A SELECTION OF 10 PHOTOGRAPHS OF HIS SCULPTURES TAKEN AT THE ST IVES PHOTOGRAPHIC STUDIO, UNDER HIS SUPERVISION.
Three photographs represent three sculptures for which I have sourced the originals, and enable us to compare our experience of the sculptures with Taylor's own vision, embodied in the photographs., taken under his direction.
Curatorially, the photographs enable us to set up a visual dialogue with the sculptures and Taylors vision of his work, through the mediation of the photographs.
For the photographs define view points that materialize discrete acts of looking:
COLLECTIONS
Short biographical notes in the various catalogues of Bruce Taylor' exhibition suggests that his work was 'bought by private collectors in America, Canada, Sweden and England, and by Leicestershire Education authority'. Another note states that his work was acquired by the Museum of Modern Art, in New York.
[I have recently written to the public institutions that acquired his work and am informed that they cannot be traced].
The catalogue of his solo show at the Drian gallery listed a work 'Convexity' (in collection of Mrs Sybil Hanson).
A work titled 'King and Queen' was acquired from the Arts Council of Wales during the late 60s.
One of Taylor's favorite work, according to his daughter's testimony. Was it because of its symbolism or its formal qualities (or both)?
(…)
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THE NEXT STEP
Following a recent visit to st Ives, to visit the St Ives archive, the Penwith Society Gallery, The Society of Artists; meeting curators (at Newlyn Gallery; Penlee House, Penzance), gallerists (Belgrave, St Ives and others), and artists — in order to retrieve evidence of Taylor's presence in St Ives — the next step [Summer 2014] involved locating and talking to people who knew him, in the Uk then, in the Autumn, in France; and trying to locate some of his works (in private collections, in private and public galleries and, perhaps, with relatives and heirs).
Neither Céret's Musée d'Art Moderne, nor the private Odile Ohms Gallery in Céret seems to have been aware of his presence in the region.
Taylor left a large welded steel sculpture to the village of Taulis, where he spent the last thirty six years of his life, as well as a forged iron cross for the church; both of which are awaiting installation.
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OBJECTIVES
The quality and variety — but small quantity — of works left by Bruce Taylor [in different genres, media, styles and states ] that I acquired in Taulis constitutes a rare 'time capsule'; a window open onto the studio of the artist, during the golden age of St Ives; that enables us to witness 'work in progress' at different stages of the making process.
This is emphasized by the strong structural correlation we find between his paintings, drawings and sculptures; for Taylor used his 2 and 3D works to elaborate and explore artistic ideas that cut across media.
A semi abstract print, 'Corrida' , dated 1968-70 and dedicated 'to Judy', his third wife, [recently sourced on ebay France] is a rare example of his print work, that he did in France. The print represents a bull-fight, most certainly seen in Céret; evidence of his engagement with local Catalan culture.
In Taillet, Col de Fourtou and Taulis where he lived, successively, Taylor concentrated on making ceramics till he died in 1989.
CALL FOR INFORMATION: Any information about Bruce Taylor's life and works; in particular the location and photographs of his works, would be greatly appreciated; as well any catalogues of the Penwith Society exhibition, from 1957 to 1965 and other catalogues of exhibition he took part in, and personal testimonies.
11.01.2014
rev. 16.07.2014
Post-Scriptum
During a recent visit to St Ives (March 2014), I was surprised to note that only four persons I met knew of Bruce Taylor: a gallerist (Belgrave Gallery), two member of the St Ives archive and an artist who had known him, rented a house from him, and remembered him fondly (Roy Conn).
This, combined with the scanty references in books about the 'St Ives School', explains curators' ignorance of his very existence.
Living outside the town of ST Ives, with a family, may have kept him apart from the bohemian soirés at the pub.
Taylor left St Ives twice in 1961 (till 1963) then in 1965.
I gratefully acknowledge the generosity of ebay seller Gérard x who kindly donated the print to the project, to Melanie Taylor for sharing personal memories and showing me three works by her father and from all those who responded to the article in The Cornishman to share their experiences.
The project now enters a phase of critical evaluation of his artistic contribution, in preparation for an exhibition.
Gérard Mermoz
19.08.2014
gerardmermoz@hotmail.com
024 76 405 772
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LINKS
St Ives Society of Artists the departure of an number of artists in dissent with the direction of the society, in 1949, led to the creation of 'the Penwith Society of Arts in Cornwall'
INTERPRETATION
ORGANIC MATERIALITY
References from nature, abstracted through the technique and in the medium of welded steel, Taylor's works reads as hybrid syntheses of imaginary life forms; poised in dynamic equilibrium.
His works contrasts with the work of his friend Roger Leigh, Denis Mitchell and others (who worked as assistants in Barbara Hepworth's studio where they learnt the discipline of distilling natural forms into more 'platonic' abstractions that emphasized an aspiration to the condition of 'pure form'; as embodied in the works of Brancusi.
By contrast Bruce Taylor's works seemed in a direct line with the works of Rodin, Gonzales and Giacometti as well as Lynn Chadwick who, in 1956, represented Britain at the Venice Biennale and was awarded the Prize for sculpture:
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Lynn Chadwick, The Inner Eye. Chadwick's name was penciled in the catalogue of the Drian solo exhibition of B.T., in 1958, for stylistic similarities
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Taylor may also have taken an interest in the African 'forgerons' whose work Henry Moore admired at the musée de l'Homme, in Paris.
Although deeply grounded in the organic, Taylor's treatment of forms is never literal, and always results in creative extrapolations from his initial observations and source of inspiration.
Finding new drawings would help studying the relation he developed between drawing and sculpture.
The two examples of 'Drawing for sculpture' that we have (one actual drawing and a photograph of an other), that very probably refer to 'May-Bug' shows a less direct relation between the drawing and the sculpture than the drawings of other sculptors who, like Henry Moore produced drawings which reproduced the form of his sculpture and could equally have been done 'after' them.
In the exhibition a colograph of a drawing from Moore's London Underground series will be shown alongside 'Sentinel' by Taylor, to highliht a shared humanistic concern about the suffering of people in war times and, in the case of Sentinel, a committment to resistance in the face of impending war threats associated with the conquest of space and the development of nuclear weapons.
At a time when the highest achievements of British sculpture were those of Epstein, Moore and Hepworth; i.e. artists who had based their works on the manipulation of mass — either by additive process (modelling), [a technique that, Hepworth deplored, dominated art schools teaching], or by the substractive process (direct carving), [preferred by Hepworth] — Taylor deviated from the Hepworthian orthodoxy followed by several of the St Ives sculptors with whom he exhibited.
A second strand of works — first modeled in plaster [several photos remains of the plaster maquettes], then cast in bronze — produced a different set of forms that reveal a shift of emphasis: from staging calls to (human) resistance (as in Sentinel and Buckler) to depicting primeval organic life forms and traces of cosmic history in action ('Meteorite').
