Galleries - July 2011

Stanley Spencer and the English Garden ed. Steven Parissien. 96pp, 43 ills, Compton Verney/Paul Holberton pbk, £16.99 Spencer is best known for his portraits, his mystical religious pic- tures or his work as a War Artist. This collec- tion of essays, which accompanies the show at Compton Verney (until October 2011) highlights his land- scape pictures, often of domestic buildings and gardens, whilst also covering related topics such as ‘The Artist and the Garden from Alling- ham to Spencer’ and ‘Landscapes and Gar- dens of the Long Week- end’ (the inter-War period). Though some- times disparaged as ‘potboilers’ (even by Spencer himself) “they came from the hand and eye of a visionary artist with a fierce at- tachment to the coun- tryside around him” as Keith Bell argues here. “Every nettle, every bean, every tulip has the potential to be more than it seems while remaining exactly what it is”. AA RAVILIOUS IN ESSEX One of my favourite small galleries in the the East of England, the Fry Art Gallery, in Saffron Walden, has done it again! Another cracking summer show that is, namely ‘Ravilious in Essex’. And it does just that with some 30 or more, many of them museum loans, recording not only that marvellous brief moment in 1930 when he and his wife Tirzah Garwood and Edward Bawden rented Brick House in Great Bardfield, but from his many return visits to the county right up to his death in 1942. With lots of supporting wood- prints and other material, this is an enchanting, substantial show – the day I went it was, rightly, packed out. t: 01799 513779. NU B OOK reveiw SHIPPING AND FORWARDING AGENTS Packers and Transporters of Works of Art Specialists in the storage, packing, removal, shipping and forwarding of antiques and works of art of all descriptions. Our warehouse is Customs bonded and provides secure private lock up rooms. Registered Office, Warehouse and Packing Premises PO Box 8, 1a Broughton St, London SW8 3QL T: 020 7622 9151 F: 020 7627 3318 E: info@trogers.co.uk www.trogers.co.uk ad to come