J. D. H. Catleugh
Encyclopedia
J D H Catleugh was an abstract artist whose "career" as an artist
, mainly started in the 1950s.
Group exhibitions:- 1951 British Abstract Art, Gimpel Fils, The Redfern Gallery, Summer Exhibition, The Mirror and the Square, A.I.A. - 1952:- Tomorrow’s Furniture, I.C.A., Gimpel Fils, Summer Exhibition. - 1953:- Bradford, 60th Spring Exhibition, Gimpel Fils, Collectors’ Choice, Collectors’ Items from Artist’s Studios, I.C.A., Paintings into Textiles, I.C.A. - 1954 Of Light and Colour, Gimpel Fils.1956 - This is Tomorrow, Whitechapel, London. - 1988 Reflections of the Fifties, England & Co.
His work was included in British Abstract Art at Gimpel Fils in 1951 and was displayed alongside with the works of British abstract artist John Milnes-Smith, in that same year they also exhibited at The Mirror and the Square organised by the A.I.A.
J D H Catleugh was part of what Herbert Read described as the ‘Tachiste Tornado’ of the 1950s; ( Herbert Read-Art Since 1945, Thames & Hudson, Chapter 7) and he showed a highly refined sense of organisation in his work, perhaps a reflection of Catleugh’s early architectural training.
In 1949 J D H Catleugh, influenced by Jackson Pollock, became fascinated by the possibilities of the ‘drip and pour’ technique. He eliminated his own colour mixtures and worked/poured directly from the paint manufacturer’s tin. The result is a rhythmic and polychromatic ‘net-work of trails which loop, entwine and lose themselves in an indecipherable complexity’-(Review of Gimpel Fils exhibition, Manchester Guardian, 19-1-1953 ) These ‘Space/Time’ paintings may remind us of ‘electrons around a nucleus’ or ‘the trial of a jet plane‘,-(Colin St John Wilson, Notes on paintings by J D H Catleugh, January 1953 ) but they have no subjects as such. Titles like Space-Time Configuration and Bi-planar Structure remind us that these are products of a post atomic world and as contemporary in 2007 as they were then.
October 1953 Painting onto Textiles exhibition at the ICA organised by Hans Juda, editor of The Ambassador to promote textile designs by contemporary painters. Three designs from this exhibition were put into production by David Whitehead Ltd, these same textile designs were included in Artist’s Textiles in Britain 1945–1970 exhibition at the Fine Art Society 2003.
By the mid 1950s J D H Catleugh, moving towards Victor Passmore and the British Constructionists, was working on a series of paper collage
s. Vertical black stripes were cut and pasted down, their orderly rows broken only by the addition of strips of coloured paper. Oswell Blakeston described them as having the effect of ‘looking through slats at a confetti world’’-(Oswell Blakeston, Popular Art, Art News & Review, 30-10-1954 )
In 1956 the Tate Gallery
exhibition, Modern Art
in the United States
, devoted one gallery to abstract expressionism
. It was followed in 1957 by the landmark Metavisual Tachiste Abstract exhibition at the Redfern Gallery, which registered the influence of the Americans. This American impact was strengthened by the 1959 exhibition of abstract expressionism, New American Painting, also at the Tate Gallery.
In 1959–62 his direction and style changed, using ‘oils and a knife’ his series of landscapes, moves closer to the lyrical abstractions of the painters of St Ives, such as Peter Lanyon. Catleugh quotes; ‘As Lawrence Alloway said of St Ives‘, ‘the landscape is so nice that nobody can quite bring themselves to leave it out of their art’-(Lawrence Alloway, Nine Abstract Artists, Alec Tiranti Ltd 1954 )
1984 - A series of Red/Black paintings started around the time of the 40th anniversary of the Normandy Landings, also many painful images were being shown on TV of the war in Bosnia and elsewhere, these led to the red/black figurative paintings which are often of just a single figure, sometimes reminiscent of a/the crucifixion which after all is the ultimate symbol of pain.
In 1988 - Reflections of the Fifties a two man exhibition with John Milnes-Smith, whose career in the 1950s ran parallel with that of Catleugh‘s, although each had a different response to post-war directions in abstract art, this exhibition was focussing on two artists whose work reflects a post war world, and was like a time capsule opening to reveal directions in British abstract art of the nineteen fifties and early sixties.
Catleughs’s overall career, was that predominately of an architect and whom painted purely for the love, passion and the expression in which art can give and bring. He is a world renowned expert in the works of William De Morgan
and is the author of William Morris
Tiles (1983) and many articles on nineteenth century and Islamic tiles. His interest in two-dimensional patterns extends to textiles particularly those from India
and Indonesia
, of which he has a small collection, in addition he is a devoted collector of William De Morgan’s Tiles in which he an extensive collection of his works.
When Chairman of the De Morgan Foundation, he and his wife, also a trustee, set up The De Morgan Centre in Wandsworth, London, in 2002. This exhibit’s a large collection of the ceramics of William De Morgan and paintings of Evelyn his wife together with considerable archive material. (Information compiled,supplied,edited and submitted by D F McCann 13-11-2007)
Artist
An artist is a person engaged in one or more of any of a broad spectrum of activities related to creating art, practicing the arts and/or demonstrating an art. The common usage in both everyday speech and academic discourse is a practitioner in the visual arts only...
, mainly started in the 1950s.
Timeline of career
- 1920 Born King’s Lynn, the son of John Harwood Catleugh OBE.
- 1949 Qualified as an architectArchitectAn architect is a person trained in the planning, design and oversight of the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to offer or render services in connection with the design and construction of a building, or group of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the...
after war service. - 1949–50 Series of Perspex and wood reliefs. Saw Jackson PollockJackson PollockPaul Jackson Pollock , known as Jackson Pollock, was an influential American painter and a major figure in the abstract expressionist movement. During his lifetime, Pollock enjoyed considerable fame and notoriety. He was regarded as a mostly reclusive artist. He had a volatile personality, and...
exhibition in VeniceVeniceVenice is a city in northern Italy which is renowned for the beauty of its setting, its architecture and its artworks. It is the capital of the Veneto region...
, strongly influenced and started series of ‘Space/Time’ paintings. - 1951 Designed sets for Picasso’s play, Desire Caught by Tail, at the Watergate Theatre.
- 1952 FurnitureFurnitureFurniture is the mass noun for the movable objects intended to support various human activities such as seating and sleeping in beds, to hold objects at a convenient height for work using horizontal surfaces above the ground, or to store things...
designs. - 1953 Prize-winner, Furniture Makers Guild, Coronation Design Competition. Textile designs produced by David Whitehead Ltd.
- 1953–54 Series of Collages.
- 1954–59 Relief paintings on plaster.
- 1959–62 Scottish landscape series.
- 1988–2009 Lived in LondonLondonLondon is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
.
Exhibitions
One-man exhibitions in 1953 and 1954 at Gimpel Fils.Group exhibitions:- 1951 British Abstract Art, Gimpel Fils, The Redfern Gallery, Summer Exhibition, The Mirror and the Square, A.I.A. - 1952:- Tomorrow’s Furniture, I.C.A., Gimpel Fils, Summer Exhibition. - 1953:- Bradford, 60th Spring Exhibition, Gimpel Fils, Collectors’ Choice, Collectors’ Items from Artist’s Studios, I.C.A., Paintings into Textiles, I.C.A. - 1954 Of Light and Colour, Gimpel Fils.1956 - This is Tomorrow, Whitechapel, London. - 1988 Reflections of the Fifties, England & Co.
His work was included in British Abstract Art at Gimpel Fils in 1951 and was displayed alongside with the works of British abstract artist John Milnes-Smith, in that same year they also exhibited at The Mirror and the Square organised by the A.I.A.
J D H Catleugh was part of what Herbert Read described as the ‘Tachiste Tornado’ of the 1950s; ( Herbert Read-Art Since 1945, Thames & Hudson, Chapter 7) and he showed a highly refined sense of organisation in his work, perhaps a reflection of Catleugh’s early architectural training.
In 1949 J D H Catleugh, influenced by Jackson Pollock, became fascinated by the possibilities of the ‘drip and pour’ technique. He eliminated his own colour mixtures and worked/poured directly from the paint manufacturer’s tin. The result is a rhythmic and polychromatic ‘net-work of trails which loop, entwine and lose themselves in an indecipherable complexity’-(Review of Gimpel Fils exhibition, Manchester Guardian, 19-1-1953 ) These ‘Space/Time’ paintings may remind us of ‘electrons around a nucleus’ or ‘the trial of a jet plane‘,-(Colin St John Wilson, Notes on paintings by J D H Catleugh, January 1953 ) but they have no subjects as such. Titles like Space-Time Configuration and Bi-planar Structure remind us that these are products of a post atomic world and as contemporary in 2007 as they were then.
October 1953 Painting onto Textiles exhibition at the ICA organised by Hans Juda, editor of The Ambassador to promote textile designs by contemporary painters. Three designs from this exhibition were put into production by David Whitehead Ltd, these same textile designs were included in Artist’s Textiles in Britain 1945–1970 exhibition at the Fine Art Society 2003.
By the mid 1950s J D H Catleugh, moving towards Victor Passmore and the British Constructionists, was working on a series of paper collage
Collage
A collage is a work of formal art, primarily in the visual arts, made from an assemblage of different forms, thus creating a new whole....
s. Vertical black stripes were cut and pasted down, their orderly rows broken only by the addition of strips of coloured paper. Oswell Blakeston described them as having the effect of ‘looking through slats at a confetti world’’-(Oswell Blakeston, Popular Art, Art News & Review, 30-10-1954 )
In 1956 the Tate Gallery
Tate Gallery
The Tate is an institution that houses the United Kingdom's national collection of British Art, and International Modern and Contemporary Art...
exhibition, Modern Art
Modern art
Modern art includes artistic works produced during the period extending roughly from the 1860s to the 1970s, and denotes the style and philosophy of the art produced during that era. The term is usually associated with art in which the traditions of the past have been thrown aside in a spirit of...
in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, devoted one gallery to abstract expressionism
Abstract expressionism
Abstract expressionism was an American post–World War II art movement. It was the first specifically American movement to achieve worldwide influence and put New York City at the center of the western art world, a role formerly filled by Paris...
. It was followed in 1957 by the landmark Metavisual Tachiste Abstract exhibition at the Redfern Gallery, which registered the influence of the Americans. This American impact was strengthened by the 1959 exhibition of abstract expressionism, New American Painting, also at the Tate Gallery.
In 1959–62 his direction and style changed, using ‘oils and a knife’ his series of landscapes, moves closer to the lyrical abstractions of the painters of St Ives, such as Peter Lanyon. Catleugh quotes; ‘As Lawrence Alloway said of St Ives‘, ‘the landscape is so nice that nobody can quite bring themselves to leave it out of their art’-(Lawrence Alloway, Nine Abstract Artists, Alec Tiranti Ltd 1954 )
1984 - A series of Red/Black paintings started around the time of the 40th anniversary of the Normandy Landings, also many painful images were being shown on TV of the war in Bosnia and elsewhere, these led to the red/black figurative paintings which are often of just a single figure, sometimes reminiscent of a/the crucifixion which after all is the ultimate symbol of pain.
In 1988 - Reflections of the Fifties a two man exhibition with John Milnes-Smith, whose career in the 1950s ran parallel with that of Catleugh‘s, although each had a different response to post-war directions in abstract art, this exhibition was focussing on two artists whose work reflects a post war world, and was like a time capsule opening to reveal directions in British abstract art of the nineteen fifties and early sixties.
Catleughs’s overall career, was that predominately of an architect and whom painted purely for the love, passion and the expression in which art can give and bring. He is a world renowned expert in the works of William De Morgan
William De Morgan
William Frend De Morgan was an English potter and tile designer. A lifelong friend of William Morris, he designed tiles, stained glass and furniture for Morris & Co. from 1863 to 1872. His tiles are often based on medieval designs or Persian patterns, and he experimented with innovative glazes and...
and is the author of William Morris
William Morris
William Morris 24 March 18343 October 1896 was an English textile designer, artist, writer, and socialist associated with the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood and the English Arts and Crafts Movement...
Tiles (1983) and many articles on nineteenth century and Islamic tiles. His interest in two-dimensional patterns extends to textiles particularly those from India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
and Indonesia
Indonesia
Indonesia , officially the Republic of Indonesia , is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia is an archipelago comprising approximately 13,000 islands. It has 33 provinces with over 238 million people, and is the world's fourth most populous country. Indonesia is a republic, with an...
, of which he has a small collection, in addition he is a devoted collector of William De Morgan’s Tiles in which he an extensive collection of his works.
When Chairman of the De Morgan Foundation, he and his wife, also a trustee, set up The De Morgan Centre in Wandsworth, London, in 2002. This exhibit’s a large collection of the ceramics of William De Morgan and paintings of Evelyn his wife together with considerable archive material. (Information compiled,supplied,edited and submitted by D F McCann 13-11-2007)