Saturday 11 June 2011

Last-Year Travels: Chichester

As mentioned in my last post, on Tuesday I headed to Chichester to see the Robin and Lucienne Day exhibition at Pallant House.  The Days used to live in Chichester and had apparently been involved in planning this exhibition up until their deaths last year.


(Allegro, V&A)




(Sunrise,  V&A. Currently being revived as a bed-linen)

The exhibition was small but with plenty to inspire. Alongside the old favourites like Calyx, the display showed how Lucienne's designs developed as trends moved on, including some very Pop-like patterns in the 60s.



(High Noon, collection of Jill A. Wiltse and H. Kirk Brown III, lenders to the exhibition)


I knew less about Robin's designs - though I'd sat on his Polyprop chair on numerous occasions in various places.


(Mark II, V&A)

It was really interesting to see his work in electronics and graphic designs, as well as in furniture. 

(Model 1108 radio, V&A)

Even without the exhibition, Pallant House would still be well worth a visit. They've got a great British Pop collection. They've got a version of Richard Hamilton's Swingeing London, showing Mick Jagger and Robert Fraser hang-cuffed after their arrest for drugs possession - of course of local interest to Chichester, as the raid took place at Keith Richard's house in West Wittering. There's lots of Peter Blake and Patrick Caulfield too. There's a fascinating and growing prints collection too: apparently a local teacher gives a gift of £200 a month to fund new acquisitions - what an inspiring way to promote a collection!

Following on from the house, we took in Chichester cathedral. It's famous for its twentieth-century art, including stained glass by Marc Chagall and a tapestry by John Piper. It also seemed to have a pretty interesting set of gargoyles. This speccy chap especially caught my fancy: 


And what about these chancers?




A power couple to rival even the Days ... unfortunately ...

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