John Sims and the art of ‘useless maps’

Maps are deadly serious things, the painstaking product of the cartographer’s scrutiny. Not so, for John Sims. He challenges their status as functional, documentary or even decorative artefacts. Why do so many people put them on their walls? Why, looking out to sea, does Sandgate seem more of a bay than the map suggests? What would a place look like if you fell on it from the sky? Well, John’s maps could provide the answers, or none at all. After all, they are ‘useless’.

As John says: ‘I love the way that at first glance they appear to be real maps, look closer and longer and you see that they are more or less abstract paintings… just marks, colours and lines…’

John’s inspiration for his map-making came from the time that he was Artist-in-Residence at the Cyprus College of Art. Working with archeologists, he would make oil-pastel reproductions of ancient finds from memory, adding to them until they took on new abstract forms.

‘Useless maps’ of Folkestone (featured above), Dover, Whitstable and Sandgate are currently on display at the Cristus Summer Exhibition, but if you would like a map of anywhere, John is ready to take commissions, at a fixed price of £150, framed. Please contact Deborah@cristus-gallery.com to place an order, or visit the exhibition.

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The Alloway paintings - Loving the art of the near past

Not so long ago, artists lived at the margins. From shabby studios, they produced work that was difficult and abrasive - even brutal. They shunned popularity. For to be popular, one had to conform; and to conform, one had to submit to the general will.

Questions about the nature and purpose of art seldom arose, because art was what they did, come what may. While pandering to the tastes of the mass consumer was unthinkable.

The Alloway paintings, acquired and lovingly restored by Cristus, ‘Nude with Cat’ (1969) and ‘Nude Circle’ (1971), are outstanding examples of this oppositional art. Knocked up on hardboard and skinny laths - themselves an expression of the artist’s condition - they have endured the pangs and scorn of time. Indeed, it is hard to imagine that they have ever been cared for, or displayed with pride. Yet, with the gentle easing of a spirit rag, four decades of filth make way for truths. We are struck by the artist’s thoughts, his fears, his time, his rebellion, and his unquestionable skill; but we also sense that the paintings are as vital as the moment of their conception, and that they are imbued with an integrity that is beyond question.

While other art arrives and is checked for dinks, like any other merchandise, the Alloways interfuse with the viewer. Even during restoration, they were taken from the workroom, hung on walls and examined, discussed and re-examined by us Cristusians.

In these, and in the one other painting we have seen, Alloway describes an urban, modern or near-futuristic vision. Spectral figures appear, writhing in a ring of despair in ‘Circle’, while encased in specimen jars in ‘Cat’. The nude is most present on the crimson sofa, but she too is obscured by the cat and her lower limbs are fading into pools of liquid light. Outside the glare radiates into the spaces and the figures await their fate. The resignation, alienation and loss of faith runs parallel to the themes of absurdist drama. These were the concerns of the artists of the time, and that’s why Alloway painted them. He is part of a rich tradition of British post-war avant-garde artists who have hitherto been much-undervalued. But who is this Dennis Alloway, whom, we are told, attended the Royal Academy School then disappeared from view? Please let us know.

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Tate Modern: Rodchenko and Popova

In early twentieth century Russia, two great histories intersected. Revolutionaries tried to reinvent society and what it could be. Artists redefined not only what art would look like, but its purpose and role, which until then had been to decorate the living rooms of the bourgeoisie.

Into this larger-than-life, wide-screen epic, the figures of Rodchenko and Popova enter stage left. One expects their work at Tate Modern to be on the grand scale, overwhelming in the way that something like, say, Picasso’s Guernica or Rothko’s “Colour as Subject” canvases are; which is to say, somehow beyond the normal scale of things, emerging as mythic emblems or spiritual experience from far beyond the everyday.

In some ways, neither Popova nor Rodchenko disappoint. We witness some of the very earliest realisations of art as design; of design as art; of the marriages and cross-breeding of architecture, theatre and book design and art in the service of politics. Some of the poster designs manage to capture the scope, ambition and sheer numbers involved in the Revolution and its aftermath. Not to mention that Popova’s work marked the emergence of women in the avant-garde.

And yet it is the tiny prosaic details underlying the poetry which capture the attention. Most memorably, there are the constant reminders of the materials on which both Popova and Rodchenko composed. The grain of plywood re-emerging slowly over the years, as the vibrancy of oils used to compose early geometric pieces fades away. Rough drawings on card, cardboard, scraps of paper, the fraying textiles of abstract collages. All turning to dust.

Even for intellectuals, life was hard in Revolutionary Russia. Perhaps it’s fanciful to imagine these great proponents of technology-as-art scrabbling around for something – anything – to paint on. And yet Liubov Popova’s life was short and painful. She took a year to recover from a bout of typhoid in 1919, but her husband did not. In 1924, she and her son succumbed to scarlet fever. She was thirty five years old. Vita brevis, ars slightly longa.

There is plenty to see at this exhibition. For me, the early non-objectivist painting experiments and the photography and advertising posters are the highlights. In the photographs, subjects seem to want to burst forth from the confines of the frame. In the posters, the dynamism and boldness feel like they are charged with some Revolutionary life force.

What did not work for me were the agitprop pieces, extolling the virtues of trade union membership, economic plans and the like. They left me cold not on political grounds, but on aesthetic ones. They are mirrored in tone, perhaps, by some of Rodchenko’s pronouncements writ large on the walls of the Tate. These are deadening, impenetrable, over-intellectualised statements of what (apparently) Rodchenko thought he was playing at. I came away with the feeling that he was setting up a barrier between himself and the world. Given the circumstances, perhaps it was best for a Russian artist (who was marginalised during the 1930s as Social Realism became dominant), to be on his guard. Aleksandr Rodchenko died in 1956.

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David Townsend - Sandgate

The painting: “Sandgate” is a delightful view of Sandgate Village in Kent. The constructed yet organic procession of planes towards the top of the hill and the sky are strongly reminiscent of Cezanne’s Mont St. Victoire series, blending realism, a cubist perspective that leads us into the picture, and a striking interpretation of colour and space.

The artist: David Townsend is a Kent (UK) based artist who paints abstract and figurative works. David is currently exhibiting with the Cristus Gallery, Sandgate.

How to buy: Click on the image for more information. You can purchase the original directly from the gallery, or buy online if you would like a high quality reproduction on archival quality papers, canvas or stretched box canvas. A huge range of mounts and framing options is available. See all of David Townsend’s artwork for sale…

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Julie-Ann Bowden - Angel with Green Halo

Julie-Ann Bowden’s Angel with Green Halo is typical of her iconic, naive style. The flat perspectives are deepened by the rich colours which suggest Russian and Byzantine iconography. Julie-ann’s Angel paintings come from a deep and genuine spirituality rarely seen in today’s more cynical art movements.

The artist: Julie-Ann Bowden is a Doncaster (England) based artist who paints devotional works, as well as more playful images. Julie-Ann is currently exhibiting with the Cristus Gallery, Sandgate.

How to buy: Click on the image for more information. You can buy online if you would like a high quality reproduction on archival quality papers, canvas or stretched box canvas. A huge range of mounts and framing options is available.

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Julie-Ann Bowden - Blue Angel Pink Flower

Julie-Ann Bowden’s Blue Angel Pink Flower is typical of her iconic, naive style. The flat perspectives are deepened by the rich colours which suggest Russian and Byzantine iconography. Julie-ann’s Angel paintings come from a deep and genuine spirituality rarely seen in today’s more cynical art movements.

The artist: Julie-Ann Bowden is a Doncaster (UK) based artist who paints devotional works. Julie-Ann is currently exhibiting with the Cristus Gallery, Sandgate.

How to buy: Click on the image for more information. You can buy online if you would like a high quality reproduction on archival quality papers, canvas or stretched box canvas. A huge range of mounts and framing options is available.

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Julie-Ann Bowden - Angel with Golden Halo

Julie-Ann Bowden’s Blue Angel with Golden Halo is typical of her iconic, naive style. The flat perspectives are deepened by the rich colours which suggest Russian and Byzantine iconography. Julie-ann’s Angel paintings come from a deep and genuine spirituality rarely seen in today’s more cynical art movements.

The artist: Julie-Ann Bowden is a Doncaster (UK) based artist who paints devotional works. Julie-Ann is currently exhibiting with the Cristus Gallery, Sandgate.

How to buy: Click on the image for more information. You can buy online if you would like a high quality reproduction on archival quality papers, canvas or stretched box canvas. A huge range of mounts and framing options is available.

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David Townsend - Segments 1

Segments1 is the first in a four-part series of abstract paintings featuring geometric shapes. Although each composition works independently, viewed as a series the paintings suggest movement of the shapes across the surface of the paper. David used gouache on watercolour paper for all the of the Segments series.

The artist: David Townsend is a Kent (UK) based artist who paints abstract and figurative works. David is currently exhibiting with the Cristus Gallery, Sandgate.

How to buy: Click on the image for more information. You can purchase the original directly from the gallery, or buy online if you would like a high quality reproduction on archival quality papers, canvas or stretched box canvas. A huge range of mounts and framing options is available.

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David Townsend - Segments 2

Segments 2 is the second in a four-part series of abstract paintings featuring geometric shapes. Although each composition works independently, viewed as a series the paintings suggest movement of shapes and light across the surface of the paper. David used gouache on watercolour paper for all the of the Segments series.

The artist: David Townsend is a Kent (UK) based artist who paints abstract and figurative works. David is currently exhibiting with the Cristus Gallery, Sandgate.

How to buy: Click on the image for more information. You can purchase the original directly from the gallery, or buy online if you would like a high quality reproduction on archival quality papers, canvas or stretched box canvas. A huge range of mounts and framing options is available.

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