AS THE most prominent art gallery in Sussex, Towner Eastbourne has been an influential force in the region since its founding in 1923. The result of a generous donation from local art lover and benefactor John Chisholm Towner, who wished to create “an art gallery for the people,” the much-loved institution has always placed the community at the heart of its mission.
National recognition has followed: in 2020, the Towner was named Art Fund Museum of the Year, and in 2023 the institution will host the prestigious Turner Prize.
Installation view of A Life in Art at Towner Eastbourne. Photograph: Rob Harris.
Known for its first-rate exhibitions, the award-winning gallery is also renowned for its impressive collection of modern British art, including the largest and most significant body of work by the groundbreaking painter, designer and book illustrator Eric Ravilious (1903-42), who grew up in Sussex, and is particularly known for his watercolours of the South Downs.
This month, another local legend is celebrated. The pioneering British art dealer and patron Lucy Wertheim (1883-1971) is the subject of two exhibitions being presented simultaneously: A Life in Art and Reuniting the Twenties Group.
After taking up residency in Brighton in the 1960s, the Manchester-born Wertheim developed a friendship with David Galer, curator of Towner Art Gallery (as it was then known) and went on to exhibit her paintings on numerous occasions at the gallery. She later donated over 50 works to the Towner’s collection, by artists who she had nurtured through her own gallery in London’s Burlington Gardens, which she opened in 1930.
Installation view of Reuniting the Twenties Group at Towner Eastbourne . Photograph: Rob Harris.
Wertheim Gallery was a radical enterprise that challenged conventions. Driven by the conviction that young British artists should have the same opportunities as their European counterparts, Wertheim, who had no formal art training, championed figures such as Henry Moore and Walter Sickert, alongside Christopher Wood, Kathleen Walne, Suzanne Cooper and Frances Hodgkins.
Paintings and sculptures by these artists are on view in A Life in Art, a show which clearly underlines the impact of Wertheim’s patronage across the decades.
Kathleen Walne, Ballet Dancers, c.1938. ©The Artist’s Estate. Towner Eastbourne
Similarly, Reuniting the Twenties Group features early works from artists including Barbara Hepworth, Roger Hilton, Victor Pasmore and Edna Ginesi, all of whom were in their twenties when they first exhibited at the Wertheim Gallery. Wertheim created the collective as a forum for ‘painters of the future’ who otherwise would not have stood a chance of having their work exhibited in commercial venues so early on in their careers.
The group exhibited several times before the gallery was turned into an air raid shelter at the start of the Second World War. The show at Towner marks the first time that the Twenties Group has been shown together since the 1930s.
Edward Wadsworth, Dux et Comes I, 1932. Photo ©Tate
Wertheim once remarked: “Having maintained that Young Art in England was in a healthy state and could hold its own with that of other countries, I was often asked ‘Where could this work be seen?’ Towner’s celebration of Wertheim’s astonishing commitment to artists working in Britain can only be applauded.
by Derby Jones
A Life in Art and Reuniting the Twenties Group are on view at Towner Eastbourne until 25 September.