Sunday, October 06, 2013

Out of the Shadows: MacDonald Gill at Pitzhanger Manor House, Ealing

Pitzhanger Manor House, Ealing
The Gallery at Pitzhanger Manor House has a real corker of a show on at the moment.
Max Gill did some amazing graphic work for Cable and Wireless and what was to become London Transport.
As well as seeing this fantastic work the exhibition introduced me to the controversy around Eric Gill (Max's brother) who collaborated with Jacob Epstein.


Eric Gill  was famously challenged by Lord Reith,  who as head of the BBC was concerned with the  sculptor's dimensioning of Ariel's reproductive organ (subsequently reduced) which was located at Broadcasting House as part of the sculpture called Prospero and Ariel from Shakespeare's The Tempest.

In fact there's a chance to hear the Radio Comedy by Gary Brown about Eric's clash with the BBC over his famous sculpture this  Thursday 10th October on BBC radio 4 Extra at both 11:15 and 21:15.

Strangely Eric Gill had been scandalised by his younger  brother Max's liaison and subsequent marriage to Max's own god-daughter Priscilla (Johnston) despite Eric himself  being both a paedophile and  dog fancier.

Nice article from the Guardian about the exhibition here.

Max Gill's work included designs that depicted the World War II alliance

Wonderground by Max Gill.


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