Where Peasholm Park shares wall space with Joseph Stalin
Following the success of the Newsprint Open 1, which took place at North Yorkshire Art School – part of Three Works gallery in Scarborough – artists were again invited to submit works for a 2022 version of the themed exhibition. The concept was 1922 – 2022 with an emphasis on change and stasis over the century, with a subsidiary regard to great events, whether artistic or political. More than 80 artists submitted work with 30 chosen for exhibition.
Selected topics range from T.S. Eliot’s The Waste Land and Picasso’s phenomenally productive 1922; to Peasholm Park and Joseph Stalin.
The most utilised image is Picasso’s Two Women Running on a Beach. Without any collusion, it appears in the work of four different artists. Clearly there is a t birds with one stone advantage here as it is not just Picasso but a link to Scarborough through the seaside and the postcards of Donald McGill.
The two ladies make an appearance in Picasso Reimagined One Century On by Jennifer Kallin. This is a remarkable piece which references over forty works by the master in a long landscape of imagery. They are both naturalistic and abstract. The work is accomplished in coloured pencil, Rotring ink and Tacky Glue.
The second room contains another multi-image piece: Jane Greening’s The Discovery. Given the attention in the media – seemingly endless TV programmes – it is surprising that no other artist chose to explore the implications of Lord
Carnavon’s opening of the tomb of Tutankhamun.
The picture is an exciting piece as it explodes with colour. Greening has used charcoal, pastels, watercolour pencils and gold powder to achieve her effects.
Another intriguing piece, and this time referencing the Fire Sermon from The Waste Land, is Nigel Fairbrother’s The Typist. The face of a beautiful woman stares out at us with cuttings from The Sunday Pictorial You have to be of a certain age to remember that newspaper.
The woman is Eliot’s indifferent office worker who bids farewell to her lover and “Smooths her hair with automatic hand”. It is a bleak section from a sombre poem.
The exhibition runs at Three Works Gallery in South Street, Scarborough, until October 2.