Hampstead Authors' Society No. 75 Issue 12 September 2009
Time 2:00 for 2:15 p.m. Walk starts from Watertone’s Hampstead. Place NW3 Venue confirmed upon booking. |
Many thanks to those who have helped to make things happen for HAS over the past year. Special thanks from Zsuzsanna Ardó and Mariane Rosel-Miles to Deborah Moggach, Phil Williamson, Daniel Andor-Ardó, Jay Silver, Martin Simon, Alessandra Cavalli, Nick Cohen, Alison Oldham, Genie Poretzky-Lee, Ellie Kavner, Irene Lawford, Lawrence Ball, Emma Klein, Will Hopper, Robert Solomon, The Lotus Foundation, The Unitarian Chapel Hampstead, Tavistock Clinic. If you’d like to contribute some creativity, and get actively involved in HAS, drop Zsuzsanna a line, saying what you'd like to do.
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Time 6:30 for 7pm Place NW3 venue tbc upon booking.
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The Fool, the Angel and the Pilgrim
Cecil Collins (1908-1989) is arguably one of the greatest English visionary artists since Blake and Palmer, although his work is different in range and technique. With emblematic figures such as the Fool (‘purity of consciousness’), the Angel, the Pilgrim and the Sibyl in extraordinary landscapes, Collins portrayed an original and inspiring philosophy of life. Although he has been relatively neglected, his art is much sought after and remains as relevant as ever.
He was a venerated educator with unique teaching methods using music and movement. His classes were often life-changing and also great fun. His interest in the teachings of many esoteric spiritual systems, including Sufism and the Baha’i faith, combined with his natural irreverence and subversive playfulness, were enormously influential in various areas of the creative arts.
He came into contact and became friends with leading practitioners in many fields, including Benjamin Britten, Kenneth Clark, Alex Comfort, Eric Gill, David Jones, Rudolph von Laban, Bernard Leach, Paul Nash, Anthony d’Offay, Mervyn Peake, Roland Penrose, John & Myfanwy Piper, John Cowper Powys, Kathleen Raine, Herbert Read, John Rothenstein, Glen Schaefer, George Seferis, Stanley Spencer, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Stephen Spender, John Tavener, Mark Tobey, Pamela Travers, Julian Trevelyan and Arthur Waley.
Collins has been recognized as belonging to the Neo-Romantic movement of poetical art which flourished in the post-war period, but his dedication to depicting his mystic understanding made his work highly distinctive. His great appeal as a person was his wisdom and wit. He was a seer whose vision has increasing relevance today.
In Celebration of Cecil Collins creates a portrait of him, a mosaic in word form. Through a hundred reflections and memories of his friends, admirers and students, whose lives he affected so profoundly, an informal record has been produced in tribute to the legacy of this important metaphysical artist and transformative teacher.
It took me many years to collect and edit all this information by interview and research. Occasional pieces drawn from his essays and formulations about the creative process have been included. In addition there is the previously unpublished transcript of a talk he gave at the Tate Gallery and a fairy story he wrote for his god-daughter. Also incorporated are his commentary to the film about him, The Eye of the Heart and his notes for a talk to his students on the film classic, Elektra. The influences which shaped Collins’ art and philosophy, as well as the wider historical and political context are considered. This is the first time reminiscences of Cecil Collins have been collected. Similarly, a description of Collins’ teaching has not previously been available in print.
In Celebration of Cecil Collins was published in 2008, the year of his birth centenary, to coincide with the show put on by Tate Britain in his honour. Although a celebration of the artist, it is not a hagiography and includes contributions from those who are critical of him. It contains many illustrations of paintings by Cecil and Elisabeth Collins and photographs of them owned by the contributors and not otherwise publicly accessible, as well as examples of his students’ artwork and those of his friends and colleagues.
© HASNotes and Nomi Rowe 2009
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