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| Taking time to appreciate | Taking time to appreciate |
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| A POINT OF VIEW By Lisa Jardine | A POINT OF VIEW By Lisa Jardine |
| Pictur: Andy ParadiseThe reopening of London's Festival Hall next weekend should serve as a reminder of the important contribution undervalued architects and artists made to post-war Britain, says Lisa Jardine. | |
| Ever since it first opened in 1998, I have been an admirer of the new British Library building at St Pancras, designed by Sir Colin St John Wilson, who died last month. It is hard now to remember the controversy the library caused - the chorus of indignant disapproval from those who maintained that its sleek, stepped-back red-brick buildings were inappropriate for a national landmark. | Ever since it first opened in 1998, I have been an admirer of the new British Library building at St Pancras, designed by Sir Colin St John Wilson, who died last month. It is hard now to remember the controversy the library caused - the chorus of indignant disapproval from those who maintained that its sleek, stepped-back red-brick buildings were inappropriate for a national landmark. |
| Or who preferred the hopelessly slow service and uncomfortable environment of the old round reading room at the British Museum, to the speedy, automated delivery of books from its vast underground book stacks, and the sumptuously appointed, light and airy reading spaces on the Euston Road. | Or who preferred the hopelessly slow service and uncomfortable environment of the old round reading room at the British Museum, to the speedy, automated delivery of books from its vast underground book stacks, and the sumptuously appointed, light and airy reading spaces on the Euston Road. |
| Architect Sandy Wilson, who dies last monthSo when the new Pallant House Gallery in Chichester, the last building designed by Sandy Wilson (as he was always known), won the prestigious Gulbenkian Prize for the best new development in a UK museum or gallery last week, I decided to take advantage of the bank holiday to visit it. | Architect Sandy Wilson, who dies last monthSo when the new Pallant House Gallery in Chichester, the last building designed by Sandy Wilson (as he was always known), won the prestigious Gulbenkian Prize for the best new development in a UK museum or gallery last week, I decided to take advantage of the bank holiday to visit it. |
| Rounding the corner of Pallant Street in the rain, we got our first glimpse of the new wing adjoining the Grade 1-listed Queen Anne town house which used to house the whole collection. The juxtaposition of old and new is instantly sympathetic. Here is Sandy Wilson's trademark red brick - itself a deliberate reference to the work of Finnish architect Alvar Aalto he so admired - echoing the brick of the original house, echoing indeed the British Library, but on a more intimate scale. | Rounding the corner of Pallant Street in the rain, we got our first glimpse of the new wing adjoining the Grade 1-listed Queen Anne town house which used to house the whole collection. The juxtaposition of old and new is instantly sympathetic. Here is Sandy Wilson's trademark red brick - itself a deliberate reference to the work of Finnish architect Alvar Aalto he so admired - echoing the brick of the original house, echoing indeed the British Library, but on a more intimate scale. |
| Where it joins the house, the discreet facade of the new building is faced in rich brown, salt-glazed terracotta tiling, tiling which also ornaments the recessed glass and steel entrance. Decorative incisions run vertically upwards suggesting glimpses of the interior, but the frontage otherwise encloses rather than discloses. | Where it joins the house, the discreet facade of the new building is faced in rich brown, salt-glazed terracotta tiling, tiling which also ornaments the recessed glass and steel entrance. Decorative incisions run vertically upwards suggesting glimpses of the interior, but the frontage otherwise encloses rather than discloses. |
| Once inside, the spacious foyer is a light, airy surprise. Wrapping around an inner garden courtyard, the nine gallery spaces are classic pure-white, top-lit rooms floored in light oak. A startlingly strong collection of modern painting by key British artists is displayed in a lofty upper gallery, flanked by domestic-sized spaces that perfectly suit the scale of the works. | Once inside, the spacious foyer is a light, airy surprise. Wrapping around an inner garden courtyard, the nine gallery spaces are classic pure-white, top-lit rooms floored in light oak. A startlingly strong collection of modern painting by key British artists is displayed in a lofty upper gallery, flanked by domestic-sized spaces that perfectly suit the scale of the works. |
| [One] that has prospered in use over a number of years and still has the power to excite the mind and touch the heart Sandy Wilson on what defines a successful building Hear Radio 4's A Point of View But the inviting interior is not the only surprise the gallery holds. Once inside, I found myself convincingly in the presence of a collection of twentieth century British paintings and sculpture as thoughtfully selected and compelling as the building itself, and which represents Sandy Wilson's lifelong love-affair with twentieth century art. | [One] that has prospered in use over a number of years and still has the power to excite the mind and touch the heart Sandy Wilson on what defines a successful building Hear Radio 4's A Point of View But the inviting interior is not the only surprise the gallery holds. Once inside, I found myself convincingly in the presence of a collection of twentieth century British paintings and sculpture as thoughtfully selected and compelling as the building itself, and which represents Sandy Wilson's lifelong love-affair with twentieth century art. |
| For Wilson was not only the architect here, he was a major benefactor too, whose gift of more than 400 works from his extraordinary personal collection of contemporary art was the catalyst for the new gallery extension. That collection tells an important story about a tradition in British art which is all-too-easily overlooked alongside the razzmatazz of more recent high-profile millionaire collectors and badly-behaved, attention-seeking Young British Artists. | For Wilson was not only the architect here, he was a major benefactor too, whose gift of more than 400 works from his extraordinary personal collection of contemporary art was the catalyst for the new gallery extension. That collection tells an important story about a tradition in British art which is all-too-easily overlooked alongside the razzmatazz of more recent high-profile millionaire collectors and badly-behaved, attention-seeking Young British Artists. |
| Sandy Wilson began collecting art in the early 1950s, with a band of colleagues and friends - artists, designers and architects - most of them part of the Independent Group (a group of young creatives at the newly-formed Institute of Contemporary Arts to whose discussions of contemporary art and its meaning he was an enthusiastic contributor). | Sandy Wilson began collecting art in the early 1950s, with a band of colleagues and friends - artists, designers and architects - most of them part of the Independent Group (a group of young creatives at the newly-formed Institute of Contemporary Arts to whose discussions of contemporary art and its meaning he was an enthusiastic contributor). |
| href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/spl/hi/pop_ups/07/magazine_enl_1180957247/html/1.stm" onClick="window.open('http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/spl/hi/pop_ups/07/magazine_enl_1180957247/html/1.stm', '1180957283', 'toolbar=0,scrollbars=0,location=0,statusbar=0,menubar=0,resizable=1,width=780,height=628,left=312,top=100'); return false;">Pallant House: Inside and outside href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/spl/hi/pop_ups/07/magazine_enl_1180957247/html/1.stm" onClick="window.open('http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/spl/hi/pop_ups/07/magazine_enl_1180957247/html/1.stm', '1180957283', 'toolbar=0,scrollbars=0,location=0,statusbar=0,menubar=0,resizable=1,width=780,height=628,left=312,top=100'); return false;" >Enlarge Image They included the artists Richard Hamilton, Eduardo Paolozzi, Peter Blake and R J Kitaj. He has described how he began by acquiring single works - occasionally by purchase (his first painting was bought with his £35 demobilisation pay from the Navy in 1945), but more often, particularly at the beginning, by a kind of barter with friends for works he had fallen in love with. | |
| On one occasion he turned out his pockets and offered Eduardo Paolozzi their contents, in exchange for a single piece ("it amounted to 37 shillings and 6 pence" he recalled). | On one occasion he turned out his pockets and offered Eduardo Paolozzi their contents, in exchange for a single piece ("it amounted to 37 shillings and 6 pence" he recalled). |
| Each time Sandy Wilson fell in love with a work, the passion to acquire it was so powerful he characterized it as an addiction: "Only a fellow addict can understand the catch in the breath and the thumping heart of love-at-first-sight that signals the next ("absolute must") acquisition," he wrote in 1999. Later he would agonise over what work or works he was prepared to "part with", in order to buy something new he could not do without. | Each time Sandy Wilson fell in love with a work, the passion to acquire it was so powerful he characterized it as an addiction: "Only a fellow addict can understand the catch in the breath and the thumping heart of love-at-first-sight that signals the next ("absolute must") acquisition," he wrote in 1999. Later he would agonise over what work or works he was prepared to "part with", in order to buy something new he could not do without. |
| Thirty years in the making, Wilson's British LibraryOver the years Sandy Wilson's collection grew and developed, until it became the extraordinary record of a generation we can browse and reflect on today at Pallant House. There is a strong sense of communality and shared purpose about it, just as there is a coherent timeframe, particularly concentrated on the 1950s through to the end of the 60s. | Thirty years in the making, Wilson's British LibraryOver the years Sandy Wilson's collection grew and developed, until it became the extraordinary record of a generation we can browse and reflect on today at Pallant House. There is a strong sense of communality and shared purpose about it, just as there is a coherent timeframe, particularly concentrated on the 1950s through to the end of the 60s. |
| As I moved among the paintings and occasional sculptures, it felt like eavesdropping on a conversation - a set of exchanges among individuals struggling with the bleak economic outlook and the associated muted, emotional austerity of the British post-war period. | As I moved among the paintings and occasional sculptures, it felt like eavesdropping on a conversation - a set of exchanges among individuals struggling with the bleak economic outlook and the associated muted, emotional austerity of the British post-war period. |
| In fact, after an afternoon spent among the 20th Century figurative paintings by artists like Frank Auerbach and Lucien Freud, "pop" artists like Peter Blake and Patrick Caulfield, ground-breaking prints, and the stunning series of screen-printed posters by Kitaj currently on exhibit from the 1960s, I came away steeped in the suppressed passions of post-war Britain, and with a stronger understanding of the journey Wilson, his contemporaries and successors, had taken in architecture from the post-war years, down to the end of the century. | In fact, after an afternoon spent among the 20th Century figurative paintings by artists like Frank Auerbach and Lucien Freud, "pop" artists like Peter Blake and Patrick Caulfield, ground-breaking prints, and the stunning series of screen-printed posters by Kitaj currently on exhibit from the 1960s, I came away steeped in the suppressed passions of post-war Britain, and with a stronger understanding of the journey Wilson, his contemporaries and successors, had taken in architecture from the post-war years, down to the end of the century. |
| Inside Pallant House (Picture: Peter Durant/arcblue.com)Sandy Wilson's art collecting began, as did his career as an architect, around the time of the Festival of Britain in 1951, and its associated building projects - above all the iconic building of London's South Bank, the Festival Hall. Indeed, his first architectural job was in the office of Sir Leslie Martin, the Festival Hall's architect. Laying the foundation stone for the Festival Hall in 1949, the then prime minister Clement Attlee predicted that the exhibition and its festivities would pass into history, but that the concert hall would remain, and around it would rise "buildings worthy to take their place with the best of old London and form part of the replanned London of the future". | |
| Yet for almost 50 years, while Sandy Wilson's artist friends exuberantly experimented with new ideas and futuristic forms, English public opinion generally set its face firmly against modern architecture. Architects attempting to innovate either with design or materials were pilloried - we need only recall the famous "carbuncle" jibe by the Prince of Wales at the design for the National Gallery extension in Trafalgar Square, or Sandy Wilson's own "30 year war" over the British Library. | Yet for almost 50 years, while Sandy Wilson's artist friends exuberantly experimented with new ideas and futuristic forms, English public opinion generally set its face firmly against modern architecture. Architects attempting to innovate either with design or materials were pilloried - we need only recall the famous "carbuncle" jibe by the Prince of Wales at the design for the National Gallery extension in Trafalgar Square, or Sandy Wilson's own "30 year war" over the British Library. |
| While the "Wilson gift" at Pallant House Gallery proclaims its owner's visionary eye for art and design, it is also a lasting reminder that the young architects of the 1950s in Britain were impatient to build for the future, given half a chance. Their dream was squandered in post-war impatience, and cheap, quick-fix solutions to problems of function and form. Only fairly recently has there been a resurgence in more confident and considered modern buildings in Britain. | While the "Wilson gift" at Pallant House Gallery proclaims its owner's visionary eye for art and design, it is also a lasting reminder that the young architects of the 1950s in Britain were impatient to build for the future, given half a chance. Their dream was squandered in post-war impatience, and cheap, quick-fix solutions to problems of function and form. Only fairly recently has there been a resurgence in more confident and considered modern buildings in Britain. |
| Successful building | Successful building |
| The message that densely layered buildings like the Pallant House Gallery and the British Library convey is that carefully made creative work takes time to conceive, time to refine and time to be thoughtfully executed. In 1995 Sandy Wilson described a successful building of this kind as one "that has prospered in use over a number of years and still has the power to excite the mind and touch the heart". | The message that densely layered buildings like the Pallant House Gallery and the British Library convey is that carefully made creative work takes time to conceive, time to refine and time to be thoughtfully executed. In 1995 Sandy Wilson described a successful building of this kind as one "that has prospered in use over a number of years and still has the power to excite the mind and touch the heart". |
| We can, as it happens, test out that idea that where the architectural process behind a building has been intense, we will over time come to love and cherish it. Next weekend, the Royal Festival Hall reopens after two years of restoration and redevelopment. | We can, as it happens, test out that idea that where the architectural process behind a building has been intense, we will over time come to love and cherish it. Next weekend, the Royal Festival Hall reopens after two years of restoration and redevelopment. |
| The occasion will be celebrated with an "Overture weekend" - 48 hours of free, continuous performance, in which every part of the site will become a platform for world-class artists, artists in residence, resident orchestras, and amateur and professional choirs from around Britain. | The occasion will be celebrated with an "Overture weekend" - 48 hours of free, continuous performance, in which every part of the site will become a platform for world-class artists, artists in residence, resident orchestras, and amateur and professional choirs from around Britain. |
| Since 1951, London has indeed learned to love the Royal Festival Hall. I'd like to think that with its Gala reopening we will be celebrating more than just the building itself. We will also be celebrating the humanity and optimism of a generation of architects and artists - many of them directly inspired by Sandy Wilson - who came together in those critical post-war years, and whose work has been under-appreciated for so long. | Since 1951, London has indeed learned to love the Royal Festival Hall. I'd like to think that with its Gala reopening we will be celebrating more than just the building itself. We will also be celebrating the humanity and optimism of a generation of architects and artists - many of them directly inspired by Sandy Wilson - who came together in those critical post-war years, and whose work has been under-appreciated for so long. |
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