Paul Liss

David Evans’ death in a road accident in 1988, at the age of 59, bought to an abrupt end the career of one of the most distinguished watercolourists of his generation. The recent discovery of pictures remaining in his studio, nearly thirty years after the memorial tribute staged by the Redfern Gallery in 1988, provides the opportunity for a new generation to discover his work, though the publication of this first ever book on David Evans and the accom- panying touring exhibition. Evans’ strikingly large watercolours, (typically they measure over one metre in height or breadth), span two decades from the late 1960s to the late 1980s, evoking a vision that is still surprisingly potent today. They have all the period charm of the glam-rock era they so powerfully evoke but at the same time they are highly charged with the political energy of the pe- riod and mirror Thatcher’s Britain, with its Industrial unrest, its towns and country undergoing transformation, the Faulklands war and threat of the Evil Empire, the building of nuclear power stations and the dawn of awareness about Climate Change as a political issue. Evans was an ardent campaigner and environmentalist. The landscapes, (a homage to his native Suffolk) are peppered with industrial plants, landfill, scrap heaps, and encroaching roads and army maneuvers. Urban subjects, similar in some ways to the compo- sitions of Lowry, show factory plants, spectators’ sports, cafeterias, the interiors of museums, city centers and beach scenes.

Belleroche was an integral part of the Parisian art scene during the Belle Époque - he was a close friend of the artist John Singer Sargent with whom he shared studios in Paris and London; he was admired and collected by luminaires such as Degas and Renoir - anbdchampioned by the art critic Roger Marx. With Toulouse-Lautrec he shared the celebrated model Lily Grenier. And it is even said that Oscar Wilde's Picture of Dorian Gray was inspired by Belleroche. Belleroche was considered by his contemporaries to be an innovator. In the art of lithography he developed techniques that built on the experiments of Degas and other Impressionist, (with whom he shared a fascination for monotypes). Despite all these fascinating facets of his life and art, his story remains largely unknown.

This remarkable publication examines a collection of works by the British painter Charles Mahoney (1903-1968).

Beautifully illustrated catalogue on the life and work of 20th century British abstract artist, John Cecil Stephenson, which accompanies an exhibition at Burgh House, UK.