Ravilious & Co: touring exhibition at Compton Verney Gallery

I was recently fortunate enough to see the touring exhibition 'Ravilious & Co: The Pattern of Friendship. English Artist Designers 1922-1942' at Compton Verney. The exhbition was curated by Andy Friend, author of the book 'Ravilious & Co', and the Towner Art Gallery, Eastbourne. It was assembled to commemorate the 75th anniverasry of his death in 1942 when he disappeared on a flight to Iceland during World War II. There are nearly 500 paintings, drawings, engravings, books, prints, ceramics, textiles and wall coverings in the exhibition which includes work by his friends and associates: Edward Bawden (best friend), John and Paul Nash, Enid Marx, Barnett Friedmann, Ellen 'Tirzah' Garwood (his wife), Thomas Hennell, Douglas Percy Bliss, Peggy Angus, Helen Binyon (his lover) and Diana Low. Coincidentally, Compton Verney is also home to the Marx Lambert collection which includes Enid Marx's collection of ceramics and some of her textiles.
The works shown reveals key moments in his life and that of his fellow artists, such as the years at the Royal College of Art (1922-5), the 1927 St George's Exhibition, time spent in Sussex at Furlongs and Newhaven, and their work during World War Two.
Included among the ceramics are the 'Boat Race Bowl', from 1938 for Wedgwood which incoporates a night scene in Picadilly Cicus on the interior.




There are also examples of his commemorative mugs, for example for the coronation of George VI in 1937. Most prominent, however, are his pictures including a series of the Sussex landscape: 'Furlongs', 'Interior at Furlongs', 'Near Firle, East Sussex', 'Cement Works', Downs in Winter', 'The Cucumber house'. Typically for Ravilious's work, the landscapes are curiously empty containing few figures. Another series depicted the various white chalk figures on the downlands of Wiltshire and Dorset and included in the exhibition is 'Westbury Horse'



During the Second World War Ravilious, along with his friends and circle, became a War Artist choosing to join up with the RAF and depict some startling images of life at the time through his eyes. The colours are much more vivid in the flesh in this example with the sharp contrast between the bright blue and clear yellow of the sun. This is a picture of 'HMS Glorious in the Arctic', circa 1940.

However, it is hard to do justice to the vast array and diversity of works in the show in a few paragraphs. There are many scarce illustrated books by Ravilious, Bawden and Marx, in particular and examples of their commercial work for the Underground Electric Railways Board and the London Passenger Tranport Board. Also here are important works by Paul Nash and his brother, John. If you get a chance to see it, do go: it is at Compton Verney until the 9th June.

Other books of interest include: 'Eric Ravilious: artist & designer' by Alan Powers, 2013; 'Bawden, Ravilious and the Artists of Great Bardfield' by Malcolm Yorke and Gill Saunders; 'Edward Bawden and Eric Ravilious: Design' by Brian Webb, 2014.
The Towner Art Gallery in Eastbourne has a dedicated Eric Ravilious room.