Cookham, Berkshire, UK – The Stanley Spencer Gallery is proud to present “Spencer’s War: The Art of Shipbuilding on the Clyde” on view at the gallery until January 15th 2012. The exhibition includes six oil paintings from the famous Shipbuilding on the Clyde series, commissioned by the War Artists’ Advisory Committee, and 39 drawings which give insights into Spencer’s working methods. The majority of works in the exhibition are on loan from the Imperial War Museum, London. The exceptions are the two works lent by Worthing Museum and Art Gallery, and four drawings in the Stanley Spencer Gallery, either in the collection or on long-term loan. Spencer’s Shipbuilding on the Clyde series is one of the most remarkable artistic records of the Second World War. He achieved a rare feat by producing some of the most original masterpieces by any artist in response to the two great conflicts of the twentieth century. He was an Official War Artist in both World Wars, producing Travoys, 1919, and Shipbuilding on the Clyde, 1940-46.
His great cycle of wall paintings in the Sandham Memorial Chapel, Burghclere (now National Trust) commemorate his experiences in the RAMC and infantry during the First World War. In 1939, Spencer urged his dealer Dudley Tooth to find him ‘a war job, some sort of official art employment’. The art market was slack and as Tooth noted Spencer was ‘terribly in debt all round’. On Tooth’s writing to Sir Kenneth Clark, Director of the National Gallery, and Chairman of the War Artists’ Advisory Committee (WAAC) under the Ministry of Information, Spencer was interviewed and appointed. His initial suggestion of a Crucifixion with predella panels to show the Nazi conquest of Poland was rejected, since eye-witness records were required. Instead, he agreed to the proposal he should depict a shipyard, paying his first visit to the suggested ‘Kingston’ yard, owned by Sir James Lithgow, at Port Glasgow on the river Clyde in May 1940. He responded to the place with enthusiasm. The strong sense of community reminded him of Cookham: ‘many of the places in and corners of Lithgow’s factory moved me in much the same way as I was by rooms in my childhood.’ This link must have been a significant factor in contributing to his keen interest in the commission.
Spencer’s greatest works were in part inspired by specific places. His intense emotional response to Cookham, and the areas in which he served in the two world wars at a time of generally heightened feeling, released some of his most notable bursts of sustained creativity. Indeed in Port Glasgow he went beyond his official commission to conceive his Port Glasgow Resurrection series. After Burghclere, Spencer delighted in devising large schemes of pictures, and as so often, his ideas continuously evolved. His final plan for the Shipbuilding series was for four pictures to be hung in pairs, Riggers above Riveters, and Plumbers above Bending the Keel Plate, with the final picture, Furnaces, in the centre. The earlier works, Burners and Welders, were to hang either side, with The Template, the only predella panel of a projected series, under Burners. He did not live in Port Glasgow for the six years he spent on the series, but visited on a number of occasions, staying in several sets of lodgings. The pictures were painted not only in Scotland, but also in Leonard Stanley, Cookham and Epsom. Lithgow’s had been selected to construct ‘Y’ class merchant ships during the war, to replace the losses presciently expected from German submarine warfare. Ships were vital to bring in food and raw materials. Based at first on pre-war tramp steamers, the ‘Y’ class ships, however, had increased ballast to cope with the rough weather of the North Atlantic, and became increasingly complex and standardised as the war proceeded. One of them, the Empire Liberty, was the forerunner of the American liberty ships that brought cargoes to Britain on the transatlantic convoys.
Spencer depicted all the major trades involved in the building of the ships, including developments in technology, such as the use of welding, which gradually superseded riveting as a method of joining steel plates. The various processes are shown with clarity, though they had to be closely compressed within individual pictures. This type of heavy industry no longer dominates Clydeside: in 1984 Lithgow’s was sold to Trafalgar House, which ceased trading in 1993. The cohesion and communal sense of purpose of the workforce is movingly conveyed. In the Shipbuilding series, as at Burghclere, Spencer chose to concentrate on everyday activity, rather than grand set piece events, such as the launch of ships. Only three foremen appear in the Shipbuilding pictures (in Riveters), just as there had been only one officer at Burghclere. Spencer himself appears in Burners and Welders. The distinctive long narrow horizontal format of seven of the pictures is admirably suited to Spencer’s style, with its emphasis on the necessarily complex and unusual poses of the workers as they bend to their tasks. Seen in a confined space from a high viewpoint, some of the scenes are suffused with heat, noise and the dramatic glare of light on metal. Spencer revelled in the intricate shapes of tools and metal plates, and the formal qualities of ships’ parts not yet assembled. He was a master of inventive composition on a large scale. Drawings were an integral part of his design process. As always, he drew continually, squaring up some of the drawings for transfer to canvas.
He did not use photographs as an aide-memoire, with the result that we have a remarkable body of work in pencil on paper, which provides an insight into the mind of one of the twentieth century’s great draughtsmen. The WAAC was delighted with the success of the series which was exhibited widely to boost national morale. Restored and reframed for the Imperial War Museum by Phil Young and Roy Perry MBE, 2006-2010, the pictures rank amongst Spencer’s major achievements. They fully engaged his creative imagination: ‘The point is that whatever may be thought of these shipbuilding pictures of mine, I am much moved by what I see up here and experience joy in attempting to express the feeling I have about it all…’
The Stanley Spencer Gallery was first opened in 1962, three years after the artist’s death. It stands as a lasting memorial to the man who became synonymous with the village of Cookham. He loved his home; it gave him the strength and comfort he needed to be able to allow his imagination to soar and to fully exploit his genius talent for drawing and painting. Opened by Spencer’s friends and supporters it is still totally run by volunteers and has a wonderful collection of more than 100 of his paintings and drawings. In 2007 the Gallery was awarded a large grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund which enabled the former Methodist chapel to be transformed into a stunning exhibition space. Two exhibitions are held each year. The Summer Exhibition sees the Gallery’s own collection augmented with loans from other galleries and private owners. There is also a fine archive of photographs, books and other written material. The Gallery welcomes both the casual browser and the serious student equally. The Gallery holds a fascinating collection of material relating to Spencer’s life and works which is available for viewing on the mezzanine level of the refurbished Gallery. There is a large library of books written about Stanley Spencer, a series of files of press cuttings and articles written during and since the artist’s lifetime, copies of student theses and essays on many aspects of his art. There are written memories by those who knew the man himself and copies of his own letters and jottings. Of great interest to Spencer scholars will be the photographs and transcripts of letters written by Spencer to his friend Desmond Chute during the First World War. There is also much information about the Gallery itself, including copies of all the catalogues of exhibitions held since it was opened in 1962. In the future more archive material will be accessible through the computer terminals in the Gallery. For the time being albums of photographs of Stanley Spencer are available to view by appointment and CDs of Cookham residents recalling the artist working in the village can be borrowed (also by appointment). Visit the museum’s website at … http://www.stanleyspencer.org.uk/