Our tip this week is to visit the small but charming Fry Gallery in Saffron Walden, which has free entry. It houses paintings, prints, drawings, ceramics and decorative textile designs by 20th century artisans with local connections. Its main collection is the work of a group of painters, printers and potters who set up an art community in rural Essex, centred around a tiny village between Thaxted and Braintree.
Great Bardfield
This was surprisingly the home of many artists from the 1930s to 1970s. Founder members during the 1930s were couples Edward Bawden and Charlotte Epton, and Eric Ravilious and Tirzah Garwood, who for a time lived together at Brick House.
After they’d settled there, other artists were also attracted to live and work in the neighbourhood. This included John Aldridge RA, Audrey Cruddas, Walter Hoyle, Sheila Robinson, Michael Rothenstein, Duffy Ayers and Marianne Straub.
Bawden and Ravilious produced paintings, prints, posters, illustrations, book covers and ceramic designs which are instantly recognisable and still popular today. They worked on their art in between their teaching commitment days in London art schools. Both became war artists in 1939, and while Bawden survived the war, Ravilious tragically died in Iceland in 1942.
The remaining artists worked in studios in their homes, and also put on exhibitions in the village after the war. By the 1970s, the group had mainly dispersed and Bawden moved back to Saffron Walden.
Print and paint
The current exhibition “Great Bardfield and Beyond: A Working Landscape”, displays works in print, paint, illustration and ceramic by several of the artists. It is testament to how versatile and industrious they were. The prints employ various methods – woodcut, lino, engraving, etchings and lithographs; and you’ll see both oil and watercolour paintings. They viewed the countryside as a working landscape and responded to the fields, farms, buildings, animals, people and agricultural machinery they saw around them.
The Fry Gallery
The gallery building is the legacy of the wealthy Gibson/Fry family who built it in 1856 to house their growing art collection. In the early 1970s the gallery was closed and the works of art dispersed.
The Fry Gallery Art Society, formed in 1985, acquired the building and began collecting again. They now have 3,000 works by over 40 artists with a North Essex connection. In 1987 the Gallery in Saffron Walden opened to display the works to the public.
In 1918 the Fry family leased their own extensive gardens – called Bridge End – to the council, thereby allowing open public access to this day. They are adjacent to the Gallery so, if you have time, go through the archway and explore. Beautifully cared for, the gardens have been awarded Grade II listed status by Historic England.
The gallery is open every afternoon except Monday from 2pm-5pm, and from 11am-5pm on Saturdays. The building is accessible, and entry is free. The exhibition runs till 27 October. The Fry Art Gallery, 19a Castle St, Saffron Walden CB10 1BD
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