate the millennium - proved such a big hit that the Town Council decided to make it a regular feature.

Each year over £5,000 is raised in bucket-rattling donations. The cash goes to local good causes - last year the Seaview Playgroup got £1000 towards a new heating system - plus a contribution goes towards the cost of staging the following year's display.

This year's show - masterminded by Clive Casburn (who had thoughtfully booked a clear night, so as to avoid soggy spectators!) - began with the North Norfolk Beach Runners Fun Run along the Prom, followed by a Torchlit Procession led from the churchyard by the liveried Town Crier.

The awesome 15-minute pyrotechnic display kicked off at 5pm, with 10 rockets fired from the pier in a single symbolic shot, to commemorate the 10th Anniversary.

Despite huge crowds, the atmosphere was at all times warm, friendly and festive: the seafront provides so many excellent vantage points from which to view the display - reflected dramatically in the waves along the shoreline - that there are plenty to go round.

There was also the credit-crunching bonus that car parking in the town was made free-of-charge from 2pm, thanks to the Council.

Click the Play button below for 'live' footage of the sights (and sounds!) of the event - as seen from our viewpoint up on Runton Road. Look out particularly for the amazing 'Olympic Hoops'!

Eve's Orange - a biblical Christmas with a Twist

At four o'clock on a fair-yet-freezing Christmas Eve a scarfed-up, gloved-up posse of locals took a break from the sellotape and made their way up the 'fairy path' to St Nicholas's church, Salthouse...

With traditional carol-singing, crib-dressing and the obligatory candle-lit procession, the village's annual Christingle Service - in aid of the Children's Society - is specially formulated to appeal to young families.

It is always a lovely reminder that there's something a bit more to all this Christmas business than Cadbury's advent calendars, a new set of pyjamas and the latest-coloured Nintentendo DS.

It is also great fun - given the unpredictable tension garnered when combining small children, naked flames and organized religion together in a highly combustible ancient building.

This year certainly did not disappoint on the pageantry front: First there was the delighted tot who lit the advent candles. Next, the assorted hoodies - ranging in size from two foot one to five foot six - who shuffled up to assemble the 'manger-players' plus animal entourage. Bringing up the rear, a diminutive quartet, bibbed with laminated signs to represent the four compass points. They held on to a ring of red rope and were put in charge of the Produce of the World (in the form of an apple, a satsuma, a packet of coffee and a bag of crisps).

The highlight of the service - the lighting & processing of the symbolic Christingles went hitch-free. However, superb comedy ensued when the congregation came to realize, via the tell-tale teethmarks left in the apple, that 'South' - the tiniest compass-point-boy - had quietly chomped a great sly chunk out of the 'Produce of the World' stockpile!

As usual, the music - in the form of the organ-playing of the amazing Rev. Angela Dugdale MBE - was terrific; the flu-subdued caroling of locals supplemented by the hearty lungs of some of the more healthy out-of-towners - plus, of course, Angela's own superb singing voice.

Thanks to Father Phil, the Rev. Angela and the very hard-working church-wardens who made it all possible. Even the torchlit trek home through the pitch black dark was pretty magical.

We were left with only one Christmas Conundrum - what to do with our half-dozen leftover Christingle oranges. Here is our list of uses from 2008 to assist any readers facing a similar challenge in subsequent years:

Top ten things to do with your Christingle Orange...

1. Leave out the jelly babies and dolly mixture on a saucer for Santa and Rudolph on Christmas Eve - a refreshing change from the usual fireside mince pies and carrot.

2. Refrigerate, squeeze and enjoy for a fresh, zesty start on Christmas morning.

3. Squeeze and add cranberries, port and sugar-to-taste to make your very own gourmet D-I-Y cranberry sauce. Or Click here for a non-alcoholic Channel 4 recipe.

4. Go for a Christmas Morning Constitutional and combine the candle with hedgerow snippings of holly, pine, ivy and rosehips stuck into a raw potato to make a 'natural style' table centrepiece.

5. Get the kids to draw round the orange onto the backs of any waste wrapping paper and cut out snowball decorations for the insides of their bedroom windows. For those feeling particularly ambitious: glue cotton wool on to both sides of each disc and suspend on lengths of cotton for a really sophisticated, twirling, touchy-feely version...ooh, ah!

6. Grate off the zest and use to bake up some carrot, orange and cardamon fairy cakes for any guests who fancy a change from heavy fruit cake for Christmas tea. Save a few teaspoons full to add to a mascarpone and icing sugar topping - yum yum yum.

7. Use the cocktail sticks to make small menu flags for 'vegetarian' and 'non-vegetarian' platters for your Christmas buffet table.

8. Wrap in foil to make the base of a fabulously retro 70s-style 'cheesey pineapple hedgehog'.

9. Separate into individual segments for chocolate fondue dippers with a twist.

10. Use the red tape to entertain toddlers with endless games of 'fly away Peter, fly away Paul'.

Last chance to see - Victor Willing - Closes 11 Jan

Victor Willing (1928-1988): Revelations, Discoveries, Communications at the Pallant House Gallery in Chichester brings together over twenty enigmatic paintings and drawings, including a selection of rarely seen early paintings.

Willing, the late husband of artist Paula Rego, was once described by Sir Nicholas Serota as ‘a fiery comet which would eventually guide us all.’

Born in Egypt, Willing moved with his family to England in 1932 and studied at the Guildford School of Art (1948–9), and at the Slade School of Fine Art, London (1949–54). As a student, he met Francis Bacon, (who gave him a copy of Friederich Nietzsche’s The Birth of Tragedy, which became one of Willing's favourite books) and admired the work of Picasso and Matisse.

In 1957 after embarking on an affair which led to the conception of the first of their three children, he moved to Portugal with artist Paula Rego, whom he eventually married in 1959. He worked in her father's business during this time and painted very little. He subsequently destroyed much of the work of that period.

He and his family returned to London in 1974, settling permanently there, and he began to paint again as a way of supporting himself. Diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, his paintings from the late 1970s were made after hallucinating their images, possibly a side-effect of the medications he was taking at the time.

Willing and Rego, like many of their generation were interested in Surrealism and the role of the subconscious in art. Both underwent Jungian analysis. As he later explained ‘All my life I’ve tried to recapture the intense pleasure in painting and drawing I had as a child, when I did battles with people going -Aaaaaarrgh!'

In many of Willing's paintings, a situation is presented as a scene to be played out by an absent protagonist. Primitive shelters and furniture, as settings suggestive of the isolation of the artist, are motifs that he explored in many works of this time.

He described the process of painting as 'a revelation, simultaneously discovery and communication.'

In the 1980s Willing was recognized as an important and established artist, but his health was worsening. He painted on a smaller scale at this time, with a series of women's heads being the last works that he completed prior to his death.

This is the first solo show in a public gallery of Willing's work since his retrospective at the Whitechapel Art Gallery in 1986.

For links to Willing's work held by the Tate Gallery click this link Willing, Victor

Admission:
Full price £7.50, Child £2.30, Family £17, Students £4 Tuesdays 10am to 5pm half price, Thursday evenings 5 to 8pm

Location:
Pallant House Gallery, 9 North Pallant, Chichester, PO19 1TJ

Website:
http://www.pallant.org.uk/

Jingle Bells - or was it just the Trimphone..?

It's fifty years today since the Queen made Britain's first ever national trunk call.

She rang up the Lord Provost of Edinburgh from Bristol telephone exchange - 300 miles away - addressing him "This is the Queen speaking from Bristol. Good afternoon, my Lord Provost".

To commemorate this year's anniversary, some of the original engineers are returning to the exchange to re-enact the call. They'll be using state-of-the-art video-conferencing technology, so - alas - this time Edinburgh definitely won't be able to do their bit from the 'home-office' wearing fluffy bunny slippers and a hotel dressing gown...

Notably, the Queen didn't sign off her call with 'Merry Christmas' (or 'lol' - whatever that means), as in those days Yuletide hadn't already started on 6th November (when this year's Bond Street lights were switched on by Kelly Brook) but had to hang on for a more sedate mid-December kick-off.

Locally though, this year's Christmas season is already in full swing, with lots of Christmas markets and events happening this weekend

For full details see:

http://www.northnorfolkradio.com/local/index.php

A special local highlight will be the Medieval Fayre at St Nicholas Church, Salthouse (pictured below in previous blog) to be held on Saturday 6th December (11am-4pm). This will include a Father Christmas, a juggler and live music all day with King Henry's Band playing a wide variety of early instruments. At 5pm there will also be a Mummers' Play and Medieval Carols with Kelling Consort of Voices.

In Holt the lights are on in the gallery and we are furnishing Byfords with a roaring trade in hot soup, home made Christmas cake and tree-shaped choc-chip cookies.

As a special treat for our non-local customers, here is a sneak preview of this year's Holt lights, to get you in the festive spirit (you'll just have to imagine the soup, cakes and cookies).

NB If like me you live several light-years from a BT exchange and you've got 'tortoise' rather than 'hare' broadband, mute the sound & let this clip buffer once through (whilst you do a few air-pirouettes on your office chair, pat the pet dog or grab a quick refill for your coffee cup) then un-mute, click play once again and watch it all the way through in smooth, non-stuttering comfort - ah bliss!

Holt Lights switch-on: Snap the ‘crack’ for Pop!

Calling all budding photographers – Holt Christmas Lights committee is offering prizes of champagne and notoriety for the best shots taken at this year’s switch-on, scheduled for 6.30pm on Wednesday 26^th November.

Entries will be judged by world famous wildlife photographer David Tipling and Peak District National Park official photographer Andrew Midgley. The winning shots - along with their ‘highly commended’ counterparts - will be exhibited at the Photographer’s gallery from December 12^th. In addition, the two best pics (one from the actual switch-on night and one from the following few days) will net their snappers a bottle of bubbly each.

Closing date for the competition is midnight on 30^th November.

For further details see: http://www.holtchristmaslights.org/photo_comp.html

For a fuller flavour of what is on offer at this year’s switch on, check out the hog roasts outside Budgens and Sidalls, roast chestnuts at Fish Hill and the obligatory hot dogs and burgers outside Barclays bank.

To accompany your munching, there will be a variety of family-friendly entertainment on offer in four different zones of the town as follows (don’t forget, Holt town centre will close to all traffic from 4.30pm on switch-on night, so don't get caught out!):

On the Stage

5.30 Father Philip & the churches
5.50 North Norfolk Radio Link up live then:
5.50 Gresham's choir - Mark Jones
6.10 North Norfolk Radio games and crowd interaction
6.30 Counting down to switching on with North Norfolk Radio - Church bells start ringing, fireworks
6.40 Cromer Pier team
6.50 North Norfolk Radio finish off
7.00 First academy of dance
7.20 Winston the singing farmer
7.40 End of stage shows

Apple Yard

5.30 Stilt Walking & fire juggling
5.40 Lanterns
5.50 Razz the clown & Auntie Pearl
6.20 Rigagig-gig fiddle & dulcimer
6.30 Dave Harper - Bagpipes
7.00 Rigagig-gig fiddle & dulcimer
7.10 Town Crier - Tony Nelson
7.30 First academy of dance
7.50 Winston the singing farmer
8.10 Cromer Pier Team

Chapel Yard

5.30 Dave Harper - bagpipes
5.40 Winston the singing farmer
6.00 Cromer Pier Team & Lanterns
6.10 Town Crier
6.30 Rigagig-gig fiddle & dulcimer
6.40 Prep school choir
7.00 Razz the clown & Auntie Pearl
7.30 Stilt Walking & fire juggling
7.40 Rigagig-gig fiddle & dulcimer
8.00 First academy of dance
8.20 Winston the singing farmer

Lees Yard

5.30 Rigagig-gig fiddle & dulcimer
6.00 Prep school choir
6.10 Lanterns
6.20 Senior school choir
6.50 Town Crier
7.00 Stilt Walking & fire juggling
7.20 Cromer Pier team
7.30 Razz the clown & Auntie Pearl
8.00 Dave Harper - Bagpipes
8.20 Rigagig-gig fiddle & dulcimer

The Art of Remembrance (1914-1918)

This week marks the 90th anniversary of the Armistice, which brought World War I to an end.

The Western Front of World War One was a short train journey away from central London. The British government took advantage of this by commissioning paintings based on scenes witnessed at first hand by the leading artists of the day.

They sent artists to cover other aspects of the war as well - on the home and diplomatic fronts.

The intention was to use these images for propaganda purposes, and also as a way of commemorating the war and the people caught up in it.

Many of the artists fulfilled this brief admirably, some also taking the opportunity to examine the moral issues surrounding the war in the process.

Many special exhibitions have been staged by the National Museums, to commemorate this anniversary. They offer a fascinating insight into the art of war:

Click here: http://www.art-ww1.com/gb/visite.html for an interactive guided tour and directory of the art and painters of the First World War.

Click here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/trail/wars_conflict/art/art_frontline_gal.shtml for a tour of the BBC's History Trail on the Art of War and Conflict, including picture analysis of Totes Meer, by Paul Nash, a quiz on art in wartime and useful links to many national museums.

Click here: Special Displays for a link to Last Post: Remembering the First World War at the Churchill Museum and Cabinet War Rooms (6 November 2008 – 28 February 2009)

This exhibition offers a fascinating insight into the story of the Post Office during the First World War.

It follows the stories of soldiers and spies, machinery and medals, commitment and communication and looks at how the Post Office responded to the war in getting mail to those serving or being held prisoner around the globe.

Here come the Pearls - a Ladies' Nite 1950s Style

Sheringham Little Theatre is calling all local 'Desperate Housewives' for a ladies' night with a difference next week...

Not so long ago housewives had a number of very good reasons to be desperate. Not only did they have to look after their families in an age of depression, war and austerity, but they did so without the consumer durables that we now consider essential.

With humour frequently in its sights, Archive Film: Housewife’s Choice (U) is a programme of films from the BFI National Archive that explores the lives of British housewives from the 1920s to the 1950s. The programme includes documentaries, cinemagazines, propaganda films and adverts. It also features films by two of the women who helped to shape the British documentary movement of the 1930s and 40s – Ruby Grierson (1904-40) and Kay Mander (1915).

The film will be introduced by film historian Stewart Orr.

Event Date: Fri 14th Nov 2008, 8.00pm Tickets £5.00

Reader's Wives - 50s Style...(what our grannies really got up to)

To get you in the party mood, here's a 'Good Wife's Guide' appetiser from Housekeeping Monthly, published 13th May 1955, to give you some handy tips on how to (really) please your man...:

1. Over the cooler months of the year prepare and light a fire for him to unwind by. Catering for his comfort will provide you with immense personal satisfaction.

2. Prepare yourself. Touch up your make-up, put a ribbon in your hair and be fresh-looking. He has just been with a lot of work-weary people.

3. Prepare the children. Take a few minutes to wash hands and faces, comb their hair and, if necessary, change their clothes. They are little treasures and he would like to see them playing the part.

4. Make the evening his. Never complain if he comes home late or goes out to dinner, or other places of entertainment, without you. Instead try to understand his world of strain and pressure.

5. Don’t complain even if he stays out all night. Count this as minor compared to what he might have gone through that day.

6. Listen to him. Let him talk first – remember, his topics of conversation are more important than yours.

7. Arrange his pillow and offer to take off his shoes. Speak in a low, soothing and pleasant voice.

8. Don’t ask questions about his actions or question his judgement or integrity. Remember, he is master of the house and as such will always exercise his will with fairness and truthfulness. You have no right to question him.

9. Remember: A good wife always knows her place...

Hailstones batter Fish Hill in August!

High summer continues to mystify the tourists with yet more bizarre weather…

Last week’s gallery browsers came armed with wrist straps dangling mini-umbrellas and mac-in-a-sacs. Larners must have done a roaring trade.

However, this week’s clientele were in dire need of Dad’s Army style hard-hats from Muckleburgh when hailstones the size of golf balls pelted down on them as they dashed across the High Street and under the awning for cover.

Every cloud has a silver lining though – especially if you are a coastal art gallery. Good thing we had just taken delivery of a new batch of extra-large weather-proof carrier bags!