SEEING RED AT THE FEN DITTON GALLERY
WIlhelmina Barns -Graham
Walk into Fen Ditton’s new Gallery and you will encounter a range of art ready to set you back on your heels, the wow factor lives and breathes slap bang in the centre of this now-quiet, once- powerful place. Eclectic exciting and super accessible , the first sight of ‘Seeing Red’ provokes a short intake of breath. Little wonder. The gallery’s new proprietors Lotte Attwood and daughter Hannah Munby are themselves dedicated artists, and with the skillful creation of eminent art broker Amanda Game have conjured a show packed with twentieth century brilliance.
Mouthblow transparent glass with red overlay by Tora Upp,another artist showing at the Fen Ditton Gallery in ‘Seeing Red’
Somehow the subdued setting of a Cambridgeshire village in winter enhances the shock effect.of the show. From slub greens and a wash of full - on grey outside, the transition to design and paint glory is sensational.
And it is only a kindly mile or so along the riverbank from Cambridge - head East until you see the signs. The Gallery is on the High (only?) Street.
What hits you first is by Wilhelmina Barns-Graham. It was one of her late paintings, her work straddles seven decades and blazes out the joy – and skill of a lifetime in print and paint. A mistress of the material world in art, this key picture greets the visitor with all the energy from her long life - it is part of her Scottish persona, painted in Balmungo House, the gorgeous St. Andrews country home she inherited . An artist from the St.Ives School , she is now recognized as an equal of her peers, Barbara Hepworth and Ben Nicholson.
‘Willy’ ( as we now must know her ) managed to stride past the strictures of Scotland’s disapproval of women painters, and as Kirsty Wark has commented, ‘make a career as an abstract artist so long before most painters had penetrated that adventurous area’. A brilliant welcome on the cold and rainy day I chose to visit. Her work is worth the outing on its own.
But it is not alone. Nigel Hall is almost as well known. He exhibits in over 80 galleries world wide and his spatial approach to art – in steel and wood alike- is a direct descendant from his grandfather stonemason. I liked his account of his long visit to Japan as inspiration for the red of his work displayed ‘a fishing trip was organized around Tiger Island. I pictured the great land mass of China and Korea gradually diminishing via Jeju and Tiger Islands and being replaced by equally vast oceans. The colour was probably inspired by the ubiquity of red to be found in the East.’
Gillies Jones sculpture Blue over Red Cameo
Gary Fabian Miller is almost too clever to be true. He is so talented , his very darkroom from the depths of Dartmoor, is now in the Victoria and Albert Museum. His techniques are both modern and antique ‘he immerses himself in the darkroom filtering different light sources through glass liquid and plant forms directly onto light sensitive Cibaschrome paper through different exposure times to create intense colour field images of great intensity and power’ the Gallery catalogue tells us .
You will believe the magic when you see the two splendid works on the Gallery’s far wall.
Be amazed too at Merete Rasmussen’s work. From Denmark she established her studio in London in 2005 and works with the idea of continuous surface. Unbelievably ,the form in her fragile sculptures has only one side connected throughout. The fact that this is done in stoneware is even more astonishing as the shapes are complicated and the shaping let alone the drying and firing process must be incredibly difficult to negotiate without collapsing the whole thing. Infinite 2019 is the magnificent result.
Nigel Hall
Stephen Gillies and Kate Jones, are an artist couple whose magnificent heavy Glass sculptures have appeared at Fitzwilliam Museum. These latest works represent the geology and river systems of the North York Moors where the two live and work ; they reflect the changing light landscapes and emerge into these sculpture- like bowls, in the most fascinating way. The bowls are immensely heavy by the way, and positioned right behind the door. Don’t say you’re not warned.
Rosemary Cullum has made her life in botanics and plants and only recently emerged on to the art scene to be met with great acclaim. Since graduation from Art School in Cambridge she seems to have exhibited full time a body of wonderful work. These red musings are oil on canvas and will make you just realize what red can do when concentrated into the intensity of varied forms.
Seeing Red at the Gallery
Once a stopping off venue for Kings – Queen Elizabeth 1 thought it was worth a scull down there on any visit to Cambridge – Fen Ditton has subsided into muted obscurity. It is a long time since the Phoenicians traded slaves at the edge of the river here, but a new vibrancy has arrived with the Gallery’s new owners and curators. This Gallery is well worth a stride out – if just for the transformational effect of muted country tones to the world of zingy artistic invention
