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An exhibition spanning the life of Stanley Spencer, one of the great British artists of the 20th Century, has come to York Art Gallery. Spencer’s work combines the religious, the sexual, and the everyday (for Spencer, his hometown of Cookham was the world).
The exhibition shows how Spencer was influenced by early renaissance, pre- Raphaelite and modern art. There is massive variability in his work. We see pieces as different as The Apple Gatherers, which is in the distorted, angular style of Gauguin to the detailed landscapes to the unforgiving realism of his portraits.
His paintings were surrounded by controversy in his own time and still inspire strong feelings today. At the exhibition’s previous home at the Laing Art Gallery, a double nude depicting Spencer crouched like a caveman over his indifferent wife (a closet lesbian) drew comments of disgust. The painting describes Spencer’s frustration at not having consummated his second marriage. The symbolism is stark; a brightly burning stove in the background represents burning desire, and the bizarre inclusion of a mutton leg in the foreground is, in Spencer’s words, “male, female, and animal flesh”.
Spencer is famed for his placing of classical biblical scenes in the context of Cookham. The Lovers (or The Dustman) was painted on Spencer’s happy return to his hometown. It depicts a dustman being reunited with his family on the Day of Judgement. The worldly characters of the painting and the inclusion of a teapot, an empty jar and a cabbage stress the sanctity of everyday life and represent Spencer’s own joy at returning. This concept is echoed in Mending Cowls but the mood is entirely different. Set against a dark and oppressive sky, it shows two workmen mending a pair of conical roofs. The buildings stand taller than their surrounding, observant and immutable as God. Perhaps unexpectedly, Spencer regarded this piece as his most religious.
Often the pieces are disturbing and, although they show everyday people and activities, one feels removed. A particularly disconcerting picture is The Bridge, painted relatively early in Spencer’s life. The eponymous bridge is packed full of people but the mood is lonely and uncomfortable. The perspective is warped and the people distant and expressionless; the colours are mute, redolent of Edward Hopper’s bleak work. Apparently Spencer hated the picture and a friend had to stop him from burning it.
For me, the highlights are the two self portraits. One shows a young Spencer, brimming with confidence and arrogance, staring directly at the viewer. Painted 1.5 times larger than life and with Freudian realism, it is an arresting sight. Startlingly close by, we see an older, cancer-ridden Spencer, painted in the year of his death. He is still direct but appears shrunken, lined and disillusioned.
The Stanley Spencer exhibition runs at York Art Gallery until the 19th of April. Entry is free.
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