PJ Crook | Literary Lions and Other Beasts
PJ Crook | Literary Lions and Other Beasts PRIVATE VIEW FRIDAY 9 OCTOBER 5.30 - 8PM 10 OCTOBER - 7 NOVEMBER
4 Rotunda Terrace, Montpellier Street, Cheltenham. GL50 1SW +44(0)7950 539861 eleanor@paragongallery.co.uk www.paragongallery.co.uk
ARTIST’S NOTE
“Because I so enjoyed my last exhibition, Byron’s Bear & Menagerie, with Ellie here at the Paragon Gallery, I wanted to continue in a similar but different vein. So as this exhibition is once again tying up with the Literature Festival I have opted for Literary Lions & Other Beasts. Sometimes the subject matter of the paintings is the actual animal companion of the writer whilst others are the animals they are imagining and writing into their story. Throughout history we find writers such as Saint Jerome sharing his library with the faithful Lion who he rescued by removing a thorn from his paw; through to Dickens who kept a raven whom he loved called Grip - he even taught it to speak in Cockney slang. When it died he personally learned how to be a taxidermist as he couldn’t bear to be parted. In fact he had three ravens one after another and they were all called Grip, also a canary, an eagle and cats. What is even more fascinating is another writer in the USA was so intrigued with the story that later when the stuffed Grip came up for auction he purchased it, and when you know it was Edgar Allen Poe who wrote his famous poem, The Raven, you realise what a profound effect it had on his writing. Leo Tolstoy wrote one of the most moving and sorrowful stories about a Piebald Horse called Strider. Shakespeare’s famous stage direction “Exit pursued by a Bear …” has entered the common vernacular and is perhaps the most popular and iconic stage direction ever quoted which is why I have also painted an Encore. In 19th century fairy tales Southey wrote a version of Goldilocks and the three bears where the three bears were
Front cover: THE ANGEL, THE GLOBE & THE ANIMALS (detail) tinted gesso on canvas & painted wood frame, 36 x 46 inches | 91.5 x 117 cm
all male but mine stays with the more traditional Mother, Father & Baby Bear. The Goldilocks Principal of “just the right amount”, neither too hot nor too cold, has entered the language of psychology, economics, engineering and biology. As a child I can remember my father reading to me from The Tootinemeh or Tales of a Parrot, translated from the Persian language, a famous collection of stories told by the parrot to his mistress to delay or postpone her what would be unfaithful encounters with a lover. A parrot is also the protagonist in Julian Barnes’ Flaubert’s Parrot where he, rather like Dickens’ Raven, ends up immortalised by a taxidermist. Flaubert also thought of himself as a Bear whilst his sister was a Rat. Bears are often symbols either of affection or as an aggressor - Russia is often depicted as the Bear. Judith Kerr wrote the moving Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit but later the most wonderful The Tiger Who Came to Tea, who not only drunk from the spout of the teapot but also emptied all the taps with a voracious appetite and thirst. The family in the story would now all have been older or retired so he’s turned up at a Christmas tea dance for senior citizens as well as appearing in the doorway of a family meal in A Tiger Who Came To See. Whilst working in my studio I often hear fascinating stories on the radio 4 news bulletin, where a few years ago two runaway Tamworth pigs captured the hearts of the nation in their bid not to become bacon. I likewise became very engaged by the travels of a herd of Indian elephants who left their reserve to find more fodder,
raiding plantations and eventually arriving in a town at night and more recently, the World Service African elephants in Zimbabwe moving into residential areas, again looking for food. In my minds eye these conjured up a bizarrely beautiful image that I’ve tried to convey in Elephants in The City. Robert Louis Stevenson’s famous Travels with a Donkey has always had an alluring appeal. It was particularly after his parents disapproved of and forbade a long relationship he had with a married woman that he set out to ease his pain with a trek in the mountainous regions of France. The female donkey was no bigger than a Newfoundland dog and often found it hard to keep pace with his long-legged owner, whilst carrying such a burdensome load. To start with Stevenson was very sympathetic and resisted hitting the poor beast with a switch but as his frustration grew, he became more and more impatient, eventually selling the poor animal and completing the journey by train. Several years ago a friend sent us a copy of Jan Martel’s The Life of Pi. The story is about Pi being shipwrecked and sharing a lifeboat with a zebra, a hyena, and orangutang and a large Bengal tiger whose name was Richard Parker. And since I’m married to a Richard Parker I felt a great attachment to him. Gradually during the adventure the other animals are eaten by the tiger so only Pi and Richard Parker remain. It is a thrilling read and eventually they reach land and go off in different directions. Barack Obama wrote to Jan Martel to say that after reading it, it convinced him that there was a god. One of my favourite books is George Orwell’s Animal Farm, this wonderful analogy of how Stalins communism took
over Russia and much of the world was told in the form of a simple farmyard tale, where the animals were radicalised by the pigs into rebellion and takeover. Their manifesto originally said 2 Legs Bad, 4 Legs Good but in the last scene the pigs have taken upon themselves all the characteristics of human beings, wearing their clothes, living in the farmhouse, drinking their whiskey, gambling and cheating. The Elephant Boy is a Kipling story of the bonding between the largest of animals and one of the smaller humans, just a boy conveying that trust and patience can achieve more than force and aggression. Speaking of Mr Lear reflects my admiration for the work of Edward Lear, both his writings and his paintings. Born the penultimate of 21 children he was mainly brought up by his oldest sister. He was a rather sad man who suffered from epilepsy and much unhappiness about his appearance, yet he possessed an extraordinary talent and wit for writing nonsense verse and creating beautiful paintings, often of parrots from the Earl of Derby’s Menagerie where he was an artist in residence. The irony is that he has brought great joy and happiness to children and adults through the generations which I hope would have made him happy. The Sport of Queens by Dick Francis. I love the thought of a jockey turned writer as Dick Francis did, employing all his experience and incorporating it into his well plotted tales of ’snobbery with violence’.
The Angel, The Globe & The Animals is a story or theme I often weave into my paintings, paying homage to our planet that is in danger of overheating and burdened with the things we discard or plunder for its resources that gradually become fewer. I sometimes feel we need a little more guidance to travel in the right direction. As we neared the end of the Millennium I liked to think we had learned a lot by the mistakes we humans had made during the past thousand years, though we had also achieved unbelievable advances in medicine, science, technology and hoped for a more harmonious future. Thus I gathered together those papers printed on the last day of the Millennium, on the eve of a new beginning. My son Nathan is a Tiger child being born in the Chinese year of the Tiger. So tigers have always felt rather important to me and I relate strongly to the spiritual work of William Blake. The words of his poem Tiger Tiger are so powerful when he writes “...what dread hands and what dread feet caused thy mighty heart to beat…” conjuring up a magnificent beast of great strength and yet when you look at the illustration he created in his exquisite little book Songs of Innocence and Experience the tiger looks quite tiny and amiable and almost feels like a contradiction. Leaping for Joy. I often feel that I am extraordinarily fortunate to have spent my life creatively when so many people have to do jobs that they don’t particularly enjoy; I count my blessings every day and sometimes have to pinch myself.”
PJ Crook MBE RWA FRSA Literary Lions and Other Beasts sees PJ Crook once again draw inspiration from the literary world, and the rich intersection of storytelling, imagination and human experience, this time through the enduring relationship between writers and animals. In this engaging new body of work, animals emerge as both companions and characters, occupying a space between historical reality and literary invention.
open boxes - where all the surfaces, both inside and outside, are engaged in the narrative.
Known for her distinctive figurative style, wit and keen observation of human behaviour, Crook brings these literary beasts vividly to life, weaving together history, myth, narrative and humour. Whether depicting real animal companions or creatures born entirely from imagination, Crook’s works celebrate the powerful role animals play in literature and in our collective cultural memory.
Crook is an artist of international repute, having dealers in Paris, Canada and New York as well as London. Her renown stretches as far as the Morohashi Museum of Modern Art in Japan and more locally, in the collection of The Wilson, Cheltenham Art Gallery and Museum and the Museum of Gloucester.
Crook lives and works near Cheltenham. Her paintings combine a highly distinctive style with extraordinary technical mastery. Rather than painting from photographs or direct observation, she prefers to draw from a combination of remembered observation and imagination, resulting in an intuitive and resolved composition. Few contemporary artists are more accomplished at depicting perspective or depth of field, and the viewer has a sense of being invited into each painting, encouraged by the inclusion of the frame in the picture surface.
MBE for Services to Art
The artist is a virtuoso in the mischievous art of beguiling our perceptions and expectations. She plays with the notions of painting: not only does she add almost undetectable carved reliefs on the flat canvas but she then extends them into
Member of the Royal West of England Academy
Crook confuses our sense of space; the spectator, deceived by the mirror effects, often looks at a scene actually taking place behind him. She plays games with questions of identity; twins are sometimes the same person, likewise opposing players can be reflections of each other.
ACCOLADES
Honorary Doctor of Art Honorary Vice President, Gloucestershire College Patron of the National Star College Patron of Cheltenham Open Studios Patron of ArtShape Patron of LINC President of Friends of The Wilson Art Gallery and Museum Cheltenham Awarded the Tony Steel Prize by the Royal West of England Academy
ELEPHANT BOY tinted gesso on wood 14 x 16 inches | 35.5 x 41 cm
ELEPHANTS IN THE CITY tinted gesso on canvas & painted wood frame 46 x 40 inches 117 x 101 cm
THE ANGEL, THE GLOBE & THE ANIMALS tinted gesso on canvas & painted wood frame 36 x 46 inches | 91.5 x 117 cm
THE THREE LITTLE ANGELS & THE TIGER tinted gesso on wood 9 x 11 inches | 23 x 28 cm
EXIT, PURSUED BY A BEAR tinted gesso on wood 17 x 19 inches | 43 x 48 cm
EXIT, PURSUED BY A BEAR ENCORE tinted gesso on wood 16 x 20 inches | 40.5 x 51 cm
THE WRITER AND THE RAVEN tinted gesso on wood 17 x 19 inches | 43 x 48 cm
SAINT JEROME & THE LION tinted gesso on wood 17 x 19 inches | 43 x 48 cm
THE TIGER WHO CAME TO TEA tinted gesso on wood 10 x 12 inches | 25.5 x 30.5 cm
THE TIGER WHO CAME TO SEE tinted gesso on wood 8.5 x 11 inches | 21.5 x 28 cm
TALES OF A PARROT tinted gesso on wood 12 x 10 inches | 30.5 x 25.5 cm
SPEAKING OF MR LEAR tinted gesso on wood 8 x 10 inches | 20 x 25.5 cm
4 LEGS GOOD, 2 LEGS BAD, 2 LEGS GOOD tinted goo on wood 17 x 19 inches | 43 x 48 cm
PORRIDGE tinted gesso on wood 17 x 19 inches | 43 x 48 cm
WHO’S AFRAID OF RICHARD PARKER? tinted gesso n wood 12 x 10 inches 30.5 x 25.5 cm
ALL AT SEA WITH RICHARD PARKER tinted gesso on wood 10 x 12 inches | 25.5 x 30.5 cm
THE PIEBALD tinted gesso on wood 17 x 19 inches | 43 x 48 cm
TRAVELS WITH A DONKEY tinted gesso on wood 16 x 11 inches | 41 x 28 cm
THE SPORT OF QUEENS - HOMAGE TO DICK FRANCIS tinted gesso on canvas on corrugated wood support marouflée 9 x 21.5 inches 23 x 54.5 cm
THE CITY OF ARABIAN COFFEE POTS tinted gesso on canvas on corrugated wood support marouflée 16.5 x 33 inches | 42 x 84 cm
THE RUNAWAY TAMWORTHS tinted gesso on wood 11 inches diameter | 28 cm
LAST DAY OF THE MILLENNIUM tinted gesso on canvas & painted wood frame 40 x 52 inches | 101 x 132 cm
LEAPING FOR JOY tinted gesso on wood 17 x 17 inches | 43 x 43 cm
Work in Progress - My paintings always evolve entirely on the canvas. Here is the preliminary underpainting for The Last Supper which when completed will be suspended in the Quire of Gloucester Cathedral during my exhibition there next year 22 April - 22 May. The exhibition will comprise over a hundred works both borrowed back and new.
SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2027 ‘Heaven and Earth’, Gloucester Cathedral 2026 ‘Literary Lions & Other Beasts’, Paragon Gallery, Cheltenham 2025 ‘And So It Came to Pass’, Portland Gallery, London 2024 ‘Byron’s Bear and Menagerie’, Paragon Gallery, Cheltenham 2023 ‘Shapeshifters’, Panter & Hall, London 2021 ’Pandemonium’, Panter & Hall, London 2020 ‘A Wing and a Prayer’, Trinity House Modern, Broadway 2019 ‘Preserving the Species’, Panter & Hall, London 2018 ‘Immortals, Men and Beasts’, Trinity House Modern, Broadway ‘Dear Ms.Crook – Pamela June Crook’, Morohashi Museum of Modern Art, Japan 2017 ‘Metamorphoses’, Royal West of England Academy, Bristol 2016 ‘Now and Then’, Panter & Hall, London ‘Time is Time was Time’s Future’, Gloucester City Art Gallery & Museum ‘Hello PJ Crook: Empathetic Memories’, Morohashi Museum of Modern Art, Japan Chelsea Arts Club, London 2015 ‘Dreams by Day, Dreams by Night’, Panter & Hall, London 2014 ‘Past, Present & Future’, Panter & Hall, London Winchcombe Festival, Gloucestershire
2013 ‘Town & Country’, Alpha Gallery, London 2012 Gloucester City Art Gallery & Museum Morohashi Museum of Modern Art, Japan ‘Night & Day’, Alpha Gallery, London 2011 Galerie Alain Blondel, Paris Michael Heseltine Gallery, Chenderrit School, Banbury Brian Sinfield Gallery, Burford 2010 Vaal Gallery, Tallinn Loch Gallery, Toronto Hay Hill Gallery, London 2009 Brian Sinfield Gallery, Burford 2008 Galerie Alain Blondel, Paris 2007 Brian Sinfield Gallery, Burford Loch Gallery, Toronto 2006 Draakon Gallery, Tallinn ‘A Day at the Races’, Cheltenham Art Gallery & Museum ‘A Day at the Races’, Oriel Gallery, Theatr Clwyd, Mold Morohashi Museum of Modern Art, Japan ‘Paradise, Paradise Lost, Paradise Regained’, Gloucester City Art Gallery & Museum ‘A Day at the Races’, Melton Carnegie Museum, Leicestershire
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2023 Royal West of England Academy, annually since 1978 2022 ‘Rooms’, Morohashi Museum of Modern Art, Japan 2021 ‘Stepping Out: Crook, Dali, de Chirico, Miró’, Morohashi Museum of Modern Art, Japan 2015 Royal Academy of Arts, since 1978 2014 ‘The Planets Centenary’, Holst Birthplace Museum, Cheltenham 2013 ‘On a Grand Scale’, Panter & Hall, London ‘Reigning Cats and Dogs’, Royal West of England Academy, Bristol
2011 ‘Fine Form: The Horse in Art’, Cheltenham Art Gallery & Museum ‘Circus’, James Harvey British Art, London ‘Romanticism in an Urban Art Environment’, RSA & Portico Gallery, Manchester ‘Painted Quartets’, Cheltenham Music Festival 2002 ‘Selected Works from the Rugby & Artworks Collection’, Rugby Art Gallery & Museum 2001 ‘Mother & Child’, The Holburne Museum of Art, Bath 2000 ‘Women Beyond Borders, London and San Francisco
PUBLIC AND PRIVATE COLLECTIONS
King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia ALJ Co Ltd, Jeddah Lord Bamford The Marquess of Bath BDO, London Conrad Black Can West Global Communications, Toronto Centrica Place, Windsor Cheltenham Art Gallery & Museum Cheltenham Racecourse Jackie Collins Robert Fripp & Toyah Wilcox Peter Gabriel Gloucester Museum & Art Gallery Daniel Owen Community Centre, Mold Department for Transport, London El Mundo, Madrid Fundación AMMA, Mexico City
Gloucester Royal Hospital Ha’aretz, Tel Aviv Holst Birthplace Museum, Cheltenham Imperial War Museum, London JP Morgan Inc, London Morohashi Museum of Modern Art, Japan Murray Edwards Collegde, University of Cambridge Open Museum, Leicestershire Paintings in Hospitals, Midlands Presidential Palace, Tallinn Ralli Museum, Ceaseria Royal West of England Academy Rye Art Gallery Sagitta plc, London Standard Chartered Bank, London & Dubai Templeton Asset Management, Toronto Ville de Paris, Direction de l’Améngement Urbain
4 Rotunda Terrace, Montpellier Street, Cheltenham. GL50 1SW +44(0)7950 539861 eleanor@paragongallery.co.uk www.paragongallery.co.uk