Tony Bevan at Cartwright Hall

Tony Bevan: Head

I finally managed to get over to the Cartwright Hall in Bradford to see the Tony Bevan exhibition. For those of you interested in charcoal as a drawing medium Bevan is a must see. He has been working for many years now, pushing his charcoal drawings into a territory that verges into painting but never quite leaving behind the fact that he is still drawing.

He often works directly onto un-stretched canvas, and has developed a drawing technique that relies on the fact that the roughness of the canvas causes the charcoal to spatter and break off as he pushes his charcoal sticks across the bumpy surface. He is particularly interested in how natural charcoal will break and shatter as internal fault lines are revealed as the charcoal is worn away. In particular the slight weaknesses caused by changes in the charcoal grain, for instance the notch left from where a branch has been lopped off, make for sudden breakages. As the charcoal snaps, it both makes more spatter markers and the hand’s pressure causes the remainder of the charcoal stump to drop down sharply onto the surface, causing yet another mark variation.  

Tony Bevan

You can get an idea of how he works by watching this video of him talking about his work. 

The Cartwright Hall is an interesting museum to visit if you have time, especially as its very easy to get to Bradford from Leeds by public transport. Their collection is fascinating because it has been selected to reflect the multicultural nature of the city’s population. In the gardens there is a very strong piece by the Pakistani artist Imran Qureshi. He has drawn his flower inspired patterns across the flagstones and walls, his mark-making process being a cross between spattering and calligraphy, each set of marks playing off against different elements of this formal garden. 

Imran Qureshi

If you are interested in working outside and still remaining sensitive to the surfaces you are working on Imran Qureshi is a good artist to explore.

In the main collection I was particularly interested in how the ‘Connect’ exhibition was curated. The upstairs gallery is devoted to a mixed exhibition of art from a wide range of cultures and times, some very interesting Asian artists in particular were being exhibited, and often these were artists that had drawing right at the centre of their practice. However I was particularly impressed with the huge Hughie O’Donoghue piece ‘Three Studies of Crucifixion’ from 1996. 

Hughie O’Donoghue ‘Three Studies of Crucifixion’

Detail of above

These large images are made from sections of printed papers, using a Carborundum printing technique. See: for a short video on the  technique and click for how to print from a carborundum plate.

Working in this way you can work on small sections and piece the larger image together. Because of the overall power of the final image you don’t really notice it’s made out of sections. It’s worth a visit to the Cartwright Hall collection just to see these images.

They also have a specialist collection of contemporary printmaking. The Cartwright Hall used to host the International Print Biennale and have built a collection of prints around purchases made during the period that the Biennales were staged. These include terrific prints by very well regarded artists in a wide range of print media, (Baselitz, Christo, Rauschenberg, Hockney etc etc) so if you are looking at printmaking as an extension of drawing it’s an excellent place to go and study techniques in more depth. If you want to go through their print collection and explore it in detail, you should ring first and book an appointment. For enquires regarding the print collection please contact cartwrighthall@bradford.gov.uk

Georges Baselitz

Christo

For more details as to what’s on see: 

The bus to Bradford interchange goes from Leeds City Centre, either from the main bus station or The Headrow. It takes 46min – leaves every 10 minutes. Catch a 72, 670 or X6.

            Then from Bradford City Centre bus interchange to the Cartwright Hall it takes
9min and buses leave every 10 minutes. If you get a day rider you could just fit this in with a normal day’s travel. Catch a 622, 623 or 626. 
                
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