Art and Memory at West Dean
left to right, Wilberforce Standing Stone, Richard Kindersley; Solar seat, Pip Hall; Haiku Triptych: Day, John Andrews
An exhibition of memorials opens at West Dean Gardens commemorates the 25th anniversary of the death of Edward James who founded the institution in 1964
Edward James inherited the West Dean estate as a child in 1912. He used his considerable fortune to patronise the arts, supporting in particular the Surrealists, setting up his own publishing house and financing a series of Balanchine ballets. In 1964 he set up the Edward James Foundation, a charitable educational trust, and in 1971 his flint mansion was converted and opened as West Dean College. As well as the college, the estate now includes the famous gardens, the West Dean tapestry studio and the Sussex Barn Gallery.
The new exhibition, Art and Memory, commemorates James’s life and achievements, using the park, gardens and arboretum as a natural backdrop for 53 memorials. They’ve have all been selected from the Art and Memory Collection set up by Harriet Frazer of the Memorial Arts Charity and have all recently been commissioned by the charity, many reflecting its interest in letter-carving. Some are in a traditional format, but many provide very contemporary, but equally moving, takes on the age-old need to commemorate the dead. For example, John Neilson has created a circle out of 7 giant slabs of stone which are protect a small stone bench, while Pip Hall has made a ‘solar seat’; other pieces include a fountain, lettered steps and wall plaques.
www.westdean.org.uk
www.memorialartscharity.org.uk
