DORCHESTER ABBEY, OXFORDSHIRE
A celebration of HM The Queen’s Diamond Jubilee by The Friends of Dorchester Abbey
21st April to 10th June 2012

‘John Piper and the Church’, an important loan exhibition of paintings, stained glass and tapestry designs, drawings and ecclesiastical vestments, is to be held at Dorchester Abbey, Dorchester-on-Thames, Oxfordshire OX10 7HH from 21st April to 10th June 2012.

More than 50 works spanning Piper’s career will be shown along with key works from public collections including the Britten-Pears Foundation; Manchester City Art Gallery; Pallant House Gallery, Chichester; The Collection, Lincolnshire (Usher Gallery) and the V&A. The exhibition will also include special works from private collections, most of which have been rarely seen.

This special exhibition celebrates the contribution of one man, the artist John Piper (1903-1992) to the development of modern art in British churches throughout the 20th century. It will chart his life-long fascination with, and care for, church buildings – a relationship which began as a young boy when he produced his own sketches and guidebook to the churches in his home county of Surrey. His love of stained glass was ignited when, as a ten year-old, he experienced the ‘thrilling shock’ of ‘light coming through a maze of richly coloured glass, in general darkness’ when visiting Notre Dame (quotation from Foreword to Glass Light, 1978).

Examples of Piper’s early work include St Nicholas Church, Blakeney, 1921 drawn when he was 18 years old and a view of Netley Abbey recorded in an antiquarian style in 1922. Octagonal Church, Hartwell, Buckinghamshire, 1939 loaned by the Usher Gallery, Lincolnshire, is a wonderful example of Piper’s new romantic style of architectural painting as he emerged from a period of abstraction which had occupied him for most of the 1930s.

World War II had a profound effect on Piper and as an official War Artist he produced a collection of paintings of bomb-damaged churches and those in decay. A key painting which illustrates this period is Coventry Cathedral, November 15, 1940 loaned by Manchester City Art Gallery. At this time he was already engaged with Kenneth Clark’s Recording Britain project, which was intended to boost morale by celebrating the country’s natural beauty and architectural heritage as well as providing a visual record of significant landmarks perceived to be under threat of damage or destruction. A good example on loan from the V&A is Chancel Arch, St Peter’s Stanton Low, Buckinghamshire.

During the war, 283 churches of all denominations were lost and, owing to the scarcity of building materials, only 41 were consecrated in the period 1945 to 1956. This gave architects and artists the opportunity to bring 20th century art into churches and, as a result, Piper undertook a series of commissions to create modern stained glass windows, tapestries and vestments. Some of these were nationally known, such as the Baptistry Window at Coventry and the High Altar tapestry at Chichester. The exhibition is fortunate to include Sketch for Chichester Cathedral Tapestry, 1965 and Trial Panel for St Luke, 1965 loaned by Pallant House Gallery as well as Designs for Hereford Cathedral Tapestries, 1976, which have never been shown before.

In addition, the exhibition includes stained glass designs for the Oundle School Chapel windows, including what is thought to be the design for Piper’s first ever trial panel of stained glass, translated by Patrick Reyntiens and the full-size cartoons for the Christ in Majesty window at the Chapel of St John’s Hospital, Lichfield, 1984 and the window at St Bartholomew’s Church, Nettlebed, Oxfordshire 1970.

Other commissions were more personal in nature like the Betjeman Memorial Window at Farnborough, 1986. The exhibition includes the full scale cartoon for this as well as the original design for the 1979 Benjamin Britten Memorial Window at the St Peter and St Paul Parish Church of Aldeburgh, loaned by the Britten-Pears Foundation. Piper’s attraction as an artist to the architectural details and ‘pleasing decay’ of church buildings on the outside was matched by a vision to bring colour, energy and modernity into the heart of the church. This passion was to continue for the rest of his life.

The exhibition has been curated by Pat Jordan Evans, Bohun Gallery, Henley-on-Thames, Oxon.

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VISITOR INFORMATION:

Opening hours: Monday-Saturday, 9am-5.00pm, Sunday, 2pm-5pm. (Please check website for occasional closing during these times).

Fully illustrated colour catalogue with a foreword by Frances Spalding will accompany the exhibition

Admission: Adults £5; 16 years and under, £2.50.

Exhibition enquiries : Telephone 01865 340 007

A programme of talks, concerts and events will accompany the exhibition.

Website: www.johnpiperandthechurch.co.uk

OTHER JOHN PIPER EXHIBTIONS IN OXFORDSHIRE:
John Piper: The Gyselynck Collection, 3 March – 8 October 2012 at River & Rowing Museum, Henley on Thames, www.rrm.co.uk