Galleries - December 2014

it’s more than that again in that Huckett has just been reading Vikram Seth’s “An Equal Music”, about a pianist slowly losing her hearing while watching his own partner, and a recent early music enthusiast lose hers – “I have no idea what she hears when she goes to a concert. Ifonly I could produce an equal music.” Her Own Woman The only notable woman member ofBomberg’s immediate post-war Borough Group ofartists, Dorothy Mead had a career which, in a number ofways, reflected that ofher great mentor, principally that of tending to do the right thing at the wrong time, to which, of course, can be added a large degree ofcritical and gallery neglect during her lifetime. In Mead’s case this neglect lasted for over a quarter of a century after her untimely death, aged 47, in 1975, with her first ever solo show coming at the late, much-lamented Boundary Gallery in 2005. The recently- established, non-commercial Borough Road Gallery then gave her an exhibition last year and now the always enterprising Waterhouse & Dodd has picked up on her, presenting what amounts to a mini-retrospective ofoutstanding quality, drawn from the artist’s estate and accompanied by a sensitive and illuminating essay by Philip Vann. Often dismissed critically as a many dealers carry – beneath that header ‘Modern British Works’, or some such, lie real hidden treasures. I am reminded ofthis by three shows this month – two in London, one in Glasgow. First up, Crane Kalman whose ‘Modern British’ show ranges, with splendid eclecticism, from early (and late) Lowry, Alfred Wallis, Sutherland and Nicholson via Winifred Nicholson and Alan Lowndes to Jenny Saville paintings, Caro sculpture and Edmund de Waal ceramics. My personal favourite here is Mary Newcomb’s dark, velvety 1984 delight The Snake I Disturbed. Meanwhile in Bloomsbury Austin/Desmond ‘s ‘Aspects of British Art’ (to 19 December) has a whole range ofquite other delights – Cecil Collins, Edward Bawden, William Gillies and Peter Lanyon among them, though here it is a vivid Anne Redpath table-top still-life The Victorian Vase I’d tuck under my arm! Finally to Glasgow where Cyril Gerber has a top-notch show of Scottish late 19th/20th C. artists entitled ‘The Winter Collection’ – with gems from the Glasgow Boys and Scottish Colourists via post-war masters such as Joan Eardley and Colquhoun and MacBryde to more contemporary figures Elizabeth Blackadder, Philip Reeves and Jack Knox. A rich seasonal mix! NU mere Bomberg ‘follower’, Mead emerges here as something very much more, in David Sylvester’s words, a painter in whose work “sensation is reconstructed as a crystalline structure with an inner light.” A real rediscovery. Changing Direction Regular readers will be aware of my admiration for Debbie Wood’s The Art Room in Topsham which has always seemed to be an excellent model for what a good small-town gallery could and should be doing – a wonderful location by the waterfront and exhibition space showing a good mix of exhibitions by local, regional, even sometimes, national artists, together with a lively programme of events – talks, lectures and demonstrations. So it is with sadness that I have to report that, through lack of support, she is having to close down shortly and turn herself into an on-line gallery, though hopefully continuing to list in these pages. Christmas Delights Christmas and the New Year are sometimes seen as a rather dull spot in the commercial gallery calendar, with dealers putting on mixed shows from stock to tide them over a period when people have other things on their mind. Re-frame that though and it can in fact be a marvellous moment to gauge the depth of stock so 18 GALLERIES DECEMBER 2014 from left: Dorothy Mead ‘Church’, at Waterhouse & Dodd. Clive Branson ‘Demo in Battersea’ at Pallant House (see page16) ANTENNAE