28 July

ARCHIVE

Hamo Thornycroft (1850-1925)

Box of diaries, 1881-1925

h 8.7, w 43.6, d 30.7 cm Donated by Mrs Elfrida Manning, 1982

Jean Arp or Hans and Paule Vézelay or Marjorie Agnes Watson-Williams
were great friends. She met Hans Arp and his wife in 1933 and was
greatly influenced by his work. The white plaster works are evidence
of that. She exhibited with Arp and his wife, Domela, Kandinsky and
others in Milan. A circle of friends sometimes makes up a `movement'
and together they can change art forever. Moore, Hepworth, Ben
Nicholson, and some refugees from Germany related to the Bauhaus
lived in the same area in Hampstead in the 1930s. Rossetti's house
was a meeting point for many people, who would call themselves the
Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. Not much is left of the bungalows at
Birchington, Kent, but many artists and writers used to club
together there. Artists connected to the `New Sculpture' Movement
all seemed to live near Holland Park. One of the artists was Hamo
Thornycroft. His diaries have entries like: "2.00 Armstead" or "RA".
It is a record of who he met when. The journals and sketchbooks give
more insight in what Thornycroft found important at the time. I
initially chose the box because when I first opened it I had the
feeling I had found of a box full of gems, a treasure of colour.
Later it made me see them more as pieces of the puzzle called the
`New Sculpture Movement'.