‘Arthur is now further up ladder of greatness’
ROMAN statesman Cicero said: “A room without books is like a body without a soul.” I think he’d have liked the room in which I work, which – judging by his criteria – could be described as soulful.
And that soul has grown somewhat this year – it has been especially good when it comes to books.
One of the books that I was most anticipating this year is Peter Davies’ biography of legendary Potteries artist, playwright, and poet Arthur Berry.
A Ragged Richness, published by Barewall of Burslem, tells Arthur’s story in a lively and memorable manner and is presented beautifully. I’m a big admirer of Arthur Berry’s work, and so it was well worth the wait.
The world of Arthur Berry is my world, the northern edgelands of the Potteries, where the city meets the moors.
Arthur’s territory included Smallthorne – the place of his birth – Biddulph Moor, and Burslem, his creative muse.
Arthur described the area as both ‘a prison and occasionally a paradise’, perhaps a symptom of the agoraphobia that plagued him, and he never left it.
Even when teaching at the Chelsea College of Art he chose to commute from his home in Biddulph Moor.
Arthur is most associated with Burslem though, particularly the School of Art in Queen Street where he studied and became a lecturer in painting.
And it was during his time in Burslem that he enjoyed his most creative period, producing a canon of work that Davies believes places him alongside the likes of LS Lowry, Roger Hampson and Theodore Major, all major artists of the so-called Northern School.
Peter Davies is one of the country’s leading figures when it comes to northern industrial art, and in 1989 produced A Northern School, which he revised in 2015 (A Northern School Revisited) to take in more southerly based industrial artists, including Arthur Berry.
It was from this that the idea of a publication documenting the life and work of Arthur evolved, and through a chance meeting with northern art historian Anthony Cosgrove, Peter was introduced to Amanda Bromley at Barewall who has been working with Arthur’s widow Cynthia for a number of years to promote his work.
At the launch of the 2019 Berry exhibition 50 Paintings, Peter announced he had started work on what was to become A Ragged Richness.
Davies’ book traces Arthur’s roots back to his humble beginnings in Smallthorne, before describing how Berry became ‘Arthur of the Mother Town’, a man who had ‘the unkempt flat-capped scruffiness of a Moorland pig farmer’, but at the same time ‘spoke with the smooth, articulate and measured tones of a deep thinker, a homespun philosopher, raconteur, accomplished artist, poet and playwright’.
This was Arthur, a man who developed a love of what many see as middle-class pursuits, yet still retained his love and fascination of working-class life and culture. For Berry, this was real.
“If you want happiness, go to someone else”, he said, “My paintings are dark and ugly but they are not views of characters. They are a smelling reality”.
Peter correctly places Arthur’s work in the context of the Northern School, his ragged and messy interpretations of people and place sitting perfectly alongside the Salfordian efforts of Lowry, and the Wigan townscapes of Major. And he also hints at comparisons with the French artists Jean Dubuffet and Jean Fautrier and their ‘outsider ethos’, something that Arthur would probably concur with.
And while Arthur will always be renowned and greatly celebrated for his art, Peter also focuses on his written work, such as his locally-inspired plays produced by Peter Cheeseman and the Victoria and New Vic Theatres.
These included The Spanish Dancer from Pinnox Street, and St George of Scotia Road, and his award-winning radio monologues including Homage to the
Chip, and Lament for the Lost Pubs of Burslem.
The past few years have seen Arthur Berry’s star rise once again, with the 2015 joint exhibition at the Potteries Museum and Art Gallery (Lowry & Berry: Observers of Urban Life), the 2018 publication of On The Street: Poems by Arthur Berry, and the 2019 exhibition 50 Paintings.
And now we have A Ragged Richness. In Peter Davies, Arthur Berry has the perfect biographer, someone who understands the nuances of his work and the environment in which it is rooted, and by placing it in a wider context, has taken Berry’s name up another rung on the ladder of greatness.
I can recommend A Ragged Richness for people’s Christmas wishlists.