British School at Athens 2007
The Prince of Wales bursary for the Arts in the British School at Athens 2007
Short Report: Peter Bevan
Introduction
Classics did not figure in my pre-college education as far as I can remember, nor in under-graduate studies in Fine Art, although I know that I attended a series of lectures which skipped through the History of Art from cave paintings onwards. But no clear memories of the significance of Greek Art remain. At the Royal College of Art, the focus was keeping in touch with what was ‘new’ and developing a strong personal approach in order to compete in the Art Market and for the shrinking numbers of teaching posts in Art Colleges.
As I said in application for the Bursary, eventually oriental culture became an obsessive, interest and influence in my work, providing a stimulant and resource to which, I still feel an empathy and commitment. It is only in the last five years that the Greeks started to register on my radar, perhaps because they were just visible on the margins of the course I took in Asian Arts at the British Museum. As the attention of this course moved further and further East, the more there appeared a gaping hole to the west. “Oh the Greeks! Sanskrit and Greek an Indo-European language? Ah yes, who were the Greeks anyway?” the timing of the Bursary was propitious offering and opportunity to begin to fill this yawning gap on my radar.
However, to return to my early education just once more, I remember at undergraduate college, the experience of life drawing and even life-modelling (unheard of now) and still with a kind of astonishment at how intense those experiences were. It is those college life-studies, which I rate as significant work far above anything else I did at the time. I taught life drawing intermittently throughout my time at Glasgow School of Art, and still do on a free-lance basis. Now it is an integral part of my practice.
My approach to teaching through drawing from the live model was always to try to generate that same intensity of experience in students. An experience in which, the primacy of self is relinquished, so that the resultant drawings might be more objective. Students were to become aware of the exchange going on between them and the model so that their drawings might bear evidence of ‘discoveries’ made on a journey of looking, rather than be compilations of pre-conceptions. Here, I am paraphrasing John Berger’s ideas about drawing, with which I totally concur.
It is only in the last few years of teaching that I realised the strong humanist philosophy embedded in this approach and more recently, that I made connections between humanism and the Ancient Greeks (clear evidence of a slow-learner!). I am indebted to Olga Palatial for reminding me (see achnowledgements).
The opportunity to directly study Greek art, more nearly in the context of its making has been the catalyst for beginning to recognise and understand its civilisation through my own practice. In the aftermath, I am now reading about how humanism emerged in the life and culture of Classical Greece: in its philosophy, religion, politics and arts, and finding the reading equally dynamic.
In my application, using the pediment sculpture of the Temple of Zeus at Olympia the main subject, I proposed firstly to investigate how these broken and fragmented sculptures nevertheless retain a coherency of sentiment and expression and secondly, to study polychrome on ancient sculpture.
Over the two months I have merely touched on these issues and perhaps feel a little more familiar with them, but still as questions. Perhaps they were far too specialised issues for someone with such a poor general knowledge of their cultural and historical context. In the event , the range of my studies has been far broader and eclectic that I could have imagined but perhaps appropriately so.
I was responsive to objects and issues arising as I encountered them and thus my drawings , small sculpture studies and photographs refer to diverse material objects and also reflect on the processes and practice of archaeologists and historians, my temporary colleagues.
It has been an extraordinary experience. I’ve learned a lot and have a glimpse of how much more there is to know. (How short life is). There are a number of ‘themes’ in the work which I am interested in pursuing, some of which may simply influence whatever future work I do, others would require returning to work in Greece with the cooperation of archaeologists and other professionals. There are also new techniques, which I want to develop.
It is also understandable that in reviewing the visit, I am registering objects or places I wish I had seen, therefore signalling that another trip is inevitable under whatever circumstances.
For the sake of brevity in this summary, I have noted future potential in the following list of Work Themes and enlarged upon both the themes and potential for future work, in the extended version of the report.
Working Themes
1. Variations on anthropoid form - A collection of 8 drawings and watercolours, each 28 x 42cms
A series of drawings of Cycladic-like figures combined with contemporary ‘realism’ and a series of watercolours comparing ‘freely’ brushed variations of anthropoid shapes by overlaying a simplified outline of a ‘realist’ template.
These studies have a potential for further development in watercolour, but not as a major strand of new work.
2. Please hold me – 2 small sculptures in off-white ceramic, each 6 x 25 x 9cms.
Through questioning the conventional presentation of Cycladic figures (suspended vertically against a wall) these works explore the idea that small sculptures can only be appreciated fully through the sense of touch and by handling them. I am interested in the challenge this presents to the conventions of exhibition sculpture, when the notice saying, ‘Please do not touch’ is replaced with one saying ‘Please hold me’.
Working at this small scale and with ceramic in a solid, rather than a hollow state is a new technique for me, and one I want to continue.
3. The Anavyssos Kouros – A collection of 6 drawings. Conte pencil (sanguine), each, 42 x 28cms
These are direct observational studies and include drawings of two other sculptures in the National Archaeological Museum. They were made simply to try to learn about modelling, form and proportion. However, this particular sculpture along with the Kourai in the Acropolis Museum stimulated an idea for future work. After spending so many weeks looking at representations of Ancient Greeks I began to see their features in men and women on the streets of Athens, and Minoans on the buses of Crete! It therefore began to seem possible to make contemporary Kouroi and Kourai, using living individuals as models. However, this is an ambitious project, which would require returning to work in Greece, much further research and external support.
4. Pediment sculpture of the Temple of Zeus, Olympia – A collection of 14 drawings. Conte pencil (sanguine), each, 42 x 28cms
I felt immediate empathy with these sculptures in their combination of simplicity and individual expressive qualities: their humanism, which marks the transition from Archaic to Classical style. I felt I should have come earlier in my visit and stayed longer. Though broken and fragmented they remain visually cohesive and from this stimulus, I’m interested in the potential for making new works of full-figure compositions but constructed with body fragments, not continuous form. This is one of the ideas in my application and has simply been reinforced by the visit to Olympia.
5. The Palaikastro Kouros – 3 Conjectured heads of which, two mounted on plinths with incised texts, off-white ceramic. Two with plinth c. 15 x 10 x 10cms, the other 10 x 11 x 8cms with surface colour tests.
I visited the Archaeological museum in Siteia whilst in Crete and was astonished by the naturalism of the carving of hands and feet in this ivory Kouros, in fact, by the whole reconstruction and interpretation. I was critical however, of illustrations in the associated publications, which depicted a conjectured reconstruction of the figure, including the missing face.
The face seemed to me unconvincing in relation to the dynamic of the figure and to its historical and geographical context. Although I was tentatively stepping into unfamiliar territory of archaeological interpretation, I decided to make my own conjectured heads of the Kouros to see if I could convince myself.
I referenced the few other contemporaneous ivory fragments, images of Minoan gold jewellery, wall paintings and Egyptian figures. I wanted the face to reveal more of an Egyptian influence than I though was evident in the illustration. Making these few small studies was fascinating and the two mounted heads, given the short time, in which they were made, reasonably convince me. It is a project which still excites me and given the right circumstances I would wish to continue.
Suggestions were made to me of the possibility of making full-figure versions on a similar 2-3 times actual size. However this work could only be researched and developed with a return to Greece and in cooperation with archaeologists and other professionals. It was also suggested I make contact with the Directors of the Palaikastro Project, which I will in due course.
6. Portraiture – Approximately 80 digital photographs, as yet unedited.
Much of my current work is based on portraiture and although I couldn’t see a way of practically developing this in the time frame of the Bursary, I made lots of photographs of portrait sculpture in museums, from the Classical, Hellenistic, and Roman periods. This will act as a continual resource for future work. I was especially struck by the room in the NAM, of Hermaic steles, ‘Kosmetes of Diogeneion Gymnasium’ , which gave me the idea of contriving to make Group Portraits in some form, which are similarly unified by the geometrical element of the stele and individual inscription.
Basic Itinerary of Activities and Timescales
19th April – 9th May ATHENS
Visits to museums and Archaeological Sites
Main work – Variations on anthropoid form / ‘Please hold me’ (based on Cycladic figures)
Visit to Athens school of Fine Art (ASFA) – clay work begun
9thMay – 18th May KNOSSOS
(Heraklion Museum closed) Visits to Minoan Palace site and to Museums at Aios Nikaos and Siteia.
Main work – Variations on anthropoid form /study of Palakaistro Kouros
18th May – 2nd June ATHENS
Visits to National Archaeological Museum.
20th Century Greek Sculptors, Yanoulis Chapelas and Ioannis Avramidis (at National Sculpture Museum)
Main work – Anavyssos Kouros, drawings at NAM “Please hold me” / Conjectured heads from the Palakaistro Kouros.
Clay works to ASFA for firing.
2nd June – 6th June OLYMPIA – Visit to site.
Main work – Museum drawings of pediment sculptures.
6th June – 24th June ATHENS
Visit to contemporary sculpture exhibition, Fernando Serrano Villegas (at the Museum of Contemporary Ceramics)
Main Work – Dry finishing work on “Please hold me” and Conjectured Heads from the Palaikastro Kouros. Display of work and Finlay Forum presentation 13th June.
Departure 14th June.
Acknowledgements
I am aware that the success of this study visit has depended on the support, advice and goodwill of many people, from the Prince of Wales Bursary, the staff of the British School at Athens and from numerous colleagues whose work in Athens coincided with mine.
But first I would like to acknowledge the practical help given by Patoglou Pavlos at the Athens School of Fine Art, which enabled me to work in ceramic and to fire the results in his kiln.
Secondly, I am indebted to Olga Palagia from Athens University for giving her time to question my interest in Cycladic and Archaic figures, pointing out the weaknesses of its “modernist” viewpoint and guiding me to give attention to the humanism in Greek culture of the Classic period and from which we have most to learn that is pertinent to our own.
At the BSA, I want to thank Helen Clark, Vicki Tzavara and Dimitri for day-to-day practical and technical help. Penny Wilson, Sandra Pepelassis and Cal for their help and encouragement, even though I must have been one of the worst users of the Library ever.
For their friendship and enthusiasm in the early weeks, I give thanks particularly to visiting members, John Chapman and Victoria Herridge.
I am grateful to Tom ………..for first suggesting that I visit Siteia to see the Palakaistro Kouros and to Don Evely and Curtis Runnels for their comments and advice on the Kouros work.
Thanks to Peter Kavanagh for saving my life.
Finally, I would like to acknowledge the consideration and friendliness shown to me by the secretary and members of the interview panel and particularly to Helen Fields, David Parfitt, John Boardman and Sir Michael Llewellyn.
Peter Bevan, Glasgow, June 2007