Vaughan Grylls is a British artist, photographer, and author.[1] Known for his fine art photography and sculptures, Grylls first received recognition for his 1960s pun-sculptures and, later, for his 1980s photography and panoramic photo collages.[2]
Initially trained as a sculptor, Grylls began creating photo collages in 1977.[7] Some of his notable panoramic works include The Wailing Wall, Jerusalem (1979), Site of the Assassination of JFK (1980), and Britain Through the Looking Glass (1984).[8][9][10][11]
Additionally, Grylls has authored seven books in the Then and Now series: Oxford Then and Now (2009), Cambridge Then and Now (2011),[12][13][14]Singapore Then and Now (2016)[15]Hong Kong Then and Now (2016)[16]Shanghai Then and Now (2017),[17]The Old West Then and Now (2019),[18]London Then and Now (2020)[19] and was photographer for Hollywood Then and Now (2013).[20]
At Goldsmiths College in 1968, Grylls produced an exhibition of his first photographically based pun-sculptures, each made from cardboard and called collectively 'Ludwig Wittgenstein's Palace of Pun.'[22] He took this with him to the Slade School of Fine Art and continued to make more pun-sculptures. His work was noticed at his final show at the Slade in 1970 by Jasia Reichardt, art critic and assistant director of the ICA. His first London exhibition was held at the ICA in October 1970 as one room in an exhibition entitled 'Ten Sitting Rooms.'[23]
Grylls' pun-sculpture work was also shown at an alternative exhibition space called The Gallery. The Gallery was opened in Lisson St, London in 1972 by fellow Slade graduate Nicholas Wegner. Wegner invited Grylls to show at The Gallery. The work Grylls exhibited in 1973 entitled 'An Indo-Chinese Punsculpture' was a large photo-mural commenting on the signing of the so-called Paris Peace Treaty. Wegner and Grylls then collaborated in an artistic partnership, inspired in part by Andy Warhol, from 1973 to 1975. Wegner closed The Gallery in 1978.[24]
Photography
From 1977, Grylls’ style developed into works largely inspired by international news and political events.[25][26][27] He used photographic montage techniques to create a collection of images pinned together to produce one large image.[1] In 1977, he travelled to Istanbul and used a telephoto lens to produce his first panoramic photo-collage, Hagia Sophia, Istanbul. It was exhibited in 1978 at the Whitechapel Art Gallery in London.[7]
His next photo-collage exhibition was in 1979 called The Wailing (Western) Wall, Jerusalem and in Flanders Fields.[28] Grylls said that his overtly political art tried, in the case of The Wailing (Western) Wall, Jerusalem, to "examine a cultural and religious icon that has had a far-reaching influence on political events today."[11]
In 1980, Grylls created panoramic collages of the sites where President John F. Kennedy on Elm Street and Lord Mountbatten in Donegal Bay were murdered.[28] William Feaver of The Observer referred to Grylls' work as "mixed-media surveys, combining epic scale and humdrum particulars."[28]
In 1984, Grylls' 'Britain Through the Looking Glass', a twenty-eight by eight-foot work of colour Xerox photographs that were taken at the British Museum in London in the "Egyptian Mummy room" was exhibited at the Atlantis Gallery in London.[10] Also, in the same exhibition, were two equally large panoramas, one based on the Greenwich Meridian, the other on Wembley Stadium.[6]
In 2003, Grylls proposed creating a new university of more than 6,000 students studying art, design, and architecture by merging the Kent Institute with the Surrey Institute of Art & Design to prevent these free-standing art colleges becoming absorbed into their local universities.[31][4] The merged institution was called the University College for the Creative Arts at Canterbury, Epsom, Farnham, Maidstone & Rochester (since 2009 the University for the Creative Arts).[32][33] Grylls as founding Chief Executive of the merged institution[34] resigned soon afterwards, announcing that he intended to return full-time to his own work.[35]
In 2018, Bitter Lemon Press published Grylls' autobiographical book, Have You Come Far? A Life in Interviews.[36]<refPurves, Libby (2018). "Vaughan Grylls: Have You Come Far?". TLS (Times Literary Supplement) (6036). NI Syndication Limited: 30–31. ISSN0307-661X. Retrieved 1 February 2024.</ref>
↑ McManus, Irene. "Visions from the Outer Edge." The Guardian, 4 August 1983.
↑ Spurling, John. "Arts." The New Statesman, 17 February 1984.
↑ Holman, Martin. "Vaughan Grylls at Arnolfini, Nicholas Volley at Ian Birksted." Art Scribe, no. 40, April 1983.
1 2 3 William Feaver (6 February 1983). "Scrambling the Landmarks". The Observer. London.
↑ Ogden, John, 'Weekend Star', "Express and Star", Wolverhampton, 7 October 1989
↑ Editorial, "The Times Higher Education Supplement". London, 5 July 1996
↑ Utley, Alison. "The Times Higher Education Supplement"London , 2 November 2000
↑ Hodges, Lucy. "The Independent" London. 6 May 2004
↑ Tysome, Tony. "The Times Higher Education Supplement". London, 7 May 2005
↑ 'First ever students enroll', UCA News Archive 2 September 2005. www.ucreative.ac.uk
↑ "Professor going back to the drawing board." Kentish Gazette, 26 October 2005.
↑ Vaughan Grylls (2020). Have You Come Far? A Life In Interviews. Bitter Lemon Press. ISBN978-1-9122421-4-6.
Further reading
Vaughan Grylls 'A Case in Point', The Sunday Times London 28 March 1971
This is not an advertisement', Studio International London, Vol 182 no 935 July/August 1971
Vaughan Grylls, 'Benefitting from a Holiday', The Sunday Times London 29 August 1971
John A Walker, 'Contemporary Art, Flash Art Milan, nos 48/49 October/November 1974
'Time, Words and the Camera' Exhibition catalogue edited by Jasia Reichardt and published by Neue Galerie am Landesmuseum Joanneum Graz, Austria 1976
Vaughan Grylls, 'Artists Thoughts on the 70's in Words and Pictures'. Edited by Jasia Reichardt. Studio International, London, vol 195 no 991, 1981
Brandon Taylor, Introductory essay to 'The Panoramic Image'. Exhibition catalogue published by John Hansard Gallery, University of Southampton 1981
'Vaughan Grylls. Through the Looking Glass'. Exhibition catalogue with notes by the artist and an introductory essay by John Carlin. Published by the University of Wisconsin, Elvehjem Museum of Art, Madison, Wisconsin, November 1985
'Vaughan Grylls. Wolverhampton Return'. Exhibition catalogue with notes by the artist and an introductory essay by Christopher Bailey. Published by Wolverhampton Art Gallery and Wolverhampton Polytechnic, September 1989
'Vaughan Grylls. 'White Man's Tales'. Exhibition catalogue with notes by the artist and an introductory essay by Professor Ann H Murray. Published by Wheaton College, Massachusetts, November 1994
Kurt Hermann Eduard Karl Julius Schwitters was a German artist. He was born in Hanover, Germany, but lived in exile from 1937.
Tess Jaray is a British painter and printmaker. She taught at The Slade School of Fine Art, UCL from 1968 until 1999. Over the last twenty years Jaray has completed a succession of major public art projects. She was made an Honorary Fellow of RIBA in 1995 and a Royal Academician in 2010.
Stefan Themerson was a Polish writer of children's literature, poet and inventor of Semantic Poetry, novelist, script writer filmmaker, composer and philosopher. He wrote in at least three languages. With his wife, Franciszka Themerson, they are regarded as leading husband-and-wife exponents of European Surrealism and publishers.
The Whitechapel Gallery is a public art gallery in Whitechapel on the north side of Whitechapel High Street, in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. The original building, designed by Charles Harrison Townsend, opened in 1901 as one of the first publicly funded galleries for temporary exhibitions in London. The building is a notable example of the British Modern Style. In 2009 the gallery approximately doubled in size by incorporating the adjacent former Passmore Edwards library building. It exhibits the work of contemporary artists and organizes retrospective exhibitions and other art shows.
Harry Morey Callahan was an American photographer and educator. He taught at both the Institute of Design at the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago, and the Rhode Island School of Design in Providence.
Richard Billingham is an English photographer and artist, film maker and art teacher. His work has mostly concerned his family, the place he grew up in the West Midlands, but also landscapes elsewhere.
Sarah Kent is a British art critic, formerly art editor of the weekly London "what's on" guide Time Out. She was an early supporter of the Young British Artists in general, and Tracey Emin in particular, helping Emin to get exposure. This has led to polarised reactions of praise and opposition for Kent. She adopts a feminist stance and has stated her position to be that of "a spokesperson, especially for women artists, in a country that is essentially hostile to contemporary art."
Franciszka Themerson was a Polish, later British, painter, illustrator, filmmaker and stage designer.
Masumi Hayashi was an American photographer and artist who taught art at Cleveland State University, in Cleveland, Ohio, for 24 years. She won a Cleveland Arts Prize; three Ohio Arts Council awards; a Fulbright fellowship; awards from National Endowment for the Arts, Arts Midwest, and Florida Arts Council; as well as a 1997 Civil Liberties Educational Fund research grant.
Rita A Donagh is a British artist, known for her realistic paintings and painstaking draughtsmanship.
Jann Haworth is a British-American pop artist. A pioneer of soft sculpture, she is best known as the co-creator of The Beatles' 1967 Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band album cover. Haworth is also an advocate for feminist rights especially for the representation of women in the art world.
The National Gallery of Australia Research Libraryand Archives is the pre-eminent art library in Australia, located in Canberra.
Athena Tacha, is a multimedia visual artist. She is best known for her work in the fields of environmental public sculpture and conceptual art. She also worked in a wide array of materials including stone, brick, steel, water, plants, and L.E.D. lighting. photography, film, and artists’ books. Tacha's work focused on personal narratives, and often plays with geometry and form.
Cybernetic Serendipity was an exhibition of cybernetic art curated by Jasia Reichardt, shown at the Institute of Contemporary Arts, London, England, from 2 August to 20 October 1968, and then toured across the United States. Two stops in the United States were the Corcoran Annex, Washington, D.C., from 16 July to 31 August 1969, and the newly opened Exploratorium in San Francisco, from 1 November to 18 December 1969.
Dom Pierre-Sylvester HouédardWED-ar, also known by the initials 'dsh', was a British Benedictine priest, theologian and noted concrete poet.
Jasia Reichardt is a British art critic, curator, art gallery director, teacher and prolific writer, specialist in the emergence of computer art. In 1968 she was curator of the landmark Cybernetic Serendipity exhibition at London's Institute of Contemporary Arts. She is generally known for her work on experimental art. After the deaths of Franciszka and Stefan Themerson she catalogued their archive and looks after their legacy.
John Grenville Stezaker is a British conceptual artist.
Robert Koenig was an English sculptor based in Sussex, who specialised in wood sculpture and was a prominent exponent of the art of woodcarving using the traditional tools of mallet and chisel. He was known for his carved and polychromed figurative wood sculptures, which he had been creating since the early 1980s. One of the earliest polychromed figures was shown in the 'Temple' exhibition at the Shaw Theatre, London in 1988.
Mario Dubsky was an artist born in London, England, to Viennese Jewish parents who had converted to Christianity.
The Grabowski Gallery was an avant-garde art gallery opened in 1959 in London's Chelsea by Mateusz Grabowski, anticipating the Swinging Sixties. It hosted some of the earliest shows of the rising pop art movement and was the first venue in London to bring op art to the public. It launched the careers of some of Britain's and the British Commonwealth's leading exponents of two- and three-dimensional art and fostered émigré artists from Europe, the Caribbean and the Commonwealth. By the time it closed its doors in 1975 it had mounted around two hundred shows. When the gallery closed Mateusz Grabowski donated his collection of works from the gallery to the Museum of Art in Łódź and the National Museum in Warsaw, Poland.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
