Displayed in the Burra Room at Rye Art Gallery as a part of Terry Hulf’s A Retrospective: Notes from a Landscape, we are delighted to present 30 monochrome portraits of artists, including, amongst others: Gus Cummins, Angie Bevan, Davida Smith, Ken Townsend, Wally Cole, Keith Purser, Judith Rowe, Matt Hardman and Louis Turpin, which have additional impact for us at Rye Art Gallery. Terry’s relationship with this ‘colony’ of artists that work here on the Sussex and Kent borders stretches back a long way. He captures them here at different moments both in the present and in time past. It is a history of connections with artists that chimes closely with the history of the gallery too. This year we celebrate 60 years of showing contemporary artworks from these artists in the gallery and developing our own permanent collection, which in turn tells an important story of art in Sussex and beyond.
Many of the artists that feature here have now passed on, or as my mother would say “DAP” meaning dead at present. They are however, not forgotten, for with an artist comes not only a legacy of a life but also of their artworks that remains with us always. Terry’s approach to these portraits seems little different to his approach to his landscape work. There is the same simplicity and a gentle respect for the sitter that emanates throughout all these portraits. Terry chooses the setting and light but otherwise his intrusion is minimal, over and above that special moment when the breath is exhaled, and the shutter is released.
Looking closer at these portraits we can see they have stories to tell of themselves, a visual representation of the human condition. For example the photograph of Fred Cuming RA (1931-2022) taken in his studio in 1985. Our much admired and beloved narrative landscape painter is surrounded by all the material attributes that go with his profession, unfinished canvasses in various stages of completion, tubes of oil paints oozing onto palettes, alongside many used paint brushes which are strewn about. In the foreground the painter sits leaning forward and so there he is, in all probability the greatest colourist that this country has ever produced.
He sits with trademark cigarette in hand, at the very height of his powers, fixing the viewer with a tantalising gaze as if about to ask a question or even reveal the secret to his artistry. Equally, for those of us who were lucky to have known Fred, the photo for me evokes a memory of a joke and the way in which the serious twinkle in his eyes would soon be followed by shoulder shaking, mischievous laughter that was loud enough to carry right across from Camber to the marshes of Dungeness.
A Retrospective – Notes from a Landscape with Terry Hulf opens at the Rye Art Gallery on Saturday, May 10 until Sunday, June 29, photographic works of landscapes around Romney Marsh, Dungeness. Lydd army ranges and the surrounding area.
Rye Art Gallery, 107 High Street, Rye, TN31 7JE, phone 01797 222433. Opening hours are Monday to Saturday 11am – 5pm, Sunday 11am – 4pm, closed on Tuesdays.
Image Credits: Terry Hulf .
Nice work, good to see BW images
Love the black and white portraits