Ravilious & Co: The Pattern of Friendship
As the title of
show suggests this was as much a show about friendship and loyalty as art
although there were some fantastic pictures. The first room was a bit confusing
as you seemed to be thrown into the middle of a group of people and ideas but
it was enticing and got you asking questions which were then answered in
subsequent rooms.
I loved the
section on Ravilious’s student years and the people he met at the Royal College
of Art many of whom stayed with him throughout his life like Edward Bawden and
Enid Marx. Other characters had fascinating stories such as Percy Horton who
married Lydia Smith a suffrage who had been the fiancé of his best friend and
fellow conscientious objector who died in prison.
There was a charming section on life in a shared house in London with lovely portraits of many of the characters by Phyllis Dodd. Ravilious met his wife Tirzah Garwood at this time and I loved her woodcuts which take an affectionate look at everyday life.
There were nice
sections on the murals for Morley College done by Ravlious and Bawden in the
1930s and a fantastic display on the groups work on book covers and end papers
displayed in a mock bookshop. The whole exhibition blended fine art and design
work seamlessly and gave it equal weight.
You got very
pulled into the story and started to care about the people to the point that
when a girl called Diana Low came along and the commentary read that she was a
“signification test of his (Ravilious’s) fidelity to Tirzah, one which he
failed” you wanted to go back in time and slap him! An oddly visceral response
in an exhibition!
I loved the later
rooms on the Second World War but you could feel the tragedy coming and when it
did it was very moving. It wasn’t just the death of Ravilious but some of the
reactions and events around it. I won’t give it all away but suffice to say I
shed a tear.
Closes on 17
September 2017
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