John Furnival (29 May 1933 – 31 May 2020) was a British artist and teacher, active in

visual The visual system comprises the sensory organ (the eye) and parts of the central nervous system (the retina containing photoreceptor cells, the optic nerve, the optic tract and the visual cortex) which gives organisms the sense of sight (the ...

and

concrete Concrete is a composite material composed of fine and coarse aggregate bonded together with a fluid cement (cement paste) that hardens (cures) over time. Concrete is the second-most-used substance in the world after water, and is the most wi ...

poetry. He was best known for his 'wordscapes'. His work is held in the collections of the

Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It plays a major role in developing and collecting modern art, and is often identified as one of ...

in New York, and

Tate Tate is an institution that houses, in a network of four art galleries, the United Kingdom's national collection of British art, and international modern and contemporary art. It is not a government institution, but its main sponsor is the U ...

, the

British Museum The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docum ...

and the V&A in London.

Life and work

Furnival was born in

Brockley Brockley is a district and an wards of the United Kingdom, electoral ward of south London, England, in the London Borough of Lewisham south-east of Charing Cross. History The name Brockley is derived from "Broca's woodland clearing", a wood ...

south London South London is the southern part of London, England, south of the River Thames. The region consists of the Districts of England, boroughs, in whole or in part, of London Borough of Bexley, Bexley, London Borough of Bromley, Bromley, London Borou ...

. He studied at

Haberdashers' Aske's Hatcham College Haberdashers' Hatcham College (formerly Haberdashers' Aske's Hatcham College) is a state secondary school with academy status and a music specialism located in New Cross. The school was formerly a grammar school, then a comprehensive City Tech ...

(from 1944) then

Wimbledon School of Art Wimbledon College of Arts, formerly Wimbledon School of Art, is a constituent college of the University of the Arts London specialising in theatre, screen and performance art. It is located in Wimbledon and Merton Park, South West London. ...

(1951–1952). Between 1954 and 1957 he did

national service National service is the system of voluntary government service, usually military service. Conscription is mandatory national service. The term ''national service'' comes from the United Kingdom's National Service (Armed Forces) Act 1939. The l ...

, receiving tuition in

Russian Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including: *Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...

in Fife, Scotland then working in the

War Office The War Office was a department of the British Government responsible for the administration of the British Army between 1857 and 1964, when its functions were transferred to the new Ministry of Defence (MoD). This article contains text from ...

Whitehall Whitehall is a road and area in the City of Westminster, Central London. The road forms the first part of the A roads in Zone 3 of the Great Britain numbering scheme, A3212 road from Trafalgar Square to Chelsea, London, Chelsea. It is the main ...

, translating Russian documents. Afterwards he studied at the

Royal College of Art The Royal College of Art (RCA) is a public research university in London, United Kingdom, with campuses in South Kensington, Battersea and White City. It is the only entirely postgraduate art and design university in the United Kingdom. It offe ...

(1957–1959). He was best known for his 'wordscapes', "made by drawing letters, words, phrases and long passages directly on to paper, card or painted panels. Towers (the Tower of Babel especially) and mazes were his recurring themes, as were witty imagery and verbal gymnastics." His preferred medium was pen and ink", using "whatever came to hand – envelopes, food labels or commercial documents". In 1960, Furnival moved to

Gloucestershire Gloucestershire ( abbreviated Glos) is a county in South West England. The county comprises part of the Cotswold Hills, part of the flat fertile valley of the River Severn and the entire Forest of Dean. The county town is the city of Gl ...

and taught at Cheltenham Art School and at Stroud Art College. The same year he married Astrid Belling and the pair moved to near

Nailsworth Nailsworth is a town and civil parish in Gloucestershire, England, lying in one of the Stroud Valleys in the Cotswolds, on the A46 road (the Roman Fosse Way), south of Stroud and about north-east of Bristol and Bath. The parish had a populat ...

in the

Cotswolds The Cotswolds (, ) is a region in central-southwest England, along a range of rolling hills that rise from the meadows of the upper Thames to an escarpment above the Severn Valley and Evesham Vale. The area is defined by the bedrock of Jur ...

, where he spent most of his life. He taught at Bath Academy of Art in Corsham, Wiltshire, and after its return to Bath, at

Bath School of Art and Design Bath School of Art and Design is an art college in Bath, England, now known separately as Bath School of Art and Bath School of Design. It forms part of the Bath Spa University whose main campus is located a few miles from the City at Newton Pa ...

, between 1965 and 2002. Furnival,

Sylvester Houédard Dom Pierre-Sylvester Houédard (16 February 1924 – 15 January 1992), also known by the initials 'dsh', was a British Benedictine priest, theologian and noted concrete poet. Life Born on Guernsey, as Pierre (Peter) Thomas Paul Jean Houédar ...

and Edward Wright, founded Openings in 1964 to publish

and

poetry. With Houédard and Kenelm Cox, he founded GLOUP (the GLOUcestershire grouP) in 1974. Furnival also collaborated on print, drawing and book projects with

Ian Hamilton Finlay Ian Hamilton Finlay, CBE (28 October 1925 – 27 March 2006) was a Scottish poet, writer, artist and gardener. Life Finlay was born in Nassau, Bahamas, to James Hamilton Finlay and his wife, Annie Pettigrew, both of Scots descent. He was ...

Anselm Hollo Anselm Paul Alexis Hollo (12 April 1934 – 29 January 2013) was a Finnish poet and translator. He lived in the United States from 1967 until his death in January 2013. Hollo published more than forty titles of poetry in the United Kingdom and ...

, Thomas Meyer and Jonathan Williams, and with his wife, a textile artist. He died on 31 May 2020, aged 87. He is survived by his wife Astrid and their children, Eve, Jack, Harry and Claudia.

Collections

Furnival's work is held in the following permanent collections: *

, London: 4 works (as of June 2020) *

, New York: 2 works (as of June 2020) *

, UK: 1 work (as of June 2020) *

Victoria and Albert Museum The Victoria and Albert Museum (often abbreviated as the V&A) in London is the world's largest museum of applied arts, decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 2.27 million objects. It was founded in 1852 and nam ...

, London: 4 works (as of June 2020)

References

External links

Archivio Conz
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Furnival, John 1933 births 2020 deaths 20th-century English artists 21st-century English artists Academics of Bath Spa University Alumni of Wimbledon College of Arts Alumni of the Royal College of Art Artists from London People from Brockley Place of death missing Writers from London 20th-century English male artists 21st-century English male artists