![Punch and judy putney wharf](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/09/Punch_and_judy_putney_wharf.jpg)
Alan Thornhill (1921 – March 4, 2020) was a British artist and sculptor whose long association with
clay
Clay is a type of fine-grained natural soil material containing clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g. kaolin, Al2 Si2 O5( OH)4).
Clays develop plasticity when wet, due to a molecular film of water surrounding the clay par ...
developed from pottery into sculpture. His output includes pottery, small and large scale sculptures, portrait heads, paintings and drawings.
His evolved methods of working enabled the dispensing of the sculptural armature to allow
improvisation
Improvisation is the activity of making or doing something not planned beforehand, using whatever can be found. Improvisation in the performing arts is a very spontaneous performance without specific or scripted preparation. The skills of impr ...
, whilst his portraiture challenges ''notions of normality'' through rigorous observation.
Biography
Born in London, he grew up in
Fittleworth
Fittleworth is a village and civil parish in the District of Chichester in West Sussex, England located seven kilometres (3 miles) west from Pulborough on the A283 road and three miles (5 km) south east from Petworth. The village has ...
, West Sussex, attended
Radley College
Radley College, formally St Peter's College, Radley, is a public school (independent boarding school for boys) near Radley, Oxfordshire, England, which was founded in 1847. The school covers including playing fields, a golf course, a lake, and ...
, and then in 1939 went to
New College to read
Modern History
The term modern period or modern era (sometimes also called modern history or modern times) is the period of history that succeeds the Middle Ages (which ended approximately 1500 AD). This terminology is a historical periodization that is applie ...
. In 1944 he returned to Oxford, having been exempted from
military service
Military service is service by an individual or group in an army or other militia, air forces, and naval forces, whether as a chosen job (volunteer) or as a result of an involuntary draft (conscription).
Some nations (e.g., Mexico) require a ...
as a
conscientious objector
A conscientious objector (often shortened to conchie) is an "individual who has claimed the right to refuse to perform military service" on the grounds of freedom of thought, conscience, or religion. The term has also been extended to object ...
. He obtained his degree, and spent a year in Italy based in
Florence
Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilancio demografico an ...
, teaching English at
Pisa University
The University of Pisa ( it, Università di Pisa, UniPi), officially founded in 1343, is one of the oldest universities in Europe.
History
The Origins
The University of Pisa was officially founded in 1343, although various scholars place ...
. He then stayed six months in
Oslo
Oslo ( , , or ; sma, Oslove) is the capital and most populous city of Norway. It constitutes both a county and a municipality. The municipality of Oslo had a population of in 2022, while the city's greater urban area had a population of ...
undergoing
Reichian therapy
Reichian therapy can refer to several schools of thought and therapeutic techniques whose common touchstone is their origins in the work of psychoanalyst Wilhelm Reich (1897–1957). Some examples are:
*Character Analysis, the analysis of chara ...
, from which came the decision to try working with his hands.
In 1949 he was accepted for the
pottery
Pottery is the process and the products of forming vessels and other objects with clay and other ceramic materials, which are fired at high temperatures to give them a hard and durable form. Major types include earthenware, stoneware and por ...
course at
Camberwekk under
Dick Kendall and
Nora Braden, followed by a year at
Farnham
Farnham ( /ˈfɑːnəm/) is a market town and civil parish in Surrey, England, around southwest of London. It is in the Borough of Waverley, close to the county border with Hampshire. The town is on the north branch of the River Wey, a trib ...
under
Henry Hammond
Henry Hammond (18 August 1605 – 25 April 1660) was an English churchman, who supported the Royalist cause during the English Civil War.
Early life
He was born at Chertsey in Surrey on 18 August 1605, the youngest son of John Hammond (c. 155 ...
and
Paul Barron, before moving in 1951 to
Eastcombe, Gloucestershire
Eastcombe is a village in Stroud District in Gloucestershire, England.
The Parish Church is called Eastcombe: St Augustine and served the parish of Bussage with Eastcombe and the benefice of Bisley, Chalford, France Lynch and Oakridge and Bus ...
, where Hawkley Pottery was set up. In 1958, frustrated by the repetition involved in making and selling pots, he started to gravitate towards claywork and sculpture through friendship with established sculptors
Lynn Chadwick
Lynn Russell Chadwick, (24 November 1914 – 25 April 2003) was an English sculptor and artist. Much of his work is semi-abstract sculpture in bronze or steel. His work is in the collections of MoMA in New York, the Tate in London and th ...
and Jack Greaves. In 1959 he moved to London, having found a property in
Putney
Putney () is a district of southwest London, England, in the London Borough of Wandsworth, southwest of Charing Cross. The area is identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London.
History
Putney is an ancient paris ...
which included a semi-derelict outbuilding that became his studio, which still exists. Latterly he was largely based near
Stroud
Stroud is a market town and civil parish in Gloucestershire, England. It is the main town in Stroud District. The town's population was 13,500 in 2021.
Below the western escarpment of the Cotswold Hills, at the meeting point of the Five ...
, Gloucestershire.
He first taught claywork at
Kingston,
Barking Regional College, Rush Green College of Further Education and then sculpture at
Morley College
Morley College is a specialist adult education and further education college in London, England. The college has three main campuses, one in Waterloo on the South Bank, and two in West London namely in North Kensington and in Chelsea, the lat ...
, London between 1970 and 1987, and at the former
Frink School
The Frink School of Figurative Sculpture was an art school in Leek, Staffordshire. It was named after Elisabeth Frink
Dame Elisabeth Jean Frink (14 November 1930 – 18 April 1993) was an English sculptor and printmaker. Her ''Times'' ...
of Sculpture where he was a founder trustee and with a later teaching role (1995–2001).
He was married to the painter
Sheila Denning, with whom he set up Hawkley Pottery; the marriage ended in divorce.
Working methods
Devising his own way of working which dispensed with the traditional sculptor's armature, he began working with random clay elements, constructed of coarse clay with uniform thickness, so that sculpture could develop, be turned and incorporate subconscious impulses in building the work. The assemblage of clay elements was dried and slowly kiln fired, if necessary being cut up to accommodate to the size of kiln and then rejoined after firing. The simple impetus was the desire to produce another sculpture, yet the later resulting large works – part figurative, part abstract, came to echo pre-occupations for him at that time. The process of
improvisation
Improvisation is the activity of making or doing something not planned beforehand, using whatever can be found. Improvisation in the performing arts is a very spontaneous performance without specific or scripted preparation. The skills of impr ...
and avoiding pre-conceived ideas (and in his
portrait
A portrait is a portrait painting, painting, portrait photography, photograph, sculpture, or other artistic representation of a person, in which the face and its expressions are predominant. The intent is to display the likeness, Personality type ...
ure, avoiding ''notions of normality'' through rigorous observation) continues to be taught through some of his own former pupils. His writings include notes about portraiture and the nature of the creative process.
Portraiture
His portraiture in public collections includes:
*
Hugh MacDiarmid
Christopher Murray Grieve (11 August 1892 – 9 September 1978), best known by his pen name Hugh MacDiarmid (), was a Scottish poet, journalist, essayist and political figure. He is considered one of the principal forces behind the Scottish Rena ...
(Christopher Murray Grieve) – purchased in 1978 for the Primary Collection of the
National Portrait Gallery in London
*
Emanuel Shinwell
Emanuel Shinwell, Baron Shinwell, (18 October 1884 – 8 May 1986) was a British politician who served as a government minister under Ramsay MacDonald and Clement Attlee. A member of the Labour Party, he served as a Member of Parliament (MP) f ...
(Manny, later, Lord) – Bronze head was purchased (accession number S.309) for the Collection of Glasgow City Art Gallery. in 1973.
*
A. S. Neill, the renowned educationist of
Summerhill School
Summerhill School is an independent (i.e. fee-paying) boarding school in Leiston, Suffolk, England. It was founded in 1921 by Alexander Sutherland Neill with the belief that the school should be made to fit the child, rather than the other wa ...
– Bronze heads are located at the
Scottish National Portrait Gallery
The Scottish National Portrait Gallery is an art museum on Queen Street, Edinburgh. The gallery holds the national collections of portraits, all of which are of, but not necessarily by, Scots. It also holds the Scottish National Photography Co ...
, Edinburgh and the
American College of Orgonomy The American College of Orgonomy (ACO) was established in 1968 and founded by Dr. Elsworth F. Baker, M.D. at the request of Wilhelm Reich who asked him to assume responsibility for the future of orgonomy. Its purpose is to set and maintain standards ...
, New York.
*
Tom Stoppard
Sir Tom Stoppard (born , 3 July 1937) is a Czech born British playwright and screenwriter. He has written for film, radio, stage, and television, finding prominence with plays. His work covers the themes of human rights, censorship, and politi ...
– A bronze head is part of Stoppard archive at the
Harry Ransom Center
The Harry Ransom Center (until 1983 the Humanities Research Center) is an archive, library and museum at the University of Texas at Austin, specializing in the collection of literary and cultural artifacts from the Americas and Europe for the pur ...
at
The University of Texas at Austin
The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 1883 and is the oldest institution in the University of Texas System. With 40,916 undergraduate students, 11,075 ...
.
*
Sydney Gordon Russell – Bronze head is in the collection of the
Gordon Russell Museum in
Broadway, Worcestershire
Broadway is a large village and civil parish in the Cotswolds, England, with a population of 2,540 at the 2011 census. It is in the far southeast of Worcestershire, close to the Gloucestershire border, midway between Evesham and Moreton-in-Marsh ...
.
Other eminent figures who have sat for Thornhill include
Enoch Powell
John Enoch Powell, (16 June 1912 – 8 February 1998) was a British politician, classical scholar, author, linguist, soldier, philologist, and poet. He served as a Conservative Member of Parliament (1950–1974) and was Minister of Health (1 ...
,
Christabel Bielenberg
Christabel Mary Bielenberg (''née'' Burton, 18 June 1909 – 2 November 2003) was a British writer who was married to a German lawyer, Peter Bielenberg. She described her experiences living in Germany during the Second World War in two books: ' ...
,
Frank Cousins Frank Cousins may refer to:
* Frank Cousins (British politician) (1904–1986), British trade union leader and Labour politician
* Frank Cousins (American politician) (born 1958), American politician who served as the Essex County, Massachusetts Sh ...
,
Richard Rodney Bennett
Sir Richard Rodney Bennett (29 March 193624 December 2012) was an English composer of film, TV and concert music, and also a jazz pianist and occasional vocalist. He was based in New York City from 1979 until his death there in 2012.Zachary Woo ...
,
Michael Cardew
Michael Ambrose Cardew (1901–1983), was an English studio potter who worked in West Africa for twenty years.
Early life
Cardew was born in Wimbledon, London, the fourth child of Arthur Cardew, a civil servant, and Alexandra Kitchin, the elde ...
, Sir
Colin Davis
Sir Colin Rex Davis (25 September 1927 – 14 April 2013) was an English conductor, known for his association with the London Symphony Orchestra, having first conducted it in 1959. His repertoire was broad, but among the composers with whom h ...
,
Dennis Silk
Dennis Raoul Whitehall Silk (8 October 193119 June 2019) was an English first-class cricketer and a public school headmaster. He was a close friend of the poet Siegfried Sassoon, of whom he spoke and wrote extensively. In the 1990s he chaired ...
and
Basil Bunting
Basil Cheesman Bunting (1 March 1900 – 17 April 1985) was a British modernist poet whose reputation was established with the publication of '' Briggflatts'' in 1966, generally regarded as one of the major achievements of the modernist traditio ...
.
Public sculpture
Public works formerly included ''Bond'', purchased by the permanent collection of the Jerwood Foundation at Jerwood Sculpture, Ragley Hall before its closure.
Nine large works now form the
Putney Sculpture Trail along the River Thames at
Putney
Putney () is a district of southwest London, England, in the London Borough of Wandsworth, southwest of Charing Cross. The area is identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London.
History
Putney is an ancient paris ...
in the Borough of Wandsworth, formally opened in September 2008. Load has been on Putney Embankment since 1989.
'Summoner' and 'Punch and Judy', two large bronze sculptures, are on permanent display in the Walled Garden of th
Museum in the Park Stroud, Gloucestershire. In addition, the Museum has other large bronze sculptures in their collection (but not always on display), these are 'Exit', 'Animaversion' and 'Together'. The Museum also holds some charcoal drawings and small terracotta works, such as 'Drowning Woman with Rescuer'.
Biographical film
A 40-minute documentary, produced by his daughter Anna Thornhill, ''Spirit in Mass: Journey into Sculpture'', was released in 2008 with an award from Screen South and UK Film Council. This was launched in Oxford and subsequently appeared at the Appledore Visual Arts Festival 2008 and Chichester International Film Festival. Artist and writer Clare Carswell is interviewed in the film.
Henry Moore Institute Archive
The bronze sculpture, ''Walking and Talking'' and many of the files and papers relating to Thornhill's portraits were acquired in 2007 by the
Henry Moore Institute
Henry may refer to:
People
*Henry (given name)
*Henry (surname)
* Henry Lau, Canadian singer and musician who performs under the mononym Henry
Royalty
* Portuguese royalty
** King-Cardinal Henry, King of Portugal
** Henry, Count of Portugal, ...
in
Leeds
Leeds () is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds district in West Yorkshire, England. It is built around the River Aire and is in the eastern foothills of the Pennines. It is also the third-largest settlement (by populati ...
, UK.
Henry Moore Foundation
References
*
*Public Sculpture of South London, T. Cavanagh, Public Monuments and Sculpture Association (2007) Liverpool University Press p. 464
External links
Web archive of works
Alan Thornhill Sculpture, Drawing and Painting Exhibition (2012) at the Museum in the Park, Stroud – the museum also holds some of Alan's work
Essay by Clare Carswell MA (RCA) 2008
Wandsworth Council Sculpture Trail map
Sculpture Trail leaflet/map download in pdf
{{DEFAULTSORT:Thornhill, Alan
1921 births
2020 deaths
People from Fittleworth
Artists from London
British conscientious objectors
British sculptors
British male sculptors
Modern sculptors
Alumni of New College, Oxford
People educated at Radley College
English potters
Rother Valley artists