Exhibition 1972

Johnny's first envelope

Johnny's last public exhibition was held at the West Yorkshire Playhouse, Leeds in December 1972.
The theatre manager of the time was less than enthusiastic, 'My five year old could do better than that,' was his opinion  of Johnny's envelopes, which hung up one side of the staircase to the Circle.

'They were somewhere else - scrawly,' recalls Johnny, 'but on the other side of the staircase were drawings of what America was up to in Vietnam - Napalm bombs.  I mean, to drop it on a village with women and children - for the Americans - of all people - to do that!

'With my Vietnam drawings, I was trying to sort out the depth of the envelope. So I cut the drawings in half - I likened it to the rape of a country.  America was represented as an owl - attacking in the night - silently.  Vietnam was a woman.

'The theatre manager deemed these drawings pornographic.  "I've got a lot of women and children coming here!" he said.   Anyway, the exhibition stayed.

I went to look at the exhibition and to find out - nobody knew me - the kids quite liked the drawings - they like cartoony things.

'I was a serious person.  There were protests around the world and it was the kids that did it!  In America,  people would not do the draft - Mohammed Ali said no - in his position! It stopped him from boxing.  He was condemned on all fronts, but he avoided prison because of all the support from young people.

'To die - for what?

'It was the envelopes, combined with circumstance that  turned me into a proper artist.  If I'm going to be an artist, I thought, I'm going to do it for all the right reasons.  For my sort of an artist, earning a living is secondary to the statement.  And don't forget,I was reassured and encouraged by people like Mohammed Ali, Kurt Vonnegut, Frank Zappa.  I wanted to be part of that - not the establishment - it was the protest.

'And it was the time when I understood that if you're going to follow your dream, you have to be 100% honest.  If what you are doing feels right, then it will be right, because you have told the truth.

Portrait 2

'Protest did not continue - I'm not a Protester - live and let live.  I let my subconscious speak.'

Valentine ham n Brahms

Thanks to Stan's ham, I had a Valentine's night soiree at mine last week.  I composed an ode ...

Left to right: Mary Johnny Me Alex Paul Marta Coral Stan

It is a little know fact
That ham is an aphrodisiac
And when cooked in tender, loving fashion
Will fire the smouldering flames of passion ....

Well, if you believe that .... but we had a good time.

 'Next time I come round,' said Johnny, 'you must play the piano.'  It is a little known fact that Johnny has encouraged me to pursue the piano with an energy that has turned into a passion.  In a conversation about developing the skill and craft of an artist, Johnny said, 'You have to do it, do it, do it - it's only by doing it that you develop depth.' Those words hit home I took them on and have done it, done it, done it!  Hours and hours of practice and I'm about to sit my Grade VIII.  I can hardly believe that I've reached this level - I'm so thrilled!  But I battle with nerves and playing in front of people is difficult, however, I'm making myself do it, so tonight's the night to play Brahms, I thought.





It's always been a bit of a puzzle to me, why Johnny, with such an open-minded view on the world can be so narrow minded about classical music.  So before I played it, I told him the story.
'It's about about an abandoned mother and child,' I said, ' - in Scotland ... she's bereft, distraught ....  and can you imagine an old German man writing this - from a poem - and he'd never been to Scotland, yet you can  hear the bagpipes ...'

I knew before I started that I had had one wine too many ... so, Liszting somewhat, the performance had to be abandoned - I should have known better.









It's just as well I didn't see the look on Johnny's face ....

Romas, photographer extraordinaire

Dates for your diary

John Middleton
London Exhibition

Monday 9th June - Friday 13th June 2014

THE CONINGSBY GALLERY
30 Tottenham Street
London
W1T 4RJ
Tel 020 7637 7478
www.coningsbygallery.com

End of exhibition party night
PAUL MIDDLETONS ANGST BAND
Friday 13th June
At:
BREWDOG Shoreditch
51-55 Bethnal Green Road
London E1 6LA
www.brewdog.com/bars/shoreditch

See you there!

An early foray into sculpture: The Three Graces

One of the things I love about Johnny is his alternative point of view and from which I've learned a lot. This is one of Johnny's experiences that not only made me laugh (It is the way he tells them.) but which opened the door to a different way of thinking.

Back in the 70s, as well as painting, Johnny was dabbling in sculpture.  'The thing is,' says Johnny, 'my sculptures always sold - especially when I was hard up.  But,' he emphasises, with  heavy pause and significant stare, 'they were crude, all wrong - but - they were appealing.'

Johnny was commissioned by an architect to create a sculpture for a new shopping precinct in Lytham St Annes.  He recounts, 'I discussed the project with the architect and we settled on the theme of the Three Graces.  I went back to my Studio to start research and work.  I thought to myself, why is it that Faith, Hope and Charity are always depicted as impossibly beautiful young women?  External beauty is no guarantee or requirement and the ugliest woman alive can be gracious.

The Three Graces

'So, I decided to make these Graces incredibly ugly and set to work in fibreglass.  I gave them great fat buttocks and scrawny breasts - they were grotesque - but I was really happy with them.  The day came for the installation.  All the shopkeepers came out in force.  'Take it down, it's obscene,' they said.  They complained to the Council and the man they sent along said, 'It's not obscene, but it is the ugliest thing.'

'Eventually, the architect rang me up. 'Johnny,' he said, 'you'll have to take it down.'  So we organised a crew to dismantle it.  'What are you doing?' the shopkeepers asked.
'We're taking it down.'
'You can't do that - we love it - people love it - they come from all over to see it!'

Gems from Johnny

I've been trawling back through my notebooks to find a particular conversation of Johnny's.  I knew, when I closed the page, in search of something else, that I might not be able to find it again and I was right.  For two days I have searched and it has eluded me, but I know it's somewhere in the tatty red book from 2010. However, whilst reading, I have re-discovered some wonderful quotes that have lifted my sagging January spirits no end.

On technology:
' I was going to take a picture.  I got my camera going and I thought the batteries had gone - but I had my reading glasses on,' 

On audiences:
'I don't want to speak to the world - I want to speak to my community.'

On recording thoughts late at night:
'I tried writing them down in a book by the bed, but the next morning it looked like a spider had crawled around in ink. So I tried a Dictaphone - and that was like a spider had crawled around in ink.'

On genetics:

Last summer!

'Both my grandfathers were underground (miners) and oddly enough, I am too.'

On Foreign Affairs:
'America always finds out six months too late and bombs the country next door.'

On life:
'When I'm dead, it's immaterial.'

On career:
'I've worked all my life to get into the basement.'

I've always been an artist ...

African

'I've always been an artist - my father was an artist - we didn't get on - but I was captivated by his art books - early English water colours.  I found out at school that I had some talent.  I never aspired - it just happened.  I could have gone to Art School from school - but I hated school.

The artist was a remote character that I read about in books.  I just loved it - always doing paintings just to prove how crap you are.  I evolved into an artist.  I have not aspired to anything other than to get up and paint.  I can't paint when I'm drunk.  I'll paint when sober and then after a few drinks, it's a different delusion.  I don't create 'to plan'.  I start layering paint on paint - it may take years - the image comes from the layerings of paint.'

Deadlines

'I've spent a great deal of my life waiting for paint to dry,' says Johnny.  While so occupied, he creates mobiles.

Last night, by chance, the 'Exhibition Group' coincided at the Brasserie for early doors.  For the next five and a half months, Clive and Sarah have the interesting task of aligning Johnny with 8th June, E (Exhibition) Day.  One of the challenges being faced, is which paintings will feature in the exhibition.

When all this started two years ago, Johnny was of a mind to hold a retrospective.  It was his seventieth birthday and he was retrospective.  'Let's do it!' said Clive, 'the paintings are painted - all we need is a venue and we're off!'  Bloody marvellous, I thought, no panic about deadlines then.  Since then, Johnny has crept slowly and inexorably, from retrospective to prospective and the knock-on effect is that we have not escaped deadlines at all.

On the plus side, Johnny's Studio is groaning under the load of paintings already completed and (most importantly) in frames, so there can be no twiddling.  There is no shortage of works to hang, however they are not necessarily paintings that Johnny wants to include in the exhibition.

I am told by Johnny that a work that emerges in last minute creative fervour, is known as 'the wet one'. Many famous artists have hung their paintings in this state.  Apparently, in the days of Constable and Turner, the Royal Academy gave artists a day's grace, after hanging, to add finishing touches to their paintings. The rivalry between Turner and Constable was intense and the story goes that Turner was dismayed by the quality and significance of Constable's painting 'the Opening of Waterloo Bridge'.  His own work, the seascape 'Helvoetsluys' seemed dull by comparison.  However, not to be outdone, at the last minute, Turner added a bright red buoy to the foreground of his shades of North Sea-grey painting and won the day.  Apparently he was proving a point that less is more and by comparison Constable's painting seemed overworked and busy.  Unfortunately, he lends weight to Johnny's 'crucial mark in last minute' attitude - it's hard to argue with Turner.

Thankfully, Big Foot is glazed, because if it wasn't and was still a work in progress, I feel it could well have been 'the one'.  I know that we are not safe from 'the one' and as I write, somewhere in the Studio, or in Johnny's subconscious lurks 'the one' that will drive all those involved in meeting deadlines bonkers.

One of these?

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1215250/Revealed-180-years-The-Turner-painting-upstaged-Constable-reignited-rivalry-painters.html