GALLERIES

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intensely interested in the visual
changes wrought by its
application – a brushstroke here,
a strip of colour there, another
perhaps diagonally opposite. She
studied art at Camberwell when
chromatic sensibilities were still
thought worth developing, and
after a peripatetic childhood she
settled in St Ives.
Where better for an artist
fascinated by light and its
interaction withcolour and
space? If you sense the South of
France in her paintings, it is a nod
no doubt to Matisse and
Bonnard, two artists she
acknowledges as an influence,
and from whom she takes her
lyrical, colourist style. From
Bonnard in particular, comes the
soft focus painterly impressionism
that conjures a timeless moment,
one of waking from a dream to
wonder without thought, just
presence in place. It is this
meditative quality, this stillness
and sense of place that give Alice
Mumford’s paintings their gravitas
and their joy.
The radical nature of Kestle
Barton's exhibitions can
paradoxically seem at variance
withtheir idyllic pastoral setting,
and ‘Togetherness: Notes on
Outrage’ is spot on in this sense.
Inspired by architectural journalist
Ian Nairn’s condemnation of
Subtopia, his term for the
homogenisation of new towns
built in the 1950s and 60s, the
exhibition is part of a continuing
researchproject begun at
London's SouthKiosk to
re-examine Nairn’s critique and its
relevance today.
The Kestle Barton show
examines the Rural, one of Nairn’s
own categories, particularly sites
in Cornwall of residential and
business development through
the work of photographer and
installation artist Felicity
Hammond and photographer
Polly Tootal. Pieces by Shaun
Badham are also included and it
may be these that prove the most
eye catching. From his work on
the now defunct play parks
themed around the 60s love affair
with the space race, Badham has
‘reconditioned’ a climbing frame.
Nostalgia for some, thought
provoking none the less.
Since opening in 2012
Tremenheere Gallery has
become an important focus for
sculpture in Cornwall; withthe
opening of the new gallery in
January this year, it provides
purpose built exhibiting space for
the Newlyn Society of Artists’
twice yearly shows. Integral to the
development of art in the region
and withpast members ranging
from Stanhope Forbes to Terry
Frost, the NSA shows are a
pulsimeter for current work in the
region, and withGalleries own
Nicholas Usherwood making the
selection in this Critic’s Choice
exhibition, miss it at your peril.
Pip Palmer
The St Ives Festival spotlights
several unmissable shows in
Cornwall this month. In St Ives
itself two adjacent galleries exhibit
the very best of what identifies the
town's creative tradition: Breon
O’Casey at New Craftsman
Gallery and Alice Mumford at
Belgrave St Ives.
In 1959, inspired by a film
about painter Alfred Wallis, Breon
O’Casey (son of Irish playwright
Sean O’Casey and his actress
wife Eileen) joined the rearguard
of the modernist maelstrom in
St Ives where, first as assistant to
sculptor Denis Mitchell and then
to Barbara Hepworth, he
developed his skills working both
in two dimensions, painting and
printmaking, and in a number of
other disciplines, most notably
sculpture, jewellery making and
weaving.
Simplicity and truth to materials
characterise his work, his
fascination with abstraction never
taking him far from motifs drawn
from the natural world – so often a
bird, stylised and simplified or, in
his sculpture, the human figure.
Six years after his death in 2011
Breon O'Casey can be identified
as unique in the St Ives milieu for
ploughing his own furrow and
adhering only loosely to the
defined ‘isms’ of contemporary
art. At New Craftsman there is a
chance to see how he did this in a
range of the media in which he
worked.
Born in Colombia, Alice
Mumford is a painter; one who
delights in her medium and is
SEPTEMBER 2017 GALLERIES 11
from left
Alice Mumford ‘French Windows and Red Table
Cloth’ Belgrave St Ives
Breon O’Casey ‘Reclining Nude’
New Craftsman Gallery
C
ORNWALL