Eric & James Ravilious: Father & Son
Towner, the contemporary art museum
3 July – 5 September 2010
£5.50 / £4 concession (inc. 16 to 18s) / under 16s free
Though Eric Ravilious died at war only a few years after his son James was born, parallels can be seen between the artistic practice of father and son. For Towner’s summer exhibition, the work of Eric Ravilious will be shown alongside that of his son James for the very first time, inviting exploration of the similarities between them and revealing a deep-seated love of the land inherent to both.
Towner in Eastbourne is renowned for its long association with Eric Ravilious, and is known for its commitment to shedding new light on an artist’s practice. Towner’s major summer exhibition aims to showcase some of Ravilious’s best works – including Cuckmere Haven, 1939 (Towner Collection) and The Wilmington Giant, 1939 (Victoria and Albert Museum, London) – whilst at the same time placing his work in a new context: that of his son, the late photographer James Ravilious.
The exhibition will focus on Eric Ravilious’s works of Sussex, a landscape he recorded ardently through his watercolours, woodblocks and prints. These works will be shown alongside a selection of James’s photographs of North Devon. Both artists carefully selected and used their own media to record, in their distinctive styles, the landscapes to which they were closely affiliated.
Eric Ravilious (1903 – 1942) was brought up in Eastbourne, and following his time at the Royal College of Art he returned frequently to Sussex where he stayed with Peggy Angus at Furlongs, her home near Lewes. He was greatly inspired by the beauty of the South Downs, and considered his time there to have "...altered my whole outlook and way of painting, I think because the colour of the landscape was so lovely and the design so beautifully obvious.”
James Ravilious (1939-1999) was born in Eastbourne and studied at St Martin's School of Art, London. After marrying Robin, the daughter of glass-engraver Laurence Whistler, in 1970, they moved to Devon to live in a cottage near her family home. James was self-taught as a photographer, but his accomplished works combine great technical ability with an understanding and affection for the people and landscape that he represented.
James Russell, author of Ravilious in Pictures: Sussex and the Downs, said of the upcoming exhibition, “Towner is ideally placed to hold Familiar Visions, the first joint retrospective of work by father and son. First, because the Eastbourne gallery has a fantastic collection of work by Eric Ravilious and, second, because the town and the surrounding country played a vital part in the lives of both men.
"Eric was raised here, then returned in the 1930s to stay with Peggy Angus at her cottage on the Downs, where he perfected his technique as a watercolourist. James was born here, and also stayed often at Peggy's cottage. Indeed, it was Peggy who persuaded him to start drawing and then to give up accountancy for art school. His career as a photographer was centred on north Devon, but it all started in Sussex."
Eastbourne Borough Council Cabinet Member for Tourism, Councillor Neil Stanley added, “Towner’s association with Eric Ravilious is long standing, dating right back to the time when he was living and working as an artist, and he is undoubtedly the artist Towner has become most synonymous with over the years. We are delighted to be able to showcase his work in our award-winning new gallery, with its stunning views over the South Downs which he so loved.
“Whilst Towner remains committed to showing and acquiring contemporary art, an annual summer exhibition of modern and historic art is central to the exhibition programme. These exhibitions should have connections to Towner’s location or collection, thus Familiar Visions is the perfect choice for Towner’s first summer exhibition.”
Towner purchased works by Eric Ravilious including Downs in Winter, 1934 during his lifetime, and following his death in 1942 his family recognised Towner’s commitment to his work and made an important long-term loan of paintings and archive material. This has since been enhanced through gifts and further purchases of key works, leading to Towner having one of the largest and most significant holdings of Ravilious’s work. Towner has continued its association with the Ravilious lineage through the acquisition of photographs from James Ravilious’s Beaford archive.
This exhibition will include works from Towner’s own collection alongside major loans from public galleries, as well as little seen works from private collections. This will be the first dedicated Ravilious exhibition in the new purpose-built Towner gallery, which opened in April 2009. The gallery’s dramatic new setting on the edge of the South Downs makes it the perfect place for an exhibition highlighting Eric Ravilious’s love of the Sussex landscape.
Familiar Visions sets the scene for a “summer of Ravilous” in Sussex, with an exhibition of Eric Ravilious woodcuts at Charleston (curated in partnership with Towner) and an accompanying exhibition of Sussex landscapes at Ditchling Museum. Depictions of the Sussex landscape can also be seen in Towner’s concurrent collection display, A Walk in the Park, a celebration of the South Downs’ new national park status.
A programme of events to accompany Familiar Visions will include an illustrated talk by writer and historian James Russell with Robin Ravilious, widow of James Ravilious, at 12 noon on Saturday 3 July. James Russell is the author of Ravilious in Pictures: Sussex and the Downs, which was published by Mainstone Press in November 2009. Ravilious in Pictures: The War Paintings will be published by Mainstone Press in September 2010.
