Sunday 5 April 2015

Kenneth Rowntree (1915—1997): A Centenary Exhibition

After living for a while here, there and yonder, you start to regard these places as your own. At least I do. I have acquired a habit of calling any of them “our”, in plural. (With all its richness, English language has no direct equivalent of certain basic phrases of, say, Russian. Take a simple expression «а у нас». No, you can’t translate it as “we have”. So I don’t really know how to say «а у нас на Фуэртевентуре» or «а у нас в Сантандере» in English.)

So today I went for a walk down memory lane: from Littlebury to Audley End House to Saffron Walden. In Saffron Walden I had a nice cup of tea in a brand-new café Bicicletta, where I walked in at 15:55, five minutes until closing time. After that, I found myself in Bridge End Gardens, precariously close to the house where we lived for eight years. And then I noticed that the Fry Art Gallery was open. In fact, today is the first day it’s open this year. Inside, they have the Fry Art Gallery 30th Anniversary Exhibition “from Eric Ravilious to Grayson Perry” (I remember most paintings there rather well) and a Centenary Exhibition of Kenneth Rowntree (until 12th July). After a chat with curators (they provided me with catalogues and told me everything that I may possibly want to know about the opening times), I stayed there for a goodish while before heading back to Littlebury.

London has the National Gallery and stuff, I said to myself, and Cambridge has the Fitzwilliam Museum. А у нас в Сафрон-Уолдене — the Fry Art Gallery.

The Cerne Abbas Giant, Dorset

Evening Bather, Essex

Exeter College Barge, Oxford

Falling Rain with Raised Flag

Homage to Verlaine (Chanson d’Autome)

Motel

Putney Bridge Night Scene

Putney Garden

Sky, Sea, North, Umber

The Station Willows, Clare, Suffolk

Toy Boat at Selsey

Water Butt

Winter Garden, Acomb

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