John Tunnard
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John Samuel Tunnard (7 May 1900 - 12 December 1971) was a British Surrealist and Modernist designer and painter. He was the cousin of landscape architect Christopher Tunnard.
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[edit] Life
John Tunnard was born in Sandy, Bedfordshire, England, and educated at Charterhouse School. He studied design at the Royal College of Art (1919-1923). He married a fellow student, Mary May Robertson, in 1926.
In the 1920s he worked in various textile design jobs in Manchester — for Tootal, Broadhurst, Lee & Co, the carpet manufacturers, H&M Southwell, and John Lewis Partnership. He took up painting seriously in 1928, and taught design at the Central School of Arts and Crafts, London, from 1929.
Ih 1931 he exhibited at the Royal Academy and with the London Group, which he joined in 1934. In 1933 the Tunnards moved to Cadgwith, Cornwall, where they ran a business making printed silks. From the mid-1930s, he became friends with Julian Trevelyan, Henry Moore, John Betjeman and Humphrey Spender.
He was a conscientious objector in World War II, working briefly as fisherman in 1939, then as an auxiliary coastguard for the duration of the war.
From 1945 to 1965 he taught at the Penzance School of Art. He exhibited again at the Royal Academy in 1960, and was elected as an Associate in 1967. He died in Penzance in 1971.[1]
[edit] Work
Tunnard's early works were fairly conventional. His first major exhibition, held in 1932 at the Redfern Gallery, featured landscapes, marine scenes and still life. From the mid-1930s, however, he began to paint abstract works influenced by the styles of Joan Miró and Paul Klee, and further embraced British surrealism on reading Herbert Read's Surrealism. His works featured architectural and biomorphic forms combined with elements of constructivism. In his Self Portrait (now in the National Portrait Gallery, London) the artist depicts himself alongside an oversized insect.
Tunnard, along with painter Graham Sutherland was loosely termed British Neo-romanticism, continuing the tradition of British landscape, but with a modern sensibility.
In later life he became interested in space travel and entomology,[1] when he depicted satellites and moonscapes in painting
Interest in his work diminished after his death in 1971. In 2000, there was a centenary exhibition at Durham University.
[edit] Technique
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The technique that Tunnard used evolved from his youthful employ as a commercial designer. He wanted to command a full understanding of all the essential qualities of painting; form, colour, texture etc. Compositions were always meticulously executed. He carefully rendered shapes applying clear, precise edges; indeed, with scientific precision; he often used a compass and a ruler. The artist was at first quietly naive about modern art techniques; he once asked a colleague whether it was acceptable for him to use his compass and ruler. Would he forsake his authenticity as an artist? His choice of materials was sometimes unusual; gouache or oil on a gesso base were his favoured materials, but he often used a range of media for a single work. For example; in many of his paintings tempera and oil paint were combined on the picture surfaces. He also worked with oil on glass supports during a period just after the Second World War, at a time when he was highly productive. Most oils were painted on gesso. Some oils were painted on his choice of fibre or composite board, this being an ill-advised choice for professional artists in general. He may not have known that collectors are as fussy about the quality of the support as they are fussy about the quality of the painting. His vision was a unique one which transcended a documentary representation of the world.
[edit] References
- ^ a b Alan Windsor, "Tunnard, John Samuel (1900–1971)", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 accessed 3 July 2007
[edit] Further reading
- John Tunnard: His Life and Work by Alan Peat and Brian A. Whitton
