Norman Whitehead (1915–1983) was a landscape painter, working chiefly around his hometown
Alfreton,
Derbyshire. Active mainly in the 1930s he was greatly influenced by the works of
Paul Nash and the
Vorticism movement, experimenting with form and developing a style which was very much his own.
Biography
Whitehead was encouraged in art by teachers at school, and at the age of 15 joined Alfreton Art Club. However, on leaving school he joined the family haulage business, becoming a driver for the firm, which widened his horizons as he drove around the countryside. He also became the firm's bookkeeper, but lacking training for the task, he made errors, leading to an investigation in 1935 by the Inland Revenue. His mother blamed him, and banished him to the coal-house, where he lived for years.
In the meantime he had started to paint, and through this began to mix with socially liberal people, through whom he became aware of the growing
pacifist
Pacifism is the opposition or resistance to war, militarism (including conscription and mandatory military service) or violence. Pacifists generally reject theories of Just War. The word ''pacifism'' was coined by the French peace campaign ...
movement, to which he was attracted. In 1938 Whitehead visited London for the first time, to attend a
Peace Pledge Union (PPU) rally at Friends' House, Euston Road. The following year he went to London again, to seek advice from the PPU about registering 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 ...
in the likely event of war. While there, he met
Mrs Jan Gordon, art critic of ''
The Observer'', who illustrated her article in the newspaper with his paintings, describing his work as 'touched by genius'.
Whitehead's pacifism was now confirmed, and in
World War II he was registered by the Local Tribunal as a conscientious objector, conditional upon driving an ambulance in Derbyshire. He later regretted his decision not to "stand up to Fascism". This perceived lack of action and the rift with his mother, during which a number of his paintings were destroyed, conspired to frustrate his ambition to become a professional artist and perhaps prevented his being recognised in British
Modernist art. After 1947 he never painted again.
The majority of Whitehead's paintings were stored in the loft of the family home until shortly before his death, when he attempted to catalogue them. In 1998 his widow donated his work (1933–1939), a few hundred paintings, to local museums.
Norman Whitehead's paintings are now on permanent display in a dedicated gallery of the
Ilkeston Erewash Museum.
[The contents of this article are taken with approval from a small booklet on Norman Whitehead published recently for Sherwood Forest Fine Arts.Their content was widely researched with a contribution from the Ilkeston Erewash Museum.]
Notes
External links
''A feature site about the life and paintings of Norman Whitehead''->
''Home of a permanent display of Norman Whitehead's paintings''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Whitehead, Norman
1915 births
1983 deaths
20th-century English painters
English male painters
English conscientious objectors
20th-century English male artists