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WELCOME TO THE EAST FINCHLEY OPEN ARTISTS OCTOBER NEWSLETTER
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THIS MONTH - Comics and Comic Characters - Christine Watson - Frank Gehry - Members News - Stephens House Appeal - Art on demand - and more
If you are viewing on gmail remember to click 'display images' and 'view entire message' when you reach the bottom.
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T H E W A Y F O R W A R D (paused)
Following last months optimism, it looks like things are going to remain difficult until at least next March. Whilst some members are able to arrange live exhibitions most of EFOA's output will be virtual. Although our new website is still a few weeks away, progress has been good and it will provide an excellent platform for virtual exhibitions, (we have some planned), and Artists work and links. More next month
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British Comics and Comic characters
MIKE COLES writes:-
In 1930’s Britain, classic reading for children included Swallows and Amazons (1930), the Box of Delights (1935) and the Hobbit (1937) - great literature that has endured the test of time. But a new kind of ‘literature’ was arriving. With war looming, enter the irreverent Desperate Dan, who made his appearance in the first issue of a comic called The Dandy on 4 December 1937. He was the world's strongest man, able to lift a cow with one hand. The pillow of his (reinforced) bed was filled with building rubble and his beard was so tough he shaved with a blowtorch.
Desperate Dan's favourite food was cow pie – a type of enormous meat pie with the horns sticking out. Just 8 months late came a second comic The Beano to rival the Dandy – (although from the same publisher). The Beano introduced us to Lord Snooty, a nice boy, who happened to be an Earl, but who wanted the best for his friends, and Tin Can Tommy, a clockwork boy built by a professor to replace his own son who had died.
Comics, or graphic stories had originated in Victorian times as entertainment for the semi-literate working class – words with pictures were less challenging than conventional written stories. As literacy improved stories with pictures were focussed more on children. As such it was seemed important that the content should reinforce Victorian values of the day – religion, morality, patriotism and the rightful position of the Upper Classes. One of the first of such publications was The Boys Own Paper.
The idea for the publication was first raised in 1878 by the Religious Tract Society, an evangelical group of English Bishops as a means to instil Christian morals in children during their formative years. The first issue was published on 18 January 1879. The contents usually included adventure stories and stories about public school life; notes on how to practice nature study, sports and games, instructions for how to make things, (for instance canoes), puzzles and essay competitions.
In its first decade the paper promoted the British Empire as the zenith of civilisation and reflected the grossly offensive attitudes towards other races which were taken for granted in Britain at the time. In 1885, for example, it described its vision of "the typical negro":
"The arm is two inches longer in proportion than that of a Caucasian, and the hands hang level with the kneecaps; the facial angle is seventy as against eighty-three, the brain weighs thirty-five as against forty-five; the skull is much thicker ... there is no growth in intelligence once manhood is reached." (note: this was a mainstream Christian backed publication supported by respected Bishops)
By the turn of the century, rival story papers (containing illustrated text stories), known as "penny dreadfuls" from their cover price, served as alternative entertainment for British children. With close-printed text with few illustrations, they were essentially no different from a book, except that they were somewhat shorter and typically the story was serialised over many weekly issues in order to maintain sales.
By the end of the First World War more sophisticated children’s comics were emerging through the initiative of the Dundee based DC Thomson publishing company. Adventure (1921), The Rover (1922), The Wizard (1922) and Hotspur (1933) were more obviously precursor’s to comics as we know them, but still retained a good versus evil moral dimension. By 1930 things were stirring in America when Buck Rogers and Flash Gordon appeared – adventure and space travel were now the themes.
And then in 1937 Thomson’s hit the jackpot with the Dandy followed by the Beano in 1938. In America in 1938 Superman arrived – a mild-mannered journalist called Clark Kent, who upon passing a phone box would dive in and quickly emerge as a superhero with supernatural powers rescuing damsels and bashing villains before returning to the office in time for tea. Also, at this time Mickey Mouse had become Walt Disney’s original movie cartoon character and then promptly, a comic character.
Comics had entered their golden era - one of the few entertainments available for children at the time. Despite paper shortages during the Second World War, forcing publication from weekly to fortnightly, comics were massively popular. The Dandy and The Beano were selling millions per issue throughout the war and circulation continued to increase post-war.
By 1950, for some, comics once again were seen to be dangerously influential in children’s behaviour. Marcus Morris, an Anglican vicar felt that the church was not communicating its moral message effectively enough. Disillusioned with contemporary children's literature, including the Dandy and The Beano, he and artist Frank Hampson created a dummy comic called The Eagle, based on Christian values. Morris proposed the idea to several Fleet Street publishers, with little success, until Hulton Press took it on. The first issue was published in April 1950.
Despite its relatively high price, the Eagle was an immediate success; the first issue sold 900,000 copies. Eight of its twenty pages were printed in full colour. It was designed to entertain and educate its readers, but it was the adventures of Dan Dare, Pilot of the Future, which most captivated readers. Created by Hampson - now a full-time staff artist with his own team - Dan Dare, initially a pastor to the Interplanetary Force, was the UK's first science-fiction comic strip of any significance. Readers were thrilled by the square-jawed British spaceman's weekly exploits, and his struggles with The Mekon. (The Mekon was the ruler of the Treens of northern Venus - although he was ousted from this position at the end of the first story and had no fixed base of operations). He was created by scientific experimentation, engineered for a very high intelligence. As such he had a swollen head containing his massive brain and atrophied body, and moved around on a levitating chair. He typically invented new superweapons in the pursuit of his goal: the domination of the universe for the purpose of scientific research – all resonating with the rise of nuclear weapons and their contemporary threat to world peace. In some stories he also sought personal revenge on Dan Dare.
The Eagle became immensely popular with people of all ages and walks of life. Copies brought into school regularly found their way into the hands of staff, who enjoyed them almost as much as the children they taught. Lord Mountbatten supposedly bought a subscription for his nephew, Prince Charles. The comic was influential in unusual ways. Gerald Scarfe and David Hockney had their first work published in Eagle as winners of a competition to design a Dan Dare watch. Dan Dare excelled at jujutsu, but he most often found non-violent solutions to predicaments. He was bound by a sense of honour, never lied, and would rather die than break his word.
In March 1951, a few months after the morality of British comics had been restored and sanitised with the Eagle, purists were alarmed with the arrival of Dennis the Menace in the Dandy (now selling 2 million copies a week), courtesy of DC Thomson.
Dennis, with his Abyssinian wire-haired tripe hound Gnasher, was the archetypal very badly behaved schoolboy. The main recurring storyline features his campaign of terror against a gang of "softies" (well-behaved boys), particularly Walter. Walter finds himself in unfavourable circumstances on many occasions, although he sometimes gets the last laugh. Author Michael Rosen commented, “In most children's books, a bad child gets made good – but the great thing about Dennis is he never gets better, only worse”
Dennis takes pride in causing chaos and mayhem to those around him due to his intolerance for rules and order. Such traits have caused some to consider him a villain, as in such strips, Dennis would prove himself to be very selfish and greedy, tending to disregard his friends in favour of personal gain. His misbehaviour stems from what The Beano explains as an attempt to add excitement to an otherwise dull day. “Kids, Dennis is naughty so that you don’t have to be”
Dennis fostered a whole range of imitators – Beryl the Peril, Roger the Dodger and Minnie the Minx to name a few, but as the sixties went on rock and roll had arrived and television too and weekly comics went into a slow decline. The Eagle closed in 1969, just as Neil Armstrong walked on the Moon. Those remaining adapted to changes in society, even Dan Dare made a couple of comebacks, but they never again found the popularity they enjoyed from the late 1930’s to the mid 1960’s
Professor Steven Hawking, an avid Eagle reader as a child, when asked what influence Dan Dare had had on him, replied, "Why am I in cosmology?" Terry Jones, Film director, writer and Python considered Dan Dare as "One of the great creations of Twentieth Century imaginative literature."
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And of course there are always parodies…..
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MEMBERS EXHIBITION
CHRISTINE WATSON ONLINE AT THE SOCIETY OF WOMEN ARTISTS
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From the postbag:-
Mrs Ada Smith writes:-
I hope you don’t mind me writing but you arty types like these strange things.
A couple of months ago I went down to bingo in Wood Green for the first time in months – my daughter drove me so I didn’t have to go on the 144. We all had to sit apart, I was trying to talk to my friend Doris but I don’t think she could hear me – she’s pretty deaf at the best of times!
Where was I – oh yes – an amazing thing happened, I got the first 6 numbers and shortly afterwards ‘Housey, Housey’ and I had won the big prize – which was a weekend for two at a hotel in Spain at a vineyard. I like Spanish wine – I had some sangria at a funeral last year.
Anyway, we went last week. The girls on EasyJet were very nice and when we got to Spain the hotel had sent a van to pick us up. We got to the hotel late afternoon, and you wouldn’t believe it!. It looked like there had been an earthquake!
The roof of the hotel was all bent and scraggly I think there must have been some problem with the builders. They said it was safe so we went in – the bedrooms were all distorted but thankfully it didn’t rain so we didn’t have any leaks.
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At dinner I had the asparagus but you only get one mouthful – I asked for some chips but they didn’t have any. In the end I wasn’t sorry to leave.
If you go to Spain look out for the hotel – you can’t miss it, it’s on the side of the hill – although of course they might have repaired it by now but it will probably remind you of that French man with the beret who painted all those things with funny shapes,
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Yours sincerely,
A Smith (Mrs)
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To the average person with all the trials and preoccupations of the moment arriving at an ancient Spanish vineyard and coming across the Marques de Riscal Hotel in Rioja country it must have been akin to going to the local park and seeing a spaceship.
If you were looking for an architect to design a functional building at a reasonable price then Frank Gehry is probably not your man. If, however, you had a lot of money and wanted to build something aspirational and futuristic that set your company or institution apart from the run of the mill, then he undoubtedly is
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Frank Goldberg (later Frank Gehry) was born in Toronto, Canada in February 1929. His parents were from immigrant backgrounds. The family moved to Los Angeles in 1947. He received his Bachelor of Architecture degree from the University of Southern California in 1954 and then studied City Planning at the Harvard Graduate School of Design until 1957. Returning to the West Coast he worked for several architects before opening his own practice in Los Angeles in 1962.
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For a number years he worked on conventional designs but the creative remodelling of his own house brought him serious attention. In 1978 he took his own conventional bungalow in Santa Monica and wrapped it in angular volumes clad in a riot of everyday suburban materials like plywood and chain link. As opinionated as it was sculptural, the house earned both praise and criticism.
(In 2012 it won the American Institute of Architects’ prestigious Twenty-Five Year Award.)
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Frank Gehry’s career had taken off. Prestigious international commissions followed, his designs becoming ever more complex and expensive.
In 1997 his Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao opened, now considered one of the most significant buildings in Europe.
“I was looking for movement. Because I said that the culture is living in a state of movement. Everything around us is moving. Planes, cranes, cars. So, I was looking for a movement of vocabulary to replace Modernism. But how do you build this? I had to invent all the technology.”
Nine years later, and just an hour drive south from Bilbao, the Gehry designed 'Marques de Riscal' winery and Visitor Centre and Hotel opened. Traditionally the wineries in the region are not open to the public, but as a component of an overall plan to redefine and invigorate its public image, Marques de Riscal commissioned the design of a small building intended to provide a unique experience for visitors to the winery. Ada Smith’s approach would have been along a road that leads through the vineyards and through existing wine production facilities that date primarily from the mid-nineteenth century and coming across the Hotel would have been a shock.
Gehry uses advanced 3D computer modelling programmes borrowed from the aerospace industry to make his designs buildable.
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If you would like to design a building like Gehry you will need to find a restaurant that has paper napkins. Take a fibre tip pen and have several glasses of wine and start squiggling!
Now aged 91 Gehry continues to work - and he has just taken up flying!
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MEMBER NEWS - SARAH NEEDHAM
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Sarah writes:- I will be showing at Silson Contemporary Art Gallery, Harrogate from 16th October in their Autumn/Winter show which runs to December
https://silsoncontemporaryart.co.uk/
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TYPEWRITER ART
Amazing what you can do with a typewriter!
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STEPHENS HOUSE & GARDENS APPEAL
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Social media platforms most commonly used for art-related purposes worldwide from 2015 to 2019
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ABOUT EAST FINCHLEY OPEN ARTISTS
Find out about us on our website www.eastfinchleyopen.org.uk
There you will find details of all our current members plus photo's of their work and contact details plus information on recent and upcoming exhibitions
MEMBERSHIP: If you are interested in joining East Finchley Open Artists please contact the Membership Secretary Monica Peiser
empeiser@gmail.com
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