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John Tunnard (May 7, 1900 - December 18, 1971), was a British artist and designer. He was born in Bedfordshire, England. He is best known for his paintings of strange private worlds, which are instantly recognisable. Ever enthusiastic to experiment and be at the cutting edge of the Avant Garde, Tunnard consciously developed his work in the style of British Surrealism as it emerged after the second world war. A use of biomorphic forms and architectural elements combine with elements of constructivism, reflecting his interest in the technology of space travel. Many of the paintings are of fantastic constructions in deep space, and demonstrate a preoccupation with entomology and geology.Tunnards work commonly depicts the detailed design that is found abundant within nature itself. May 7 is the 127th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (128th in leap years). ...
1900 (MCM) is a common year starting on Monday. ...
December 18 is the 352nd day of the year (353rd in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar. ...
1971 (MCMLXXI) is a common year starting on Friday (click for link to calendar). ...
Surrealism is a cultural, artistic, and intellectual movement oriented toward the liberation of the mind by emphasizing the critical and imaginative faculties of the unconscious mind and the attainment of a state different from, more than, and ultimately truer than everyday reality: the sur-real, i. ...
Entomology is the scientific study of insects. ...
Geology (from Greek γη- (ge-, the earth) and λογος (logos, word, reason)) is the science and study of the Earth, its composition, structure, physical properties, history, and the processes that shape it. ...
When placing Tunnards work in context, it is important to consider the proliferation of ecology based fiction, art and discussion that was beginning to appear in the late 1950's and early 1960's. In 1951 the writer John Wyndham, spurred on by reported scientific practice at this time published his famous novel Day of The Triffids. Public attention had reverted unfavourably from scientific experiments carried out on plants in 1940s America. Science had formerly been held in high regard as champion of the brave new world. In 1962, amid growing public awareness, Rachel Carson's literary augur of environmental catastrophe Silent Spring was published. The book summarized her main argument, The 'control of nature' is a phrase conceived in arrogance, born of a flawed understanding of biology and philosophy, when it was supposed that nature exists for the convenience of man. John Wyndham (July 10, 1903 – March 11, 1969) was the pen name used by the often post-apocalyptic British science fiction writer John Wyndham Parkes Lucas Beynon Harris. ...
Rachel Louise Carson (May 27, 1907 – April 14, 1964) was a Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania-born zoologist and biologist whose landmark book, Silent Spring, is often credited with having launched the global environmental movement. ...
Tunnard's themes, in part owe much to the discussion that was being generated in this burgeoning ecological angst; He identified more strongly with modernism and his work is more detached, observational; and less community spirited than his literary contemporaries. In his Self Portrait ( now in the National Gallery, London) the artist depicts himself alongside an oversized insect. The meanings in Tunnard's paintings are unclear; This may go some way to explaining the reason why Tunnard has been unfavourably confined to the shady corners of art history. Artists are expected to make clear the contents and objectives of their work; and Tunnards objectives have never perhaps been fully understood, except in the context of his enthusiasm for his subjects. He is also understood in his eagerness to present a thoroughly modern context for his subjects. His paintings may be seen as a clumsy meandering of ideas. Interest in his work had diminished after his death in 1971; and his name declined into obscurity after, althought there has been a re-examining of his work,with a revival of interest following the centenary exhibition at Durham University in 2000. His art was, for a while less sought after than his contemporary Ivon Hitchens, who was also born in Berkshire, seven years before Tunnard. The work of both artists refers to natural resources;they painted the textures of stone; water; earth, much like the work of the St.Ives Artists in general.
Other British modern artists in this category include sculptor Dame Barbara Hepworth who was concerned with form and texture. Although unlike Hepworth, Tunnard and painter Graham Sutherland are better remembered as belonging to the group loosely termed British Neo-romanticism. Sutherland was primarily concerned with portraying the dark underside of nature. His paintings of war-torn Britain rendered the angular forms of ruined buildings. The Neo-romatics continued the tradition of British landscape; processing it through a modern sensability, but their version excluded reference to those aspects of the 1900's that characterise its seperateness from previous times such as the technology that interested Tunnard; the electrically powered machines that had been explored near the beginning of the 20th century by a group of artists with a particularly Italian brand of Modernism known as Futurism. They explored the machine age. They liked speed and authored a manifesto which advocated that all remnants of the past be destroyed. They were interested in all that was new, fast and modern. The Neo-romatics rejected this; Their subjects were depicted with an unreal unnatural appearance, prefering design and decoration with a warm expressive voice. Hepworths Family of Man, Bronze, 1970 at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park Dame Barbara Hepworth (January 10, 1903 – May 20, 1975), born in Wakefield, West Yorkshire, was one of the most important 20th Century Artists and British Artists of the 20th Century. ...
Graham Vivian Sutherland (August 24, 1903 – February 17, 1980) was an English artist. ...
(Disambiguation: you may be looking for Neoromanticism (music) or New Romantic (British pop music)). The term neo-romanticism is synonymous with post-Romanticism or late Romanticism. ...
This article is about the art movement, futurism. ...
Tunnard put the machine age back into landscape in a blurred, romatic montage. Despite a firm root in tradition, Tunnard's paintings have a bleak and sometimes sinister quality. The repeated use of colours such as blues, browns and greys has an unsettling effect on the eye; The inhuman scale of his forms and architectonic structures further evoke this feeling of remoteness in his paintings. Ivon Hitchens's work typically uses a warm palette of reds, browns greens and yellows; his work appears only to express ideas about the landscape; this may go some way to account for Hitchen's greater popularity. Tunnard did not adhere entirely to the Earth and nature as a theme; His work was possibly the first amongst the modernists to depict satellites and moonscapes in painting.
The technique that Tunnard used evolved from his youthful employ as a commercial designer. He wanted to command a full understanding of all the essential qualities of painting; form, colour, texture etc. Compositions were always meticulously executed. He carefully rendered shapes applying clear, precise edges; indeed, with scientific precision; he often used a compass and a ruler. The artist was at first quietly naive about modern art techniques; he once asked a colleague whether it was acceptable for him to use his compass and ruler. Would he foresake his authenticity as an artist? His choice of materials was sometimes unusual; gouache or oil on a gesso base were his favoured materials, but he often used a range of media for a single work. For example; in many of his paintings tempera and oil paint were combined on the picture surfaces. He also worked with oil on glass supports during a period just after the second world war, at a time when he was highly productive. Most oils were painted on gesso. Some oils were painted on his choice of fibre or composite board. This being an ill-advised choice for professional artists in general. He may not have known that collectors are as fussy about the quality of the support as they are fussy about the quality of the painting. His vision was a unique one which transcended a documentary representation of the world
Further reading
- John Tunnard: His Life and Work by Alan Peat and Brian A. Whitton
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