Self-portrait. © Pallant House Gallery.
Katie Millis enjoys the work of a down-to-earth British painter - at Pallant House until March 18 2007
Pallant House Gallery, Chichester, pays tribute to the work of British artist and social commentator, William Roberts with England at Play, an exhibition of paintings that depict British life in the in the 20th century.
Influenced by Cubist and Futurist ideals, William Roberts (1895-1980) was heavily associated with Wyndham Lewis’s Vorticists, an avant-garde London group that focussed on fragmentations of reality and urban imagery around 1914. His work featured in both editions of the Vorticist magazine, Blast.
Following a stint in the army as an official war artist during World War One, Roberts sought to record the social development of the working class. Believing that art should be enjoyed by everyone, he disapproved of the class system and from the 1920s to the 1970s he situated ‘everyman’ at the heart of his work.
An eastender from a working class background, he was a true Modernist and took inspiration from his surroundings. His art reflects his time and shows that Roberts lived and breathed modern life and painted what he saw. His method was to record brief incidents, types and gestures on his walks about town. These details were then finished off to create drawings and transferred to a larger scale for painting.
Hippodrome. © Pallant House Gallery.
In his painting, Self-Portrait Wearing a Cap (1931) it is clear he identifies himself with the man in the street. The straightforward style of the painting matches the matter-of-fact attitude that permeates through its subject. Roberts stares coldly out at the audience wearing flat cap and braces.
The paintings on display at Pallant House Gallery document the artist’s visits to cafes, cinemas, pubs, parks, the races and the seaside. Strong compositions portray everyday activities in an elaborate manner, whilst the people he paints are expressive and heavily gestured, almost cartoon-like. His strong awareness of the importance of design is reflected in the rhythm that he maintains throughout his works.
In The Cinema (1920) the focus of the work is the people within the action, not the action itself. Roberts meticulously characterises the faces of his subjects whilst keeping the forms of their bodies very simple. He zones in on the grotesque and the social aspects of human life are explored in dark and colourful ways.
Roberts and his wife Sarah lived a shoestring but bohemian lifestyle, their trips to music halls, jazz clubs, bars and nightclubs provided plenty of material with which to feed his creative imagination.
Rush Hour (1971) portrays the journey home from work as a humorous modern day Battle of Waterloo © Pallant House Gallery.
Some of his works are touchingly introspective. In The Happy Family (1924) an idealised view of family life is portrayed that is light with optimism. Bath night/The Wash gives the audience an intimate glimpse of a 1930s domestic scene of a mother washing her son with water from a tin pot. Roberts was able to recreate aspects of real people’s personal lives that other modern artists overlooked.
In Sunbathing (1936) the artist shows social change in his portrayal of the wider acceptance of sunbathing in public places. The panoramic view of modern British life gives him an excellent opportunity to reproduce images of a wide spectrum of human beings, women and men, old and young. Playgrounds, tea shops, the naked lounging spaces of scholars - these little windows into the lives of modern men and women are opened up by these paintings.
Moving things along, in a social sense, T.V. (1960) marks the technological developments of entertainment for the people. The advance in technology can also be mapped alongside the changes in the artist’s style. Goal (1968) reflects World Cup fever after the 1966 England victory. Rush Hour (1971) portrays the journey home from work as a humorous modern day Battle of Waterloo.
Goal (1968) observes World Cup fever after the 1966 England victory © Pallant House Gallery.
With his choice of subject matter you could be forgiven for thinking that Roberts’ unparalleled panorama of modern society betrays feelings of warmth and affection the artist felt for his fellow man.
Unfortunately the word on the working man’s street is that Roberts was by no means an amiable man. Instead he was a character who would unleash a torrent of abuse on passers by if they were to get in his way on the pavement!
William Roberts: England at Play is an interesting re-examination of Britain’s 20th century social history. Those that lived and breathed these times will be particularly fascinated.
