 |
| All Images: Rushey Mead Academy, September 2017 |
Sometime in the last century, Leicestershire County Council began a really rather impressive art collection - as a lendable resource for the county’s educational establishments. It’s a memory of an era when there was money in the system for
such things as Chagall prints (one of which I once discovered at the back of a
High School stockroom), or work by big name artists of the period, of the ilk
of Robyn Denny, Patrick Heron or Prunella Clough.
We clearly live in far less enlightened, more
parsimonious times, but what remains of the collection still exists, and
continues to circulate around local schools.
In the Art Dept. where I earn my corn, work from the Leicestershire
collection serves both as engaging décor, and (more importantly) as a valuable teaching resource.
Thus it was I found myself packing up a John
Piper piece, the other day for return to base.
If I’m honest, Piper isn’t really my thing these days, although I can
see some quality in much of his work.
Perversely though, I did find myself drawn to the reverse of the frame,
and the various clues (both textual and textural) that it offers to the
artwork’s history in public service.
 |
| John Piper, 'La Chapelle St Robert, Dordogne', (Medium/Date Unknown). |
With apologies to the artist’s memory, a
layer of bubble wrap over the image itself also helped me to see it afresh…
No comments:
Post a Comment