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Scotian News

October 2017

Issue 152

Congratulations to the following Former Pupils who have reached milestone birthdays this month:-

75 Chris Barry; Eddie Stone;

70 Marek Lurowiecki; Edward Merrard; Philip Bergin;

65  Robert Clements; David Jones; Simon Westley; Victor Beasley; Francis Lloyd; Dennis Kelly;

60  James Mackintosh; Michael Murray;

50  David O’Ryan;

 School News

 

It is with deep sorrow that we the death of John Paul(Giampaulo Misericordia ) Gunn (1956-1963). Paul was well known at school for his performances in the school opera and playing rugby. He attended school with his brother, Max, who predeceased him, and his brother Stuart. Paul set up an export company in the Borders, exporting whisky and knitwear to all parts of the world, especially Italy. His family are continuing the business, forming a family legacy. Sondolences have been offered to the family. Paul left his body to medical research, but a memorial service will be held in St. Mary’s Cathedral, Edinburgh, in the near future.

Change of e-mail addresses:- Dr. Adrian Kendal; Father Damian Wynn-Williams;

Peter Barry advised of a news article about Jan Tomasik, BBC Scotland news 13 October, The mysterious hidden map of Scotland, found after many years of neglect, near Peebles.

More Information re Wanderers 150 celebrations

Match v West of Scotland on back pitch before Intercity game on 23 Dec.

21 April Dinner. We have got a number of old members coming along  Brian Henderson and Ken Houston, to name two internationalists. A webpage has been set up:- www.wanderers150.co.uk Many photos are attachedwithinthe site.  Also register your interest in the dinner Joinin@wanderers150.co.uk

The widow of a deceased FP, Michael Welsh, wrote the following e-mail about her late husband’s life during and after school:-
Dear Mr Wilson.
I have just been reading some of the memoires of former Scotus pupils on your website. The ones by David Wright and also Randy Schlighting have reassured me to come forward about my late husband Michael Welsh.
Mike attended the school from 1957 until about 1963.
We met in 1971 in Edinburgh while I was a student nurse at the Infirmary there. I did think, at the time, that it was strange that he was still working on highers to get to university . He was studying at Newbattle College, but loving the free thinking there and the inspiring discussions. Nothing like his schooling at Scotus. He was very unhappy there.
Sadly, he was one of the victims of the physical abuse. Being severely belted for some trivial misdemeanour or being humiliated in front of the whole class by Richard Demarco. He was forced to stand on his desk throughout a whole period of art. The Brothers seemed to take pleasure in caning some boys for not running fast enough and probably lots more he wouldn't tell me about.
Mike, quite naturally rebelled. His father was called one day to see the rector and informed of some incident involving a piece of outdoor machinery. This resulted in him being removed from the school or expelled (not sure).
His father commuted to London to work and came home at weekends. He and his wife felt they were providing the best in Catholic education for their son.
As far as all this affected Mike's future and how he turned out I feel, very much, was a major influence on how his life developed.
Firstly, he hated going to Church. I am a Catholic also, and he only agreed to a Catholic wedding to please his mum. Once the register was signed, he literally ran me up the aisle!! After that and for the rest of his life, he only came to the children's baptisms and any Catholic funerals, including his own ( no choice!).
Secondly, he constantly suffered from low self esteem, but, thinking he had to be strong, would never seek help, even from me.
We moved to Dundee in the mid seventies because he was at the university studying Sociology and went on to qualify as a social worker. I am still living in Dundee.
To cut this long story shorter, Mike became a hard working social worker, one of the good ones and was a brilliant dad with a great sense of humour . He rose to being District manager for criminal justice, not an easy role. In the late 90s , the five district managers in Tayside at the time collectively, made a formal complaint about their senior, the depute director. This man, who was not a social worker but a "manager", was in the habit of humiliating mature, well educated senior workers in front of a room full of people. He would swear at them and ridicule them when, what he should have been doing was to provide support, Mike got nothing. He was dealing with criminals including murderers in Perth prison.
The complaint was upheld but, instead of being sacked, he was moved elsewhere( and is still in the same senior position in West Dunbartonshire).
After that Mike became profoundly depressed. He would not accept help from a doctor and felt that we would be better off without him. He felt he was a failure. Myself and the kids meant everything to him but, despite all the offers of help and my pleas, he tragically ended his life on January 28th 2005.
There were loads of people at his funeral, a lot I hadn't met. The overall message was that he was a good man, everybody liked him. He was too caring, but not enough for himself.
I think of him every day and go to Mass regularly. I do believe he is with me and the kids in some way. Guiding us along. He missed his two daughters weddings and the birth of the grandchildren. Our two boys(30 and 28yrs) are doing ok. We have all learnt, to enjoy every precious moment.
That is the end of this rather sorry tale. Thank you for reading this. I'm sure there must be more men going about with similar experiences.
By the way, I have found happiness again and remarried 2 years ago and living in Broughty Ferry, Dundee.
Thankyou, Lindsay, for permitting me the opportunity to put this down in words.
I have always wondered why there were no science subjects at the school. I went to a girls convent and we were taught physics, chemistry and biology. Strange.
With kind regards.
Celia Martin.

RICHARD DEMARCO’S NEWSLETTER – Tuesday 24th October 2017

The sixth Moffat Russian Conference took place last weekend. It was entitled ‘The Russian Phoenix: Art and Literature in the era of the 1905 and 1917 Revolutions’. Its programme made me well aware that, in this year which marks the 100th anniversary of the 1917 Russian Revolution, the conference must be regarded as pivotal to the future of the Demarco Archive. This archive is now regarded by the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art as an unique academic resource, particularly in relation to the fact that 2017 also marked the 70th anniversary of the Edinburgh Festival. This year, our Russian participants spent valuable time in the Russian Department of the Universities of both Glasgow and Edinburgh. They also benefitted from their expeditions to the worlds of Robert Burns and Sir Walter Scott in both Dumfriesshire and the Scottish Borders.

It is arguable that everything in terms of 20th century expressions of art in the spirit of avant-gardism stems from the Russian Revolutions of 2005 and 2017. That spirit can be found in the history of Jim Haynes’ Paperback Bookshop, the first of its kind in the United Kingdom. It can also be found in the history of The Traverse Theatre Club and Art Gallery from 1963 to 67, and in The Demarco Gallery, from 1966 to 1992, which had the responsibility of keeping alive the hopes and aspirations of the founders of The Traverse Theatre as a club, free of the constraints of the Lord Chamberlain’s dictates. Indeed, The Traverse Theatre could be likened to the Café Voltaire in Switzerland and the café society in Paris between the two World Wars. There is no doubt in my mind that the Paperback Bookshop, The Traverse Theatre Club and the Demarco Gallery attracted like minds inspired by the spirit of modernism expressed through the language of all the arts.

As one of the four founders of the Demarco Gallery 1966, I was fully aware that the Gallery’s primary aim from 1967 to 1992 was to defend the spirit of modernism made manifest in cultural terms in a post-World War Two Europe.
My twenty-five-year-long role, from 1967-1991, as the director of the official Edinburgh Festival programme of contemporary visual arts exhibitions helped me to bring the spirit of the European avant-garde in its multifarious ways into the world of the Edinburgh Festival. There is no doubt that this spirit originated in the genius of those revolutionary Russian artists who gave the world nourishing food for thought in terms of literature, music, architecture, design, calligraphy, cinema, folklore, as well as religion.
In 1954, the official Edinburgh Festival contained an historic exhibition conceived and directed by Richard Buckle. The exhibition was a hymn of praise to the genius of Serge Diaghilev. It introduced me to the fact that the cultural heritage of Europe in the 20th century was heavily indebted to the Russian dimension created by the Ballets Russes. The Edinburgh Festival has, since that exhibition, contained every imaginable aspect of Russian 20th century culture. I now must plan an exhibition, together with a conference, for next year’s Edinburgh Festival which celebrates the ways in which the Edinburgh Festival has helped keep alive the unassailable fact that the European cultural heritage is meaningless without a Russian dimension.
Thankfully, this year’s Russian Conference in Moffat benefitted from an informative publication edited by Elizabeth Roberts and Masha Bond. This was published under the aegis of Moffat Book Events in collaboration with Moffat Russian Conferences. For those who were not fortunate to be able to experience this year’s conference, this publication is of the utmost importance. It deserves close scrutiny. It provides an unique insight into the much-needed Anglo-Russian cultural dialogue in this period of political uncertainty.
The Conference benefitted from a most impressive exhibition entitled ‘The Twelve Russian Writers as a mirror of the 1917 Revolution’ (from the collection of the Russian State Literature Museum). Daria Kaverina, the exhibition curator, placed the exhibition outside the Moffat Town Hall in collaboration with Alan Thomson, the Russians’ programme co-ordinator, so that it could be effectively experienced by the people of Moffat.
There were many essays that I found particularly interesting in the Conference publication. Professor Alan Riach of Glasgow University reminded me of the fruitful impact of the Russian Revolutionary literature on Hugh McDairmid and other Scottish poets, particularly Edwin Morgan, and Roger Scruton’s essay emphasised the importance of the need of a programme of public education so that the twin legacies of Marxism and Fascism can be properly understood.
Thankfully, as an unique academic resource, the Demarco Archive contains innumerable references to the Russian contributions made over the past seventy-year history of the Edinburgh Festival. I am fully aware as I write this Newsletter that I am doing so wearing two hats: those of the Director of the Demarco European Art Foundation and the Chairman of Moffat Book Events which gives the Russian Conference its legal status. My experience of this year’s Russian Conference has made it clear that I now have the responsibility of focusing on the extraordinary Russian contributions made on the international stage of the Edinburgh Festival to provide lengthy and on-going proof positive that the programmes of the official Edinburgh Festival and the Festival Fringe have both benefitted enormously from their Russian content.
The Demarco Gallery and the Demarco European Art Foundation have together made a significant contribution to maintain this Russian dimension since the founding of The Traverse Theatre Club in 1963.
Perhaps the one outstanding Russian contribution made by the Demarco European Art Foundation to the Edinburgh Festival was that which was presented in 1995, not in Edinburgh but in Dundee on the ‘state-of-the-art’ stage of Dundee’s renowned Repertory Theatre. It proved to be the perfect setting to present the full blast of Russian revolutionary theatre. It consisted of two plays under the aegis of the Oskaras Korsunovas Company. These two plays entitled ‘There to be Here’ and ‘An Old Woman’ combined parody, comedy, farce and comic opera with absurdist theatre. This resulted in a highly visual example of theatre which transcended the ‘here and now’. As expected, it achieved critical acclaim. The Glasgow Herald theatre critic wrote: ‘Dear People of Dundee, there is, in your midst, a theatre company of exceptional originality and artistry…..the Oskar Korsunovas Company are so good, they eclipse just about the lot. Choreographed with finesse, without being dance…..a joy to look at without being visual art - it is certainly theatre but I have never seen anything quite like it.’ The Scotsman theatre critic wrote: ‘……. An immensely strong visual impact, coupled with a stunning fluidity of visual movement.’ The critic of The Stage newspaper wrote: ‘An evening of unparalleled accomplishment and mind-snapping brilliance.’ The Dundee Courier’s theatre critic wrote:’….. full of invention….. intriguing. Dreamlike one minute, Chaplinesque-like the next.’
The words of all these critics are a summation of the revolutionary spirit of Russian theatre. As a result, I felt it was necessary to invite Oskarus Korsunovas to again direct his homage to the spirit of Russian theatre in 1996. He decided to present a full-blown example of Russian opera imbued with the unique characteristics of Russian Revolutionary artists such as Aleksandr Rodchenko, Vladimir Mayakovsky and Kazimir Malevich. This opera was entitled ‘Hello Sonya New Year’. This presented ‘the shock of the new’ to the world of British opera. It provided ample proof that Russian culture was well received in Edinburgh Festival programmes.
It was entirely appropriate that the 2017 Russian Conference should begin on Friday 20th October with a discussion on ‘The Twelve: Russian Writers as a mirror of the 2017 Revolution from the collection of the Russian State Library Museum in Moscow’.
The title of the 2017 Moffat Russian Conference exhibition was a play on the title of Aleksander Blok’s poem entitled ‘The Twelve’ and Lenin’s Famous Work ‘Leo Tolstoy as a Mirror of the Russian Revolution’.
Twelve Russian writers were chosen to reveal the contradictory and complex events of the era from 1905 to 1917 in Russia – resulting in two revolutions. They are Demian Bedny, Alexey Remizov, Maximilian Voloshin, Alexander Vertinsky, Ivan Bunin, Marina Tsvetayeva, Zinaida Gippius, Vladimir Mayakovsky, Aleksander Blok, Valery Bryusov, Maxim Gorky and Anatoly Lunacharesky.
The Russian organisers of the conference who attended were Svetlana Gorokhova, the head of the Foreign Department of the All Russia State Library for Foreign Literature in Moscow, Anastasia Kornienko of the Institute for Translation, Moscow, Eugeny Reznichenko, Director of The Institute for Translation, Moscow, Irina Kirillova, who is a member of the International Board of Trustees for the State Library of Foreign Literature and a lecturer in Russian Studies (retired), University of Cambridge, and Alan Thomson who has been the Dumfries and Galloway-based event organiser of involved in all six Moffat Russian Conferences up to now.
One of this year’s Conference speakers was Major General (retired) Mungo Melvin CB, OBE. He lectured on the 1905 and 2017 mutinies of the Russian Black Sea Fleet. He plans to move to Scotland, possibly to the town of Melrose. His military experience of Russian politics and his work as an impressive historian should be invaluable to the future of the Russian Conferences. Melrose is the heartland of Sir Walter Scott’s fabled Scottish Borders. This is also the land of Sir Thomas Learmonth, the scion of Mikhail Lermontov’s Scottish ancestors. In the Scottish Borders town of Earlston, there can be found a bronze memorial to Lermontov.
Among the other British speakers were Alan Riach, Professor of Scottish Literature, University of Glasgow; Frances Robson, award-winning poet and literary translator; Lesley Milne, Professor Emeritus at the University of Nottingham. Her contribution was highly entertaining, scholarly and thought-provoking, inspired by the commentary on the Russian Revolution made by Britain’s ‘Punch’ writers and those of Russia’s equivalent satirical journals. Professor Jeremy Hicks as a specialist in early Soviet cinema, at Queen Mary University, London, contributed an insightful personal interpretation of the work of Russian film-makers. David Elliott was the highly influential Director of Oxford Museum of Modern Art 1976-96. Under his enlightened directorship, Britain’s cultural life benefitted from his personal commitment to the culture of Russia and those parts of Europe on the Soviet Russian controlled side of the Iron Curtain.
Among the Russian speakers were Olga Sinitsyna, Russian art historian, independent expert on museum and library projects and Deputy Director General of All-Russian State Library of Foreign Literature; Peter Bagrov, Senior Curator of the Gosfilmfond of Russia; Daria Kaverina, exhibition curator, State Literature Museum, Moscow; Grigory Cheredov, publisher, the Rudomino Centre for the Book; Diana Vrouba, works in USSR Academy of Arts workshops in Moscow, and is a sculptor and installation artist; Eugeny Dobrenko, scholar of History of Russian literary theory and criticism, Professor of Russian Studies, Head of Department of the University of Sheffield; Kristina Matvienko, theatre critic and artistic director of Moscow’s new Drama Festival, curator of the Stanislavsky Electrotheater’s School of Contemporary Viewers and Listeners in 2015. Her talk was about ‘Mystery-Bouffe’ by Vladimir Mayakovsky and Vsevolod Meyerhold. I was particularly interested in the contribution of novelist Vladimir Sharov whose writings have been translated into English, French and Chinese.
I was particularly interested in reading essays published under Elizabeth Roberts’ editorship by Svetlana Matinovskaya, Vitaly Maksimov, Dimitri Bak, and Masha Bond. Ian Mitchell introduced a humorous and relaxed note to his highly-professional chairmanship of key sessions. Elizabeth Roberts added informative essays on the history of the Moffat Russian Conferences and on Moffat as a Dumfries-shire town which, two hundred years ago, welcomed the Grand Duke Nicholas (later Tsar Nicholas I ) to Moffat.
He and his entourage were on an ‘educational tour’ of Scotland organised by his mother the Dowager Empress Maria Federovna. His reception in Edinburgh was choreographed by Sir Walter Scott. They were much impressed by the spirit of The Scottish Enlightenment. This led to the powerful role which Scotland played in the British Industrial Revolution. Nicholas was made well aware of the fact that Glasgow was becoming known as the Second City of the British Empire. He was also aware of the fact that Moffat was associated with John McAdam who was responsible for giving the surface of the roads of Europe a Macadamised surface. Of course, the history of Russia benefitted from the presence of many Scots associated with the modernisation of Russia’s army and navy. Moffat is also associated with the life and work of a Dumfries-shire-born doctor, John Rogerson, who became the personal physician to Catherine the Great. It should not be forgotten that Catherine the Great was well-served by a legendary Scottish soldier, General Tam Dalyell of The Binns. The history of Scotland and Russia is summed up by Russia’s appreciation of the genius of Robert Burns. He provides, to this day, a source of inspiration to all those in Russia who seek to defend the freedom of the individual. It is highly significant that setting for the Russian Conferences is also the world of Robert Burns.
As Chairman of the Moffat Book Events, I feel indebted to the unswerving loyalty of my fellow members, Charles and May McKerrell of Hillhouse, Janet Wheatcroft, Irina Kirillova, Masha Bond, Ian Mitchell, Simon Tweedie who owns the hotel which gave a warm welcome to The Grand Duke Nicholas, and to my indefatigable colleague, Terry Ann Newman. Over the last six years, the main function and purpose has been the annual Moffat Russian Conference. This originates from the friendship of Elizabeth Roberts and Ekaterina Genieva. I sorely missed the presence of Ekaterina Genieva and also Andrew Wheatcroft. Thankfully, Vicky Jardine-Paterson, as Chairman of the Moffat Russian Conference, more than made up for their absence. Her highly-professional Chairmanship was all-important to the ways in which the Conference was raised to a level which provides ample proof that the Conference has a bright and important future. An excellent short video of the Conference was made by Fynn Elkington of ‘FoSho Video’ and can be seen on YouTube -https://youtu.be/EWB7G9UT2dw
Terry Ann Newman and myself were well-prepared for this year’s conference by our experience of the historic Conference held at Glasgow University’s School of Russian Studies in September. This conference celebrated the 100th anniversary of this important school. The Conference brought together a gathering of impressive experts in Russian culture. We were pleased to meet in particular Dr. Andrea Gullotta, Lecturer in Russian. He and the Vice-Chancellor of Glasgow University, Professor Sir Anton Muscatelli, added an unexpected Italian dimension to the Conference. I look forward to meeting them with my proposal that Glasgow’s School of Russian Studies could consider having a suite of my prints dedicated to Mikhail Lermontov and his passionate desire to ‘fly like a Raven’ towards Scotland, the land of his Scottish ancestors, and in particular, Sir Thomas Learmonth whose 12th century reputation as a soothsayer gave rise to the legend of Thomas the Rhymer and his beloved Fairie Queen in which Scotland’s history and mythology are forever intertwined.

RICHARD DEMARCO’S NEWSLETTER – Thursday 9th November 2017

Trevor Bell was very much on my mind during my recent experience of Cornwall. I was pleased to be invited to a special opening of the magnificent new extension of the Tate St. Ives. This extension has been much needed and now gives prominence to the key artists associated with St. Ives. Their work is displayed in such a way that it introduces the visitor to a large-scale gallery space which will enable Tate St. Ives to be worthy of major exhibitions relating to the programme of the Tate Galleries in London and Liverpool.
I am writing this Newsletter on the day that I have just received the sad news of the death of Trevor Bell. He was the last remaining leading member of the artists who had the responsibility of keeping alive the spirit of the St. Ives School. One of my outstanding memories of the Demarco Gallery was when the Gallery walls were transformed by the large-scale abstract paintings of Trevor Bell at the height of his powers. His canvases were shaped and therefore suggested that his paintings were aspiring to the condition of sculpture. His work encapsulated the essence of 1970s modernism.
My first experience of modernism was much influenced by the tragedy of the Second World War and the 50-year long Cold War which followed. As a child in the 1930’s, I was inspired by ‘’Art Deco’’ and all things modern – the ultra-modern designed streamlined airplanes, racing cars, speedboats, and Clyde-built Atlantic Ocean liners and the classic black and white sets of the 1930s films.
This year’s Edinburgh Festival marked its 70th Anniversary. I found it difficult to believe I have personally experienced every one of these Festivals. BBC Television made a one-hour long documentary in celebration. They invited me to participate. I did so with enthusiasm. However, I felt the BBC missed the opportunity to make a film which not only told the Festival’s history, but emphasised how it helped imbue the spirit of the European avant-garde art into the cultural life of Britain.
For twenty-five years, from 1967 to 1991, I was responsible for introducing this spirit into the Festival’s visual arts programme in such a way that it did not disregard all aspects of the performing arts and literature.

As I could not find sufficient evidence of this international spirit in Scotland and, as I was anxious to find it in Britain, I realised it existed in abundance in the unlikely Cornish world of St. Ives. Forsaking the cosmopolitan world of London, St. Ives artists embodied Modernism.
So it was that I relied upon St. Ives to give an international dimension to British culture, obviously inspired by the history of pre-war and war-time Europe. Despite the tragedy of the global conflict which brought unimaginable pain and suffering particularly to Europe, I could not ignore the significance of the 1917 Russian Revolution and the inter-war world which gave birth in Germany to The Bauhaus.
I was fortunate to be deeply involved in the development of Jim Haynes’ Paperback Bookshop and The Traverse Theatre Club Art Gallery and John Calder’s world of Opera in Ledlanet House on his family estate as a Scottish version of Glyndebourne and his fearless career as an international publisher with his unyielding commitment to the writings of Samuel Beckett and the French “Nouvelle Vague”, as well as Alexander Trochi, Jack Gelber, Edward Albee, and Henry Miller.
I consider myself as most fortunate to have discovered the world of the St. Ives artists through my friendship with Patrick Heron, not only as a leading St. Ives painter, but also as a most erudite art critic writing for The Guardian.

He persuaded me that Edinburgh could provide an extension of the world in which St. Ives artists lived, worked and exhibited. He introduced me to the work of Margaret Gardiner and her extraordinary patronage of them. Through her, we have a distinctive Cornish dimension in the sea-girt Orkney art world. On the harbour at Stromness, there is now to be found arguably the most beautiful art gallery in Scotland. This is the Pier Art Gallery which houses Margaret Gardiner’s exquisite collection of art works by the leading St. Ives artists. The first architect of this unique building was Patrick Heron’s daughter, Katherine. I will always remember how she and I travelled together, all the way from Cornwall to Orkney.

As early as 1964 I was able to present international exhibition programmes in The Traverse Theatre Club and Gallery in relation to the avant-garde theatre of the likes of Genet, Pinter, Ionescu, Arrabal, Sartre, Pinget, Bellow, and Cocteau. For me the personification of European dimension in St. Ives was Naum Gabo. His influence on his fellow St. Ives artists was crucial. Henry Moore, Barbara Hepworth, Ben Nicholson, Victor Pasmore and Herbert Read all took seriously the St. Ives brand of Modernism.
So it was that it seemed inevitable that I gave major retrospective exhibitions to Patrick Heron, Alan Davie, William Scott, John Piper and Trevor Bell; one person and group exhibitions to Margaret Mellis, Wilhelmina Barns-Graham, Terry Frost, Roger Hilton, John Wells, Dennis Mitchell, William Featherston, Christopher Wood, Adrian Stokes, Telfer Stokes, Tom O’Malley, Patrick Hayman and perhaps more importantly, German-born artists Karl Wesker and Paul Feiler.
I was pleased to be able to add to that list of artists the name of Jeremy Le Grice. During the period of my three-day visit to Cornwall, I was honoured to speak about his impressive exhibition which was curated by his widow, Lyn Le Grice. This was presented in what is known as The Tremenheere Gallery. It is, by its very shape, a hymn of praise to the art of the carpenter, using that age-old material, green oak. This gallery is one of the crowning glories of a most welcome sculpture park on a hillside with panoramic views of St. Michael’s Mount. It is obvious that it is located on an historic pilgrim route leading inevitably to the Benedictine Abbey of St. Michael’s Mount. This unforgettable architecture seems to grow out of the living rock of what is now a most sacred island which is the Cornish equivalent of Mont St. Michel on the coastline of Brittany. The sculpture park is adorned with remarkable sculptural installations by James Turrell, David Nash and Richard Long, and many others.
Jeremy Le Grice’s paintings are unmistakably Cornish. He was a true Cornishman and a serious collector of his friend and mentor, Peter Lanyon. Many of the paintings and drawings possessed the magic of Peter Lanyon’s paintings. Jeremy Le Grice has created an extraordinary body of work, tailor-made for every aspect of the magical interior of a building conceived by Dr. Neil Armstrong at what is now a landmark space for anyone wishing to experience modern art in Cornwall. By its very name ‘Tremenheere’, there is a strong reference to the prehistoric history of Cornwall. Once upon a time, there were three Cornish stone-age burial chambers, known as Menhirs, to be found on this site. I must say that I was entranced by the experience of being there and found it most difficult to express in words my personal experience of a place made sacred by the expression of a life-long love for Cornwall expressed in the innumerable art works on exhibition. I left Cornwall saddened by the fact that Jeremy Le Grice’s art is not represented in the magnificent archives now on display at Tate St. Ives.

I now have the moral responsibility of adding Jeremy’s name to the list of all those Cornwall-based artists whose art helped greatly to introduce me to the avant-garde world that I found in Germany, Poland and Romania within two years of relishing its truth and beauty in Cornwall.

Adrian Glew, as Senior Archivist at for the Tate Galleries, has invited me to speak about the Demarco Archive and in particular that part celebrating the St. Ives world in the sixties and seventies. Adrian knows well that there are over one thousand points of interface between the Tate Archives and those of the Demarco Archive. I have been invited to speak about modernism as I have experienced it in my many collaborations with Joseph Beuys at the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao. I will make it clear that I was directed towards the truth embodied in Joseph Beuys’ art under the direction of those artists I now identify with the new extension at Tate St. Ives. I would certainly like to discuss with the curators at Tate St. Ives the history of the St. Ives artists in Scotland

 

 

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